RISE 2019 Conference

Transforming University Engagement In Pre- and Post-Disaster Environments: Lessons from Puerto Rico

Havidán Rodríguez

President

University at Albany, State University of New York

 

havidan rodriguez photo

Dr. Havidán Rodríguez was appointed by the SUNY Board of Trustees as the 20th president of the University at Albany in June 2017. He took office in September 2017 after more than 25 years as a leader in higher education. Before coming to UAlbany, Dr. Rodríguez was the founding provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). He was instrumental in creating UTRGV, a new public research university, and building the university’s new medical school from the ground up. Dr. Rodríguez had previously served as interim president and provost and vice president for academic affairs at The University of Texas Pan-American, which merged with The University of Texas at Brownsville to become UTRGV. Prior to his leadership positions in Texas, Dr. Rodríguez spent seven years at the University of Delaware as deputy provost, vice provost for academic affairs and international programs, and professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. He also directed UD’s acclaimed Disaster Research Center, the world’s first research center devoted to studying the complex social problems that result from natural and technological disasters and other community-scale crises. Dr. Rodríguez has also held faculty and administrative positions at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, and served as Director of the Minority Affairs Program for the American Sociological Association (1995-1998). A respected scholar, he studies the socioeconomic impacts of disasters and the economic well-being of minority populations in the United States and Puerto Rico. Dr. Rodríguez received a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Maryland, an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.