Two SUNY Oswego faculty members –- Andrea Pagano and Allison Rank –- have earned the prestigious SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

A SUNY Oswego undergraduate and graduate alumna, Pagano joined the university’s accounting faculty in 2011. She enjoyed a successful career with both IBM and KPMG before returning to SUNY Oswego as an instructor. 

Nominators noted that Pagano expertly blends her passion for student success with unparalleled expertise. She consistently earns positive evaluations from her students for making the connection between the theoretical and the practical. 

“She has an excellent mastery of her material,” wrote School of Business faculty colleague Dean Crawford, also a former chair of the Accounting, Finance and Law Department. “Her presentations are clear and concise, and the students are engaged throughout the class time. Her course ‘Intermediate Accounting I’ is the one that accounting students nationwide say is the hardest course in the accounting curriculum. And Ms. Pagano is a tough grader. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, her students are devoted to her.”

Student teaching evaluations and the nominations of students and alumni all note how well Pagano’s teachings and mentorship prepare them for futures in the industry. Oswego students intern in, and frequently earn jobs with, top accounting firms in the U.S. and the world, thanks to Pagano’s vast business network as well as her involvement with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

“She gave me the tools I needed to be successful not only while completing my undergraduate and graduate degrees, but also studying and passing the CPA exam,” said alumnus Spencer Johnson, now working with KPMG as a senior audit associate. “I still turn to the lessons I learned in her classroom while serving multinational clients.”

“She assigns term-long projects which really help students understand the material better,” wrote accounting student Kady Wood. “This semester, I was tasked with helping the current advanced accounting students with those projects. She helped me learn how to teach others and how to best help students. She is the one who inspired me to want to become an accounting professor in the future.”

Through hands-on learning opportunities, including the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program benefiting hundreds of community members by providing tax assistance free of charge, Pagano demonstrates her unwavering commitment to SUNY Oswego’s students and mission every day, nominators wrote. 

Pagano organizes the annual Meet the Accountants night, which leads directly to internships and jobs with businesses. She also advises SUNY Oswego’s Accounting Society and honor society Beta Alpha Psi. 

She also has provided leadership and volunteer service to a number of Central New York agencies to further her positive impact to the world, including the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants‐Syracuse Chapter, ARISE and On Point For College.

Building skills, futures

Chair and associate professor of SUNY Oswego’s Politics Department, Rank joined the campus in 2014 and has excelled in the classroom and in spearheading the university’s civic engagement initiatives. Rank is known as an engaging instructor and mentor who has developed timely courses that provide real-world experience and resonate deeply with her students. 

Nominators said Rank has made significant contributions to the campus, its students and the field of political science by astutely blending subject matter, scholarship and service in developing her courses. 

In leading Vote Oswego and other civic-engagement activities for campus, she has earned two prestigious national honors from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ American Democracy Project – the Barbara Burch Award and John Saltmarsh Award for Emerging Leaders in Civic Engagement – as well as recognition from the All in Democracy Challenge. 

The Vote Oswego course, providing students with hands-on opportunities in leading and administering registration and voting drives, is seen as a model course that combines education and engagement.

“This course alone demonstrates Dr. Rank’s commitment to high-impact practices and student learning,” wrote Rebecca Mushtare, associate dean of graduate studies and an art and design faculty member who has collaborated on the Vote Oswego effort. “[Students] are regularly guided to reflect and self-assess; they demonstrate their learning through a variety of activities and projects; the theories and models they are introduced to are applied to their own context; they are given regular feedback and encouraged to iterate. Courses like this are not a small lift and attest to the commitment Dr. Rank has to student learning and the student experience.”

Rank urges her students to envision a future they hope to see and helps them build the skills they need to realize that vision. Recommendations for the award show that Rank’s impact carries forward after students have graduated from SUNY Oswego.

“I think it is safe to say that Dr. Rank is one of the best educators the SUNY system has,” wrote 2017 Oswego graduate Emily Sischo, now vice president at Ostroff Associates. “It is her absolute passion of seeing her students succeed and push themselves out of their comfort zones, and to be able to help them achieve their wildest dreams …. At 28, I am now a Vice President at one of the top four government relations firms in the state, lobbying the Legislature and Governor on behalf of multi-million-dollar clients. I have been given opportunities I never thought possible. And I have Dr. Rank to thank for it.”

“Throughout graduate school, Dr. Rank proved to be an invaluable resource,” wrote 2017 SUNY Oswego graduate Shelby McIlroy. “With her help, I completed my master’s degree at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and secured full-time employment upon my graduation date. Now, as Legislative Director for New York State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, I am so thankful for the mentorship Dr. Rank has provided to me . . . Dr. Rank’s courses taught me to think critically, write concisely, and speak thoughtfully, which ultimately provided me with the skillset I need to be exceptional in this field.”