The chancellor of the State University of New York presented Laura Gallagher, a resident of Bethpage, with the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in the Classified Service.
Gallagher celebrated her 32nd anniversary as an administrative assistant in the at SUNY Old Westbury’s School of Business in April. She said that this year was not the first time she had been asked about whether she wanted to be considered for the award.
“I was very appreciative and happy that I was nominated and selected,” said Gallagher. “I’ve been at the college a long time and they do this award once a year and I was asked to be nominated a couple of times by the people I work closely with. And I always said no, I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to be in the spotlight, plus I get very involved in the commencement ceremony by organizing the students in the morning.”
For this year, it was simply just a change of heart and a game of chance for Gallagher.
“This year I finally said, ‘You know what, why not?’” Gallagher said. “They wanted to nominate me again and I was very grateful and very humbled.”
Gallagher has worked within the SUNY system for 36 years and first started in 1989 at the Pilgrim State Psychiatric Center. From there she had to go through a few obstacles in order to get to where she is today.
“So, I got laid off and was able to go to another facility, and I wound up transferring to Long Island Developmental Center,” Gallagher said. “They did layoffs again, and I was targeted again. But this time, there was someone who had worked at LIDC in the employee services office who had a connection to the personnel director at SUNY Old Westbury. They told me SUNY was autonomous, they don’t do layoffs, and I’d pretty much be safe. I got here [Old Westbury] in 1993, and I started in a different office, but in 1994 I transferred into the School of Business and it was the best thing ever. I got all of my promotions literally sitting in the same seat I’m in.”
During her tenure, Gallagher had to go through many moving parts within the administration, including presidents. Current SUNY Old Westbury President Timothy Sams, who presented Gallagher with the award, shared a moment with her before they both hit the stage at the commencement ceremony. Gallagher explained.
“He actually presented me with the award in the VIP room before we went out on the stage, so he said some different things in that area,” Gallagher said. “One of the things he said was that he tried to poach me; he actually did try to offer me a job to come work in the president’s office shortly after he arrived here because there was an opening. I was very shocked and humbled, but I turned it down, so we made a joke about him trying to poach me.”
“Our faculty and staff are the core of what makes SUNY Old Westbury such an extraordinary institution,” Sams said during the ceremony.
Since arriving at the School of Business, Gallagher said she has been at the forefront of positive changes that have given students more opportunities.
“The School of Business is a big part of the enrollment, but we were the first program to actually have a master’s program, so that was exciting for me to be a part of that,” Gallagher said. “We also just achieved AACSB accreditation last year. It’s a highly recognized competitive accreditation, but it’s a long process that’s not given to everyone and it’s taken us quite a bit of time to get it. I’ve been with it since day one, so it was pretty emotional when we finally got it.”
As her tenure of over 30 years continues, Gallagher said she hasn’t considered retirement just yet.
