David K. Lavallee

Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs

David Lavallee was appointed Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the State University of New York at New Paltz in 1999.

As Provost, Lavallee oversees the academic deans of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Schools of Business, Education, Fine and Performing Arts, Science and Engineering and the Graduate School, as well as the deans of Academic Advising, Continuing and Professional Education and International Programs. He also supervises the director of the Sojourner Truth Library on campus and the Offices of Sponsored Projects and Human Resources.

It is Lavallee’s responsibility to hire faculty who will educate the next generation of students and to ensure that the curriculum students study is current and well supported. In the spring of 2007, there were 300 full-time and 400 part-time faculty teaching at SUNY Paltz.

The Provost has hired about one-half of the current full-time faculty. Under his leadership, the college has expanded the number of electronic classrooms from six to more than 50, as well as the provision of computers capable of producing materials used in electronic classrooms for all full-time faculty. With grant funding, Lavallee has seen the development of the Teaching and Learning Center. A number of programs were reorganized to create both the Schools of Business and Science and Engineering. The academic atmosphere at SUNY New Paltz has fostered the development of new interdisciplinary undergraduate programs in Asian Studies and Environmental Geochemical Science, as well as a minor in Evolutionary Studies and graduate programs in Mental Health Counseling, School Counseling and Music Therapy and combined certifications in education. The institution of campus-wide assessment programs has also taken place under Lavallee’s leadership.

Lavallee’s research in bio-inorganic chemistry has produced more than 60 peer-reviewed articles, two books and two patents. He has been awarded more than $5 million in research and training grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and several other agencies and foundations. He has been an invited speaker at more than 125 universities and research centers in 11 countries and was a Fulbright senior research fellow in Paris in 1986.

Lavallee has also served as a research collaborator or consultant at several national laboratories, including Argonne in Chicago, Ill., Brookhaven in Upton, N.Y., and Los Alamos in Los Alamos, N.M. His teaching and curriculum work has led to the Catalyst Award, a national award for chemistry teachers, major grants from the Department of Education for science preparation for teachers and from the National Science Foundation for high school technology education.

Prior to his arrival at SUNY New Paltz, Lavallee was the provost and senior vice president at The City College of New York in Manhattan, a position he held since 1994. From 1978 to 1994, Lavallee was with Hunter College, City University of New York, initially as a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and then as associate provost. Before his tenure at Hunter, he was an assistant professor at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo.

Lavallee earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from St. Bonaventure University in St. Bonaventure, N.Y., and his Master of Science and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago in Chicago, Ill.,/

Off campus, Lavallee has served on the Regents Advisory Council on Accreditation, Middle States Association Review boards. With the Middle States Association, which accredits colleges and universities in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Lavallee has reviewed accreditation applications for renewals for six colleges and universities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He has also worked with the Regents of the State of New York council to review applications and awards accreditation to a wide variety of higher education institutions in the State of New York that choose not to be accredited by the Middle States Association. He has also served on the Steering Committee for Active Chemistry.

Lavallee resides in Rhinebeck, N.Y.