Dr. Marion Terenzio is the President of the SUNY College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill. She holds a Ph.D. in Community Psychology from Michigan State University, and two master’s degrees in Community Psychology and Music Therapy. Her Bachelor’s degree is in Music from Vassar College.
President Terenzio enjoys national attention for her shared governance model in creating thriving campus communities and stimulating higher education as an economic driver. She led downtown revitalization efforts and consulted with national organizations such as the College Board, The Institute for Higher Education Policy, the National Intelligence Council and the United Nations. She is currently the co-chair of the Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council, and a member of the NY Department of Health Rural EMS Task Force.
She has worked with the National Governor’s Association initiative on Rural Resurgence, sharing her work nationally on establishing the Institute for Rural Vitality; which received an innovation in economic development award from the American Association of Colleges and Universities in 2019.
Dr. Terenzio’s community engagement and advocacy for rights of students includes her service on the NYS Blue Ribbon Commission on K-12 reform and her most recent work as the co-chair for SUNY’s Task Force on Empowering Students with Disabilities. She received the New York State ACE Women’s Network Catalyst Award in 2019 for her work with women leaders, and the Jay Kappraff Award in Excellence in Science and the Arts from NJIT in 2022.
Dr. Terenzio was selected in 2023 to receive a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award in Agricultural Education from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. As a Fulbright Scholar, she traveled to France in October 2023 to begin developing collaborative initiatives that will serve to elevate agriculture education programs in New York and create a robust international curriculum at SUNY Cobleskill.