Plattsburgh State to Unveil Cohen, Church and Mikkelson Portraits Sept. 20

Dr. Mark Cohen was promoted to the rank of SUNY Distinguished Professor by the State University of New York Board of Trustees. This academic rank is the highest honor that SUNY can bestow. Cohen is the first faculty member at SUNY Plattsburgh to achieve this rank. He formerly held the rank of SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Anthropology.

Cohen, a member of the Plattsburgh State faculty since 1971, has gained numerous honors and recognition for his scholarship, teaching and service to the campus.

He is one of Plattsburgh's only two Guggenheim Fellows, during which time he served as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University. A former fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, he held a Fulbright Lectureship while serving as a visiting professor at Hebrew University. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Sydney.

Cohen is a recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship. He also holds the Phi Eta Sigma Outstanding Professor Teaching Award and is the author of five books including the award-winning Culture of Intolerance.

Dr. Nancy Church was promoted to the rank of SUNY Distinguished Service Professor of Marketing and Management. She joined the Plattsburgh State faculty in 1977 and was promoted to professor in 1996.

In the last few years, Church has taken on several new challenges away from the School of Business and Economics. She has filled the role of acting director of Canadian Studies and International Programs and Student Exchanges and most recently interim director of International Education. This semester, she has returned to the School of Business and Economics where she is teaching courses in marketing and management.

Church was highly successful in garnering support for her international programs including a FIPSE-North American Mobility Grant for $200,000. She has received numerous awards for her teaching and service and has actively published in peer review journals and business and trade publications.

She received her bachelor's from SUNY Albany, an M.B.A. from Marist College and her Ph.D. from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. 

Richard Mikkelson was promoted to SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Art. Since arriving at Plattsburgh State in 1969, Mikkelson has built an exceptional record and reputation as a teacher-artist. He was promoted to associate professor in 1975 and professor in 1984.

Mikkelson served as chair of the Art Department from 1992 to 2002. Through his steady leadership, the department flourished, curricular offerings expanded, new faculty were hired and an BFA program was developed and successfully implemented.
He received his bachelor of arts from Concordia College, and a master of arts and master of fine arts from the University of Iowa. He has received numerous fellowships and grants through the years including a Winkel Development Grant, UUP Individual Development Award and an NEA Grant.

Ever the artist, Mikkelson continues his own artistic output of painting, watercolor and ink drawings. His works are held in public and private collections and he routinely submits and has accepted works in juried art exhibitions locally, regionally and nationally.

The portraits of the newest three SUNY distinguished scholars will be installed next to those of the other SUNY distinguished faculty in Feinberg Library.

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