SUNY Board Approves the Appointment of Dr. Shaun L. McKay as President of Suffolk County Community College

New York City – The State University of New York Board of Trustees today approved the appointment of Dr. Shaun L. McKay as president of Suffolk County Community College as previously approved by the Board of Trustees at the college.

SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher said, “Throughout his career, Dr. McKay has demonstrated significant achievement in campus administration, academic program development, budget and finance, strategic planning and institutional assessment. As chief operating officer of SCCC for the past year, Dr. McKay has proven to be an effective and capable leader. I thank the search committee for its diligence in recommending Dr. McKay and both the college Board and the SUNY Board for seeing his appointment through.”

SUNY Board of Trustees Chairman Carl T. Hayden said, “I am pleased to support Dr. McKay’s appointment as president of Suffolk County Community College. He has served the college with great vision and leadership over the past year in an interim capacity and prior to that for several years as executive dean. I am confident that Dr. McKay will continue to be a strong and effective leader for SCCC and SUNY and an excellent community partner for Long Island and the state of New York.”

“I am honored by my appointment to serve as the sixth president of Suffolk County Community College.  I would like to express my gratitude to the SUNY Board and to Chancellor Zimpher for their vote of confidence in me,” said Dr. McKay.  “I am looking forward to building upon the College’s first fifty years of success and accomplishment—fostering our institutional reputation for excellence and championing the achievements of our students, faculty and staff.  It will be my privilege to collaborate with the college community and our corporate and community partners, in order to advance this exceptional institution.”

Since March of 2009, Dr. McKay has been serving as Interim Executive Vice President of SCCC.  In this role, Dr. McKay is the college's chief operating officer with authority and responsibility for the planning, policy development, implementation and assessment of College programs and services. Dr. McKay joined SCCC in 2005 as Executive Dean for the Michael J. Grant Campus in Brentwood.

Prior to joining SCCC, Dr. McKay served as Director of Planning for the Community College of Baltimore County and spent eight years in various positions at Morgan State University. Dr. McKay has also taught both undergraduate and doctorate level courses at several institutions.  

Active in national and local organizations, Dr. McKay has received numerous awards for distinguished service in higher education.  In 2009, Dr. McKay was selected from among an international pool of applicants as one of only 33 community college senior administrators to attend the prestigious Executive Leadership Institute sponsored by the League for Innovation.  He serves as a Systems Appraiser for the Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) of the Higher Learning Commission-North Central Association and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice (JSARP).  Dr. McKay is a current member of the Advisory Board of PRONTO of Long Island, a non-profit community outreach center.

Before joining the administration of SCCC, Dr. McKay was appointed and served as the Chancellor's representative of the Community College of Baltimore County to the University Systems of Maryland/Maryland Association of Community Colleges (USM/MACC) Solutions Committee, which was responsible for follow-up activities associated with a capacity study for the State of Maryland. 

Dr. McKay received his Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration with a specialization in Community College Leadership from Morgan State University in Baltimore, his M.A. in Management and Communication from the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore, and his B.S. in Business Management from the University of Maryland, College Park.

The SCCC Board of Trustees conducted a national search to identify a highly qualified individual to serve as President of SCCC.  A search committee which was representative of all major constituencies recommended three candidates to the Board of Trustees of which two were interviewed by the Board of Trustees and the campus community.  Subsequently, the SCCC Board of Trustees offered the position to Dr. McKay and adopted a resolution appointing him as President, at a salary of $230,000, effective from March 24, 2010 through March 23, 2013.

You can download a high resolution photo of Dr. McKay here.

SCCC has a current enrollment of over 24,000 credit students and 10,500 continuing education students. It is the largest community college in the SUNY system.

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating nearly 465,000 students in 7,669 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu.

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