Chancellor King Announces Second Cohort of SUNY AI for the Public Good Fellows

September 15, 2026

Fellows Include Faculty and Staff Across Disciplines Ranging from Nursing to Chemistry

Second Cohort of Fellows Will Support the Discipline-Specific Exploration and Integration of AI

Albany, NY — State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. today announced the second cohort of SUNY’s AI for the Public Good Fellows. The 11 faculty and staff fellows are experts in their fields of study — ranging from nursing to the humanities to computer science — and are committed to helping their peers responsibly incorporate AI into the student experience.

"SUNY is proud to be at the forefront of harnessing AI for the public good, and working to ensure our students are equipped to responsibly utilize artificial intelligence in all fields of study," said SUNY Chancellor King. "As AI continues to evolve, it is vital our students understand how to use the technology ethically both in their studies, and beyond the classroom. I applaud all of our dedicated faculty and staff members for their work to advance SUNY’s AI excellence."

The SUNY Board of Trustees said, "SUNY’s AI for the Public Good Fellows serve as a vital resource for our campuses, and students as they work to incorporate AI responsibly and ethically into their studies and courses. We commend this year’s fellows and thank Governor Hochul for her continued investment and support in advancing New York State’s, and SUNY’s AI leadership."

Beginning in fall 2026, SUNY’s general education framework has been updated to incorporate AI in the information literacy skills expected of all undergraduate students. In addition, SUNY recently launched a new initiative initially seeking 100 faculty members to participate in a systemwide community of practice that will support faculty to integrate discipline-specific AI-enabled skills in course-level student learning outcomes – which will be supported by the Fellows program.

The inaugural cohort of SUNY AI for the Public Good Fellows, announced in September 2025, provided support for faculty and staff working to incorporate AI literacy into their courses and learning activities. The inaugural cohort assisted campuses in working toward implementation of the Fall 2026 AI literacy update to the existing information literacy core competency in the SUNY general education curriculum.

The second cohort of SUNY AI for the Public Good Fellows will build on the work of the first cohort of fellows to provide professional development resources and opportunities for the incorporation of the effective and ethical use of AI in teaching and learning. For this year, the focus will be on offering support across the system for the discipline-specific exploration and integration of artificial intelligence. This focus acknowledges and responds to the ways artificial intelligence has shaped and continues to shape almost every discipline. The AI for the Public Good Fellows will help SUNY campuses in meeting this challenge.

The second cohort of SUNY AI for the Public Good Fellows:

  • Christopher Badurek, Professor, Geographic Information Systems, SUNY Cortland
  • Jacqueline Bennett, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, SUNY Oneonta
  • Alexis Clifton, Director, Teaching and Learning Center, SUNY Geneseo
  • Daniel Fernandez, Full-time Instructor, Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts, Nassau Community College
  • Dave Ghidiu, Associate Professor, Computing Sciences, Finger Lakes Community College
  • Namsook Kim, Clinical Associate Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy, State University of New York at Buffalo
  • Michelle Malinovsky, Associate Professor and Academic Librarian, Coulter Library, Onondaga Community College
  • Darin Mihalik, Instructor, Natural Sciences, Suffolk County Community College
  • Marjorie Lalor Reilly, Associate Professor, Nursing, SUNY Delhi
  • Shyam Sharma, Professor, Writing and Rhetoric, State University of New York at Stony Brook
  • Diane Shichtman, Associate Professor, Computer Science and Technology, SUNY Empire State University

State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, Chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, said, "Artificial intelligence is already in classrooms, clinics, and labs. The question is who guides its use. These fellows know their disciplines and they know their students. A nursing instructor and a chemist will not use these tools the same way, and they should not have to."

State Assemblymember Alicia L. Hyndman, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education, said, "In a few short years artificial intelligence has become ubiquitous and has touched every aspect of our lives, so it's not surprising that it impacts our education system. As we ask students to follow the rules of conduct regarding responsible AI-usage, it is only fair that we expect the same from our educators. The SUNY AI for the Public Good Fellows program, which has a second cohort of 11 fellows, provides professional development resources to help faculty and staff integrate AI literacy into courses while also emphasizing ethical use of the tool."

State Assemblymember Steve Otis, Chair of the Assembly Science and Technology Committee, said, "Congratulations to the SUNY system that makes today’s announcement possible. SUNY embraced AI as a tool for innovation and research years before the rapid growth of AI crossed the nation and the globe. New York’s focus on AI for the public good is only achieved by matching the growth with careful implementation when integrated into the curriculum and used throughout SUNY. This will be the centerpiece of the Fellows program. Special credit goes to Chancellor John King who has partnered with AI leaders throughout the SUNY system to ensure thoughtful public purpose driven AI development."

The second cohort of SUNY AI for the Public Good Fellows builds on SUNY’s position at the forefront of AI innovation, research, and responsibility. Major SUNY initiatives include:

  • Empire AI is Governor's Hochul's first-of-its-kind independent consortium to secure New York's place at the forefront of artificial intelligence research for the public good. Empire AI centers on an over $550M public-private investment in supercomputing capacity. Faculty members and students at SUNY's four University Centers and other leading New York State public and private universities are using Empire AI – housed at the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB) – to solve major societal challenges. Empire AI Beta — the most powerful academic research computer in the country — went online in August.
  • Governor Hochul launched the New York Center for AI Responsibility and Research, the first-ever independent AI research center at any public university in the United States, at the State University of New York at Binghamton. The center will be the nation’s premier academic hub for creating the science and engineering of responsible, repeatable, and transparent artificial intelligence.
  • SUNY established Empire AI campus partnerships between SUNY's University Centers, university colleges, technology colleges, and community colleges to advance AI research and education for the public good. The partnerships leverage Empire AI to increase research experiences, professional development, and other opportunities for SUNY students and faculty.
  • SUNY's Faculty Advisory Council on Teaching and Technology (FACT2) established the Optimizing AI for Teaching and Learning Task Group to share findings related to best practices for AI usage, teaching opportunities connected to AI usage, how students might use AI, and related considerations. 
  • Departments of AI and Society were established across eight SUNY campuses to develop departments, centers, and institutes of AI and Society to engage diverse disciplines and communities, broaden AI development to prepare students for the future, and advance the use of AI for the public good, thanks to $5 million in annual support championed by Governor Hochul.
  • The Chancellor's Summer Research Excellence Fund has provided paid research internships, including research dedicated to the use of AI for the public good, to nearly 750 undergraduate students since the program began three years ago.

About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and annually one in three New Yorkers who earn a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.

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