Buff State President to retire at school year’s end

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — This is Katherine Conway-Turner‘s last year as President of SUNY Buffalo State.

The school announced Thursday morning that Conway-Turner, the school’s ninth president, will be retiring at the end of the 2022-23 school year. This comes after eight years as president of Buff State and a total of 43 years in higher education leadership, the school said.

Conway-Turner says she did not make the decision to retire “quickly or lightly.”

“After careful consideration, I have decided that it’s time for me to concentrate on my next chapter and to commit more time and energy to my family, traveling, and writing the memoir I have mentioned from time to time,” she said.

Conway-Turner’s career has taken her everywhere from Delaware to California, both in teaching roles and administrative leadership. She earned her Ph.D and master of arts in social psychology, as well as a bachelor’s degree in microbiology, from the University of Kansas.

“As a girl who was born in a tiny town in the Midwest and raised in a family that struggled to put food on the table, I could not have imagined how education would transform my life and the lives of my family,” she said. “In just one generation, our family moved from one in which no one had earned a high school diploma to one that could claim college-educated family members. I have always felt a kinship to our first-generation students and those who have personally faced discrimination because of race, gender, or economic status.”

Buff State expects to name its next president by next summer.