LAURA DAVIES

LAURA DAVIES has been appointed the new chief of staff in the president’s office at SUNY Cortland, effective Jan. 1. She is currently an associate professor of English who directs the university’s writing programs. In her new role, Davies replaces Virginia Levine, the university’s longtime chief of staff and VP for policy and accreditation, who died on March 29. Patricia Francis, a former SUNY Cortland Psychology Department faculty member who also served from 1997 to 2004 as Cortland’s executive assistant to the president, returned to her former institution in early April to serve as chief of staff on an interim basis. Davies has directed the university’s Writing Programs since she joined the university in 2014 as an assistant professor. She was promoted to associate professor in 2017. Davies received her bachelor’s degree in history and English from Le Moyne College in 2004, her master’s in English from the University of New Hampshire in 2005, and her Ph.D. in composition and cultural rhetoric from Syracuse University in 2012.