05/14/2009
Bonni Hodges, a professor of health at SUNY Cortland, will receive a Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service during the 2009 Undergraduate Commencement on Saturday, May 16, in the Park Center.
She is among five SUNY Cortland faculty and staff members to be honored this year with a prestigious State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence.
The Chancellor's Award process begins at each of the 64 SUNY campuses with nominations submitted by the respective presidents. The SUNY Committee on Awards then reviews the nominations and makes its recommendations.
Hodges, of Cortland, N.Y., who joined the College in 1992, becomes the sixth SUNY Cortland faculty member to receive the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service.
She has established a solid track record of campus and community service, focused in substantive and transformational change to improve the health, well-being and quality of life of children, college students, community residents and her SUNY colleagues.
"From my view, teaching, service and research have a relationship similar to what Albert Bandura would call 'reciprocal determinism,'" Hodges said. "They all contribute to one and another in multiple ways and it is difficult, if not impossible, at least for me, to isolate one from another. Moreover, attention to and involvement with all three are the ideals of Eta Sigma Gamma, the national health honor society, and as such, are important for our students to see demonstrated and to experience for themselves."
In addition to serving as Health Department chair for the past six years, Hodges co-coordinates the department's participation in the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) process. She also played a lead role in revising the undergraduate and graduate teacher education curriculum for all of the Health Department programs during the New York State Education Department re-registry initiative.
In the local community, Hodges currently serves as an elected member of the School Board of the Cortland Enlarged School District. Hodges has been a very active consultant to the Cortland County Health Department, providing technical assistance, serving on a variety of health coalitions and helping to develop, implement and evaluate a countywide "Low Fat Milk" campaign. A past member of the YWCA Board of Directors, she served on the Advocacy Committee and Annual Fund Committees as well as being one of the founders of the YWCA's annual Girls Day Out, with which she is still involved. In conjunction with the County Youth Bureau, she provided technical assistance and data analysis for a needs assessment study of rural youth.
"Bonni has been a key force in helping our district grow and refine our wellness program to a point where we have received state level awards and recognition," said Laurence Spring, superintendent of the Cortland Enlarged City School District. "Her willingness to partner with staff members, develop and evaluate curricula and work to make the resources of the College available are invaluable to us."
On the statewide level, Hodges is an academic advisory board member of the SUNY Youth Sports Institute and serves as a member of the New York State Department of Health's Public Health Educator Continuing Education Committee. She is a past research chair of the New York State Federation of Professional Health Educators.
A participant in national and regional organizations in her field, she organized sessions in the 2005 American Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance national conference.
She is an effective grant-writer. A member of various editorial boards in her field, she is the author of one published book and 17 articles in peer-reviewed journals. She has made more than 50 professional presentations at the state, regional, national and international levels. Hodges was honored in 2005 with the SUNY Chancellor's Research and Scholarship Recognition Award.
A native of Wayland, Mass., Hodges earned a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education/Athletic Training from Ithaca College, a Master of Science in Exercise Science from Northeastern University and a doctorate in health education, with concentrations in research and evaluation/adolescent health, from University of Maryland at College Park. Before entering academia, she was an athletic trainer in Westfield, Mass., and a program director for the Office of Residence Life at Boston University.