SUNY Oswego Leadership, Innovation, and Discovery (SOLID) Conference
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Sheldon Ballroom at SUNY Oswego
9:00am-2:00pm
Refreshments provided
9:00–9:30 AM | Coffee and Refreshments
9:30–9:45 AM | Welcome
Michele Thornton, PhD
Interim Dean, College of Business and Entrepreneurship, SUNY Oswego
Kate Pechenkina, PhD
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, SUNY Oswego
9:45–10:30 AM | Panel 1 – The EPIIC Playbook: Turning Capacity Building into Regional Innovation
The NSF's EPIIC program is helping colleges and universities build the partnerships, infrastructure, and talent pipelines needed to drive regional innovation. Hear from institutional leaders across New York and beyond as they discuss lessons learned, unexpected challenges, and strategies for sustaining impact beyond grant funding. This session explores how collaboration among higher education, industry, and community partners can create lasting opportunities for students, research, workforce development, and economic growth.
Moderator
Evan Lemley, PhD
Dean, College of Mathematics and Sciences, University of Central Oklahoma
Panelists
Melanie Blood, PhD – Dean for Workforce Development and Associate Provost for Curriculum, SUNY Geneseo
Laurie B. Cook, PhD – Professor & Director, Pre-Professional Health Program, SUNY Brockport
Kristin Croyle, PhD – Dean, College of Liberal Arts, Science and Engineering, SUNY Oswego
Martha E. Van der Voort, PhD – Grants Manager, Paul Smith's College
10:30 - 10:45 - Coffee Break
10:45–11:45: Panel 2 - Innovation in Practice: Faculty-Industry Partnerships at Work
What does successful collaboration between higher education and industry actually look like? This panel features faculty and industry partners sharing how their partnerships were built, the projects they've undertaken, and the impact they've achieved together. Through real-world examples, attendees will gain practical insights into developing sustainable collaborations that advance research, strengthen workforce development, and create meaningful experiential learning opportunities for students.
Moderator:
Brandon Mastrangelo – Director of Client Success, INSPYRE Innovation Hub
Panelists:
Sarah Bonzo, PhD – Chair, Marketing and Management & Professor of Healthcare Administration, SUNY Oswego
William Paolo, MD, MBA '23 – Chair of Emergency Medicine & Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, SUNY Upstate Medical University
James Early, PhD – Associate Professor of Computer Science, SUNY Oswego
Lin Thant Aung – Student, SUNY Oswego
11:45–12:15: Break and Student Poster Session
12:15–1:30: Keynote: “Cultivating Innovation: From Research to Real World Impact"
Closing out the day is a keynote from Dr. Paul Vianco '80, a materials scientist and retired Senior Engineer from Sandia National Laboratories, whose decades of work advanced soldering technology and high-reliability electronics used in some of the nation's most demanding applications. Dr. Vianco's career is a case study in exactly what the day has been building toward: how rigorous research, sustained over time, translates into real-world solutions that matter far beyond the lab.