Dr. Havidán Rodríguez is the 20th president of the State University of New York’s (SUNY) University at Albany (UAlbany), one of the nation’s most diverse public research universities. His appointment in 2017 made him the first Hispanic president of a SUNY four-year institution. Under Dr. Rodríguez’s leadership, UAlbany has expanded the reach of its globally significant research and become a national leader in educational equity and social mobility. During his tenure, UAlbany has opened a state-of-the-art teaching and research facility, secured $75 million in state support for the Albany Artificial Intelligence Supercomputing Initiative, and become the first R1 institution in the northeast to earn the Seal of Excelencia for Latina and Latino student success.

In 2022, Dr. Rodríguez was appointed to President Biden’s Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics. He also is a commissioner for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and co-chair of New York’s Capital Region Economic Development Council. Before UAlbany, he served as founding provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and president, ad interim, and provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas – Pan American.

A veteran of the US Air Force and a respected scholar of disaster response and resiliency, Dr. Rodríguez earned a BS from the University of Maryland, an MA in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a PhD in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Born in Puerto Rico and raised there and on the US mainland, Dr. Rodríguez is fluent in English and Spanish.