SARATOGA SPRINGS — Meg Benke, a professor and mentor at the SUNY Empire State College School for Graduate Studies, was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame.
A nationally and internationally recognized leader, she has devoted her entire career to improving the quality of education and increasing access and choice for students. In addition, she has worked to advance professionalism in her field and as an advocate for adults at the state and national levels.
“Induction into the Hall of Fame is a great honor,” Benke said. “While this recognition is individual, it is built on substantial support from my colleagues at Empire State College and the Sloan Consortium and it recognizes the significant advancements that the college and the consortium have made to improve quality and increase access to higher education for those that have been under served.”
Benke first joined Empire State College in 1991 and has served the college as acting president, provost, vice provost and as dean of the college’s Center for Distance Learning.
Working together with her colleagues at CDL, she led the effort to expand the college’s programs throughout the state, nation and around the world. As a result, enrollment with the college’s online programs grew to more than 10,000 full and part-time students.
Today, more than 70 percent of all online bachelors’ programs offered within the 64-campus SUNY system are provided by the college and CDL is one of the foremost and innovative open and distance learning systems in the United States.
As the college’s acting president and provost, Benke provided her leadership and expertise to the systemwide Open SUNY initiative, while successfully leading an institution with an enrollment of approximately 20,000 students learning at 35 locations across the state, with partners at eight international locations and online everywhere.
Benke mentors and teaches in the college’s School for Graduate Studies’ Master of Arts in Learning and Emergency Technologies and the Master of Arts in Adult Learning programs.
