Department of Higher Education and Student Affairs
Message from the Chair
Greetings from the Department of Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) at Binghamton University! We prepare professionals to work in higher education settings, making a difference in the lives of college students. We work very closely with the University’s Division of Student Affairs to provide hands-on professional preparation through graduate assistantships, internships, and special projects. At present, we have students working in offices that include the Center for Civic Engagement, Fraternity and Sorority Life, Residential Life, Student Transition and Success, and Student Support Services. In addition, we have part-time students who are full-time Binghamton University employees, working in areas ranging from Residential Life to the Anderson Center for the Performing Arts.
Faculty recognition
In 2025, HESA Chair Deborah Taub received the Lois B. DeFleur Faculty Prize for Academic Achievement, recognized for her professional excellence and dedication by the University’s provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. These University-wide awards “represent a major career milestone for the recipients,” acknowledging academic achievement, international education, community engagement, teaching, and service to the greater Binghamton community.
Deborah Taub Professor and Department Chair
We welcome 4+1 students from the Department of Human Development in CCPA and from Harpur College, who are able to earn both an undergraduate and master’s degree in just five years. HESA alumni work in colleges and universities as close as SUNY Broome Community College and as far away as Arizona, California, and Alaska. Some of our outstanding students and alumni are featured in this publication.
HESA takes pride in offering students extensive opportunities to engage in research, presentations, and publications alongside faculty. For example, Associate Professor John Zilvinskis and a student research team recently published “No Research About Us Without Us: A Quantitative Critical Investigation of Supportive Environment Scores for Disabled Students” in the Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability. Additionally, I collaborated with two students who contributed a chapter to a monograph I co-edited. These writing and research opportunities help our students stand out among their peers and be job-ready upon graduation.
hesa@binghamton.edu 607-777-9219
@binghesa
Hands-on learning and professional development
In Associate Professor John Zilvinskis’ class Disability in Higher Education, experiential learning takes center stage. In the first half of the class, students read material beforehand and use class time for designed learning activities, including class readings, writing advocacy letters, and answering
case studies. In the second half of the semester, students create graduate-level research posters using recent results from the National Survey of Student Engagement. The posters will be presented at the Disability Research Symposium in May. The symposium aims to connect the campus’s disability
community and help disabled attendees see themselves in contemporary research. The event’s first hour features faculty presenting recent research on disability. In the second hour, students present their posters in a conferencestyle format, exploring new disability trends.
Become an Alumni Ambassador
Share your love of working in higher education by becoming a Higher Education and Student Affairs alumni ambassador. As an ambassador, we’ll connect you with new and prospective students who want to hear about your career path and work. This is a great way to stay connected and help mentor the next generation of higher ed professionals. For more information, email hesa@binghamton.edu.
Community impact: HESA alums
Matthew Pangburn ’23, MS ’25, has a longstanding interest in food systems and food justice. He was the longest-serving staff member at the Binghamton University Food Pantry and was named Graduate Student Employee of the Year in 2025. He now serves as basic needs manager at Mercy University in the New York City area,
“The HESA program challenged me to think critically about student support beyond the classroom. With my hands-on experience working at the Binghamton University Food Pantry, I was prepared to lead basicneeds initiatives at Mercy in a strategic, compassionate, socially just—and fun—way. The network of student affairs professionals across the University provides immeasurable support to HESA students as they navigate the institution and build relationships that propel them to achieve great things.”
—Matthew Pangburn ’23, MS ’25
overseeing food security operations for three of Mercy’s ‘Mav Market’ food and resource pantries, located in Dobbs Ferry, the Bronx, and Manhattan.
At Mercy, Pangburn’s commitment to addressing food insecurity led to securing a grant for an indoor hydroponic growing system, allowing the campus food pantry to offer students fresh produce year-round.
Wimer Alberto ’09, MS ’14, is the Vice President for Industry Relations at GradGuard, the industry leader in providing tuition and renters’ insurance to college students. Although Alberto had not anticipated working on the vendor or corporate side of higher education, he credits his master’s degree at Binghamton with providing the language, framework, and confidence to bridge institutional strategy
“Service leadership is deeply important to me. I currently serve as a Board Trustee for the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Foundation and have held regional and national leadership roles with ACPA, the Association of College and University Housing Officers International, and the Association of Student Conduct Administration. Staying active in these spaces matters to me because it keeps me connected.”
— Wimer Alberto ’09, MS ’14
with the lived experiences of students and families. For Alberto, it’s about building partnerships that are reciprocal and aligned with the mission of higher education.
Paralympian Rayven Sample thrives in Binghamton’s HESA Program
When Rayven Sample, a HESA student from Gerry, New York, searched for a master’s program, Binghamton had a lot of what he was looking for. The University offered a large in-state campus, proximity to nature, and faculty research that aligned with his interests, particularly John Zilvinski’s work with the disabled community.
In addition to his graduate studies, Sample is a twotime Paralympian for Team USA, having competed in the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in track and field. He was also an NCAA Division I athlete at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, where he completed his undergraduate degree. As a Para athlete, Sample often faces athletes in less-impaired classifications, which makes his accomplishments especially noteworthy.
attend Binghamton, appreciating the program’s structure, which will give him more than two years of experience as a graduate assistant, as well as a semester-long internship.
Sample knew he wanted a career in education and took a gap year to choose between K-12 and higher education. He is happy he decided to
“The program is phenomenal,” Sample said. “It’s fascinating and engaging, and everything culminates in a great foundation for applying theory to practice. I was worried about the switch from a small liberal arts environment to a big state institution, but everyone in the HESA department has been so supportive.”
Alums making a difference on campus
Alondra Hughes, MS ’21
Alondra Hughes leads admissions and student services in the Department of Social Work at Binghamton University.
Initially pursuing a career in elementary education, she shifted her focus to advising after a colleague’s suggestion and completed the HESA/SAA Program at Binghamton University in 2021. She previously worked in Harpur Academic Advising before stepping into her current role in CCPA. She credits the HESA/SAA Program for equipping her with the skills and confidence to navigate and shape her career in higher education. Its flexibility
has empowered her to discover new possibilities and chart her own path within the field.
“If you like working with students and supporting people, then this is the program for you. It’s okay if you don’t know the exact career you want because this degree opens the door to many possibilities.”
To meet market needs and working professionals’ schedules, HESA is introducing a streamlined 30-credit program with 7-week courses and an 18-month completion timeline. Students will gain advanced skills in law, diversity, equity and inclusion, student development theory, and assessment while maintaining their work and personal commitments. The inaugural cohort will begin in fall 2026.
