New Associate Deans Appointed in Cotsakos College of Business and College of the Arts and Communication

Kathleen J. Barnes joins the Cotsakos College of Business; Loretta C. McLaughlin Vignier appointed Associate Dean of the College of the Arts and Communication

Kathleen J. Barnes, an accomplished educator with more than 20 years of experience in academia, has been named associate dean of the Cotsakos College of Business and Loretta C. McLaughlin Vignier, who possesses more than 15 years of experience in higher education, has been named associate dean of the College of the Arts and Communication.

Barnes, who has also been appointed a professor of management, has 21 years of accomplished teaching experience in various areas of the management information systems field. Previously, she was a professor of management at University of New Haven College of Business.  She served as associate dean of the College from 2013 to 2015. Prior to that, she was associate professor of management at East Stroudsburg University and assistant professor at University of Wisconsin.

Before beginning her career in higher education, Barnes spent 13 years in the banking industry as a senior consultant, marketing director, marketing and commercial lending officer, and senior credit analyst at various banks including Valley National Bank, State Bank of Chittenango, and Marine Midland Bank. She holds a PhD in organizational studies from the University at Albany, State University of New York and an MBA from Syracuse University.

Vignier first joined the University in 2009 as a fulltime faculty member in the Department of Communication, and has served as interim associate dean of the College since January 2015.

Board president of the New York City affiliate of Alliance for Women in Media, Vignier is a seasoned television producer and director. Among her almost-two decades of professional experience are roles with the ABC News program 20/20 and the cable television network Court TV, where she covered high-profile trials including the People vs. OJ Simpson and Michigan vs. Jack Kervorkian.

The University has benefited from her field experience, through her teaching of such courses as video production and editing, TV studio production and TV news. Moreover, in 2012, she created an award-winning television program at the University, The Roundabout, a college version of ABC’s roundtable talk show The View. Vignier has also served as faculty advisor for the campus TV club and several WPTV-6 student-produced programs.