Colleagues praise Finney’s appointment
Lynn Rivers believes that Nazareth University made the right choice when it picked Maureen Finney as its newest president.
“I would suggest that that is one of the best moves that Nazareth University has made,” said the director of D’Youville University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program.
Rivers first met Finney in the late 1990s and knew her as a student in D’Youville’s physician assistant program, a peer when she became the director of that program and her superior when Finney became the dean of that program.
“I guess how I would describe her in all of those contexts is always an active listener, always positive and enthusiastic, but extremely sharp and analytical,” Rivers said.
She particularly praised her good friend’s work spearheading the effort to secure state funding for D’Youville’s new Health Professions Hub.
“Maureen was the lever that drove that funding,” Rivers said. “She made the presentations at New York state.”
Ron Netsky, a professor in Nazareth’s Art and Design Department, said Finney showed her ability to lead the university when she was its provost. “She was instrumental in the creation [of] our physician assistant program, an important addition to what we offer at Nazareth,” he said. “She also proved to be a caring person who is well-liked and well-respected throughout the campus.”
Netsky, who has taught at Nazareth for 51 years, believes Finney has come to head the institution at the right time.“This is the first time in the last half-century that a president was chosen from within Nazareth,” he said. “In this particularly challenging time for higher education, demographically and politically, I believe her knowledge of the university and her sincere belief in Nazareth’s mission will be greatly beneficial as we go into the future.”