Donald Paul Zingale assumed his role as president of the State University of New York at Cobleskill May 1, 2008, the 11th president of New York State's premier public polytechnic college.
A contemporary scholar with broad ranging expertise in higher education, Zingale's career for more than 30 years has been devoted to the preparation of professional practitioners in an eclectic mix of health, human service and technologically oriented disciplines at public comprehensive and polytechnic institutions. His previous post was vice president for academic affairs at the California Maritime Academy. As the chief academic officer, Zingale focused on expanding the curriculum, including the introduction of graduate programming, and expanding the sponsored projects portfolio while raising the campus' rankings among peer institutions.
Most of Zingale's professional life has been spent on multiple campuses of the California State University including eight years as the founding dean of the College of Health & Human Services at San Francisco State University. Widely respected as a servant leader and proponent of reconsidered scholarship, he is recognized for his efficacy in strategic planning, budget management and academic stewardship, and for his extensive knowledge of academic programming, including learning assessment, enrollment management and institutional studies.
President Zingale's personal portfolio is noteworthy for transformational change in collegiate startups, reorganizations and complex community partnerships with multiple stakeholders. In addition, he has been the principal investigator or executive producer of numerous grants, contracts and capital planning projects with private and governmental support approaching $100 million. An engaged public servant, Zingale has held appointments to the Police Commission of the City of Richmond, California and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco Board of Education. He was a principal in the establishment of San Francisco's Lake Merced Task Force and in the development of a multi-agency proposal for an aquatics center at Ferry Point on San Francisco Bay.
The SUNY Cobleskill president grew up in Brooklyn and is the first in his family to have attended college. He earned a B.S. in health and physical education from Brooklyn College in 1967 and a M.S. in physical education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1969. At The Ohio State University, Zingale earned a Ph.D. in physical education in 1973. While a professor at California State University, Sacramento, he completed a M.S.W. program at that institution in 1984.
Zingale and his spouse, Lydia Cruz, reside in SUNY Cobleskill's College House. Daughter Isabella attends California State University, Long Beach.
