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ESF President Joanie Mahoney Announces Plans to Retire in 2027
Mahoney to step down following the appointment of her successor by the SUNY Board of Trustees
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Oct.6, 2026 — This morning, ESF President Joanne M. (Joanie) Mahoney notified the ESF Board of Trustees, Academic Department Chairs, and her Cabinet that she intends to retire from her role as ESF's President in 2027. The announcement comes as the College is on course to start the 2027/28 Fiscal Year with its first balanced operating budget since 2017. President Mahoney is ESF's first female President and served for 11 years as Onondaga County's first female County Executive.
The SUNY Board of Trustees appointed Mahoney ESF's fifth President in November of 2020, after having served for two years as the College's Chief Operating Officer. In September, the U.S. News and World report recognized ESF as the #5 Public College for the Northern region and ranked the College #15 among both public and private colleges and universities. ESF remains at the forefront of environmental education and sustainability ranking as the #1 most affordable school for women in STEM – Study.com, and the #1 school for Sustainability Curriculum – Sustainable Campus Index from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. ESF is also now ranked #2 nationally in “Green Matters: Everyone Cares About Conservation” by the Princeton Review. This is one of the highest national placements ESF has received in recent Princeton Review rankings.
During her tenure, President Mahoney coordinated and led the College's quick transition to online learning and response to the Covid pandemic. While managing the response to the pandemic, the College took a bold step and launched the $45 million reconstruction of the historic Marshall Hall, which was completed in August of 2023. In 2022, Mahoney led the College's reaccreditation effort with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Over the past four years, President Mahoney joined Governor Hochul, the New York State Legislature, the SUNY Board of Trustees, and SUNY Chancellor John King who have all fought hard for and secured additional resources for SUNY, including an additional $6.4 million, representing a 33% increase, in Direct State support for ESF.
In addition to working with Chancellor King to secure additional operating aid, in 2023, Mahoney worked with partners from the Adirondacks and New York's Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus to launch the Timbuctoo Climate Science and Careers Summer Institute. President Mahoney also pressed for the expansion of the College's K-12 "ESF in the High School" program and partnered with the Museum of Science and Technology to sustain the Museum’s Summer Science Week, which is free and open to any Onondaga County resident entering the ninth grade.
In 2022, President Mahoney authorized an aggressive campaign to hire more than 20 new research faculty to support five critical areas of research focus at the College: water science, the bioeconomy, Indigenous environmental science, urban sustainability, and tree and ecosystem restoration.
Over the past three years, President Mahoney focused on ensuring strong recruitment and retention of students while also working to balance ESF's operating budget. The College is turning around an $8 million deficit from 2022/23 and is projecting a balanced budget in FY 2027/28. SUNY ESF's five-year fiscal stability plan reflects an understanding of the continued pressures of increased costs, as well as the hard choices needed to be made to allow strategic investment in student enrollment and experience. In addition, it commits to aligning workforce levels with student enrollment, programmatic needs, and operational realities. ESF remains keenly focused on increased revenue generation, including aligning graduate program expectations with national norms and expanding research grants and contracts. In the plan, ESF continues to put in place common sense controls on spending while making needed investments in its faculty and facilities.
To achieve the plan's goal of a balanced budget in 2027, President Mahoney, last year, initiated a Voluntary Separation Program that produced $2.5 million in annual salary savings to the College. President Mahoney also led efforts to share services with other SUNY institutions. In July, she signed an MOU with Upstate President Mantosh Dewan, to share police services between Upstate and this past week, ESF signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Oswego's President Peter Nwosu, for ESF to share procurement services with SUNY Oswego.
President Mahoney is proud to leave ESF on better financial footing, bringing both budget discipline and completing earlier this year, an extraordinarily successful $43.5 million capital campaign, the largest fundraising campaign in the College’s history. The capital campaign exceeded the College Foundation’s fundraising goal by $3.5 million and will support 78 academic and research initiatives, scholarships, facilities enhancements, and internships.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as ESF's President over the past six years. ESF is a very special institution, and I will be forever grateful to have had the opportunity to lead the College through some very challenging but rewarding times. I'm announcing my retirement today, so Chancellor King and the ESF Board of Trustees have ample time to launch and conduct a broad and thorough search for ESF's next leader. While the search for my successor proceeds, I will remain focused on two critical priorities, recruiting an amazing class of new first-year, transfer, and graduate students for the fall of 2027, and ensuring that ESF is well positioned for long-term fiscal sustainability, by delivering a balanced budget for FY 2027/28.”
“I am deeply grateful to Governor Kathy Hochul, SUNY Board Chair Merryl Tisch, the SUNY Board of Trustees, and SUNY Chancellor John King for their leadership and support of the SUNY system and ESF. Over the past five years, ESF has received record levels of support from the State of New York, we have maintained affordable and accessible tuition for all of our students, we have substantially grown our research portfolio, and we have recruited and supported the research efforts of some of the most dynamic, forward looking, and thoughtful research faculty in the nation.”
SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. said, “SUNY ESF is an extraordinary campus with a bright future, and that is because President Joanie Mahoney has rolled up her sleeves and done the hard work of matching an ambitious vision with a path to long-term fiscal stability. As President, Joanie has taken bold and necessary steps to ensure that SUNY ESF will be able to educate students for generations to come. I commend President Mahoney on her leadership of SUNY ESF and wish her all the best on her well-earned retirement.”
New York State Senator Rachel May said, “In these challenging times for higher education, President Mahoney has been a thoughtful leader and a passionate advocate for the unique mission of SUNY ESF. I have been proud to work with her to advance that mission and to find creative ways the State of New York can be a partner for ESF, whether assisting with building projects, showcasing the extraordinary achievements of ESF faculty, staff, and students, or developing partnerships like the Timbuctoo Summer Institute and the Center of Excellence in Healthy Water Solutions. I am grateful for her dedication to this wonderful institution and wish her all the very best.”
Assemblymember William Magnarelli said, “Having been opponents and allies for many years, I have grown to respect and admire Joanie Mahoney’s abilities and leadership. She has done a wonderful job at SUNY ESF, even through difficult times. Her retirement, while well deserved, will be a loss to the College. I wish her the best and thank her for her contributions to SUNY ESF.”
ESF Board of Trustees Chairman John Bartow said, “Joanie Mahoney is a special leader and ESF is fortunate to have had her serve as its fifth President. I am impressed every day by Joanie's commitment to ensuring ESF's long-term financial sustainability, and I have enjoyed working with her over the past eight years through challenges like the global pandemic, the demographic shifts that are affecting all of higher education, and the investments in faculty growth and campus projects like the complete renovation of Marshall Hall during her tenure. The Board stands ready to assist Joanie in her transition and is equally focused on recruiting a strong class for the fall of 2027 and handing over the reins to Joanie's successor with a balanced operating budget in 2027.”
“Joanie has given her whole career to the people of this region, and we are all better for it,” said Syracuse University Chancellor and ESF Trustee J. Michael Haynie. “I have been fortunate to work alongside her for years, first when she led Onondaga County, then as she led ESF and now as we each lead our respective universities. Serving Central New York has always been a priority for both of us, and no one has embodied that commitment more fully than Joanie. She is a trusted partner and a dear friend. On behalf of Syracuse University, I thank Joanie for everything she has done for Syracuse and for the communities across New York that she has served so well. I am certain she will continue to make meaningful contributions to our community long into the future.”
President Mahoney will remain ESF's President until the SUNY Board of Trustees completes the search process and formally appoints her successor. This fall, President Mahoney will travel to the Pacific Northwest to meet with College alumni and attend national college recruiting fairs in Seattle and Portland. Upon her retirement, President Mahoney will remain a tenured faculty member at the College and is exploring options to teach about women in leadership as well as developing a course on the historic clean-up and restoration of Onondaga Lake and its surrounding watershed.
About SUNY ESF
The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry is one of the nation's premier colleges focused on the study of the environment, developing renewable technologies, and building a sustainable future. ESF’s Mission is to educate future environmental leaders of all backgrounds, advance knowledge, and skills necessary to promote scholarship and stewardship of the natural to designed environments, and act both locally and globally to Improve Our World. ESF’s students, faculty, staff, and alumni make a global impact on improving and sustaining the environment. ESF offers a world-class education among a close-knit community of more than 2,000 scholars with common values and a shared sense of purpose. ESF’s tight-knit community is centered alongside Syracuse University in the heart of Central New York and has a system of properties spanning 25,000 acres that broadly represent New York state’s rich ecological diversity for scientific study and instruction. To learn more, visit www.esf.edu.