Open SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador 2016 – UBuffalo: Kayte Conroy

Dr. Kayte Conroy has been teaching at the University at Buffalo since 2000. She started her career at UB as an adjunct professor in the undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences while also providing direct care and counseling services for community agencies. In addition to her current position at UB as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Education, she is credentialed as a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, licensed as a Mental Health Counselor, and is a disordered gambling and impulse control specialist.

In 2006, Kayte was instrumental in the development of coursework to launch a campus Masters degree program in Mental Health Counseling and taught students in both seated and hybrid formats.

In 2008, the Masters degree in Rehabilitation Counseling program added a cohort of students to begin an equivalent online program. Dr. Conroy developed coursework to help launch that program and established the field placement process and procedures.

Since then, she has been teaching field placement courses for the Rehabilitation Counseling online program and has also instructed courses for UB’s Graduate School of Education Online undergraduate minor in counseling.

Kayte was instrumental in establishing an online Certificate of Advanced Study in Rehabilitation Counseling. She was also instrumental in developing the first Certificate in Advanced Study in Mental Health Counseling for a bridge program to be offered online at a public university in New York. She is currently developing a certificate program in Addiction Counseling at UB as a recipient of the SUNY High Needs Program grant to support the area of Community and Social Service. The anticipated launch of that online certificate program is Spring 2017.

It is an honor and privilege to be an online educator at the University at Buffalo. I enjoy getting to know our talented and ambitious students from diverse backgrounds from across the state, the country, and the globe. Because we are training students to be nationally certified as rehabilitation counselors who will ultimately provide counseling services to people with disabilities, I have the pleasure of watching our students learn to effectively help others reach goals to improve their life in some way.   Online education offers an opportunity for learning at a deep level and allows all students to have some control over the learning pace. This helps with absorption of the material and promotes thoughtful questions and interesting discussions.   I am proud to be part of the learning process and have enjoyed teaching at UB, both on campus and online.