Professor Mary Siniscarco awarded 2023 Virgil Crisafulli Distinguished Teaching Award

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Professor Mary Siniscarco awarded 2023 Virgil Crisafulli Distinguished Teaching Award

Professor of Occupational Therapy Mary Siniscaro stands between Provost Todd Pfannestiel and President Laura Casamento, holding her award at the 2023 Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony.

"...recognized by her faculty colleagues as an outstanding educator and by her students as a mentor and a friend."

Associate Professor of Health Sciences Mary Siniscarco was awarded the coveted Virgil Crisafulli Distinguished Teaching Award at the university’s 2023 Undergraduate Commencement ceremony.

The Virgil Crisafulli Distinguished Teaching Award is bestowed annually at Utica University. Instituted in 1974 through a gift from a friend of the college, the Crisafulli Award is considered Utica University’s finest tribute to a faculty member. The recipient is chosen through nominations made by faculty colleagues and through a rigorous review by past recipients of the honor along with this year’s valedictorians.

“This year’s recipient is certainly deserving of this accolade. In my five years at the institution, I’ve known this person to be an excellent teacher, a distinguished colleague, truly respected, and dare I say, loved by their students,” said Provost Todd Pfannestiel. “This announcement brings particular happiness as the recipient is not only a professor at Utica, but also an alum.”

With more than 33 years of clinical experience under her belt, Professor Siniscaro came home in 2008 when she returned to then-Utica College and a part-time position having already previously-taught some labs and courses at the institution.

“In her letter of application which she wrote to the dean at that time, ‘my overall professional aspiration has always been to be an educator at the collegial level.’ She has achieved that and much more,” Provost Pfannestiel remarked. “From an adjunct faculty member in occupational therapy to assistant professor in health studies, from a non-tenured position to a ten-year faculty member, recognized by her faculty colleagues as an outstanding educator and by her students as a mentor and a friend.”