Empire State College/Home/Meet Alan Davis: President

Dr. Benke has been in distance learning for 25 years. She has been at the college for the past 17 years serving as vice provost for global and online learning, and immediately before that, overseeing the Center for Distance Learning, which is the largest provider of online education in New York state, and one of the largest programs in the country.

Dr. Benke was recognized for the Most Outstanding Achievement in Online Learning by an Individual, by Sloan-C, a national consortium for distance learning providers in 2007. In Oct. 2010, Benke was honored by the board of directors of the Sloan Consortium, by being named to its inaugural class of Sloan-C Fellows, for her extraordinary qualifications, significant experience, distinguished service and leadership in the field of online learning. Shortly thereafter, she was named president of the board of directors of Sloan-C.

She began her career at Ohio University and Antioch College. Benke’s early work was dedicated to increasing access to higher education for adult learners through distance education. Benke was particularly interested in increasing employability of graduates, and worked to ensure that the outcomes of an online education matched traditional education from a quality perspective. She also consults nationally on how universities provide student services in online education programs, and has served on a variety of national efforts to create standards for quality in online education.

Benke holds a Ph.D. in student personnel from Ohio University. In the graduate and undergraduate programs of Empire State College, she teaches in the areas of human systems and behavior, performance measurement, learning organizations, organizational change and training and development.