Long Island is blessed with a multitude of world-class colleges and universities and an impressive roster of all-world scholars to run them – and right at the top is Dr. John Nader, President of Farmingdale State College.

A veteran of the SUNY system and former mayor of the City of Oneonta, John – who doubles as co-chairman of the critically influential Long Island Regional Economic Development Council – has led Farmingdale State through six years of remarkable growth, expanding the college’s student body, physical footprint, industry/academic collaborations and cutting-edge programming.

In today’s episode, the highly optimistic problem-solver describes how politics prepared him for academia – and why Farmingdale State is so important to Long Island socioeconomics.