Amitra Wall

Amitra Wall (Professor, Ph.D., Texas Woman’s University)

Amitra A. Wall is a professor in the Department of Sociology; she is currently serving as the Interim Provost & VP for Academic Affairs. In 1999, she earned her doctorate in sociology from Texas Woman’s University. When she joined the SUNY Buffalo State faculty in 2000, she coordinated the then named Woman’s Studies Interdisciplinary minor program.  In 2010, she was certified as an applied sociologist by national and international colleagues from the Association for Applied and Clinical and Sociology. 

In 2011, she received SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.  From 2013-2017 she was the Assistant Dean of Intellectual Foundations and First-Year Programs and from 2015-2017 she was Interim Political Science Chair.  Prior to being appointed as the Interim Provost, she served as the associate Provost.

One of her greatest joys includes working with students in and out of the classroom. Student-related service activities include mentoring students for the Student Research and Creativity Celebrations and for local and state conferences, conducting workshops for support programs, and advising the Alpha Lambda Delta honor society program.  Favorite classes to teach include social statistics, research methods, and introduction to sociology.

Wall continues to present at national and international conferences.   Publications include co-edited books, Unquiet Voices: Cultural Experiences Related to the Pursuit of Tenure and Promotion and The Learning Community Experience in Higher Education: High-Impact Practice for Student Retention; co-authored articles, “Using Fun in the Classroom: An Exploratory Study of Instructors’ Hesitations and Motivations” in Journal of Statistics Education and “Building a Strong Clinical Sociology Program through Accreditation” in Clinical Sociology Review, and co-edited readers, Voices in Sociology and Baggage Claims: Attitudes and Skills to Pack for College.

She has served on the Boards of Erie County Commission on Status of Women, Women for Human Rights and Dignity, The City Mission, and YMCA Buffalo Niagara Delaware Family Branch.  Wall was recently named a fellow to the May 14th Memorial Commission.  She is a member of the Association of Applied and Clinical Sociology and the International Sociological Association and serves as a Commissioner for the Commission on the Accreditation of Programs in Applied and Clinical Sociology and serves as a peer reviewer for Middle States Commission on Higher Education.