Odalys M. Diaz Piñeiro will be joining Ithaca College President Shirley M. Collado’s senior leadership team as her chief of staff. 

In an email to the college community Jan. 27, Collado said Piñeiro will begin the position April 13. Piñeiro currently serves as executive director of University Advancement at the City University of New York (CUNY). 

Melissa Daly, the former chief of staff, left her position in December 2019 to serve as director of special initiatives and assistant vice provost in the Office of the Provost at Emory University in Atlanta. 

Prior to her current position, Piñeiro was a senior administrator and adviser to two college presidents in the CUNY system. She served as the president’s deputy chief of staff and director of strategic initiatives at Queens College in New York. At Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College in New York, Piñeiro worked as the president’s director of special projects. She also worked as a project director at Hunter College in New York, Collado said in the announcement. 

Piñeiro’s duties as chief of staff will include managing the day-to-day operations of the Office of the President and interacting with vice presidents at the college and campus partners, Collado said in the announcement. She will also supervise the Office for Government and Community Relations and the Division of College Communications, Collado said in the email.

The search committee that selected Piñeiro as the next chief of staff included Tim Carey, associate vice president in the Office of Facilities, who served as chair of the committee; Judith Pena-Schaff, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and a 2019–20 President’s Fellow; Melissa Gattine, executive director of marketing strategy; and David Harker, director of the Center for Civic Engagement, Collado said in the email.  

Carey said via email that the search committee is satisfied with Piñeiro’s appointment.  

I know the whole committee is pleased with the outcome of the search,” Carey said via email. “We look forward to joining the rest of the campus community in welcoming Odalys to IC in April.”

“Odalys brings a tremendous depth and breadth of administrative management know-how to the role of chief of staff, and her wealth of knowledge about the inner workings of higher education will serve our community very well,” Collado said in the email.

CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez said in the announcement that he thinks Piñeiro will be a great addition to Ithaca College’s senior leadership team.

“I will miss her steadfast commitment to the success of all our students, but I am confident that as President Collado’s chief of staff she will be a tremendous asset to Ithaca College — as she has been for CUNY,” Rodriguez said in the announcement.

Piñeiro said in the announcement that she is excited to be a part of the college community when she begins her position in April. 

“It is an honor to be a part of a dedicated community working to ensure that IC fulfills its promise to embody its mission to educate, engage and empower those it serves,” Piñeiro said in the announcement. 

Dave Maley, director of public relations, said the college has no further comment.