LEFT TO RIGHT: Hyland, Smith and O'Hara
Colleagues recognized three unionists for their service to the constituencies they represent.
John Hyland of the Professional Staff Congress and Phillip Smith of United University Professions are Higher Education Members of the Year. Hyland's career includes helping welfare recipients in a poor city community, and working as professor of sociology at LaGuardia Community College in Queens. His scholarly work focuses on community colleges as social institutions. Hyland, former treasurer of the PSC, is president of the state Labor-Religion Coalition.
Smith is on the faculty at the SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. The affable academic most recently has been vice president for academics of UUP. In his community, he is an appointed member of the Juvenile Court Conference Judiciary and a Boy Scout leader.
Health Care Professional of the Year Ann O'Hara is an advocate for school nurses, as well as a clinical nursing instructor in a vocational program. The work is daunting when ratios can be 1,300 students to one nurse, said O'Hara, a nurse and a member of the Syracuse TA and the NYSUT Health Care Professionals Council.