Office of The President

Dr. Terence L. Finley is the eighth president of Corning Community College. He previously served as the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Dr. Finley’s nearly 25 years of leadership experience ranges across the corporate and higher education sectors, including leadership roles at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, and executive roles at Fortune 500 companies including Intel and NVIDIA. As vice president for finance and administration and chief financial officer at Harris-Stowe University, Dr. Finley’s work led to the elimination of institutional debt, an increase in the University’s endowment value, and the largest state funding increase in over a decade.  

At Harris-Stowe State University, Dr. Finley focused on strategic financial management as well as student success, retention, and completion through the expansion of financial aid programs for students, decreasing their financial burden and increasing retention rates, and revenue diversification strategies including grants and partnerships with external organizations to supplement institutional resources. Dr. Finley also championed offering students at Harris-Stowe State University six tuition-free credit hours each summer and increased the number of scholarships and institutional grants for students.  

Prior to his service at Harris-Stowe State University, Dr. Finley served as the Assistant Vice President for Business Services and Interim Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Enterprises at Prairie View A&M University, part of the Texas A&M University System. During his time at Prairie View A&M University, Dr. Finley successfully created the leadership development initiative LeadershipPVAMU, an annual faculty and staff leadership development program designed to cultivate emerging leaders and strengthen succession planning, which he later replicated at Harris-Stowe State University as LeadershipHSSU. 

Dr. Finley earned his Ph.D. in educational leadership with an emphasis in higher education from Prairie View A&M University, a Master of Business Administration in marketing and logistics from Pennsylvania State University, and a Bachelor of Science with concentrations in marketing and economics from SUNY Brockport.