Kate Pechenkina

Kate Pechenkina serves as SUNY Oswego's Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, a role she assumed in summer 2026. She came to Oswego from Queens College of the City University of New York, where she served as Dean of Faculty in the School of Social Sciences beginning in 2020. Prior to her service as dean, she chaired the Anthropology Department at Queens College.

A Professor of Anthropology, Kate studies how diet, activity, and pathogens shaped the health of early people, drawing on stable isotope analysis and bone biology; she conducts her fieldwork primarily in north-central China, where her research on skeletal remains spans communities ranging from the Neolithic farming villages to the dynasties of early China. 

Kate earned an undergraduate degree in Biology from Moscow State University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology from the University of Missouri.