Colgate University announced the appointment of Derek McGork as assistant vice president for emergency management, university safety and transportation on Jan. 19. McGork, who currently serves as director of safety and security at Le Moyne College, will begin the role Feb. 23.
McGork’s prior experience spans campus safety administration, law enforcement leadership and teaching. At Le Moyne, he oversaw day-to-day safety operations and longer-term preparedness initiatives, which included modernizing emergency notification systems, improving campus mapping for first responders and launching the college’s first mobile safety app.
In addition to operational responsibilities, McGork was involved in broader institutional policy work at Le Moyne. As a member of the Campus Climate Committee, he contributed to efforts to strengthen bias reporting and investigative procedures. He also collaborated with senior leadership to revise demonstration and protest policies and taught for a decade as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Anthropology, Criminology and Sociology.
Before his work in higher education, McGork spent 23 years with the Syracuse Police Department (SPD). His career also included assignments as a sergeant in the cold case and homicide squads, a hostage negotiator for the crisis response team and a department instructor.
As an administrator at SPD, McGork helped develop co-response partnerships addressing mental health emergencies routed through the Onondaga 911 Center and served on the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force Albany Division Executive Board. At Colgate, he will apply these skills to advise senior administrators in his role as the University’s Emergency Operations Center director.
The national search was chaired by Vice President and Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II and included faculty and administrators from across the University.
