Vice President for External Relations
Elaine Crosson, former General Counsel and Vice President for Legal Services at Long Island University, is Vice President for External Relations at Stony Brook University. In this newly established position, Crosson is Stony Brook’s primary liaison for state and federal legislative matters, and oversees the offices of Communications, Community Relations, Governmental Relations, and Media Relations. As VP for External Relations, Crosson reports directly to the President and works closely with the other vice presidents and deans.
As General Counsel at LIU, Crosson was responsible for managing all legal affairs of the university, defending the university in legal actions, and supervising in-house legal personnel and outside counsel. She joined LIU in 1999 as university director of government relations, and one year later was promoted to deputy general counsel and served in that capacity until she was appointed as General Counsel in 2007.
Crosson holds a B.A. from St. John’s University and a J.D. from Albany Law School, Union University. She began her career as a legislative aide for the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate, after which she held two positions in the state’s court system including legislative counsel in the Office of Court Administration and principal law clerk to a Judge on the New York Court of Appeals. Crosson then went into private practice, handling civil cases as an associate at Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna PC, and later became general counsel for the Interest of Lawyer Account Fund, an organization dedicated to funding legal assistance for low-income New Yorkers. She also spent four years as a Magistrate in Family Court before joining LIU.
