HESC Colleague NewsletterJanuary 1, 2007  

HESC Insider Spotlight: David Canaski

Mike Williams

David CanaskiHESC is proud to shine the spotlight on the new President of the New York State Financial Aid Administrators Association (NYSFAAA), David Canaski.

David Canaski began his career at Bryant & Stratton in 1987, where he grew to become Corporate Director of Financial Aid for the company’s eighteen campuses only four years later.

In 1998, he was appointed the Director of Financial Aid at SUNY Cortland, where in recent years he has been instrumental in reorganizing and renaming the Financial Aid Office – now the “Financial Advisement Office.” The college believes that the new name better reflects the broad range of financial services, advice and education that the office provides.

An active member of the New York State financial aid community since the start of his career, David has been a distinguished speaker at numerous conferences on a wide variety of financial aid related topics. In addition, for almost a decade he served as a Large Group Leader at the annual NYSFAAA Novice Workshop.


In the 1990’s, David worked closely with HESC’s Office of Default Management Initiatives, conducting research that was instrumental in the development of the HESC publication “Best Practices for Student Retention and Default Prevention.” He also assisted HESC with training workshops in conjunction with this effort.

More recently, David chaired a SUNY workgroup to develop performance standards for guaranty agencies.

During the recently held 38th Annual NYSFAAA Conference in Lake Placid, David Canaski accepted the gavel as president of NYSFAAA, a not-for-profit volunteer organization of financial aid professionals from across the state.

During his acceptance speech, he challenged the “new generation” of NYSFAAA members. He urged them to build on the wisdom and contributions from NYSFAAA leaders of the past and to re-think the boundaries of the financial aid profession, acknowledging that the future rests with the current generation.

HESC would like to congratulate David on his succession to the NYSFAAA presidency and to enthusiastically renew our commitment to support NYSFAAA during his term.

Congratulations David!