A number of alumni and friends of the college have signaled their support for women’s health research now being undertaken through Penn State Behrend’s partnership with Magee-Womens Research Institute.
Top-ranked academic and research programs begin with top-tier faculty and world-class facilities and technologies. Gifts to Penn State Behrend through the campaign, A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence, support the faculty and resources to inspire our students to success.
’91, ’85 and Elaine ’85 Auslander made a gift of $400,000 to establish an endowed professorship to support the teaching and research of a Behrend faculty member in the first decade of their career. Auslander, retired president and CEO of LORD Corporation, named the endowment in honor of a former English professor, the late Dr. Chester “Chet” L. Wolford, Jr. The Auslanders made a second gift of $400,000 to create the Dr. Martin W. Trethewey Early Career Professorship in Mechanical Engineering at University Park.
An early-career professorship established with a $150,000 gift from Clarience Technologies will fund research and design projects by Behrend faculty members and students in the field of data analytics over the next three years. Behrend’s School of Engineering has a 15-year history of contributing to research and product development for Clarience’s flagship brand, Truck-Lite.
More Behrend biology students will have the opportunity to engage in undergraduate research experiences through a fund established by the son and daughter-in-law of Irvin Kochel, who served as Behrend’s chief administrator from 1954 to 1980. The endowed fund established by Jeff ’72 and Pam ’73 Kochel supports the college’s Open Lab strategy of learning and discovery, which positions students to engage with external partners from business, industry, and community organizations.
The college’s women’s health initiative, undertaken in partnership with Magee-Womens Research Institute, is advancing with an endowment established by the combined gifts of a number of donors, including Ed ’91, ’85 and Elaine ’85 Auslander, Frank “Shelly” and Shirley Czulewicz, Priscilla Hamilton ’78 and Gary Rafferty, Brian ’90 and Pam ’89 Kupchella, Mary Swed Lincoln, David Meehl, Richard Merwin, Daniel and Elaine Park, Kathryn Smith, Ashleigh Walters, and Halina Zyczynski, M.D., in addition to Hamot Health Foundation and The Erie Community Foundation.
Plastek Industries and the Prischak family are among Penn State Behrend’s most ardent supporters. Their latest investment of $1.1 million will establish the Prischak Automation Lab, to be equipped with state-of-the-art robotics and manufacturing technology to advance mechatronics education in our School of Engineering.
An in-kind gift of software from Riskalyze gives students in the Black School of Business access to that company’s investment risk-management tools for use in stock-trading simulations and management of the school’s Intrieri Family Student Managed Fund.