Alumni and Development Office Welcomes New Leaders
Britt Daehnke has been named director of development and alumni relations. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English communications and a master’s degree in public administration, both from Gannon University. She has spent her career in higher education— with twenty-three years of experience in fundraising, including the last six years as associate director of development and alumni relations at Behrend.
Kristen Comstock, a 2006 Behrend Communication graduate, is the new associate director of development and alumni relations. She previously served as the assistant director of alumni relations at Behrend, serving more than 50,000 Behrend alumni since she started in 2008.
Laura King Cruz is Behrend’s new director of alumni relations. A graduate of Clarion University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts, she had held a variety of roles in development and alumni relations at Clarion University, Penn State Greater Allegheny, and, most recently, Oakland Catholic High School in Pittsburgh. Her strong background in alumni engagement, enthusiasm for building relationships, and passion for affinity groups make her a perfect fit for Behrend.
Amic Lobby Will Be Named the Korb Family Atrium
A $565,000 gift from Penn State alumni William and Wendy Korb will create a permanent fund for research and innovative teaching in Penn State Behrend’s School of Engineering. The funding will be used to develop new teaching approaches and to support research initiatives and professional development opportunities for faculty and students.
The gift also will fund improvements to the school’s research and teaching labs.
“The breadth of this gift, which expands the Korb family’s generous and consistent support of the School of Engineering, will benefit students in two major ways,” Chancellor Ralph Ford said. “It will provide immediate improvements to our facilities and equipment, enhancing the undergraduate research experiences that help our graduates stand out. It also will allow us to recruit and retain the highly engaged faculty members who shape those student experiences.”
To recognize the continued support of the Korbs, Penn State Behrend has named the lobby of the Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Center the Korb Family Atrium. The two-story space is a gateway to Behrend’s Knowledge Park, an innovation hub that is home to twenty companies and nearly 500 employees.
“We have always felt that an investment in education is one of the best investments you can make,” said William Korb, an Erie native who retired as president and CEO of Marconi Commerce Systems. The company’s portfolio included Gilbarco, the world’s leading supplier of fuel dispensers, credit card readers, and point-of-sale devices for gasoline stations.
$2 Million Gift Will Expand Disability Support Services
$2 million estate gift from Risa Glick, a 1986 graduate of Penn State Behrend, is expanding and enhancing support services for students, faculty, and staff. The funding provides direct assistance for temporary or ongoing needs through the college’s Office of Disability Services.
The gift was inspired in part by Glick’s cousin, Jonathan, who has autism. He attended youth sports camps at Behrend.
“He particularly loved basketball camp,” said Glick, who lives in the Washington, D.C., area and works as a senior proposal manager at Arcfield, a U.S. defense, space, and intelligence contractor. “Even though he would never attend Behrend as a student, the community still went above and beyond to provide the best possible experience for him. That meant a lot to our family.”
Glick enrolled at Behrend in 1982. She wrote for the student newspaper, serving as co-editor in her senior year, and planned to finish her degree at Penn State’s University Park campus. Over time, however, she chose to remain at Behrend, where she earned a degree in Communication.
“I did not want to transfer,” she said. “I loved Behrend, and I benefited from the smaller student-to-faculty ratio.”
In the Communication program, she began a lasting friendship with Cathy Mester, a longtime faculty member in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Glick made an immediate gift to activate her endowment, which will be fully funded through her estate, in honor of Mester and her late husband, Richard Mester, a retired professor of logic and philosophy.
As she planned the endowment, working with members of the Development team and the Office of Disability Services at Behrend, Glick designed the gift to have broad impact, and to grow as others contribute to it.
“I wanted to create a resource that includes students, but also faculty and staff, who are key contributors to Behrend being such a wonderful school to attend,” she said. “My goal is to help provide support services for any special need on campus.”
The endowment will fund the purchase of various support tools, including Livescribe pens, which assist students, faculty, and staff with notetaking, and an electric wheelchair that can be loaned to students and campus visitors, including those attending admissions Open House events. It will expand Braille signage on the Behrend campus and provide special video monitors that will make the college’s testing center more accessible to students with limited vision.
Funding also will be used to provide inclusivity training for faculty, staff, and student tutors who work with students with neurodiverse backgrounds.
To support the Risa Glick Endowment for Disability Services, visit raise.psu.edu/GlickEndowment.
Award-Winning Alumna
Retired U.S. Army Col. Priscilla Hamilton, a Penn State Alumni Fellow and a member of Penn State Behrend’s Council of Fellows, received the Charles Lupton Volunteer Award—one of the University’s highest honors for a volunteer. Hamilton attended Behrend for two years before graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Science at University Park in 1978. She holds a doctoral degree in dental medicine, a master’s in health care administration, and a master’s in strategic studies. While at Behrend, she helped to establish the college’s ROTC program. Hamilton is a veteran of Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. She went on to lead the U.S. Army’s dental care system, DENCOM, which is responsible for all Army oral health care and dental clinics around the world. Now retired, she considers herself a professional volunteer. She and her husband, Gary Rafferty, are very active in the Behrend and Erie communities.