Faculty Achievement

Kelly Munly, associate professor of human development and family studies at Penn State Altoona, and Robin Yaure, professor of human development and family studies at Penn State Mont Alto, co-chaired and facilitated a two-day "Theory Construction and Research Methods" preconference workshop at the November 2024 National Conference on Family Relations in Bellevue, Washington.

The new Opportunity Grant Professional Development Program awarded its first grants to 51 teaching and clinical non-tenure-line faculty.  

Ellysa Stern Cahoy, education librarian and director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, and Tom Reinsfelder, head librarian at Mont Alto Campus Library, have received the title of Distinguished Librarian in the University Libraries for their outstanding academic, research and service contributions.

Recently tenured and promoted Penn State faculty across the University were honored Oct. 2 through Penn State’s Promotion and Tenure Recognition Program, now in its 21st year, during a private event held in the Paterno Family Humanities Reading Room on the second floor of Pattee Library at the University Park campus.

At the end of the spring 2023 semester, six Penn State Commonwealth Campuses named faculty members as Open Champions, recognizing their work with open education in the second year of Penn State’s Open and Affordable Educational Resources (OAER) Champion Awards. A collaboration between Penn State University Libraries and the University-wide OAER Working Group, the OAER Champion Award began as a pilot initiative in 2022 and seeks to recognize excellence, innovation and impact in open educational practices at Penn State campuses.

Penn State Mont Alto Professor of Engineering Jacob Moore's focus on open educational resources is getting global attention. 

Four Penn State campuses — Abington, Berks, Lehigh Valley and Mont Alto — awarded Penn State’s inaugural Open and Affordable Educational Resources (OAER) Champion Award during the spring 2022 semester. A collaboration between Penn State University Libraries and the University-wide OAER Working Group, the OAER Champion Award is a pilot initiative recognizing excellence, innovation and impact in OAER at Penn State campuses.

Nikolette Lipsey, assistant professor of psychology, was named the 2022 Penn State Mont Alto Faculty Scholar. 

Somjit Barat, associate professor of business at Penn State Mont Alto, focuses on research that not only excites him but is also relevant and accessible for non-academics.

For Assistant Professor of Psychology Jacob Sawyer, there is no doubt that higher ed and teaching students at Penn State Mont Alto is exactly where he's supposed to be.