Appointments
Penn State Intercom......February 15, 2001
Two named county extension
directors in Lancaster, York
Cooperative Extension has named two longtime extension educators as county extension directors in Lancaster and York counties.
Leon Ressler, an extension agent specializing in agricultural and environmental issues, has become county extension director in Lancaster County.
Ressler is replacing John Schwartz, who will assume the same position in York County, effective March 1.
Ressler joined Cooperative Extension in 1987 as a project associate in Lancaster County, where he conducted nutrient management educational programs for farmers. His programs have expanded to include a wide range of environmental and water quality issues, including composting of manure and proper disposal of other farm wastes, such as plastics. He received his bachelor's degree in agronomy and plant science from the University and his master's in environmental pollution control from Penn State Harrisburg.
Schwartz began his extension career in 1970 as a 4-H agent in Chester County. From 1975 to 1982, he served as agriculture agent in Adams County, with program responsibility for poultry, farm management, agronomy, marketing and animal science. He was an eight-county regional farm management agent from 1982 to 1983.
After serving as a graduate research assistant and extension poultry specialist at Colorado State University, Schwartz worked in agribusiness for a year in Colorado before spending two years on the faculty at Clemson University. He returned to Cooperative Extension in 1988 to conduct educational programs in commercial poultry production in Lancaster, Lebanon, York and Adams counties. He became Lancaster County extension director in 1991.
Schwartz earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in agricultural education from the University and his doctorate in animal science from Colorado State University.
Worthington Scranton
welcomes academic adviser 
Jennifer A. Drake-Deese has been appointed academic adviser for the Division of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) and Learning Center at Penn State Worthington Scranton.
Drake-Deese will assist DUS students in choosing majors, selecting courses and understanding academic policies and procedures. She will coordinate services for provisional and non-degree students, secure external funding and develop new programs for student retention, and teach first-year seminars. She also will be involved in campus recruitment efforts.
She holds a master of education degree in counseling and human development from St. Lawrence University and a bachelor of arts degree in communication studies from the State University of New York at Oswego. Before her appointment, Drake-Deese served as director of counseling services and personal and substance abuse counselor at Dean College in Franklin, Mass. She also has held positions including assistant director of housing operations at Emerson College, and residence director at St. Lawrence University.
Smeal College names
associate dean for executive education
The Smeal College of Business Administration has named Christopher von Schirach-Szmigiel as associate dean for executive education.
Schirach-Szmigiel's responsibilities include creating and delivering new customized executive education programs and promoting the portfolio for educational programs to customers. He will identify corporate opportunities that lead to research partnerships and work with the college's Research Center directors, faculty and staff to generate and respond to business opportunities in the areas of executive and management development and education. He will assume his new responsibilities on March 1.
Schirach-Szmigiel is currently director of Ericsson Corp.'s Management Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Before that, Schirach-Szmigiel was director of Unilever's Management Programs from 1992-1996. He also has served as visiting professor at the Stern Graduate Business School in New York and the Internal Executive MBA Program at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, served as a government adviser and authored numerous books.