Longtime faculty member Steve Manuel ready to try retirement — for the second time

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Steve Manuel, an associate teaching professor in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State, has announced his retirement. His last day as faculty member at the University will be June 30, 2026.

Manuel has been teaching public relations, crisis communications and photojournalism at Penn State since October 1996 — one month after he retired to end a 28-year career of military service. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in January 1969 and served as a photojournalist and as a commissioned officer for the Marines before retiring from active duty as a major in September 1996.

During his nearly 30 years at Penn State, Manuel has taught more than 10,000 students, from first-year seminars to 400-level capstone courses. His senior-level crisis communications class was infamous for its “hot seat” exercise that challenged students to field questions in a real-life scenario pulled from Manuel’s military career.

Along with his duties in the classroom, Manuel has been an active photographer at Penn State, where he photographs many of the University’s Division I sports teams and regularly partners with Intercollegiate Athletics and the Penn State Alumni Association, which has published his work in brochures, calendars, posters and various publications (including "The Football Letter") through the years.

Manuel’s photographs have been published in more than 115 publications, among them Athlon Sports, Blue/White Illustrated, Navy Magazine, Spectrum Sports Magazine, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer and USA TODAY. He also photographs for the Associated Press. He has earned numerous photographic and writing awards.

Manuel has participated as a photographer in major United Service Organizations (USO) show tours to Afghanistan, the Balkans, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, Kuwait and Okinawa/South Korea. In June 2008, he visited Iraq with comedian/actor Dane Cook, and he joined seven PGA golfers on a trip to the country at Thanksgiving 2008. He returned in June 2009 with Stephen Colbert. Manuel traveled to Qatar, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi with actors Kate Walsh (“Grey's Anatomy”) and Kal Penn (“House”) in May 2013.

During his military career, Manuel was a public affairs officer for the Office of the Secretary of Defense and a Marine Corps spokesman. His primary duty, when not responding to media queries, was writing public affairs guidance for field commands of all the military services for response to any questions from the press on exercises, operations and specific events. He was responsible for the Western Pacific region, which included China, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, the National Security Agency and POW/MIA Affairs.

He served in many locations throughout the world, including Hawaii, Vietnam, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and New York.

Manuel earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Penn State in 1984 and 1992, respectively. When not behind a camera, he spends time scuba diving, creating stained glass windows and lamps and playing tennis. He lives with his wife, Jaylene, in State College, and they are the proud parents of four children, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren.