MIDDLETOWN, Pa. -- Penn State Harrisburg has named alumnus Kevin Harter as the college’s first professor of practice. As such, Harter, the former chairman, president and CEO of Saladax Biomedical Inc., will lead Penn State Harrisburg’s new entrepreneurial center. He will serve jointly in the School of Business Administration and the School of Science, Engineering, and Technology.
As part of Penn State President Eric Barron's Invent Penn State initiative, Penn State Harrisburg in May was awarded $50,000 in seed funding to help the college develop the center, whose mission will be to leverage the breadth and depth of the college's expertise and intellectual capital to stimulate new business and economic development in the region. The center will provide entrepreneurial resources for faculty, students and the community.
Harter, of Camp Hill, has more than 30 years of experience in new business development, including in all aspects of developing, managing and financing life science and technology businesses. He also has volunteered extensively in these areas, as well as in entrepreneurship, economic development and education.
Harter has served at Saladax, a leader in personalized medicine and diagnostics, since 2007. He was also co-founder and senior vice president of the Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania (LSGPA). LSGPA invests in the growth of life science companies, focusing on technologies developed at universities, including Penn State. Harter also co-founded Keystone Medical Systems, previously the largest independent supplier of information technology and electronic medical record solutions to physicians.
Harter holds a bachelor’s degree in information systems and a master’s of business administration from Penn State Harrisburg. In 2010, he was named a Penn State University Alumni Fellow. He is emeritus member and past chair of the Penn State Harrisburg Board of Advisers and is an active member on several Penn State Harrisburg program advisory boards. In 2014, he received the Ben Franklin of NorthEast PA Entrepreneurial Achievement Award.
The professor of practice title is given to individuals who have accumulated a decade or more of high level leadership experience in the private or public sectors and can provide a unique background and wealth of knowledge to the academic community.