UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Several members of the Penn State liberal arts family were honored during the College of the Liberal Arts’ annual alumni awards ceremony on Friday, April 5, at the Centre Hills Country Club in State College.
The event included awards sponsored by the college’s Alumni Society Board as well as awards sponsored by the college. Joe Farrell, president of the Alumni Society Board; Clarence Lang, Susan Welch Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts; and Kirt Wilson, department head of communication arts and sciences and the evening’s emcee, presented the awards.
This year’s honorees included:
Stephanie Yoon, Penn State class of 2008 (international studies, French, advertising/ public relations), received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. She is the former vice president of strategic planning at American Express where she successfully systematized a team structure for the newly created enterprise services division consisting of technology, global servicing, digital products and platforms, and enterprise transformation strategy. Yoon directed a team of 13 professionals on global alignment and business planning activities, and managed deliverables on global partnerships and technology risk mitigation for AmEx Digital First initiatives across 30 countries with a $6.2 billion annual budget, which contributed to a 30% annual cost savings. She is the 2019 Outstanding Young French and Francophone Studies Alumni awardee. In 2020, she participated as a panelist in the virtual College of the Liberal Arts career forum.
Yoon volunteers her time and talent in the College’s mentor program and was identified to be part of the inaugural Emerging Alumni Leaders cohort in 2023. She recently returned to her political roots and is working in that space for this national election cycle.
Sara Woods, Penn State class of 1996 (women’s studies and psychology), received the Service to Society Award. After graduating from Penn State, she earned her juris doctorate from Villanova University School of Law, and her Master of Public Administration from Villanova University. She serves as the co-president and CEO of Heights Philadelphia, a nonprofit educational organization that transforms the pathways to college and career for low-income, first-generation Black and Brown students. She began her legal career as a public interest lawyer representing survivors of domestic violence.
Woods has previously held the positions of executive director of Philadelphia VIP, a nonprofit that recruits, trains and supports lawyers who volunteer to help low-income individuals; director of public interest careers and pro bono programs at Villanova University School of Law; and as an adjunct professor at the school. Woods has a history of service to a number of nonprofit organizations for legal services and women’s advocacy. She is an active alumni volunteer with Penn State, participating in College of the Liberal Arts mentoring, law careers and women in leadership programs, and as an alumni admissions interviewer for the Schreyer Honors College.
Mike Wagner, Penn State class of 1995 (administration of justice), received the Christopher B. Gamble Service to Penn State Award. After graduating from Penn State, he earned his juris doctorate from Roger Williams University School of Law in 1998. With more than 25 years of experience in the insurance and financial services industries, Wagner currently serves as an associate general counsel for Truist Insurance Holdings, a subsidiary of Truist Bank. He is involved with contract and other transactional agreement drafting and negotiations, fraud investigations, and the identification and analysis of business and legal issues.
Prior to joining Truist Insurance, Wagner served as an in-house counsel for CIGNA Corporation. He actively supports the College of the Liberal Arts and the Department of Sociology and Criminology. He has individually established and/or collectively supported a variety of endowments and scholarships in support of Penn State students, and currently volunteers as a mentor in the Liberal Arts Alumni Mentor Program. Since 2017, Wagner has served as the chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology’s Board of Visitors.
Imanol Bazan Ortiz received the Christopher B. Gamble Undergraduate Service to Penn State Award. Ortiz is a fourth-year student double majoring in international politics and global & international studies with certificates in global awareness and international studies. He is simultaneously pursuing a master's degree in international affairs with the Penn State School of International Affairs.
Within the College of the Liberal Arts, Ortiz is an academic peer adviser and a teaching assistant for a first-year seminar. Outside of the classroom, he is the president of ServeState, a student-run community service club. He is also the integrated undergraduate-graduate representative chair for the Penn State School of International Affairs Student Government Association, as well as a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success, Pi Sigma Alpha - the National Political Science Honors Society, and the Penn State Alumni Association.
Ortiz completed an internship in South Africa last summer focused on social justice, equity and inclusion. He has specifically worked to promote social justice and advocate for awareness of toxic masculinity and equal rights.
Marc Kepler, IT consultant for the college, received the Welch Alumni Relations Award, which goes to a faculty or staff member who has contributed significantly to strengthening the connection between the college and its alumni. Kepler supports the college’s classes and events, designs and installs new audio/visual technology, and manages all Liberal Arts virtual conferences and classrooms. His professional goal is to transform IT at Penn State with holistic solutions that empower teaching and learning in today’s hybrid learning environment.
In his personal life, Kepler is focused on developing productive locally adapted vegetable varieties to improve local food security. He works with the Student Farm at Penn State, teaching seed saving at student organization meetings and public events. He donates his seed varieties to the Student Farm for its annual plant sale. Kepler hopes to work with the University in the future to develop a seed library for farmers and gardeners to use as a resource to bolster productivity and secure sufficient local food supply.
Doug Barbin, Penn State class of 1997 (administrative justice and accounting), received the Outstanding Alumni in Business Award. At Penn State, Barbin served as president of the Justice Association and Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity, while also playing trumpet in the Blue Band, demonstrating his leadership and versatility early on.
After graduating with his bachelor’s degrees, Barbin earned his Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University and pursued postgraduate studies in artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his career at Price Waterhouse in 1997 and transitioned to a cybersecurity startup in 2000, marking the start of more than 27 years in the field. His roles have spanned from consulting leadership to executive positions, including chief technology officer and chief operations officer. Barbin now serves as president and national managing principal at Schellman – a top 50 certified public accountant firm focused on cybersecurity. A second-generation Nittany Lion, Barbin credits his campus experience as a pivotal foundation for his success in his profession of choice.
Jim Newell, Penn State class of 1984 (political science), received the Chaiken Leadership Award, which recognizes people who have made a powerful impact on the College of the Liberal Arts through their leadership, philanthropy and commitment to its mission. At Penn State, Newell was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. After graduation, he earned his law degree at Georgetown University Law Center in 1987.
Newell is a shareholder and CEO-elect of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney law firm and will transition to chairman and CEO of the firm in May. In his 36 years with the firm, he has been a constant driving force and strategic sounding board behind the leadership and growth of Buchanan. Newell currently serves as the chair of the financial institutions and bankruptcy and real estate section. He has also served on Buchanan’s advisory committee, the associates and recruiting committees, and as chair of the compensation committee. In his legal work for clients, Newell’s practice has focused on the representation of secured creditors and financial institutions.
Active in the Pittsburgh region, he serves as a charter member and on the board of directors for the Pittsburgh Innocence Project, as well as the board of directors for the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, non-profit legal programs with missions to exonerate those wrongfully convicted of crimes, prevent innocent people from being prosecuted and convicted, and help those who are wrongfully convicted transition to freedom. He also serves as a member of the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania board of directors. Newell is the immediate past chair of the Penn State Political Science Department Board of Visitors.
Ron Gatehouse, Penn State class of 1994 (chemical engineering), received the Honorary Liberal Arts Alumni Award. He received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from Penn State in 1994 and 1998, respectively. Gatehouse’s introduction to philosophy by Penn State’s world-renowned Plato expert, the late Stanley Rosen, sparked a lifelong love and study of the subject, which has helped him immensely in his career and profoundly enriched his life and relationships.
Gatehouse has been a real estate developer for more than 25 years and is president and CEO of the Manhattan-based real estate investment company Park7 Group, which he founded in 2010. Prior to forming Park7, he was president and co-founder of the State College-based Copper Beech real estate investment group. Gatehouse became the first University Scholars Program alumnus to endow a Schreyer Honors College scholarship when he established the J. Ronald and Patricia L. Gatehouse Scholarship in 2006 to honor his parents. He resides in Manhattan where he loves reading philosophy and watching movies with his partner Salila Kurra and sons Keshab and Tejas.
Melissa Rowe, Penn State class of 1989 (psychology), received the college’s Outstanding Alumni Award. After graduating from Penn State, Rowe earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed her clinical internship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh. She is vice president of global research talent at RAND, a nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute and public sector consulting firm. With more than 20 years of senior executive experience, she leads RAND’s research labor base of 1,600 scientists and analysts organized across five research departments.
Rowe is an expert in matrix workforce management and novel organizational approaches to multidisciplinary teaming to tackle complex global problems. She founded the Methods Centers at RAND and led the company’s future workspace initiative. She has served on multiple nonprofit advisory boards including Development Partner Institute, XPRIZE Foundation Health and Pandemic Braintrust, Oxford Global Ethics and Human Rights, Conscious Good, and New Roads School Board of Trustees. Rowe also serves as a faculty member at Pardee RAND Graduate School.
Additional information about these college-level awards, and names of recipients of alumni awards bestowed by several of the college's departments, centers and institutes, can be found in the Alumni Honorees section of the college's website.