Two Pennsylvania state representatives received the third annual “Friend of Penn State” legislative award from the Penn State Alumni Association for the significant role they have played in the continued improvement of Penn State.
Michael K. Hanna (D-76th District) and Thomas H. Killion (R-168th District) received their awards June 20 at Penn State’s University Park campus. They were named by the Legislative Education and Advocacy Committee of Alumni Council, the governing body of the Penn State Alumni Association.
Hanna, in the state legislature since 1991, is chair of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. His district covers Clinton County and part of Centre County. Most recently, Hanna has energetically supported Penn State’s plan to purchase about 1,200 acres of underused land from the State Correctional Institution at Rockview. Penn State hopes to use the land for agricultural and forest research. Some of the land would also be open to the public for hiking, hunting, and fishing.
“Mike Hanna is known by his colleagues and everyone who works with him in Harrisburg as an ‘honest broker’ who deals fairly and honestly with people on all sides of an issue,” said Les Firth, chair of Alumni Council’s Legislative Education and Advocacy Committee. “This has served him and his constituents very well.”
A 1977 graduate of Lock Haven University, Hanna also earned a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1980.
Killion, whose district includes parts of Chester and Delaware counties, has consistently backed Penn State’s appropriation requests and was a staunch supporter of the University’s position on the state’s recently adopted open records law. He has also lent support to Penn State Brandywine (formerly Penn State Delaware County), serving on its campus advisory board since 1999 and supporting initiatives such as the campus scholarship program.
“Representative Killion has been a great friend to the University at large and the Brandywine campus as well,” Firth said.
Killion is deputy whip and vice chair of the House Insurance Committee. A 1979 graduate of Penn State, he has served in the legislature since 2003.
