Since 1973, in cooperation with the University’s academic colleges and the office of the President, the Alumni Fellow award has been given to select alumni. As leaders in their professional fields, alumni are nominated by an academic college and accept an invitation from the President of the University to return to campus to share their expertise with students, faculty, and administrators.

"Alumni are the University's most valuable resource," said Roger Williams, executive director of the Penn State Alumni Association. "The Alumni Fellow program gives us the opportunity to showcase to the world the incredible contributions Penn Staters make to the betterment of the human condition."

This year’s Alumni Fellow recipients are:

• Donald Abbey ’70, chairman and CEO, The Abbey Company (awarded in 2003)
• George Allen ’72, ’73g, partner, Sahara International
• Robert Arbuckle ’66g, ’72g, president emeritus, Lake Superior State University
• John Arnold ’87g, chairman, CEO, and owner, Petroleum Products Corporation
• Jeffrey Beard ’69, ’72g, ’80g, secretary of corrections, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
• Alec Beliasov ’55, executive vice president, retired, Bar Processing Corporation
• Charles Berents, Jr., ’62, senior vice president and chief investment officer, North American Management Corporation
• William Castle ’66, founder, president, and owner, The CASTLE Group
• Terence Dwyer ’70g, chief technology office and executive vice president, retired, BEA Systems
• Robert Fenza ’80, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Liberty Property Trust
• Charles Figley ’71g, ’74g, director of Traumatology Institute and professor, School of Social Work, Florida State University
• R. William Happel ’69, vice president and general manager, Electro-Motive Division, General Motors Corporation
• Robert Jubelirer ’59, ’62g, state senator and president pro tempore, Pennsylvania Senate, 30th district
• Chip Kidd ’86, graphic designer and editor-at-large, Alfred A. Knopf
• Patrick Malloy III ’65, president and CEO, Malloy Enterprises and Malloy Real Estate Inc.
• Bruce Miller ’71, founder, Employee Benefits Corporation of America
• Nancy Mohn ’73, director of marketing strategy, Alstom’s Global Utility Boiler Business
• Grayson Noley ’75g, ’79g, chair and associate professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of Oklahoma
• Wendy Owen ’85, vice president for communications, Lockheed Martin Information and Technology Services
• Katharine Perry ’74, ’76g, ’79g, senior vice provost for academic affairs, North Carolina State University
• Alan J. Quinlan ’76, president, Greenberg, Quinlan, and Rosner Research, Inc.
• Peter Shih ’67, executive vice president of marketing and communication, American Advertising Federation
• Kathleen Smarilli ’71, president, central Pennsylvania region, Wachovia
• Joseph Speroni ’79g, ’82g, director of agricultural, food, and quality sciences, Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.
• Agnes Watanabe-Muraoka ’80g, professor, head of counseling division, Graduate School of Counseling, University of Tsukuba
• Wayne White ’71, ’73g, deputy director, Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, U.S. Department of State

Each Alumni Fellow will be awarded a commemorative medal commissioned by the Alumni Association in 1971, and designed by artist John Cook, a professor of art and fellow of the Institute for Arts and Humanistic Studies at Penn State. The current edition of the medal, dating to 1986, depicts one of the relief capitals found on the rear façade of Old Main.

The Alumni Fellow award, presented by the Penn State Alumni Association, is administered in cooperation with the academic units. The Board of Trustees has designated the title of Alumni Fellow as permanent and lifelong.