Ten individuals recognized at 2023 Liberal Arts alumni awards ceremony

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, which took place Friday, March 31, 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 Amy Allen, associate dean for faculty affairs and advancement and the evening’s emcee, presented awards.

This year’s honorees included:

• Josh Korn, Penn State class of 2012 (history and sociology), received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. He is head of global innovation and technology public policy at Netflix, where he leads a team of policy experts in various technology policy fields. Korn is an expert on the intersection of technology and entertainment including issues related to artificial intelligence, protection of minors, net neutrality and media law. He works to promote policies that support a competitive, open and dynamic internet entertainment ecosystem with vibrant choice for consumers. Before joining Netflix, he investigated anticompetitive conduct and mergers as a part of the telecommunications and media enforcement section of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division. Korn is a member of the board of visitors for the Penn State School of Public Policy and a member of the board of the Family Online Safety Institute. In 2022, he and his spouse, Sarah Korn, made a philanthropic gift to establish the Josh and Sarah Korn School of Public Policy Student Access Fund.
• Evita Salles, Penn State class of 2003 (Spanish and business), received the Service to Society Award. After graduating from Penn State, she earned master’s degrees from Rutgers Business School, the U.S. Naval War College and the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy. She holds a doctorate in interdisciplinary leadership from Creighton University. Salles is a U.S. Navy commander with 20 years of diverse experience in both the military and private sector. Since 2013, she has been a human resources officer for the U.S. Navy, where she focuses on personnel management, policy, talent management, and diversity, equity and inclusion. She was awarded several Navy and Marine Corps commendation and achievement medals, including the Salute to Active-Duty Servicewomen Award from the American Legion Auxiliary. She was also recognized as the 2016 Navy Human Resources Junior Officer of the Year. Before joining the Navy, Salles worked in consumer lending, real estate and marketing. She is a speaker, coach and advisory board member for TEDx, a business advisory board member of the American College of Education, and a member of several other organizations.

• Kelly Gibson Caplan, Penn State class of 1991 (industrial and organizational psychology), received the Christopher B. Gamble Service to Penn State Award. After graduating from Penn State, she worked in the publishing and custom clothing industries before earning a master’s degree in marketing from Johns Hopkins University. Following a 23-year tenure with Washington Gas — where she contributed her talents in sales, marketing, e-business, technology, fundraising, community outreach, public relations and advocacy — Gibson Caplan joined WSSC Water, one of the nation’s largest water and wastewater utilities, as its customer engagement and advocacy division manager. In this role, she manages the Water Fund, which helps vulnerable customers pay their water bills. Gibson Caplan serves on the board of directors for the Penn State Alumni Association’s Alumni Council, National Energy and Utility Affordability Coalition, Leadership Montgomery, and TruEnergy Federal Credit Union. She is a former member of the Liberal Arts Alumni Society Board and a mentor in the Liberal Arts Alumni Mentor Program. In 2013, she created an award for undergraduate students.

• Janiyah Davis, Penn State class of 2023, received the Christopher B. Gamble Undergraduate Service to Penn State Award. A fourth-year student from Dallas, Texas, Davis will graduate with a master’s degree in public policy as well as bachelor’s degrees in criminology and psychology with minors in African American studies, sociology, and child maltreatment and advocacy studies. She will also have a certificate in behavioral health and counseling psychology. A Paterno Fellow and Schreyer Scholar, Davis and another student developed and taught a course through the Students Teaching Students program. The course, “Anti-Black Racism in America,” was designed to generate an environment promoting honest and raw discussions about racism to help people learn from the perspectives of others. A member of Penn State’s Black Caucus, Davis serves as a student trustee on the Penn State Board of Trustees, an undergraduate research fellow in the Rock Ethics Institute, a Liberal Arts Ambassador, and the external associate director for Students United Against Poverty. In 2021, the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network awarded Davis its first Reducing Disparities in Child Welfare Scholarship.
• Lee Ann Banaszak, head of the Department of Political Science and professor of political science and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, 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. Banaszak’s primary research interests are in comparative political behavior, voting rights, and women and politics with a focus on postindustrial democracies. A former Fulbright Scholar and Alexander von Humboldt German Chancellor Fellow, Banaszak has written or edited six books, including “The Women’s Movement Inside and Outside the State” (Cambridge University Press) and “Why Movements Succeed or Fail” (Princeton University Press). Her research has received support from the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Swiss Government. She has served on the Pennsylvania Redistricting Reform Commission and the Pennsylvania Redistricting Advisory Council.
• Vincent McDonald, Penn State class of 1985 (psychology), received the Outstanding Alumni in Business Award. McDonald spent six years as a captain in the U.S. Air Force and is now the chief international strategy officer at AccuWeather, where he drives the company’s global expansion. He has more than 20 years of experience and has been instrumental in AccuWeather’s success since joining in 2009. McDonald is also vice chairman of Huafeng-AccuWeather, a Beijing-based joint venture established in 2016 that has partnerships with several prominent digital companies. Before joining AccuWeather, he spent nine years as vice president of human resources at Discovery Communications. He is a member of the Liberal Arts Alumni Society Board.
• Donna Oliver, Penn State class of 1967 (psychology), and Bill Oliver, Penn State class of 1967 (business), 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. Donna Oliver earned her juris doctorate from Temple Law School, and after retiring from a law career, served on the boards of the Chester County Historical Society, the Fund for Women and Girls, the Waynesborough Country Club, and the Willistown Conservation Trust. She is a devoted volunteer and benefactor of the College of the Liberal Arts, where she is committed to the McCourtney Institute for Democracy and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center. She is a current member of the college’s development council. Bill Oliver is the retired president and CEO of Oliver Sprinkler Company in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where he worked for 38 years. He is an active member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and past president of Waynesborough Country Club. The couple have supported their alma mater by creating scholarships in the Smeal College of Business and the College of the Liberal Arts and through an estate commitment supporting the Paterno Fellows Program. In 2019, they leveraged a matching gift from Tracy and Ted McCourtney to create the Oliver-McCourtney Professorship in the Department of History, and they recently made a generous gift to the Richards Civil War Era Center.
• Matt Farrell received the college’s Honorary Alumni Award. A graduate of Manhattan College with a degree in accounting, Farrell was born and raised in New York City by parents who emigrated from Ireland after World War II. After graduating from college, he joined KPMG Peat Marwick, one of the “Big Four” accounting firms in the world, becoming an audit partner in 1989. He then held finance positions at AlliedSignal, Ingersoll Rand, and Alpharma (pharmaceuticals) before joining Church & Dwight — a global consumer products company with well-known brands such as Arm & Hammer and OxiClean — where he is now chairman and CEO. Farrell is married to Jackie Brova, Penn State class of 1975, a tireless supporter of the College of the Liberal Arts and the college’s 2019 Outstanding Alumni in Business Award recipient. In 2020, the couple established the Brova Family Professorship in the School of Labor and Employment Relations.
• Debbie Montick, Penn State class of 1980 (political science), received the college’s Outstanding Alumni Award. After graduating from Penn State, Montick earned a law degree from the American University Washington College of Law. She was a managing director at Patomak Global Partners LLC, where she now serves as senior consultant advising asset management institutions on strategic regulatory, governance and compliance matters. Montick began her career as an enforcement attorney at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and continued her career in the legal departments of Nomura Holdings America, Mitchell Hutchins Asset Management, Kemper Financial Services, and Guardian Life Insurance. A first-generation college student, Montick received a scholarship at Penn State from the Department of Political Science, which allowed her to complete her studies. She joined the Liberal Arts Alumni Society Board in 2013 and served as its president in 2018 and 2019.