June 18, 2001
STATE SENATE CONFIRMS NEW BOARD OF GOVERNORS MEMBER
Contact: Kevin Hensil, khensil@passhe.edu
TheState Senate has confirmed the appointment of Patricia K. Poprik, Doylestown, Pa., to the State System of Higher Education’s Board of Governors.
The 20-member board has overall responsibility for planning and coordinating the development and operation of the State System. The governors establish broad fiscal, personnel and educational policies under which the System universities operate.
The Board comprises 11 members who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, four legislators, three students, the governor or his designee and the secretary of education or his designee.
Ms. Poprik is president and CEO of First American Municipals, a woman-owned investment banking firm, which she founded in 1988. In addition, she also serves as president of First American Asset Management, a company that specializes in pension funds investments and stock executions.
Poprik serves on the Board of Governors of Warminster Hospital, the board of the Buck’s County Community College Foundation, currently is president of the Patrons Foundation, a private philanthropic organization, and is secretary of Pennsylvanians for Effective Government (PEG), a statewide pro-business organization.
She also has served as an elected school board director for Council Rock School District and as a board member for the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority.
For more than 25 years, Poprik has been active in local, state, and federal politics, serving as a local committeewoman, elected state committeewoman, and the elected treasurer of the Republican State Committee. In 1994, she was the first woman appointed to serve as finance chair of the Republican State Committee, a position she held until 1997.
In 2001, Poprik received the Bucks County Council of the Boy Scouts of America Woman of the Year Award. She was honored as one of the original Pennsylvania Best 50 Women in Business and received the County Commissioner’s Association of Pennsylvania President’s Award.
Other members of the Board of Governors are Charles A. Gomulka of Pittsburgh, chair; R. Benjamin Wiley of Erie, vice chair; Kim E. Lyttle of Pittsburgh, vice chair; Syed R. Ali-Zaidi, Shippenville; Angela M. Ambrose, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania; Rep. Jeffrey W. Coy, Shippensburg; Daniel P. Elby, York; David P. Holveck, Malvern; Sen. Vincent Hughes, Philadelphia; James V. Manser IV, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania; Gov. Thomas J. Ridge, Harrisburg; Sen. James J. Rhoades, Harrisburg; David M. Sanko, Harrisburg; B. Michael Schaul, Mechanicsburg; Rep. Jere W. Schuler, Lampeter; John K. Thornburgh, Pittsburgh; Christine J. Toretti, Indiana; and Amy M. Yozviak, West Chester University of Pennsylvania; and Secretary of Education Charles B. Zogby, Harrisburg.
The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg and the University Center for Southwest Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh. The regional centers are part of the Educational Resources Group, which is responsible for coordinating statewide programming.