October 21, 2013

State Senate confirms six to PASSHE Board of Governors

Contact: Kevin Hensil, khensil@passhe.edu

Harrisburg – Guido M. Pichini, chair of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s Board of Governors, recently was confirmed by the state Senate to a new four-year term on the Board that oversees the 14 state-owned universities.
Board members Marie A. Conley of Harrisburg, Jonathan B. Mack of Indiana and Aaron A. Walton of Allison Park also were confirmed to new four-year terms.

The Senate also confirmed Christopher H. Franklin of Paoli and David M. Maser of Philadelphia to new seats on the Board. Mr. Franklin replaces former Board member Harold C. Shields and will serve through December 2014. Mr. Maser’s term is for four years. He replaces former Board Chair Kenneth M. Jarin who left the Board last December.
The 20-member Board of Governors has overall responsibility for planning and coordinating the development and operation of PASSHE, which is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth, enrolling about 112,000 students. The Board establishes broad fiscal, personnel and educational policies under which the 14 PASSHE universities operate.
Mr. Pichini is president of WSK & Associates and its related companies of Wyomissing. He is a member of the Council of Trustees at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and former chair of the Pennsylvania Association of Councils of Trustees (PACT). He served on the Governor's Advisory Commission on Postsecondary Education and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board.
Mr. Pichini graduated from Kutztown University with a degree in education/political science, and completed graduate studies in public administration at Kutztown. He also graduated from Wilson College with certification in the minor judiciary, attaining the highest grade in the history of Pennsylvania. He was elected to his third consecutive term as Board Chair in July.
Ms. Conley is a consultant focusing on engagement strategies and fund development to a variety of clients through her company Conley Consulting, LLC. She works primarily with the Paterno family to assist with a variety of initiatives around the issue of child sexual victimization. She previously was director of the Children’s Miracle Network at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. She has been a fundraising and political consultant, having served on numerous statewide campaigns and also served as the director for the Pennsylvania delegation for three Republican National Conventions. She is a 1994 graduate of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, with Bachelor of Arts degrees in speech communications and political science, and served for a number of years on the university’s Council of Trustees. She has been a member of the Board of Governors since 2002 and chairs the Board’s Human Resources Committee.
Mr. Mack is an attorney and partner with Marcus & Mack, P.C., of Indiana. A member of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers and Western Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers, he received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Toledo School of Law and bachelor’s degree from Dickinson College, where he graduated cum laude. He is vice chair of Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Council of Trustees and also chairs the Council’s Academic and Student Affairs Committee and is a member of IUP’s Middle States accreditation team. He is president of the J.S. Mack Foundation; vice chair of the Seeds of Faith Christian Academy and chair of its capital campaign; co-chair of the Indiana County Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign; a board member for the Indiana Experiment; and an elder at Summit Church in Indiana. Mr. Mack is chair of the Board of Governors' External Relations Committee.
Mr. Walton is a retired senior vice president of Highmark, Inc. of Pittsburgh, where he had accountability for Highmark’s public relations and social mission strategies. Additionally, he had oversight of the corporation’s Community Involvement, Strategic Health Initiatives and its joint venture affiliate, Gateway Health Plan. Mr. Walton recently joined the leadership team of Silver Eco-Solutions of Indianola as a senior vice president. Silver Eco-Solutions supplies products to the oil and gas industry. He is a member of California University of Pennsylvania’s Council of Trustees, which he chaired from 1999 to 2003. Mr. Walton holds a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology and audiology from California University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University. He is chair of the Board’s Academic and Student Affairs Committee.
Mr. Franklin is president and chief operating officer of Aqua America Inc., based in Brwn Mawr, where he is responsible for the company’s regulated operations throughout the company’s service area, which includes approximately 3 million customers in 10 states. A 20-year veteran of the company, he has held executive roles in public affairs, customer operations and most recently as regional president of the company’s southern and mid-western operations, where he managed eight states. Mr. Franklin earned his undergraduate degree from West Chester University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from Villanova University. He serves on WCU’s Council of Trustees and is past president of the Board of Directors of the West Chester University Foundation.
Mr. Maser is of counsel with Chimicles & Tikellis, which has offices in Haverford and Wilmington, Del. He is a member of the firm’s Client Development Group and works closely with institutional clients. He has worked in both law and government for 17 years and has been involved with multiple presidential campaigns and numerous other federal, state and local campaigns. He previously worked with the Major League Baseball Players’ Association and as a government affairs specialist, representing numerous clients, including Fortune 500 companies, and counseling them in legislative issues, appropriation requests and business development opportunities at the federal, state and local levels. Mr. Maser is a graduate of Temple University School of Law and Pennsylvania State University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in marketing.
PASSHE is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth, with about 112,000 students. The 14 PASSHE universities offer degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. About 500,000 PASSHE alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.
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. PASSHE also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Freeport, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg.