Alumni Notes

1983 Print Journalism

won four awards awards for his play, "A Season to Remember," at the conclusion of the first annual Unchained Theatre Festival held in Long Island City, N.Y., in June. The sponsor of the festival, the Variations Theatre Group and the festival judges honored Grygo’s play with awards for Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Play. The play also won the Audience Appreciation Award. The festival competition featured 18 plays and ran from June 5 to June 22 at the Chain Theatre. In addition to being a playwright, Grygo (eugene.grygo@gmail.com / www.eugenegrygo.com) is an award-winning, freelance journalist living in New York City.

Note Posted: July 12, 2013

1983 Advertising/Public Relations

was named vice president, wealth management, for First National Bank of Pennsylvania. He lives in State College, Pa., with his wife Tina and son A.J.

Note Posted: December 6, 2012

1983 Broadcast Journalism

retired as the director of marketing for Commonwealth Media Services after 31 years of service in state government. She is a former Emmy Award-winning broadcast and radio news producer/reporter. She served 10 years on the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications Alumni Board.

Note Posted: January 10, 2023

1983 Advertising/Public Relations

is the founder and president of HEASLEY&PARTNERS Inc.

She is the creator of Heart & Mind® Branding, a business builder, speaker and author. She was the driving force behind the growth of Cold Stone Creamery and many other heart-based brands people love.

With her, business leaders achieve exceptional results by building winning brands and strong cultures. An accomplished senior executive, entrepreneur, advisor, and thought leader with decades of success in business development, communications, marketing, brand building, public relations, publishing, video, content development,

She has worked with diverse companies and people. Franchising, consumer products, financial services, hospitality, tech, manufacturing, real estate, healthcare, government, political, beauty, fitness, wellness are among the industries in her experience arsenal.

Clients find her diversity an asset because she readily sees the patterns in a business and can apply the best practices laterally. The result is exceptional creativity. Her methods are featured in Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur's Soul and Midas Touch, by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. Kathy graduated from Penn State University with a BA in Advertising.

In 2019, she was named a Penn State Alumni Fellow, the most prestigious award given by the 700,000-member Penn State Alumni Association. She serves as president of the Penn State AD/PR Alumni Board for the university’s top-ranked Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, and is a regular guest lecturer in the classroom.

She is a member of the college’s Alumni Society Board and the Carnegie Society. She served as an advisory board member at Grand Canyon University's Executive MBA Program under the direction of Ken Blanchard and as a business plan panel judge at Thunderbird’s Walker Center for Global Entrepreneurship. Kathy is also a repeat speaker at ASU’s Center for Services Leadership Symposium.

She was named a Woman of Achievement in 2017 by In Business Magazine, in 2012 was one of the Top 25 Women in Business by the Phoenix Business Journal and an Athena Award nominee. Before founding her firm in 1994, Kathy worked with Coca-Cola, Ryland Homes, Exxon, Dr Pepper, and B2B firms in finance, insurance, and technology.

Through that she realized the power of heart and has made her mark trumpeting that emotion moves people to action by speaking on "heart" around the world. Her record of results demonstrates the effectiveness of connecting emotional triggers with business practices (Heart with Mind). Best of all, she gives business leaders a process to make it happen in their companies.

Note Posted: October 10, 2022

1983

is a vice president at WE tv, part of AMC Networks, which owns and operates AMC, IFC and WE tv and serves more than 84 million homes. After earning her bachelor's degree at Penn State, Farrell earned an MFA at Ohio University.

Note Posted: October 14, 2020

1983 Journalism

is editor/content manager of The Mercury, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning daily newspaper in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Phyrillas previously served as a reporter, copy editor, city editor and managing editor of The Mercury.

Note Posted: August 1, 2017

1982 Journalism

is senior White House correspondent for The Washington Times.

Note Posted: July 19, 2017

1982 Journalism

directs all communications for the dealth industries practice at PcW.

She is also returning to Rowan University as an adjunct professor where she created the university’s first health care public relations course.

Note Posted: August 26, 2023

1982 Journalism

, who earnd her master's in journalism in 1982, was named 2014 National Professional Adviser of the Year for her work with the Rowan University Public Relations Student Society of America. In 2014, Rosanio also created the Gloria Barone PR for Good scholarship at Rowan for a deserving student committed to social responsibility and community service. Rosanio, a public relations director at Cigna Corp., also won two "Mercury" awards in 2014 from the Connecticut Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America for her campaign to better understand the costs needs of women and how to make their health care more affordable.

Note Posted: November 1, 2014

1981 Journalism

was named editor in chief of Consumer Reports in June 2015. In November 2016, she was inducted into Media Industry Newsletter's Editors Hall of Fame.

Note Posted: December 11, 2016

1981 Advertising/Public Relations

was appointed chair of the advisory board for the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia. Brownstein, named an Alumni Fellow of the University in 2009, is president and CEO of the Brownstein Group.

Note Posted: January 13, 2016

1981 Broadcast Journalism

, vice president of administrative and audio visual services for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) was selected by her peers as one of the top innovators in the associaton and non-profit community in Washington, D.C., through BizNow. Carlin was the driving force behind innovative technology solutions advancing the mission of NCTA.

Note Posted: March 3, 2015

1981 Journalism

was named editor-in-chief of StateCollege.com in February.

Note Posted: September 25, 2012

1981 Journalism

was honored twice last fall during the Folio: Show, an annual event in New York City that focuses on excellence in magazine publishing.

She won a 2019 Folio: Eddie Award for her editor’s note in the March/April 2019 issue of Unity Magazine, and she was also named to the 2019 Folio: 100 list, which "shines a spotlight on those who have truly made a significant impact on their company or the industry.” Koontz has been the editor of Unity Magazine for the past six years.

Note Posted: June 18, 2020

1981 Journalism

joined Lee Enterprises as director of consumer product development. Lee is the fourth-largest newspaper chain in the United States, based in Davenport, Iowa.

The organization's newspapers — 77 papers in 26 states — have rapidly been moving to fully digital approaches, and Salvatore's rile will allow the company to identify new content offerings to generate audience traction and revenue.

Note Posted: March 9, 2021

1981 Journalism

was been named the winner of one of the top awards in the 30th annual Football Writers Association of America Best Writing Contest. He is sportswriter for the Reading Eagle.

Scarcella received first place in the feature category for his profile of former Penn State player Adam Taliaferro, who recovered from a spinal cord injury to lead the Nittany Lions onto the field a year later in their 2001 season opener. “An emotional then-and-now look at a success story against the odds,” the judge commented.

It’s the fifth time Scarcella has been recognized in the FWAA contest but the first time he’s been named a first-place winner.

Scarcella also has been recognized many times in writing contests conducted by the Associated Press Sports Editors, the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors and the Keystone Media Awards.

He started covering Penn State football for the Reading Eagle in 1989 and is in his 34th season on the beat. His coverage appears in seven other MediaNews Group publications in the Philadelphia region.

David Ubben of The Athletic placed second in the feature category and David Hale of ESPN.com was third.

Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com took first place in the game story category, Dave Wilson of ESPN.com for column writing and Tom Shanahan of TomShanahanReport.com for enterprise.

Founded in 1941, the FWAA consists of the men and women across North America who cover college football.

Note Posted: September 30, 2022

1981 Print Journalism

was inducted into the Berks County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame as part of the 2023 class.

In addition, he won a first-place award for sports event/breaking news coverage in the 2023 Keystone Media Awards writing contest for his work in the Reading Eagle. He also won first place for feature writing in the 2022 Football Writers' Association of America writing contest for his piece on former Penn State player Adam Taliaferro.

Note Posted: June 3, 2023

1981 Journalism

was honored twice this fall during the Folio: Show, an annual event in New York City that focuses on excellence in magazine publishing. She won a 2019 Folio: Eddie Award for her editor’s note in the March/April 2019 issue of Unity Magazine, and she was also named to the 2019 Folio: 100 list, which "shines a spotlight on those who have truly made a significant impact on their company or the industry.” Koontz has been the editor of Unity Magazine for the past six years.

Note Posted: November 17, 2019

1981 Journalism

is working as a ranger/starter at Caledonia Golf & Fish Club in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, after retiring from WebMD, where he had worked with the Jobson Health division since 2016.

He previously held reporting positions with The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.),The Montgomery Journal (Rockville, Md.) and Women’s Wear Daily in its Paris office.

Note Posted: October 15, 2024