2023 Recipient
Dr. Shannon Corkery
Director of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) World Campus Programs and associate teaching professor of HDFS
Shannon Corkery, director of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) World Campus Programs and associate teaching professor of HDFS, has been honored with the 2023 Shirley Hendrick Award, presented by the Penn State Commission for Adult Learners for service to adult learners.
Nominators said Corkery is committed to advocating and creating avenues for adult learners to flourish as Penn State students and as emerging professionals; sharing that she’s creative and quick in identifying and pursue innovative adaptations to support these diverse learners.
For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many HDFS students feared a lack of required internship opportunities would push out their graduation dates, Corkery was quick to help find solutions through the creation of a project-based course alternative to fulfill the requirement. Knowing adult learners often enroll with substantial work experience, Corkery has also led efforts to guide students to earn academic credit for these relevant experiences. Nominators said this saves students both time and money as they look to jump-start their careers.
Corkery is mindful that students, and adult learners in particular, often have many life commitments they are balancing along with their education. With this in mind, Corkery and collaborators work to integrate high-impact experiences for engagement and learning within course settings as well as through easy-to-access co-curricular offerings; all with an eye towards helping individuals get the most out of their time as students, and in accessible ways.
Through a partnership with the Jana Marie Foundation, Corkery has helped facilitate hundreds of students to be trained and certified in mental-health first aid as part of their coursework. Corkery has also led efforts to connect students with the opportunity to hear from diverse voices about an array of life experiences through launching a regular author/speaker event that partners with a course in her home department, HDFS 254n: Reading Our Lives: Understanding Human Development and Diversity Through Memoirs.
Through these events, students and Penn State community members across all campuses have been able to hear from Wes Moore, New York Times best-selling author of “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates”; Jennifer Finney Boylan, NYT best-selling author of “She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders”; David Sheff, NYT best-selling author of “Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction”; Nic Sheff, NYT best-selling author of “Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines”; Tarana Burke, best-selling author of “Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Me Too Movement” and co-editor of “You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience”; and most, recently, Rebekah Taussig, author of “Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body.”
Corkery has also provided support in offering a career panel each semester that brings in professional and alumni speakers and reaches students across all Penn State campuses via Zoom. Events like these regularly see hundreds of students attending.
“Dr. Corkery goes above and beyond for our adult learners to ensure that they have a supportive learning environment and a positive Penn State journey,” a nominator said. “She has a unique ability to continuously recognize challenges and needs for our adult learners and, most importantly, she matches that recognition with initiative and creativity to find and generate solutions and opportunities.”
2022 Recipient
Brian Cameron
Associate Dean for Professional Graduate Programs and Executive Education in the Smeal College
of Business at the Pennsylvania State University
Brian Cameron is the Associate Dean for Professional Graduate Programs and Executive Education in the Smeal College of Business at the Pennsylvania State University. Prior to joining Smeal, he was the Founding Director of the Center for Enterprise Architecture in the College of Information Sciences and Technology. Dr. Cameron was awarded the NPA Career Achievement Award in 2011 for efforts related to the founding of the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations, the building of the Center for Enterprise Architecture, and associated service to the enterprise architecture profession.
In his current role as Associate Dean for Professional Graduate Programs and Executive Education, Dr. Cameron led the rapid growth of the Smeal professional graduate portfolio from the four master’s programs and one online graduate certificate, representing approximately 300 students, in 2015 to an integrated portfolio of 17 masters programs, an Executive Doctor of Business Administration, and 14 online graduate certificates representing over 2,600 students. Professional master’s programs include inter-college collaborations with several Penn State colleges and campuses. Dr. Cameron is leading the design and implementation of many organizational and pedagogical innovations that includes an integrated professional graduate portfolio that facilitates degree stacking and a high degree of choice and flexibility for students. He led the formation of new faculty and departmental governance, compensation, and budgeting structures for professional graduate education. Dr. Cameron is leading a marketing strategy initiative, in collaboration with Smeal marketing, to better position the evolving portfolio of professional graduate programs in the increasingly competitive marketplace.
He has reorganized the MBA program office structure to create a professional graduate education programs office that provides shared services across programs. Shared services include recruiting/marketing, admissions, advising, student organizations, diversity, mentoring, tutoring, career services, employer relations, and alumni services. Part of this restructuring included the creation of a Director of Excellence in Teaching & Learning for the professional graduate
portfolio to oversee many dimensions of quality related to growth and scaling, curriculum improvement, and faculty development.
Dr. Cameron is in the process of reorganizing and integrating the non-credit Penn State Executive Education unit with the Smeal professional graduate programs office and is currently leading a team researching innovative pedagogical approaches for online and hybrid graduate professional education and non-credit executive education. Dr. Cameron was appointed to the Transforming Education Task Force for the Future of Online Learning and World Campus and was selected to attend the Big 10 Academic Alliance’s Academic Leadership Program in 2018. His work has been the topic of several articles in BizEd, the publication of AACSB, the international business school accreditation body. He is very active in the professional graduate education community and is a founding member of the Consortium for Online Graduate Business Education and serves on the boards of the MBA Roundtable, the Executive MBA Council, and the Business Architecture Guild.
2021 Recipient
Trisha Everhart
Assistant Director of Online Programs for the School of Labor and Employment Relations (LER)
Trisha Everhart is the Assistant Director of Online Programs for the School of Labor and Employment Relations (LER) and has worked with adult learners since 2008. Throughout her career at Penn State, she has consistently advocated for adult students by creating exciting learning opportunities that have enriched LER’s programs. Trisha’s own educational journey has provided experiences that inform her advocacy for students. Trisha is a 2001 graduate of Penn State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management with a concentration in Human Resources. Trisha continued her education as an adult learner, earning a M.Ed. in Higher Education through Penn State’s World Campus. She completed the degree while working full-time and fulfilling her roles as spouse and parent. She is acutely aware of the challenges adult students face in their quest to pursue higher education.
Upon a student’s acceptance to the HRER graduate program, Trisha contacts every new student to arrange for a video conference meeting. She meets with students to provide information and support critical to their success as online students. One of Trisha’s most notable innovations was the creation of peer mentoring groups for new online HRER students. Beyond the ordinary duties of a student adviser, Trisha understands that helping students feel connected to the program can improve their retention and eventual graduation. Consequently, she organized small groups of incoming students who shared common interests and classes. These types of study groups in residence would ordinarily emerge organically; however, Trisha became the catalyst to allow our adult students to create comparable links.
2020 Recipient
Dr. Debra Roach
Director of Workforce Development and Continuing Education at Penn State Beaver and Penn State Shenango
Dr. Roach was nominated and selected due to her significant accomplishments related to workforce development opportunities in Beaver County, Pennsylvania and beyond. Her work includes the development of certificates and workshops that provide adult learners with flexible continuing education options offered via evening, weekend, and hybrid modules. Through strategic partnerships with various industry partners, Dr. Roach has also created new content that meets the needs of the region’s employers. For example, she developed and submitted to the Pennsylvania State Licensing Board the first Penn State-offered Certified Recovery Specialist (CRS) program in support of strategic initiatives focused on battling the opioid crisis.
2019 Recipient
Dr. Antone Aboud
Dr. Aboud is the director of online programs for the School of Labor and Employment Relations and a professor of practice in the College of the Liberal Arts.
The Hendrick award recognizes an outstanding administrator University-wide, who has contributed to the success of Penn State’s efforts to serve adult learners.
Dr. Aboud was nominated and selected due to his many tremendous qualities in the support of adult learners. His work includes creating and teaching embedded study-abroad courses catered to adult learners, organizing on-site visits for online students to meet leaders in their respective field, and creating a virtual chapter of the student-group Labor and Employment Relations Association and Society for Human Resources Management. Dr. Aboud also creates opportunities for faculty members to strengthen their education of adult-learners, routinely meeting with leadership teams to address challenges and offering training for faculty members.
2018 Recipient
Dr. Brian C. Clark
Director of Veteran Programs at Penn State
The Shirley Hendrick Award recognizes a senior administrator who has significantly advanced efforts for adult learners at Penn State. Dr. Brian Clark is the recipient of the 2018 Shirley Hendrick Award. Dr. Clark is currently the Director of Veteran Programs at Penn State, having served in different capacities in this office for over 39 years. A veteran himself, Dr. Clark is recognized for his commitment to veteran students for example by serving as the advisor to the Penn State Student Veteran Organization for many years. Dr. Clark also developed the counselor/certifying official model of service for veteran and military students currently used at Penn State, which results in a multi-prong approach to supporting them. He played an integral role in securing availability of federal financial aid for veterans by removing GI Bill benefits as a disqualifier for this aid, and testified on Capitol Hill in this regard.
2017 Recipient
Dr. Avis L. Kunz
Assistant Dean in the College of the Liberal Arts, Filippelli Institute for e-Education and Outreach
The Shirley Hendrick Award recognizes a senior administrator who has significantly advanced efforts for adult learners at Penn State. Dr. Kunz was nominated for her instrumental contributions to the range and quality of degrees that we offer our adult students.
2016 Recipient
Dr. Daad A. Rizk
Financial Literacy Manager, Penn State World Campus
The Shirley Hendrick Award recognizes a senior administrator who has significantly advanced efforts for adult learners at Penn State. Dr. Rizk was nominated for her accomplishments in launching financial literacy initiatives across the University. These efforts include creating “MoneyCounts: A Financial Literacy Series,” which delivers workshops and webinars aimed at addressing issues such as budgeting, credit, debt management, student loans, and repayment strategies.
2015 Recipient
Dr. Hampton ’Nels’ Shirer
Associate Dean for Education in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
The Shirley Hendrick Award recognizes a senior administrator who has significantly advanced efforts for adult learners at Penn State. Dr. Shirer was nominated for his work to make sure all students have access to the same rich resources and educational experiences. He improved access to learning tools for distance learners and was instrumental in making study-abroad more accessible to adult learners.
2014 Recipient
Dr. Ann Williams
Chancellor, Penn State Lehigh Valley
The Shirley Hendrick Award recognizes a senior administrator who has significantly advanced efforts for adult learners at Penn State. Under Dr. Williams’ direction, Penn State Lehigh Valley is now known for providing a wide variety of educational programs – both credit and non-credit – to adult learners across their life span. She appointed a committee on Campus Climate and Organizational Culture to gauge campus morale, identify issues for improvement, and ensure a positive climate for adult learners and veterans. Watch a video featuring Dr. Williams’ accomplishments.
2013 Recipient
Leslie A. Laing
Assistant Director Adult Learner Programs & Services in Student Affairs, Penn State University Park
Leslie Laing arrived at the University in 2006 and was tasked with serving special populations at University Park. She has expanded this role by becoming a one-stop shop for current adult learners and student veterans. She meets with students individually; attending to their specific issues and concerns, as well as communicates regularly through her list serve of more than 1700 students. Laing has created and hosted workshops to engage and inform adult learners, held forums for student veterans, and serves as an advisor to the ALPS (Adult Learners at Penn State) student organization. Additionally, Ms. Laing is a fundraiser for the Adult Learner Opportunity Fund she founded to assist adult learners interested in participating in education abroad or major-related internships. She hosts the UP Outstanding Adult Student Award Reception annually and actively engages students during Nontraditional Student Recognition Week at Penn State. Among her noteworthy programs is an interactive alcohol education simulation event, as well as a CNED 304 Counseling Ed Course for the training and recruitment of peer mentors for a crisis intervention program and hotline.
2012 Recipient
Dr. R. Keith Hillkirk
Chancellor, Penn State Berks
While chancellor at Penn State Schuylkill, Hillkirk helped bring together five campuses to collaborate in offering degree programs with the assistance of distance technology. The resulting Eastern Alliance of Penn State Campuses consists of Penn State Hazleton, Lehigh Valley, Schuylkill, Wilkes-Barre and Worthington Scranton. In fall 2010, the Eastern Alliance began offering a joint bachelor of science in business degree, with classes delivered by interactive video during evening and weekend hours and online.
“Like Shirley Hendrick, Dr. Hillkirk has been a true advocate of adult learners, including both credit and non-credit students,” one nominator said. “He has demonstrated this support through innovative program development, the creation of a collaborative delivery system and hands-on involvement.”
Hillkirk was a member of the University’s Commission for Adult Learners in 2008-2009 and chaired the commission in 2009-2010. In 2010-2011, he co-chaired the Faculty Engagement Committee as it focused on a Faculty Senate recommendation that credit by exam and credit by portfolio be expanded. After serving as Penn State Schuylkill chancellor for six years, he was named Penn State Berks chancellor in 2011.
“Since joining the University in 2005,” another nominator wrote, “Dr. Hillkirk has been a champion of adult education. His efforts as chancellor at Penn State Schuylkill, including appointing an adult coordinator and instituting our 30 Plus scholarship program, have resulted in a significant increase in adult students enrolling at the campus.”
2011 Recipient
JeanMarie Jacob
Area Representative, Penn State Greater Allegheny
JeanMarie Jacob is making a difference in the lives of adult learners. As the area representative for Penn State’s Continuing Education Department at Penn State Greater Allegheny, Jacob has been committed to improving the adult learner experience. For this commitment, Jacob is being recognized as the recipient of the 2011 Shirley Hendrick Award, presented by the Penn State Commission for Adult Learners. She will receive the award at the annual Faculty/Staff Awards Luncheon on March 23.
“I find my greatest joy in following students along their chosen career paths and sharing in their accomplishments,” said Jacob. “As a returning adult learner myself, I can sympathize with the many challenges and obstacles adults face in their pursuit of obtaining additional learning opportunities.”
Jacob has created noncredit courses and programs tailored to adult learners. In addition, she works with credit students enrolled in the UPMC St. Margaret Licensed Practical Nursing program at UPMC McKeesport. Jacob always makes the effort to personally seek feedback from participants in order to improve her programs and guarantee that students have the tools they need to be successful.
In addition to completion of her master’s degree in adult education, Jacob is the current vice president of the Continuing Education Association of Pennsylvania, as well as a member of the Mon Valley Providers Council, the Regional Chamber Alliance and the Monroeville Chamber of Commerce. The Shirley Hendrick Award recognizes an administrator University-wide who has contributed to the success of Penn State’s efforts to serve adult learners. The award is named in memory of Shirley Hendrick (1936–2000), the first recipient and dean for continuing education in the Smeal College of Business and inaugural chair of the Commission for Adult Learners, who advocated for continuing education.
“I hope to continue to share the vision of Shirley Hendrick,” said Jacob, “and serve adult learners in the Pittsburgh area.”
