Five named Big Ten Academic Alliance Department Executive Officer Fellows

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Department Executive Officers (DEO) program has gained five additional fellows from the Penn State ranks.

The BTAA is the academic consortium of the Big Ten universities and the United States’ pre-eminent model for effective collaboration among research universities. Through its leadership program, participants who have demonstrated exceptional ability through University administrative assignments or other significant positions in public, private, or professional organizations are aided in further developing their leadership and managerial skills.

Penn State’s participants for the 2023 program were selected based on their significant contributions and potential to achieve even more as University leaders. The participants are:

  • Meg Bruening, department head, Nutritional Sciences, College of Health and Human Development
  • Jennifer Gilley, interim director of the Penn State Commonwealth Campus Libraries and head librarian at Penn State New Kensington
  • Matthew Jordan, department head, Film Production and Media Studies, Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications
  • Brian King, department head, Geography, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
  • Randy McEntaffer, department head, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Eberly College of Science           

The DEO Fellows will participate in a seminar Nov. 2-4 at the Big Ten Conference Center in Chicago. The event will focus on departmental leadership skills, the challenges facing DEOs, and broader issues.

For more information on the BTAA DEO Program, visit https://www.btaa.org/leadership/deo/introduction.