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Short, Wagman and DeLevie Win Alumni Election to Penn State Board of Trustees

Brandon Short, Steven Wagman, and Alvin de Levie have been elected by Penn State alumni to the university’s Board of Trustees. They will begin new three-year terms starting July 1.

The three respectively received 14,299, 9,730, and 9,688 votes from their fellow alumni en route to their elections. They outpaced fellow candidates Jim Bognet, Bridget Lasda and incumbent Laurie Stanell.

Results were announced at Friday’s board meeting. Penn State’s 38-member board includes nine alumni-elected trustees, with terms staggered so three are elected each year.

Short won re-election after first joining the Board of Trustees in July 2018. You probably know him as a former All-American Penn State linebacker who went on to play in the NFL, too. Off the gridiron, he’s amassed nearly 10 years of experience in real estate investment banking and investment management. Short previously worked for Goldman Sachs, among other firms. Affordability was a key focus of Short’s re-election campaign.

Wagman previously served as the Penn State Alumni Association’s president from 2017 to 2019. He is nearing completion of a two-year term on the board granted following his tenure as the organization’s immediate past president. He graduated from Penn State in 1982 and ran a campaign focused on increasing the university’s affordability and preparing it for the future.

Alvin de Levie grew up in a Penn State family in Centre County. He graduated from Penn State in 1973, earned a law degree from Villanova, and still practices as an attorney in State College today. His campaign largely focused on improving town and gown relations restoring Joe Paterno’s legacy at the university.

Additionally, the board appointed sophomore Schreyer Honors College scholar Janiyah Davis as its next student trustee. She will ll succeed Bryan Culler and begin a two-year term on July 1.

Two candidates won election to the board by agricultural delegates. Donald Cairns, a 1988 Penn State graduate and owner of Cairns Family Farms in Chester County, was elected to his first term. Chris Hoffman, the owner of Lazy Hog Farms and Lazy Chick Farms in Juniata County, was reelected.

Robert Fenza and Mary Lee Schneider were re-elected as trustees representing business and industry. Julie Anna Potts was re-elected as an at-large trustee, and Nicholas Rowland, professor of sociology at Penn State Altoona, was elected as the board’s academic trustee. 

Geoff Rushton contributed to this report.