The Alumni Fellow Award is the most prestigious award given by the Penn State Alumni Association. Since 1973, the Alumni Fellow Award has been given to select alumni who, as leaders in their professional fields, are nominated by an academic college and accept an invitation from the President of the University to return to campus to share their expertise with students, faculty, and administrators. The award is a cast bronze statue and framed certificate.

More information is available at: http://www.alumni.psu.edu/awards/individual/fellow.htm

Nomination forms are available http://www.alumni.psu.edu/awards/forms/default.htm

Also, please contact the College of Education Alumni Office if you would like to nominate someone.

Andrea Lee '75g, '80g EDU is president of St. Catherine University in Minnesota and a sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. St. Catherine University serves more than 5,200 student on campuses in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Since joining St. Catherine, Lee has executed a successful strategic agenda, resulting in 10 years of record enrollment, a dramatic increase in fundraising, and the construction of a new student center, learning commons, and award-winning residence halls. Under Lee's leadership, St. Catherine established the Henrietta Schmoll School of Health, extending the university's reach and influence as a premier educator of health care professionals. 

Prior to becoming St. Catherine's 10th president, Lee wa interium president, executive vice president, and chief financial officer at Marygrove College in Detroit. In Detroit, she also served as financial co-chair of Mayor Dennis Archer's transition team, principal financial reviewer for the $100 million Detroit Empowerment Zone projects, and founding president of a non-profit senior housing corporation.

Lee is a board member and officer of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities and a trustee for Catholic Health Initiatives. She also serves on the Minnesota Private College Council and Catholic Community Foundation Boards. Formerly, Lee served as national chairperson of the Religious Network for Equality for Women. 

In addition to her graduate degrees from Penn State, Lee holds degrees in music and elementary education and Italian literature and language, as well as completed Harvard University's Institute for Educational Management. Penn State previously recognized Lee with the Outstanding Alumni Award in 1989.

An accomplished liturgical musician, Lee plays the fllute and piano and is the adoptive mother of a son from Haiti. She lives in St. Paul, Minn.
 
Marchelle (Shelley) Canright '95g EDU is program executive for the Technology and Products Office and the chief information officer for the NASA Education Office at NASA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Through these positions, Canright oversees the educational technology programs and print, Web, and electronic products provided by NASA Education.

Canright represents NASA on the K-12 subgroup of the Congressional Academic Competitiveness Council, which examines the federal government’s approach to math and science education. She also serves as the acting elementary and secondary education director. In this temporary assignment, she is reinvigorating the Agency K-12 programs to develop a progression of educational opportunities for students and educators including tools and experiences to further their education by participating in unique NASA learning experiences. Canright administers a geographical distributed network dispersed across the nine NASA Field Centers, including the NASA-sponsored room of the Future in Wheeling, W.Va., and the Educator Resource Center Network, a network of more than 70 sites in 50 states where educators can be trained on NASA educational products.

Canright has more than 25 years of senior leadership and executive management experience in K-12 schools and school boards, universities, federal agencies, and professional organizations. She addressed the United Nations’ Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space about the responsibility of governing nations to "light the fire" and "fuel the passion" for a new culture of international learning and achievement built upon the platform of exploration.

Canright is a member of the Penn State Alumni Association and lives in Washington, D.C.

Miguel J. Escala ’85g, ’88g Edu is a licensed psychologist and an expert in the field of higher education administration in the Caribbean region, including Central and South America. Escala researches and consults on educational management, development of human resources, and organizational change in higher education.

In 2005, Escala became rector of the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (INTEC) in the Dominican Republic. He began his career at INTEC in 1984 as coordinator of the graduate program in school supervision but moved on to serve as dean of special programs overseeing four units: library, computer center, research and publications, and continuing education. Escala is credited with designing a program evaluation for all of INTEC’s academic programs and served as a member of the Scientific Research Committee and the Board of Regents.

Escala has served as an advisor and instructor for the school principal training program and was a member of both the Academic Council and the Board of Administration of UNESCO’s International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean from 2001-2005. He is a magna cum laude-UASD graduate of INTEC at the postgraduate level in educational psychology. Escala has authored 15 publications, with titles ranging from “Managing the Small Enterprise Uncertainty” to “Implications of a Symbolic Conception of Academic Quality.”

Escala and his wife, Pilar Blanco Escala, reside in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. He is a member of the Penn State Alumni Association.