IUP Celebration Weekend Honors Alumni Volunteers, Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients

Indiana University of Pennsylvania alumni and friends were recognized during the university’s annual Celebration Weekend with two events on April 5.

Celebration Weekend included the annual Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast and the Distinguished Alumni Awards gala on April 5 and a reception on April 4.

During the Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast, the 2025 Award of Excellence for Volunteer Leadership was presented to five members of the IUP community in four categories:

• Donna McCrea Griffith, of Indiana, with the Award of Excellence in Volunteer Leadership for Advancement Support;
• Blane Dessy, of Erie, with the Regional Impact Award;
• Kaylee Becker-George, of Indiana, with the Aspiring Alumni Award;
• Rhonda Luckey and Alan Luckey, of Indiana, with the Affinity Service Award.

The Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast event also honored Omega Gamble of Charlotte, NC, who received the Affinity Service Award in 2024 but was unable to attend the 2024 event.

Eight alumni were honored with 2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards on April 5: Thomas A. Baker, a 2005 graduate originally from Bloomsburg now living in Arizona; Dave Bluemling, a 1985 graduate from Pittsburgh now of Baden; Danielle Mashaw Brown, a 1993 graduate originally from North Versailles and now of Michigan; Michael Burton, a 1974 graduate originally from Wellsboro and now of Inverness, FL; Donta Green, a 2010 graduate from  Pittsburgh; Everette Penn, a 2000 IUP doctoral graduate originally from Washington, DC and now of Texas; and Kimberly Bender Steinhauer, a 1985 graduate, who grew up in Butler, Derry, and Bellefonte, now of Pittsburgh. Burton was unable to attend the event.

Kevin Bailey, at podium

Kevin Bailey, who completed both his bachelor’s degree (1986) and his master’s degree (1990) at IUP and is the chancellor for student affairs at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, was the keynote speaker for the Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast. Bailey is a 2019 IUP Distinguished Alumni Award recipient and the 2024 Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Keeper of the Flame Award recipient.

“At IUP, we are laser-focused on putting our students and their needs at the forefront,” IUP President Michael Driscoll said during the Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast. “We strive to enrich their educational experience, offering scholarships to ease their financial burdens and providing the support they need to reach their full potential.

“None of this would be possible without the tremendous role our volunteers play. It takes a committed community dedicated to the success of our university to make everything we do a reality. Your efforts in representing and promoting IUP are remarkable. Whether by welcoming our graduates into your workforce, encouraging prospective students to explore IUP, supporting our fundraising initiatives to help students, or championing our athletics and the arts, your impact is far-reaching and critical,” he said.

“Later this year, we will begin celebrating IUP’s 150th anniversary—a monumental occasion. It will be a time to reflect on 150 years of offering students life-changing experiences and to look ahead and plan for the next chapter in IUP’s legacy. Like our past, our future will depend on volunteers like you. I encourage you to stay involved in the celebration and continue to be a great example of volunteerism and activism in the IUP community.

“The heart of IUP has always been and will continue to be, the people. And the volunteers demonstrating their love for IUP daily are especially crucial to that,” President Driscoll said.

Aspiring Alumni Award

The Aspiring Alumni Award recognizes outstanding initiative by graduating seniors working to inspire students to be active in the life of the university.

An active student leader, Kaylee Becker-George is president of IUP’s Student-Government Association, the official representative body of IUP students, working to promote and enrich the welfare of all IUP students. This group is responsible for overseeing the recognition process of all student organizations. As the leader of this group, she is front and center in encouraging students to get involved and connected at IUP.

Becker-George also served as an orientation leader for freshmen and transfer students; as a peer mentor, meeting regularly with about 20 mentees during their first year at IUP; and a research assistant in the Anthropology Department, working with the Untold Stories program, which highlights previously neglected stories in local histories. She is also an archives assistant, helping to digitize some of IUP’s historic media, and is president of the history club and vice president of the anthropology club.

Becker-George, a member of the Cook Honors College, will graduate in May with a history degree with certificates in public history, cultural competencies, and museum studies and anthropology with a focus in archaeology.

Becker-George is an alumni legacy student; her grandmother, Edith Becker-George, is a 1971 alumna.

Regional Impact Award

Blane Dessy, at podium

The Regional Impact Award recognizes a volunteer who champions IUP in their region by engaging alumni through events, supporting recruitment efforts, or providing internship or employment opportunities.

Blane Dessy earned his bachelor’s degree in English at IUP in 1973. His career led him to the Library of Congress, retiring as the director of National Enterprises, which included the Federal Library Network as well as Government Research Services, Publishing, and Business Enterprises. In 2018, he was inducted into the College of Arts, Humanities, Media, and Public Affairs’ Hall of Distinction in recognition of his career achievements.

He has served as a member of that college’s advancement council for several years and as the delegate for IUP at the investiture ceremony for Slippery Rock University’s eighteenth president.

In 2023, the IUP marching band traveled to the IUP football game vs. Mercyhurst. As an Erie resident, this volunteer was instrumental in that effort and an integral part of the planning that made that trip possible.

As a New Hawk Send-off host for the past two years, he has welcomed incoming students and their families to his home for small, informal meet-and-greet events that provide an opportunity to send new students off on their journey as part of the IUP community. These events bring together incoming students and parents, current students, and alumni to share the powerful network and resources IUP has to offer, helping first-year students feel more prepared and confident.

Most recently, he has volunteered as a regional alumni ambassador. In this role, he’ll host small alumni events in and around Erie to reengage alumni with their alma mater and provide updates on what’s new at IUP.

Dessy was honored in 2019 by the IUP Council of Trustees with the naming of the Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative at IUP in recognition of his transformative gift used to establish the Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative. He also has donated funds for the design and construction of the Sutton Bench by IUP woodworking students.

Advancement Support Award

Donna Griffith, at podium

The Award of Excellence in Volunteer Leadership for Advancement Support recognizes volunteers who continually inspire others to give back their time and treasure to advance IUP.

Donna Griffith is a two-time alumna of IUP, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1974 in consumer services, followed by a master’s degree in student personnel services in 1977 and a certificate in management in higher education from Harvard University.

She has a long history of service to IUP, holding several positions within the School of Continuing Education, where she coordinated many conferences and events that brought thousands of guests to our campus from near and far, including China. Of special note was assisting personnel within the Pennsylvania governor’s office, at the request of the then system chancellor James McCormick, to implement the National Conference on State Literacy Initiatives, hosted by Ellen Casey, the then-sitting first lady of Pennsylvania. The event included sitting first ladies from five states and a keynote by the sitting first lady of the United States, Barbara Bush. 

While working in Continuing Education, she was asked to transition to the School of Graduate Studies and Research, from where she later retired as assistant dean for Administration and director of the Monroeville Graduate and Professional Center.

Throughout her time at IUP, she served on more than 25 campus-wide committees, chairing or cochairing several of them. Her work included a presidential investiture and the migration to the first campus-wide student information system. She and her husband, Terry, also an IUP alumnus with a 38-year career with the IUP Student Cooperative Association, have inspired many to follow their lead in giving to IUP.

As a member of the College of Education and Human Services Advancement Council, she served as cochair for several years. In that role, she spearheaded the college’s Women’s Basketball Education Day program in collaboration with the IUP women’s basketball team. This required meeting with the KCAC and IUP Athletics staff, organizing volunteers, creating seating charts for the students who attended the event, coordinating the arrival and departure of school buses, and planning educational activities for the day, just to name a few tasks. Over the past seven years, this educational event has brought more than 5,000 area students to our campus to engage with our student-athletes, and we look forward to this event continuing in future years.

Griffith currently sits on the Foundation for IUP Board of Directors, as well as the Residential Revival Board of Directors. 

Affinity Services Award

Rhonda Luckey and Alan Luckey, at podium

The Award of Excellence in Volunteer Leadership for Affinity Service recognizes volunteers who engage alumni through reunions, departmental, and/or college activities.

Alan Luckey is a two-time IUP graduate with a bachelor’s degree in English education in 1987, followed in 1989 by a master’s in rhetoric and linguistics. He retired from his work as a teacher of English and speech and drama at Purchase Line High School, but his avocations are ongoing— musician; builder of airplanes, guitars, furniture, and houses; and reflecting on his more than six decades of diverse life experiences, combining function and usability with creations that embody beauty.

As the former vice president of student affairs at IUP, Rhonda Luckey was passionate about student success and helping students change their own lives. When she retired in 2018, IUP’s Rhonda H. Luckey Center for Health and Well Being was named after her in recognition of her years of service to the university.

A talented fiber artist, her work has been on exhibit at the Artists Hand Gallery in Indiana and at the IUP University Museum.

Alan Luckey invented the Weaver’s Perfect Memory to help Rhonda—and eventually other weavers—keep track of the patterns they use to create their art. The Weaver’s Perfect Memory, LLC was selected as a recipient of a 2023 Creative Entrepreneur Accelerator Program grant through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and four weaving studios and guilds received the Weaver’s Perfect Memory through the grant funds.

The Luckeys wanted to do something to honor their decades-long connection to IUP and the university’s upcoming sesquicentennial. When Alan Luckey became an artist-in-residence in the Wood Center during the 2023–24 academic year, the couple worked side-by-side with director BA Harrington and 20 studio-art majors to create a special commemorative version of the Weaver’s Perfect Memory, using quarter-sawn oak from felled Oak Grove trees through the Allegheny Arboretum’s Harvest to Use Project. The Weaver’s Perfect Memory will be part of the university’s 150th anniversary celebration.

The woodworking students worked with the IUP STEAMSHOP to add the IUP seal and the words of IUP’s original faculty member Jane E. Leonard, “Go forth, be true, be brave, be successful,” on these specially designed pieces of art.

During the breakfast event, the Luckeys presented a video about the project that was produced by students in IUP’s Department of Communications Media. Several members of the project team also attended the event and shared their involvement in the project: Director of the IUP Wood Center BA Harrington, IUP STEAMSHOP Director of Operations John Grengs, IUP Allegheny Arboretum executive director and board of directors member Jerry Pickering, and Mark Piwinsky from the Department of Communications Media at IUP. Communications Media students Haven Stetor and Bailey McDonough, representing the student team that produced the video documentary The Weaver’s Perfect Memory, also spoke during the event.

In addition to the Luckeys’ ongoing support of IUP and the donation of 50 of the limited edition Weaver’s Perfect Memory, Alan, who was a member of The Folkmen musical group while an IUP student in the 60’s, and Rhonda established a scholarship for music students in honor of The Folkmen.

He wrote a book about the group, Changing Times: The Folkmen at IUP, 1963-1969 published to coincide with The Folkmen’s fiftieth anniversary and reunion homecoming concert in 2014; all proceeds from the sale of the book are donated to the IUP Folkmen Scholarship Fund. In 2015, Alan Luckey and his fellow IUP alumni from The Folkmen donated “The Folkmen Collection” to the University Archives, and Alan donated his Folkmen vest and his 12-string guitar, with guitar case with the Folkmen logo, to the University Archives.

Affinity Service Award – 2024

Omega Gamble, a 2008 human resource management graduate, works as a service representative with the Social Security Administration. As a student, she worked as a community assistant in the Office of Housing and Residence Life, was the lead student office assistant in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, and served as a student orientation leader. A member and former vice president of the IUP Ambassadors, she served on the 2005 search committee for the vice president for Institutional Advancement and was selected to deliver remarks for the university’s 2006 September 11 remembrance.

She joined the IUP Black Experience Alumni Committee soon after its founding in 2020 and is the secretary for the group. BEAC was formed with the goal of connecting with and advocating for Black students at IUP.

Gamble chaired the planning committee for the Inaugural BEAC Weekend in 2023, which drew more than 70 alumni and friends for the event, which included a roundtable discussion, a stroll competition (for both students and alumni), and a gala to create awareness of the African American Alumni Scholarship, raising $2,300 for the fund.

Distinguished Alumni Awards

From left: Kimberly Bender Steinhauer; Everette Penn, Danielle Mashaw Brown. Standing, from left: IUP President Michael Driscoll; Assistant Vice President for University Advancement Jennifer Dunsmore; Thomas Baker; Dave Bluemling; Donta Green; Vice President for University Advancement Jennifer DeAngelo. Recipient Michael Burton is missing from photo.

Over the past 38 years, the IUP Alumni Association has honored just over 400 of its more than 150,000 alumni with the Distinguished Alumni Award. This award is the highest award given by the IUP Alumni Association to university alumni. It is presented to alumni who have achieved distinction in their chosen fields or who have demonstrated loyal and active service to their alma mater.

Recipients for 2025 are:

Thomas A. Baker 

A managing director and partner in the Boston Consulting Group, Baker is the global leader of the low-carbon energy and infrastructure sector. As a student in IUP’s Cook Honors College, Baker was selected for a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in 2004 and a Phi Kappa Phi graduate fellowship in 2005. He earned a master’s degree and a PhD from Harvard University and was a post-doc researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. Today, he works in San Francisco, lives in Arizona, and is a thought leader and speaker in the clean-tech business. He is also on the board of directors for the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center. In 2024, he and his wife, Dilini Pinnaduwage, established the Tom Baker Scholarship for Research.

Dave Bluemling 

Having spent much of his career specializing in both domestic and international taxation, Bluemling works as a fiduciary representing foundations, trusts, and estates. He is a recently retired partner of Forvis Mazars/BKD CPAs and Advisors and a former leader of several nonprofits. He currently serves on the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh Board of Directors (for which he is a past chair), is the vice president of the Foundation for IUP Board of Directors, and is a member of the Eberly College of Business Advisory Council. Previously recognized by Pittsburgh Business Times as a Fast Tracker, he has also been featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Danielle Mashaw Brown 

Currently senior vice president and chief information officer for Whirlpool Corporation in Michigan, Brown has risen through the ranks of several leading corporations, including DuPont and Brunswick. Coming to IUP from North Versailles, she earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science, followed by a master’s degree from Penn State in management information systems and an MBA from Drexel University. She is also a Six Sigma Black Belt. She serves on a number of boards, including Corewell Health, Michigan’s largest health system, with 60,000 employees; the Executive Leadership Council, a nonprofit that opens opportunities for the development of Black executives to benefit businesses and communities; and Performance Food Group, a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest food and food-service distributors in North America.

Michael Burton 

For more than 20 years, Burton served the animals of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay as senior veterinarian. Supervising the collection’s preventive medicine program, he also co-starred in The Wildlife Docs, an Emmy-nominated TV series that ran for five years on ABC’s Saturday morning lineup. He obtained his veterinary degree at the University of Pennsylvania. Earlier in his career, he pursued his profession at zoos in Colorado Springs and Wellington, New Zealand. Today, he creates award-winning sculptures of wildlife. Burton was unable to attend the event.

Donta Green 

As a football coach at Pittsburgh’s Westinghouse High School, he is also a mentor to players and a source of assistance for parents and community members. He has been twice named a Pennsylvania Football Writers Coach of the Year, and KDKA-TV selected him as a Hometown Hero. In 2022, Pittsburgh Magazine recognized him as someone who “helps Pittsburghers leap over barriers” when it selected him for its 40 Under 40 award and called attention to his role as CEO of the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh. He had, the magazine said, “reenergized [the institute’s] mission.”

Everette Penn 

A professor of criminology at the University of Houston, Clear Lake, he is also the executive director of TAPS (Teen and Police Service) Academy, which he cofounded in 2011 with the goal of reducing the social distance between youth and law enforcement. Constantly adding innovative programs, the academy has received more than $4 million in funding. With a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers and a master’s from what has now become Texas A&M, Central Texas, he taught at several universities and was a Fulbright professor of American Studies in Egypt. Widely published, he serves on numerous boards and has been repeatedly recognized with community awards and honors.

Kimberly Bender Steinhauer

President and CEO of Estill Voice International, Steinhauer founded the Pittsburgh-based company more than two decades ago. Renowned for its innovative voice software and healthcare products, the woman-owned business also developed the globally acclaimed Estill Voice Training curriculum and certification program in six languages. Steinhauer holds a degree in music education from IUP and graduate degrees in communication sciences from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pittsburgh. With extensive teaching experience from elementary to higher education, she established and serves as treasurer of the Estill Education Fund, a nonprofit that supports voice training scholarships and research projects.