The race for three alumni seats on the Penn State board of trustees continues to attract candidates.
Lori Capellari-Neetz, of Middlesex, N.J., and Barbara Doran, of New York, both announced their plans to seek seats on the board, bringing the unofficial count to 24 candidates.
Capellari-Neetz is a 1977 graduate from the College of Education with a major in education of exceptional children. She lived and worked in the State College area for 35 years before moving to New Jersey, where she teaches special education.
Capellari-Neetz said that, if elected, she would focus on bringing transparency, a voice for alumni and positive town-and-gown relations to the board.
“We need to end the mystery that is the current board of trustees,” she said in a statement. “I hope to become involved in illuminating the many issues the board handles, while remaining a vital part of a university, and remembering that PSU is just people doing what they do best to keep the university what it once was, continues to be, and will be in the future.”
Doran is a 1975 Penn State graduate in English and a graduate of Harvard Business School. A private wealth manager at Morgan Stanley, she specializes in equity and hedge fund investing.
While at Penn State, she played varsity field hockey, basketball and lacrosse and was captain of the hockey and lacrosse teams. She went on to become a member of the U.S. field hockey and lacrosse teams and served on the U.S. Field Hockey Association.
A Title IX supporter, she covered women’s sports for The Daily Collegian and local radio station WRSC. She is now part of Penn State’s Varsity S Committee, which is focused on raising money from former varsity athletes.
As with many trustee candidates, Doran is critical of the way the board terminated Joe Paterno’s contract in the wake of a child sex abuse scandal.
“There is clearly a problem with the governance at Penn State, and the board is part and parcel of it, as are the bylaws and the way board members are appointed,” she said in the statement announcing her candidacy. “There are deep structural issues and a culture that seem to have mitigated against an aggressively independent-minded board on many important issues, not just this one.”
According to the university, alumni have until Feb. 25 to nominate graduates. Nominees need 50 signatures to make it on the ballot.
Anne Danahy can be reached at 231-4648.
