Neeli Bendapudi, Penn State's president-elect, center, was joined on stage by Trustee David Kleppinger, left, and Board of Trustees Chairman Matt Schuyler, right. She will begin her term as Penn State's 19th president in the spring.
Neeli Bendapudi, center, spoke to members of student media following her Dec. 9 appointment. Bendapudi, currently president at the University of Louisville, will become Penn State's 19th president in 2022.
After a unanimous vote on Dec. 9 by the Penn State Board of Trustees to appoint Neeli Bendapudi the University's 19th president, Bendapudi thanked the board, campus leaders and others during her introduction to the Penn State community.
Neeli Bendapudi was named the 19th president of Penn State on Dec. 9, 2021, by the University's Board of Trustees. She is currently president of the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
Neeli Bendapudi was named the 19th president of Penn State on Dec. 9, 2021, by the University's Board of Trustees. She is currently president of the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
2022 MLK Day Celebration Keynote Speaker Biography
Bettie Mae Fikes was born in Selma, Alabama, and began singing gospel alongside her mother at age four. At the age of 16, she became a student leader for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Civil Rights Movement, emerging as a music leader. She was jailed for several weeks in 1963 for protesting during the voting rights struggle in Selma.
She has graced the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Newport Jazz Festival and the Library of Congress. Fikes is a recipient of the Long Walk to Freedom Award and has recently been inducted into the Smithsonian Institute’s ‘Museum of Tolerance,’ in an exhibition honoring women of the Civil Rights Movement.
Bettie Fikes’ powerful singing voice inspired Blacks in Selma to fight for equality. Fikes has been dubbed as “the voice of Selma”, and is a celebrated icon of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement.
Penn State Scranton's 2019 THON dancers Dana Beecroft and Katie Walsh on the dance floor in the Bryce Jordan Center during that year's THON weekend, when Penn State Scranton broke its previous year's record for the amount of money raised and was one of the Top Ten Commonwealth Campus THON fundraisers -- raising a grand total of $43,538.71.
Penn State Scranton's 2019 THON dancers Dana Beecroft and Katie Walsh on the dance floor in the Bryce Jordan Center during that year's THON weekend, when Penn State Scranton broke its previous year's record for the amount of money raised and was one of the Top Ten Commonwealth Campus THON fundraisers -- raising a grand total of $43,538.71.
