Christopher O. Adeloye is a staff attorney in the Office of General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C., where he litigates federal cases, advises agency clients, and prepares officials for congressional testimony. He previously clerked at the Office of Disciplinary Counsel for the District of Columbia, investigating complaints against D.C.-barred attorneys. While at Penn State, Adeloye served on the University Hearing Board and as a student advisor for Undergraduate Student Government Legal Affairs. He earned his J.D. from the George Washington University Law School and interned at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alexandria, Virginia. He currently leads the Board's career readiness task force.

AnnaMaría Colom is director of the European Division for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where she oversees international agreements with multiple countries and leads capacity-building initiatives for the agency. She manages CBP offices at eight U.S. embassies in Europe and represents the agency at the World Customs Organization. Colom earned a degree in international politics with a minor in Spanish from Penn State (1994), a J.D. from the Inter American University School of Law in Puerto Rico (1998), and an M.B.A. from Royal Holloway, University of London (2010). Previously, she directed aviation and marine integration at the Department of Homeland Security and served as a DHS attaché in South America. She is fluent in Spanish, Italian, French, Catalan, and Portuguese.

Bill DeGrandis is an attorney with more than forty-four years of experience in energy industry matters. Before retiring in January 2025, he spent thirty-eight years at Paul Hastings, a global law firm, where he served as a partner in the Energy/Infrastructure Group and led the firm's Energy Regulatory Team. In that capacity, he advised clients on regulatory and transactional issues involving renewable and non-renewable generation, electric storage, transmission, and data center projects. Following retirement, DeGrandis founded his own consulting firm and serves as chief regulatory advisor to Grid Reform. DeGrandis earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Penn State, graduating with highest distinction in 1977, and a Juris Doctor from the UCLA School of Law in 1980, where he served as comments editor of the UCLA Law Review. He and his wife, Monica, have established a program fund supporting professorships in the College of the Liberal Arts. He received the college's Outstanding Service to Society Award in 2019 and was recognized in 2014 as an Outstanding Alum of Phi Sigma Kappa — Kappa Chapter.

John Gerak is a shareholder at Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., one of the largest labor and employment law firms in the country. He earned his degree in labor and employment relations from Penn State in 1992.

Steven Kelmar is the retired executive vice president of corporate affairs at Aetna Inc., a Fortune 100 health care benefits company. Over the course of his career, he held senior leadership roles at Merck & Co., Novartis AG, and Medtronic and served on the boards of several health care companies. Kelmar also had a distinguished career in public service, serving as assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President George H. W. Bush and as chief of staff to two members of Congress. He was honored with the 2011 Outstanding Political Science Alumnus Award from Penn State's College of the Liberal Arts.

Spencer D. Klein is a partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP, where he serves as co-chair of the firm's global Mergers and Acquisitions group. He earned his J.D. from Hofstra University (1989) and is also a special professor of law at Hofstra University School of Law, where he chairs the Hofstra Law Review Alumni School Dean's Advisory Board. A former chair of the Board of Visitors for the Department of Political Science, Klein and his wife, Andrea, established a trustee scholarship in the college to honor his late father, a Holocaust survivor.

David M. Kleppinger was appointed to the Penn State Board of Trustees by Governor Tom Wolf in January 2017, elected vice chair in 2020, and assumed the role of chair in 2024. He earned his B.A. in political science from Penn State (1977) and his J.D. from the Temple University School of Law (1980). Kleppinger is chairman emeritus at McNees Wallace and Nurick LLC, a law firm in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, after serving as chairman for twelve years. He served as vice chair and then chair of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry and has served on the Political Science Department's Board of Visitors, including as chair from 2013 to 2015.

Thomas Merchant is deputy general counsel and head of compliance at Franklin Templeton, where he oversees global regulatory compliance, internal audit, internal controls review, and legal contracts review, leading nearly 200 employees worldwide. He joined Franklin Templeton in 2020 when it acquired Legg Mason, where he had served as general counsel. Merchant has led legal aspects of more than twenty-five acquisitions and dispositions, including a $3.7 billion transaction with Citigroup. He began his career as a corporate associate at Shearman & Sterling and earned a J.D. from New York University School of Law (1993). He and his wife, Jill, are proud Penn State parents, and he actively mentors students and supports the Paterno Fellows Program.

James D. Newell is chairman and CEO of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, where he is responsible for nurturing the firm's culture, ensuring best-in-class client service, and implementing a strategic plan focused on recruiting and retaining high-performing lawyers and professionals and expanding the firm's national platform. A seasoned bankruptcy and corporate reorganization attorney, Newell has extensive experience guiding clients through complex restructurings and regularly lectures on bankruptcy law and legislation for the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute. He earned a J.D. from Georgetown University in 1987. With his wife, Deborah, he supports the Hyde/Political Science Board of Visitors Early Career Professorship and has established both a program fund in the Department of Political Science and a director's fund in the Penn State Democracy Institute.

Annette O'Donnell-Butner is managing director and chief compliance officer at KKR Credit Advisors (US) LLC, a global alternative investment management and advisory firm. She has led the firm's compliance and ethics program since 2009. Previously, she served as senior vice president and deputy director of compliance for the Private Investment Management division of Lehman Brothers Holdings / Barclays PLC. A Penn State political science alumna, O'Donnell-Butner earned her J.D. from Oklahoma City University School of Law. She is a Liberal Arts mentor, has served on the Political Science Department's Board of Visitors since 2012, and received the college's Outstanding Political Science Alumna Award that same year. She and her husband, Chris, established a student enhancement fund in the Paterno Fellows Program and a Trustee Matching Scholarship for political science students.

Scott Paul is president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a nonprofit partnership founded in 2007 by leading U.S. manufacturers and the United Steelworkers union. A Penn State graduate (B.A. in foreign service and international politics, 1989), he earned his M.A. in security studies from Georgetown University (2004). Under Paul's leadership, AAM has elevated American manufacturing and "Made in America" as top policy priorities through strategic advocacy, policy development, and data-driven research. A sought-after expert on trade and manufacturing, he has testified before numerous congressional committees and authored a chapter in the 2013 book ReMaking America. He also hosts the Manufacturing Report podcast.

Michael Ruger is vice president of local government affairs policy and operations at Comcast's headquarters in Philadelphia. A Penn State graduate (B.A. in political science/B.A. in psychology, 1985), he earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and has worked for the Federal Communications Commission, the law firm of Baker & Hostetler, and as a consultant. Elected to the Hopewell Township Committee in 2017, Ruger has served as mayor and deputy mayor. He chairs the Political Science Department Board of Visitors at Penn State and the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Mercer County, New Jersey, and received a Heartland Regional Emmy Award in 2007.

Amanda Wetzel is a litigation associate at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC in Philadelphia, where she focuses on commercial litigation and arbitration as well as white-collar criminal defense, with particular expertise in matters involving transatlantic elements. She has practiced at law firms in New York and Paris, handling cases in both U.S. and French courts, and has litigated before the European Court of Human Rights and other international human rights forums. Wetzel clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, served as a Dean Acheson Legal Stagiaire at the European Court of Justice, and worked as a legal fellow on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. She earned an LL.M. in human rights law from Queen's University of Belfast (2003), a J.D. from Columbia Law School (2008), and dual master's degrees in French and international commercial law from Université Paris I (2008).

James "Jay" Yonamine is co-founder and chief product and technology officer of Whimsey Labs. Previously, as head of technology and data science for the Legal Organization at Google, he led the patent data science team and a group of patent engineers, transforming how Google approaches patent quality across its sixty-thousand-plus patent portfolio. His work included developing AI-powered tools to assess patent breadth and similarity, creating dashboards to track and enhance patent quality, and spearheading a large-scale cleanup of Google's intellectual property data, correcting more than 200,000 records. Yonamine earned an M.A. (2011) and Ph.D. (2013) in political science from Penn State. He has established an undergraduate scholarship in the College of the Liberal Arts, mentors students through the Liberal Arts Alumni Mentor Program, and serves on the California Advisory Board for TechBridge Girls.