Dr. Ron Darbeau, vice president for faculty affairs and academic operations at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania, has been named chancellor of Penn State Altoona, effective Jan. 3.

Dr. Darbeau most recently served as vice president for faculty affairs and academic operations at Commonwealth University, the integrated institution of Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield universities that was established in July 2022. There, he served on the president's cabinet and provided leadership for faculty affairs for four campuses of approximately 13,000 students and 800 faculty. He oversaw graduate education and sponsored research, institutional effectiveness and institutional research, libraries, the Clearfield branch campus of Lock Haven University (LHU), and workforce development. He joined LHU as provost and vice president for academic affairs in July 2020.

Prior to LHU, he served as interim dean of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Arkansas —Fort Smith for the 2019-20 academic year and as dean of the university’s former College of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics and the School of Education from 2015 to 2020.

His academic career began at McNeese State University in 1996 where he was head of the Department of Chemistry and Physics for the last 12 years of his tenure.

Darbeau succeeds outgoing Chancellor and Dean Lori J. Bechtel-Wherry, who will retire at the end of 2022 after more than 38 years of service to Penn State and 43 years in higher education. Dr. Bechtel-Wherry has led the Altoona campus since 2005. 

A professor of biobehavioral health and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, Dr. Bechtel-Wherry assumed the role of chancellor and dean in 2005, the first woman to hold such a position at the Altoona campus. Under her leadership, Penn State Altoona expanded and renovated its facilities, increased its academic offerings, and strengthened its ties with the surrounding community.