Ron Darbeau has been named chancellor of Penn State Altoona. The university enrolls just under 2,600 students. African Americans are 6 percent of the student body.
“I am both grateful and excited for the opportunity to work with the talented and dedicated faculty, staff and administrators at Penn State Altoona. It is a singular honor to accept the leadership of this campus in its continuing mission that highlights student success, academic excellence, diversity, sustainability and community engagement — values which resonate strongly with my own. With the support of the campus community and its extended family, I intend to usher in a period of prosperity and strategic growth for Penn State Altoona.”
Dr. Darbeau was vice president for faculty affairs and academic operations at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania, the integrated institution of Bloomsburg, Lock Haven, and Mansfield universities that was established in July 2022. Earlier, 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 Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1996 where he was head of the department of chemistry and physics for the last 12 years of his tenure.
A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Darbeau holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in chemistry from the University of the West Indies. He earned master’s and doctoral degrees in organic chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
