Alumni Awards Presented at College Commencement

Pennsylvania College of Technology presented a Distinguished Alumna Award to Elaine J. Lambert and an Alumnus Achievement Award to Keith L. Jeffcoat during commencement ceremonies held Saturday at the Community Arts Center in Williamsport.

The Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna Award is given annually in recognition of personal and professional accomplishments, contributions toward furthering the efforts of the college, and the high regard in which the recipient is held in the community.

The Alumnus/Alumna Achievement Award is presented annually to a Penn College graduate from the past 10 years. It recognizes noteworthy career accomplishments that demonstrate the importance of a Penn College education and recognizes graduates who continue to support the mission of the college.

A 1979 graduate of Williamsport Area Community College, with an associate of arts degree in journalism, Lambert has served as director of college information and community relations at Penn College (formerly Williamsport Area Community College) since 1985. She oversees public and media relations and the design and development of print, video and Web communications.

She provides leadership to the college's Marketing Planning Team and serves on committees for marketing to adult students and matriculation. She and her staff have developed more than a dozen admissions-recruitment marketing campaigns during her tenure as director completing all development and design work in-house.

The most recent "degrees that work" recruitment-marketing campaign uses printed publications, video clips and a redesigned college Web site, offering examples of student testimonials to personalize the college's marketing theme.

Under her leadership, College Information and Community Relations staff developed a variety of information resources including One College Avenue magazine, the "Penn College and You" and "You're the Chef" TV series, and PCToday, an online news source. These and other projects have been recognized with national awards from Admissions Marketing Report, the National Council for Public Relations and Marketing, the Telly Awards, and others.

Lambert has been an active participant in the local College Town initiative since its founding in 2004. She also works with the Williamsport Business & Merchants Association, the Williamsport YWCA, Lycoming County United Way and other community organizations to encourage positive relations between the college and the community.

As a Williamsport Area Community College student, she was active with the campus newspaper and did an internship with the Williamsport Sun-Gazette. Lambert was hired by the newspaper prior to graduation and served several years as a general-assignment reporter. She has said that she is first and foremost, in her heart, a journalist. She only chose to work in public relations because she had the opportunity to do so for her alma mater.

Among the highlights of her more than 20 years as director of the college's public-relations operation was overseeing the "rebranding" of the institution when it became Pennsylvania College of Technology in 1989. She is currently researching a book on the history of the institution, which she hopes to complete in time for its 100th anniversary in 2014.

She is married to retired newspaperman, Albert "Buc" Lambert, whose three children and 10 grandchildren she gratefully shares.

Jeffcoat, of West Chester, Ohio, serves as senior R&D development engineer/acting team leader for Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc., a Johnson & Johnson Company, Cincinnati. Previously, he was primary R&D development engineer for the firm.

Honors he has received include the Johnson & Johnson Standards of Leadership Award, the Gold Encore Award-Program Development and the Silver Encore Award-Mentorship.

A 2001 graduate (magna cum laude) of Penn College's plastics and polymer engineering technology bachelor-degree major, Jeffcoat earned a master of business administration degree (with honors) from Troy State University-Sorrell College of Business in 2003. He has also completed graduate-level classes in polymer science at the University of Arizona.

Prior to his employment with Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Jeffcoat worked as engineering manager for Westmed Inc., Tucson, Ariz.; production supervisor for Rain Bird-Arizona Molding Division, Tucson; director of fabrication, and plastics and polymer engineer (consultant) for Harmonia Medical Technologies, Tucson; and process technician aid for Grafco Inc., Hanover, Md. He served internships with Polymer Chemistry Innovations Inc., Tucson; and Poly-Seal Corp., Baltimore.

Jeffcoat has represented Ethicon Endo-Surgery in various community-service initiatives, including the Cincinnati Food Bank and the United Way.

While at Penn College, he was a Student Ambassador and a Presidential Scholar. He also served on the Student Government Association as vice president of communications, a senator from the School of Industrial and Engineering Technologies, and a member of the Judicial and Government Committee. He was also a member of the Penn College student chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineers.

He was the recipient of the Maryland State Senatorial Scholarship, the Grafco Industries Scholarship and the Air Force Association Scholarship.

Jeffcoat returned to Penn College in 2005 and 2006 to make presentations to students and promote careers in the plastics and polymer industry. He also has recruited Penn College plastics students for internships with Ethicon Endo-Surgery.

Jeffcoat and his wife, Nichole R., are the parents of two sons, David Alexander, 4, and Benjamin Reed, 9 months.