Dr. Thomas Burns is president of York College of Pennsylvania in Spring Garden Township, York County, where 30 years of higher education experience have shaped a leadership approach centered on making the institution as useful to the region as it is to its students.

Burns oversees the college’s strategic vision, leads faculty and staff and works to strengthen the partnerships with local employers and community organizations that define YCP’s identity.

The work he considers most significant has been repositioning the college as an economic and educational anchor for York County — expanding community-focused developments like Knowledge Park to bridge academic innovation and industry and generating an estimated $64 million in economic impact in the process.

That regional orientation extends into the classroom through the Center for Community Engagement. Burns said the through line connecting all of it is a commitment to ensuring that “education translates directly into career impact.”

Linda Fedrizzi-Williams leads the overall strategy of the college with a focus on financial stability, enrollment growth, and career-focused innovation. “I work across teams to strengthen operations, improve academic programs, and ensure the college is prepared to meet the needs of today’s students and workforce,” she said.

She has been in the higher education field for 21 years. At Central Penn, she has led efforts to reshape the college’s academic programs to better match workforce needs and student outcomes.

“This has helped create stronger enrollment pathways, made our programs more responsive to industry changes, and improved how we connect education to real career opportunities,” Fedrizzi-Williams said.

She said higher education is facing declining student populations, rising costs, and increased pressure to show clear career outcomes.

Karen Kim, MD, MS, has served as dean of Penn State College of Medicine in Dauphin County since 2023.

She also holds the role of Physician in Chief, leading the college’s education, research and clinical missions while driving innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration across the university and commonwealth.

A nationally recognized leader in health disparities research and the founder and director of the Center for Asian Health Equity, Kim prioritizes public policy efforts for underserved populations.

The healthcare landscape today is “pressured by workforce shortages, rising costs and the need to integrate research, education and care,” Kim said, according to a previous CPBJ profile.

“Over the past year, we advanced our commitment to rural health by expanding programs that bring high-quality care, education and research to underserved communities,” Kim said.

Charles Patterson is the 18th president of Shippensburg University in Cumberland County, a position he has held since May 2022.

Patterson arrived at the university in June 2021 as interim president before the Board of Governors of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education unanimously selected him for the permanent role.

Prior to Shippensburg, he served as president of Mansfield University, where his leadership helped reverse a nine-year enrollment decline and raised first-year student retention from 73% to 78.1%.

“I continue to be inspired by the important scholarly work of our Ship students and faculty,” Patterson said, according to a Shippensburg University news release. “I look forward to working collaboratively with our many stakeholders, partners, and friends of the university to ensure Ship is recognized as the flagship institution it deserves to be.”