The Nomination Committee of The Collegian Alumni Interest Group is recommending a slate of candidates for election that includes two existing board members and two Collegian alumni who would be new to the board.
They are Robyn Radomski, the current board president, Board Member Karen Pallotta, who created and oversees current the AIG mentoring program, Nichole Dobo, national writer for The Hechinger Report and Daniel Kohli-Winklebleck.
Dan Koli-Winklebleck
Kohli-Winklebleck, President, Kohli-Winklebleck Development, LLC, graduated from Penn State in 2007 with degrees in History and Geography. He earned a Master’s degree in Museum Studies in 2010 from the State University of New York. He worked or interned for institutions such as the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Boston Children’s Museum, Rochester Museum and Science Center, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
He then spent a decade focusing on fundraising and development operations for health care organizations in Rochester, N.Y., Columbus, Ohio, and New Jersey. He started his company in 2022 and provides strategic support for fundraising operations and grant seeking for small to mid-sized nonprofit clients.
At The Collegian, he worked on the sports staff throughout his time at Penn State, eventually becoming a Sports Editor. Dan believes lessons he learned about information gathering, editing, and storytelling during his time at The Collegian have been essential building blocks for every step of his career. He lives with his wife and two children in the Rochester, N.Y., area.
Dobo is an experienced nonprofit newsroom leader and national news reporter. She works at The Hechinger Report, a pioneering national nonprofit news outlet. She manages the product, audience growth and innovation work, facilitating cooperation across departments to meet editorial and revenue goals.
In 2021, she was awarded a Knight-Wallace Fellowship from the University of Michigan to study rural affairs, polarization and trust in the media. Her reporting has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, High Country News, Newsweek, The Atlantic and Slate. She worked at local newspapers earlier in her career, earning a variety of awards.
Nichole Dobo
Dobo, who grew up in rural western Pennsylvania, earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Penn State in 2004. She was a reporter and campus chief at The Daily Collegian. She lives in Media, Pa. with her husband, Wade Malcolm, who is also a Penn State and Daily Collegian alumni.
Robyn is a strategy, marketing and brand positioning executive who has served as Chief Marketing Officer of some of the world’s largest professional services organizations and as Senior Vice President of Edelman Worldwide and Bozell. She is retired now and runs her own consulting firm, RLR Advisory Group. She was elected to a two-year term as President of the AIG board in 2022.
Robyn has been recognized as a marketing leader by media and business organizations including the American Marketing Association, Legal Marketing Association, Marketing Partner Forum and International Association of Business Communicators. She holds an MBA from DePaul University in Chicago as well as a bachelor’s from Penn State in Journalism. She lives in Lake Forest, Illinois and San Diego.
At The Collegian, she was a copy and graphics editor and reporter, experiences that were integral to her career.
Karen is a retired Executive Vice President of Fannie Mae, operates her own advisory business and serves on the Board of Directors of Stewart Title.
The Penn State Alumni Association selected Karen to receive the 2023 Mark and Carol Poblete Award for Alumni Leadership Development. She was nominated by the AIG board for creating the current AIG mentorship program and for her annual efforts to improve it.
The Daily Collegian served as Karen’s first “business” related job, and the experience she gained helped launch her on a 30-year career in managing financial services businesses.
She worked on The Collegian business staff selling advertising to local merchants and graduated from Penn State in 1985. She subsequently earned an MBA and lives with her family in the Washington DC Metro area.
There are four vacancies, and any Collegian alumni who is a member of the Penn State Alumni Association may self-nominate. To self-nominate, a Collegian alum should send an email to [email protected] with a resume, a statement describing the candidate’s interest in serving on the board, and the signatures of 20 Collegian AIG members who endorse the candidacy. The deadline for self-nominations is July 31.
Serving on the Nominating Committee are Board members R. J. Hufnagel, Barbara White Stack and Nicole Miao, with R.J. chairing the committee.
