Press Releases

Staff and Centers of the Pennsylvania SBDC awarded during statewide meeting in York.

PHILADELPHIA, PA. (PRWEB) JUNE 29, 2016
The Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) have honored ten staff members and four Centers for their commitment and contributions to small business during their 2016 annual network meeting held in York, Pennsylvania last week. The awards announced include:

SBA Nomination Award: Penn State SBDC & Gannon University SBDC
This award recognizes a staff member who successfully nominated a client for an SBA award, thus raising the profile of the SBDC program. Acoustic Sheep won the SBA Small Business Person of the Year award for both Pennsylvania districts and went on to the national competition. They were nominated and assisted by the Penn State and Gannon University SBDCs.

Creative Funding Award: Kutztown University SBDC
This award is given to a Center that has found new and creative ways to raise program funding. Kutztown University SBDC was successful in obtaining funding from six different sources beyond core SBDC program funds last year, earning them the award.

Service Award: Capital Access Team (Jeff Boldizar, St. Francis University SBDC; Dennis Hummer, Bucknell University SBDC; Robert Mineo, Lehigh University SBDC; Cheryl Young, Shippensburg University SBDC)

The Service Award recognizes service to the entire Pennsylvania SBDC network. The team that received this award presented to all Pennsylvania SBDC network staff sharing their findings on capital formation from around the national SBDC network.

Targeted Service Award: Environmental Management Assistance Program (EMAP) (Nancy Crickman, Pennsylvania SBDC Lead Office; Lee Ann Briggs, University of Pittsburgh SBDC; Jeremy Hancher, Pennsylvania SBDC Lead Office; Chuck Haney, Shippensburg University SBDC; Carrie Wintersteen, Pennsylvania SBDC Lead Office)

This award was given to recognize service to the entire Pennsylvania SBDC network in a targeted service area. The Pennsylvania SBDC’s Environmental Management Assistance Program (EMAP) was recently awarded the 2015 U.S. EPA Administrator’s Award for Outstanding Accomplishments by a Small Business Trade or State Small Business Environmental Assistance Provider, thus making them the recipient of the Targeted Services Award.

Capital Investment Award (Number of Investments): Robert Mineo, Lehigh University SBDC
This award goes to the business consultant who had the highest number of client investments for the last program year. The consultant with the most number of investments approved during calendar year 2015, a total of 54, was Rob Mineo of the Lehigh University SBDC.

Capital Investment Award (Highest Total Dollar Amount of Investments): John Snyder, Gannon University SBDC
Honorable Mention: Wharton SBDC
This award is given to the business consultant who had the highest dollar client investment for the last program year. The consultant with the highest dollar amount recorded total capital investment of more than $14 million dollars was John Snyder of the Gannon University SBDC who also won this award last year.

Happy Client Award: Clarion University SBDC, Kutztown University SBDC, St. Vincent College SBDC, and Wharton SBDC
This award recognizes centers who are going above and beyond to satisfy their clients by earning a 100 percent on the client satisfaction metric as recorded on the Pennsylvania SBDC’s Annual Client Questionnaire. Four centers achieved this accomplishment in 2015.

Center Performance Award: Penn State SBDC and The University of Scranton SBDC
Honorable Mention: Clarion University SBDC
This award recognizes the Center (or Centers) that have demonstrated strong performance during the last program year by scoring the highest on the 2015 performance elements report.

Elements tracked in this report include measures of each Centers’ performance tracked by output, impact, promotion, operations, and client satisfaction.
For high resolution photos of all award winners, please contact Kelly Cofrancisco at (215) 746-6474 or kcofran(at)wharton.upenn(dot)edu.

About Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers (SBDC)
The Pennsylvania SBDC network is the only statewide, nationally accredited program that provides high quality one-on-one consulting, training and information resources to empower new and existing businesses. SBDC consultants work with entrepreneurs in confidential, individualized sessions to help them with a range of business issues including testing a new business proposition, shaping a business plan, investigating funding opportunities, and much more. The SBDC program is a public/private partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and 18 universities and colleges across the Commonwealth. The Pennsylvania SBDC Lead Office is headquartered at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. For more information on the Pennsylvania SBDC services and impact, please visit http://www.pasbdc.org.
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