Development Staff Profile

On our website, you can see photos of our staff, along with their title and contact information. But that really doesn’t give you much to go on regarding who you might get at the other end of that email or phone call. In this new blog format, we thought we could give you a more inside scoop as to who we are and what we do, so that if you call or see us at an event, you know a bit about us before you say hello.

Director of Development, Mark Sharer, is well suited for this position - he loves being around other people and remembers everyone. “The best part of this job is getting to know so many wonderful people with a great variety of backgrounds and experiences,” said Mark. “I could be on a farm one day and up in a high rise executive office the next day. It’s never boring.”

A Penn State alumnus, Mark grew up in Centre County, where he currently lives with his wife, Amy, and two sons, Andrew and Ben. He’s always been closely connected to the agrarian community, and when the associate director position opened up in the college nine years ago, he knew it was the perfect fit. He’s been director now for five years, and in that time has grown the office staff from four to eight, and created an atmosphere of camaraderie and teamwork that has helped to make our office both successful and a lot of fun.