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2025 Candidates

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategist Uma Moriarity, higher education policy expert Katherine Wheatle, and civil rights and liberties lawyer Daniel Zahn will run for Penn State Board of Trustees in 2025.

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Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategist.

Uma (Pattarkine) Moriarity, '14

Uma Moriarity is a senior investment strategist at a $15B real estate investment firm. As the firm’s youngest partner and its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy leader, she creates long-term value, reduces financial risk, and generates superior risk-adjusted investment returns. Moriarity serves on Green Building United’s Board of Directors, the FTSE EPRA Nareit Americas Regional Advisory Committee, and the Penn State Smeal Sustainability Advisory Board. She frequently appears on media outlets like CNBC and Bloomberg to discuss real estate investing. And last year, GlobeSt. named Moriarity a 2024 Woman of Influence. 

 

Moriarity graduated with honors and high distinction from Penn State in 2014, with Bachelor’s degrees in Accounting and Finance and a Master’s in Accounting. While at Penn State, she founded Schreyer Honors College benefiting THON, oversaw its fundraising efforts exceeding $40,000, and danced in 2013. She also served on Penn State’s Homecoming executive committee. Today, she continues to support THON and mentor Penn State students. In 2023, she won the Outstanding GOLD Scholar Alumni Award.

 

Originally from Mechanicsburg, she lives in the Philadelphia area and is a Penn State Alumni Association lifetime member. 

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Higher education and equity policy expert. 

Katherine Wheatle '08

Katherine Wheatle is a grant-maker at one of the nation’s largest foundations, where she funds and supports equity and justice nonprofit organizations and leaders. Dr. Wheatle’s career has focused on higher education attainment and affordability. She is an award-winning published author and her research includes the history of inequities in higher education and student debt. She has evaluated grant programs at the U.S. Department of Education and taught college courses, including at Penn State as an Instructor in Health and Human Development and a Community Health Educator at University Health Services. Wheatle earned a Master of Science in Public Health from Emory and a Ph.D. in Higher Education from Indiana University. 


Wheatle graduated from Penn State in 2008 as a McNair Scholar and Bunton-Waller Scholarship recipient, becoming the first college graduate in her family. As a student, she was NAACP Secretary, Co-Chair for the 2008 Senior Class Gift Committee and the Racial/Ethnic Diversity Commission, and a THON dancer. Wheatle is a Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. sister and Parmi Nous member. She is involved in the Liberal Arts Alumni Mentoring Program and won the African American Studies Department’s Outstanding Alumni Award in 2020.

 

Wheatle is from Paterson, New Jersey and now lives in California.  She is a lifetime Alumni Association member. 
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Civil rights and free speech lawyer.

Daniel Zahn '20

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Daniel Zahn is a civil rights attorney at a legal nonprofit that leads nationally on free speech issues. His work focuses on individual liberties, with an emphasis on campus free speech, academic freedom, and due process rights. Daniel attended Stanford Law School, where he served as Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review, taught first-year students Constitutional Law, and served as co-president of the Jewish Law Students Association. He graduated with pro bono honors and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta. 

 

Zahn graduated with honors and highest distinction from Penn State in 2020 with three majors. As a student, he developed a mentorship program for underrepresented students navigating the college application process and led advocacy for reforms to Penn State’s speech codes and conduct processes. Today, he serves on the Scholar Alumni Society Board and mentors students through Schreyer, Liberal Arts, and the Presidential Leadership Academy.

 

Zahn grew up in Allentown and now lives in Washington, D.C.  He is an Alumni Association member. 

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