The Committee of Governance and Long-Range Planning announced the approval of Dr. David C. Han for a full vote of the Board of Trustees to serve as the Board’s faculty representative Thursday. If confirmed by a full-board vote Friday, Han will serve a second three-year team as academic trustee effective July 1.

Han, a professor of surgery and radiology at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine, was initially elected to the board as an academic trustee in 2015 and is the current chair of the Board’s Committee of Governance and Long-Range Planning. Han earned an undergraduate degree in biology from Penn State in 1988, a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1992, and a master’s degree in health evaluation sciences from Penn State in 2005. 

Han is also the vice-chair of the department of surgery at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine. He served as the president of the Penn State Alumni Association from 2007-2009, and was a member of the Board of Trustees’ Special Committee for University Governance from 2012-2013. 

The Penn State Faculty Senate begins the academic trustee election process by recommending a candidate to the Board. Three trustees appointed by the Chair of the Board of Trustees then interview the recommended candidate and submit the candidate’s name to the Committee of Governance and Long-Range Planning for further screening. The committee then forwards the recommended candidate’s name to the entire Board for confirmation or rejection, and if approved, the candidate is officially elected at the Board’s annual May meeting.