Penn State president Eric Barron will welcome higher education leaders from around the country to Happy Valley next weekend as part of the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities (APLU) 2019 joint summer meeting for the Commission on Economic & Community Engagement (CECE) and Council on Research (CoR).

The APLU’s 2019 summer meetings will be held from June 16-19 in State College.

Barron, who serves as chair of the APLU’s Commission on Economic and Community Engagement, will lead discussions on how universities can better serve their communities by focusing on impact-focused research, placing an emphasis on innovation and economic prosperity, and solving problems using student entrepreneurship.

Barron was appointed to his APLU leadership position in November 2017 and has helped guide the organization into influencing university economic and community engagement with an emphasis on student entrepreneurship and business development.

In his leadership role with the APLU, Barron has worked to promote and exchange information on the success of programs like Invent Penn State, a state-wide initiative he launched in 2015 that has created and funded 21 innovation hubs across Pennsylvania. He’ll likely work to inspire other leaders to take up similar initiatives when they come to town next weekend.