New members join Penn State Beaver Advisory Board  

MONACA, Pa. — Penn State Beaver has welcomed two new members to its advisory board, Julia McDowell and Scott Mayhew.
 
McDowell, a Penn State Beaver alumna, is vice president of the Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence for Highmark. Mayhew is the maintenance, turnaround and construction director for Shell Polymers at the company's Monaca site. 
 
“Julia and Scott both bring great industry expertise to our efforts to engage our students in diverse career opportunities,” said Carey McDougall, regional chancellor of Penn State Beaver and Penn State Shenango. “With artificial intelligence and manufacturing being key sectors of growth in the region, their experiences in these areas will help the campus expand its community impact.”
 
McDowell, a 2004 graduate in business, said in working in human relations and now in the technology space she has gained a unique perspective and wants to give back to the campus in a way that will help students and set them up for success. 
 
McDowell said her job involves building bridges between people and machines and implementing strategy to utilize AI to solve problems in an ethical way that builds trust. She said she can help students understand how to be prepared for the workforce and to know what skills they will need to be successful.
 
McDowell has remained involved at Penn State Beaver, serving on the Alumni Society Board, where she was president for two terms. She also is a volunteer for the annual golf outing, supports the annual wine and ale event, and was the campus' fall 2023 commencement speaker.
 
Mayhew said he is excited to join the advisory board. “I have a lot of passion around not just operating our site, but our leadership team helping the community we operate in,” he said. “We’ve been head down trying to get this place started, and now we want to invest in more relationships. … I really want to help Penn State Beaver learn what we do and learn what opportunities we can provide to help in the curriculum.” 
 
Mayhew, who graduated from Rice University with an engineering degree and has worked with Shell for 20 years, oversees a team of about 500 people who handle site maintenance and repairs to “keep the site running safely and clean for years and years to come,” adding there’s a tremendous amount of work and strategy day to day.
 
“We are looking forward to leaning in and seeing how we can really be partners with the University and not just a name around the table,” he said.
 
Both new board members have already met with campus professors — McDowell with Richard Lomotey, associate professor of information technology, and Mayhew with Abdurrezzak Sener, assistant professor of project and supply chain management — to talk about ways they can engage with the campus.