Staff and Expertise
Heather Fennessey, PE – Director of PennTAP
Larry Grunden – Food Processing
Don LeGoullon – Advanced IT/e-Business
Tim Kerchinski – Energy and Environment
Ralene Molina-Kreiser – Energy and Environment
Bill Paletski – Energy and Environment, Safety
John Pletcher – Wood Processing Industry, Energy and Environment
Roger Price – Energy and Environment
Mark Toda – Technology and Product Commercialization, Energy and Environment
Donna Yale – Advanced IT/e-Business
Heather Fennessey, PE, is the director of PennTAP. Her expertise and interests include tech businesses, renewable energy, energy efficiency, engineering, overall business efficiency, pollution prevention, and worker health and safety. She has helped hundreds of small businesses in Pennsylvania to improve operations and receive environmental grants and low-interest loans.
Heather is also the director the Penn State Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the Pennsylvania Clean Technology Resource Center.
Heather has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Penn State, a professional engineer license in Pennsylvania in environmental engineering, and many years of experience in pollution prevention, energy efficiency, and environmental compliance. Prior to coming to Penn State, Heather worked with the military and NASA to solve joint pollution prevention projects. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in energy and mineral engineering, with an option in environmental health and safety engineering, at Penn State.
Larry Grunden
PennTAP
Penn State Harrisburg
324 Church Hall
777 W. Harrisburg Pike
Middletown PA 17057
717-948-6523
lpg11@psu.edu
Product Development
Product/Process Troubleshooting
New Business Development
Larry Grunden is a senior technical specialist with the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP). He is the Principle Investigator of the PA Keystone Kitchens Incubator Feasibility Study investigating the idea of establishing one or more shared-use commercial kitchens in Pennsylvania. He also works with food entrepreneurs, in particular those who are farm based. His assistance includes providing hands-on technical support, information, and referrals to other resources and programs.
Larry has more than thirty years of food industry experience, developing a variety of confectionery and packaged convenience foods, as well as improving product/process productivity, with Hershey Foods and Kraft Foods. He has a strong background in product development from concept through production and market launch, and manufacturing support, for a wide variety of food products. He has also played key strategic roles in the development and launch of new businesses, and business acquisitions. More recently, as a consultant, Larry has provided technical support to management, research and development, marketing, and sales.
Prior to joining PennTAP, Larry was a technical consultant with Crystals International Inc. He has bachelor's and master's degrees in food science from Penn State and a doctorate in food science from Cornell University.
Donald LeGoullon 
PennTAP
180 Basher Road
Cranberry PA 16319-2602
814-882-2449
donl@psu.edu
e-Business Strategies and Website Evaluation/Design
Internet/Intranet/Extranet Use and Implementation
Software and Hardware Needs Assessments
Donald LeGoullon is a senior e-business consultant with the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP). He provides technical assistance to organizations and businesses in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Donald's background includes more than thirty years of IT development work in several large manufacturing corporations, the banking industry, and a small-medium manufacturing company. Previous responsibilities include Web development, extensive EDI experience; disaster/recovery, security, systems programming; managing a help desk; and custom programming on numerous platforms. Donald has experience with a number of EDI translators and VANS, HTML, COBOL, and the AS/400. His areas of expertise include e-business initiatives, website search engine optimization, EDI, and disaster/recovery planning.
Tim Kerchinski is a grants and contracts manager for PennTAP. His activities include managing federal and state grant projects, as well as contracts and customer relationships with private sector companies.
Tim has been at Penn State since 1999, joining PennTAP in 2010. Prior to joining PennTAP, he concentrated his efforts on cultivating clients for Penn State Outreach through strategic, national corporate partnerships and assisting with strategic development and sales management for the Client Development Office. Tim is also an adjunct faculty instructor in marketing at Penn State's University Park campus.
Prior to joining the University, Tim had an eighteen-year career as an environmental project engineer and sales manager, working with large electric utility companies in the South (Atlanta, Dallas, and New Orleans) and on hazardous waste remediation projects for Fortune 500 companies in the northeastern part of the United States (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, and Maryland). Tim was involved in a successful entrepreneurial start-up company in Dallas and helped Delmarva Power and Light Company start, develop, and eventually sell (at a profit) a waste management company in Pennsylvania.
Tim earned his bachelor's in environmental science and technology at Slippery Rock University and his MBA at Penn State.
Tim can be reached at 814-865-4388 or txk128@outreach.psu.edu.
Ralene Molina-Kreiser
PennTAP
The Pennsylvania State University
The 329 Building, Suite 416
University Park PA 16802
814-574-0813
rxm174@psu.edu
Ralene Molina-Kreiser, a senior technical specialist with the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP), is based in State College, Pennsylvania, and provides technical assistance and information to help businesses in the center third of Pennsylvania. Assistance offered includes:
Environmental Compliance Assessments
Air, Wastewater, and Solid Waste Management
Safety Audits for Regulatory Compliance
Environmental Management Systems/ISO 14000
Pollution Prevention and Pollution Control
Lean and Clean Enterprise Methodologies, including training and implementation
Environmental Permitting
Chemical Safety
LEED assistance (Green Associate)
Energy Efficiency Assessments and Access to Energy Consulting Services
Grant Opportunities and Application Assistance
Ralene has worked in EHS positions in manufacturing and laboratory settings for more than twenty years. She received her bachelor's degree in environmental resource management and master's degree in environmental pollution control, both from Penn State.
Bill Paletski 
PennTAP
8380 Mohr Lane
Fogelsville PA 18051
610-285-5003
wpt102@psu.edu
Environmental and Safety Assessments
Regulatory Compliance and Permitting Assistance
Air, Wastewater, and Solid Waste Management
Data Analyses and Statistical Process Control
Pollution Prevention and Pollution Control
Computer-Based Training Design and Development
Energy Assessments and Thermography
Bill Paletski is a senior technical specialist with the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP). He has more than twenty-one years of environmental and occupational safety experience in the public and private sectors, including five years with professional engineering consulting firms. He has helped companies with environmental assessments, controls, permitting (EPA and DEP), management systems, ISO 14000, safety compliance and assessments, ISO 18001, quantitative data analyses, statistical process control, and computer-based training design and development.
Bill has a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering from Wilkes College and a master of engineering degree in environmental pollution control from Penn State. He is a doctoral candidate in adult education at Penn State.
Bill is a registered professional engineer (PE) in Pennsylvania. He has published several articles in the environmental engineering field and has developed numerous computer-based training programs for clients in Pennsylvania. He has also been the recipient of the University Economic Development Association Project-of-the-Year award on two occasions.
John Pletcher 
PennTAP
The Pennsylvania State University
313 Forest Resources Lab
University Park PA 16802
814-863-6393
jep13@psu.edu
Wood Technology
Adhesives, Finishing, and Wood Waste/Residue Issues
Process Improvements, Equipment Selection
Shop Floor Troubleshooting
John Pletcher is a forest products technical specialist with the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP), addressing the technical needs of the forest products industry. He has filled this role since July 1998, when PennTAP began to offer specialized assistance to the forest products community.
Prior to joining PennTAP, John was contracted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for a two-year pilot project to provide one-on-one technical assistance to the secondary wood products industry. The project was so successful that it was expanded from the southwestern portion of the state to the entire Commonwealth.
John has more than twenty-one years of experience in the secondary portion of the industry, from lumber drying through finished wood products. He has assisted numerous companies with process improvements, yield improvements, adhesive and finishing issues, and residue/by-product recycling challenges, resulting in millions of dollars in economic impact.
John earned an associate degree in forestry and a bachelor's degree in forest products from Penn State and is currently pursuing a master's degree in wood science. In his spare time he enjoys outdoor activities with his family and designing and building audio speakers, and has built a garden railroad in their backyard.
Roger Price 
PennTAP
Penn State McKeesport
4000 University Drive
McKeesport PA 15132
412-675-9482
rogerprice@psu.edu
Pollution Prevention and Pollution Control
Environmental Compliance Assessments
Environmental Management Systems/ISO 14000
Air, Wastewater, and Solid Waste Management
Environmental Assessments
Process Improvements, Equipment Selection
Process-Cost-Saving Evaluations
Regulatory Compliance and Permitting Assistance
Energy Efficiency Assessments and Access to Energy Consulting Services
Electrotechnolgies for Improving Air Quality
Roger Price, a senior technical specialist with the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP), is based at the McKeesport campus of Penn State. He provides technical assistance and information to help resolve specific technical questions or needs of businesses in southwestern Pennsylvania. Roger's areas of focus and technical assistance expertise are in pollution prevention, environmental compliance, and energy efficiency. His position also represents a partnership between the Electrotechnology Applications Center (ETAC) and PennTAP to help manufacturers in western Pennsylvania evaluate electric heating, drying, and curing technologies that will increase the productivity, improve the energy efficiency, and reduce the environmental impact of their manufacturing processes.
Roger has more than 30 years of experience as a practicing professional engineer. He is a recognized expert in the pollution prevention approach for identifying manufacturing process and procedure changes to improve industrial competitiveness, save energy, and reduce environmental emissions through process optimization. Roger has performed more than 150 industrial facility assessments for energy efficiency and pollution prevention opportunities, environmental management system performance, and environmental compliance. He has also conducted more than 170 professional training sessions on these subjects.
In 1991 Roger was appointed to serve on an advisory committee for the President's Commission on Environmental Quality (PCEQ), concerning its Pollution Prevention Demonstration Project. He is founder and co-chair of the Industry Pollution Prevention Roundtable for Southwest Pennsylvania. For twelve years Roger managed a statewide pollution prevention technical assistance program that was a 1992 regional winner (Region III) of the U.S. EPA's Administrator's Award. Prior to that, as corporate environmental specialist, he participated in the development of corporate-wide environmental management systems.
Roger is a registered professional engineer. He has a bachelor's degree in engineering from Cornell University and a master's degree in sanitary engineering from Penn State.
Mark Toda 
PennTAP
Hanover Industrial Estates
75 Young Street
Wilkes-Barre PA 18706
570-819-8973
mtoda@psu.edu
Mechanical Analysis and Stress Analysis
Materials Testing
Electronics Packaging
Product Development
Mark Toda has served the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP) as a senior technical specialist in northeastern Pennsylvania for more than 15 years. He has assisted numerous businesses with the technical issues facing them and has worked with a variety of resources, both within the University and without, in developing potential solutions.
Mark's technical background includes experience in engineering mechanics and finite element analysis. He previously served as manager of packaging design analysis at IBM Corporation, providing mechanical analysis support to electronics packaging development engineering. He holds a bachelor's degree in bioengineering from Syracuse University and a master's degree in theoretical and applied mechanics from Cornell University.
Mark assists companies in a variety of technical areas and has experience in new-product development, manufacturing process analysis, process mapping, energy assessments, and entrepreneurship. He also has an understanding of the patenting process and has assisted entrepreneurs and start-up companies with various technical and business issues. He has a particular interest in linking industry with University resources and research expertise.
Mark works closely with the Ben Franklin Partnership Program, the Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Centers, and the Small Business Development Centers. He also works with other Penn State Outreach offices, including Continuing Education, Cooperative Extension, and the Penn State campuses in northeastern Pennsylvania. He maintains close working relationships with government agencies, such as the Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance and the Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission.
Donna Yale
PennTAP
RR 1 Box 203
Milan PA 18831
570-596-3585
dyale@psu.edu
e-Business Strategies and Website Evaluation/Design
Internet/Intranet/Extranet Use and Implementation
Business Productivity Technologies
Software and Hardware Needs Assessments
Donna Yale is the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program's (PennTAP) e-business consultant for the Northern Tier and Northeast regions of Pennsylvania. She works out of Towanda, Pennsylvania. Prior to joining PennTAP, she held a variety of programming jobs. As computer programmer/analyst for OSRAM Sylvania Products, Inc., she developed and maintained Web pages for the intranet (trained employees on developing their own), maintained radio frequency units, and was the application programmer for many in-house programs, such as maintenance and employee absentee/labor, along with various Lotus Notes applications. She was also a facilitator for Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
Prior to OSRAM Sylvania, Donna contracted as an application computer programmer with Guthrie Clinic, Ltd. Prior to that, she was a development programmer for IBM, Owego, New York, and ran various computer help desks for them.
Donna has experience with many programming languages and databases, such as Visual Basic, Access, SQL, HTML, PL1, Cobol, and Lotus Notes/Domino. She is also fluent in Microsoft FrontPage, Word, and Excel.
Donna received an associate degree in computer science from Williamsport Area Community College (now Pennsylvania College of Technology), a bachelor's degree in computer information systems from Mansfield University, and is currently pursuing her master's of education in adult education through Penn State.
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