PENN STATE BERKS
Sadan Kulturel-Konak, professor of management information systems at Penn State Berks, has been elected Zone I chair and a member of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) board of directors following a nationwide vote in the 2025 ASEE election. She will begin her three-year term at the end of June 2026.
Sadan Kulturel-Konak (Courtesy Penn State Berks)
Kulturel-Konak’s election as the ASEE Zone I chair directly aligns with her leadership at Penn State Berks, where she advances interdisciplinary, innovation-driven engineering education.
As director of the college’s Flemming Creativity, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Center, she promotes experiential learning, industry collaboration and economic engagement initiatives that prepare students to translate technical knowledge into real-world impact.
In her roles as program chair for the college’s new bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary business with engineering studies and the entrepreneurship and innovation minor, she leads programs that integrate engineering, business and entrepreneurship — a model that reflects ASEE’s priorities in innovation and workforce development.
Her work at Penn State Berks as a learner-centered culture fellow and an affiliate faculty member in the Penn State Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering further strengthens the student-centered, cross-disciplinary approaches to engineering education that she will champion at the national level.
Kulturel-Konak has made significant contributions to ASEE and the engineering education community through leadership, scholarship and service. She has served in multiple Middle Atlantic Section leadership roles, chaired a regional conference, and participated in conference program and awards committees.
BARLEY SNYDER
Former Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas President Judge David L. Ashworth has joined Barley Snyder as a mediator.
Ashworth concluded his judicial career in January 2026 after serving for 26 years on the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas, where he presided over the Criminal Court, Civil Court, Drug Court and Discovery Motions Court. Ashworth was elected by his fellow judges to serve as president judge of Lancaster County from 2020 through 2024, a role in which he managed court administration and oversight of the county’s 19 district judges, while continuing to hear cases.
David L. Ashworth (Courtesy Barley Snyder)
At Barley Snyder, Ashworth joins the firm’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Service Team, where he will concentrate on mediating complex civil disputes, including medical malpractice, product liability, personal injury, commercial matters, and construction cases. He is a National Judicial College–certified mediator, reflecting advanced training in dispute resolution and a demonstrated ability to guide parties through challenging negotiations efficiently and effectively.
Before taking the bench, Ashworth built a successful litigation practice over more than 20 years as a trial attorney and founding partner of Wagman, Ashworth, Kreider and Wright in downtown Lancaster. He represented both plaintiffs and defendants in personal injury and product liability matters.
Ashworth spent 15 years as a senior adjunct professor at Franklin & Marshall College, where he taught a community-based learning course focused on the court system, treatment courts, and substance use disorder and addiction. His civic involvement includes service on numerous nonprofit boards, including a term as president of the Rotary Club of Lancaster, and ongoing service on the national board of All Rise, formerly known as the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.
His honors include the Lancaster Bar Association’s Judge Louise Gatling Herr Memorial Award for charitable and community service, and the inaugural 2024 Pennsylvania Association of Drug Court Professionals President’s Award, recognizing his lasting impact on treatment courts at both the state and national levels.
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