Donald L. Heller
Delaware County Community College’s 13-member Board of Trustees unanimously elected new trustee leaders on June 20 including Donald L. Heller, chairman; Kevin B. Scott, vice chairman; and Stephen F. Gambescia, re-elected secretary. Heller, who was previously vice chairman, succeeds former chairman Michael L. Ranck, president and chief executive officer of the Community YMCA of Eastern Delaware County. Each board member serves a term of six years. Trustees are not compensated and must reside in one of the College’s 12 sponsoring school districts in Delaware County. Among its many duties, the Board appoints the president of the College and approves the College’s overall policies and fees.
Donald L. Heller of Springfield
With more than 40 years of experience in business and higher education, Heller is currently senior vice dean at Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication. He also serves as treasurer of the executive committee of the board of directors for the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges, an advocacy organization for the Commonwealth’s 14 community colleges.
As senior vice dean at Temple University’s Klein College, he manages all operating and financial functions of the college and oversees TUTV, the Temple University cable television channel. With more than three decades of business management and finance experience, especially in the entertainment and television cable businesses, he also is a business development, financing and operations management consultant. Previously, he was assistant dean of Temple University’s College of Engineering.
Prior to Temple, he spent 20 years in cable television as vice president and general manager of the PRISM network and as vice president at Lenfest Communications, the parent of Suburban Cable, developing international expansion.
A native of Philadelphia, Heller has a Bachelor of Science degree from Penn State University and is a certified public accountant with a strong commitment to the community. He also serves as the vice chair of the Philadelphia Police Athletic League (PAL) Board, and chair of the PAL Scholarship Committee and as a member of its Scholarship Foundation. He was an elected local school board member for 12 years, serving as board president and treasurer, prior to joining Delaware County Community College’s Board of Trustees. He also served four years in the United States Air Force.
Kevin B. Scott of Wallingford-Swarthmore
A long-time resident of Delaware County, Scott is a partner at the Philadelphia-based law firm of Fox Rothschild, LLP, where he is chairman of the firm’s Public Finance Group. His practice covers corporate law, public finance, infrastructure and education, with an emphasis on health care and higher education revenue bond financing. He has spent most of his career advising higher education institutions on a wide variety of legal and financial issues and has authored numerous articles on the topic.
Active in many organizations, he is a member of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Bar Associations, the National Association of Bond Lawyers, and the National Association of College and University Attorneys. He also is a member and past president of the Pennsylvania Association of Bond Lawyers and of the advisory board of the Campus Legal Advisor.
He has a Juris Doctor Degree from Villanova University’s School of Law, a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State University and an associate degree from County College of Morris. He currently resides in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District.
Stephen F. Gambescia of Haverford
With more than 35 years of experience in the field of health promotion/disease prevention, Dr. Gambescia is currently assistant dean and professor of Health Services Administration in the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University.
Prior to his current position at Drexel, Dr. Gambescia has had a range of academic administrative positions most recently assistant deanships at two of Drexel’s colleges. Previously, he was dean for Graduate and Professional Studies at Cabrini College, assistant to the vice president for Academic Affairs at Neumann University, and executive director for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Consortium for Higher Education. In addition, he has worked for the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and Saint Agnes Medical Center.
Dr. Gambescia has served on numerous nonprofit health organization boards, and currently serves on the two boards of the National Commission for Health Education. He has volunteered with organizations as varied as the Society for Public Health Education (president and past president), Saint Joseph’s University’s Alumni Track Club, and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and he is on the board of directors for Archbishop John Carroll High School’s President’s Advisory Committee. He is author of several books in the field of nonprofit health groups, and aside from numerous academic publications, he writes commentary in major metro newspapers. Dr. Gambescia has a Ph.D. from Temple University, a bachelor’s degree from Saint Joseph’s University and master’s degrees from Penn State University, Regis University and Tiffin University.
