About
The Centers of Excellence are comprised of three action oriented, small teams with specific action items. These teams will consist of members representing various departments throughout the University. The teams are led by members of the Office of Ethics and Compliance, who will have primary responsibility for the results.
Centers of Excellence
- Issue Response and Investigations- Led by Erik Kochanowski, Director of Investigations
- Regulatory Management and Risk Mitigation- Led by Holly Swires, Chief Privacy Officer and Deputy Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer
- Values, Ethics, Communication and Training- Led by Sandy Weaver, Director of Youth Program Compliance, Associate Director of Ethics and Compliance
Issue Response and Investigations
The Issue Response and Investigations Center of Excellence is responsible for creating an Office of Ethics and Compliance (OEC) investigative standard operating procedures (SOP) and University-wide investigative best practices for handling reports of wrongdoing. This Investigative SOP will standardize investigative policies and procedures conducted by investigators within the OEC that can also serve as a model for units that perform investigations but do not have their internal processes documented or it can be used to further mature a units’ existing processes.
This Center of Excellence is led by Erik Kochanowski, director of investigations, with representation from Student Affairs, Human Resources, Office of Sexual Misconduct and Prevention, Office of Equal Opportunity and Access, Title IX, University Police and Public Safety, Environmental, Health and Safety, Applied Research Laboratory, Internal Audit, and Office of Research Protections.
Regulatory Management and Risk Mitigation
The Regulatory Management and Risk Mitigation Center of Excellence is responsible for developing a tool that university stakeholders who are responsible for ensuring Penn State is complying with local, state, and/or federal requirements, can utilize to support compliance teams in better identifying and understanding risks and how they are being mitigated today. Through control mapping, stakeholders identify the controls that they currently have in place and connect those controls to the regulatory obligations Penn State has. Impactfully, this tool will aid in tracking compliance progress, showcasing compliance posture, and further progressing the overall maturity of compliance at Penn State by measuring the impact and continuous improvement.
This Center of Excellence is led by Holly Swires, chief privacy officer and deputy chief ethics and compliance officer, with representation from the Office of General Counsel, Risk Management, Office of Research Protections, Internal Audit, and Environmental Health and Safety.
Values, Ethics, Communication, and Training
The Penn State Values embody what we are striving to achieve as a university and a community. The Values, Ethics, Communication and Training Center of Excellence was established to assist in efforts to further education, communicate and socialize these values. Initiatives include focusing on topics for training, creating ethics and compliance communications, and supporting the Living our Values Survey results.
This Center of Excellence is led by Sandy Weaver, associate director of ethics and compliance and director of youth compliance, Office of Ethics and Compliance, with representation from Student Affairs, Human Resources, Faculty Affairs, The Graduate School, Smeal College of Business, Environmental Health and Safety, Applied Research Laboratory, and Office of Research Protections.