GACTC Dir. Honored with IUP Award

The director of the Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center has been selected by Indiana University of Pennsylvania for a 2018 Young Alumni Achievement Award.

Eric Palmer, a 2006 small business management bachelor's degree graduate and 2007 Master of Business Administration degree graduate, is the recipient of the 2018 award, nominated by the Eberly College of Business and Information Technology. He is the former director of the Indiana County Technology Center.

Palmer is the son of Diane Palmer, of Indiana, and Dan Palmer of Saint Mary's. He and his wife, Sandy, an IUP Small Business Management graduate, are the parents of two children.

The Young Alumni Achievement Awards are sponsored by the IUP Office of Alumni Relations and IUP Ambassadors. It is presented to IUP graduates of the last 15 years who have recorded notable achievements in their professions. Each IUP college selects a recipient who is a graduate of their college for the award.

Award recipients are honored during Young Alumni Day at IUP in the fall. In addition to the awards ceremony, alumni participate in forums and speak to current IUP students in their host college.

Palmer is a member of the Pennsylvania Association of Career and Technical Administrators and the Indiana County Revolving Loan Fund Advisement Committee. Palmer is a former adjunct instructor of management at IUP and former consultant for the IUP Small Business Development Corporation. He currently serves on the IUP Incubator Advisory Board.

While at IUP, he received the IUP Academic Excellence and Innovation Award, won a national Small Business Institute Case of the Year, won the IUP Dean's Award for Sponsored Research, Graduate Merit Scholarship and was the Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship Student of the Year.

Prior to being named director of the ICTC, Palmer worked as the Adult Education Coordinator in charge of postsecondary programs. While director of the ICTC, the school received the 2017 Tri-County Workforce Investment Board Employer of the Year and the Pennsylvania Department of Education Career and Technical Education Excellence Award.