Jonathan U. Dougherty, PhD, Penn State alumnus and Penn State Wilkes-Barre Advisory Board member, will address graduates at the Penn State Wilkes-Barre commencement ceremony Saturday, May 4 at 10:00 a.m. in the campus' Athletic and Recreation Building.
A native of Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, Dr. Dougherty earned his Bachelor of Architectural Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University in 1999. He continued his academic career at Penn State earning his Doctor of Philosophy in Architectural Engineering in 2006. Dr. Dougherty is Director of the Corporate Knowledge Center for James G. Davis Construction Corporation in Rockville, Maryland, where he leads the corporate education and knowledge management initiatives of the firm.
Prior to joining Davis Construction, Dr. Dougherty taught in Penn State's Department of Architectural Engineering for six years. An award-winning teacher, Dr. Dougherty also served as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Building Construction at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and is a sought-after lecturer at many universities and campuses, including Penn State Wilkes-Barre. Dr. Dougherty's research pursuits include the creation and analysis of online knowledge communities to support student/practitioner collaboration in engineering courses, and his work has been published in the Journal of Architectural Engineering and several conference proceedings.
Dr. Dougherty is a champion of students and lifelong learning, as evidenced by his service to The Pennsylvania State University and the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. As an alumni leader, he is an active member of the Penn State Wilkes-Barre Campus Advisory Board, a Board Member for the Penn State Engineering Alumni Society, and founding Board Member and current President of the Penn State Alumni Society of Architectural Engineers. An advocate of students, Dr. Dougherty serves as chair of the Student-Focused Environment Committee and frequently facilitates student focus groups for the Wilkes-Barre campus, is a practitioner juror for Penn State's AE Senior Thesis presentations, and mentors fourth-year engineering students. His industry service includes being a Trustee for the Francis L. Greenfield Laborer's Joint Training Fund of Washington, D.C., serving on the Montgomery College Construction Industry Advisory Committee, working on the Industry Recruiting Taskforce of the Associated General Contractors of America, and serving on both the Membership and the Student Competition Committees for the Architectural Engineering Institute.
In 2012, Dr. Dougherty received the Hayfield Award for Excellence in Service to the Campus from Penn State Wilkes-Barre. He was honored as an Architectural Engineering Centennial Fellow by Penn State in 2010 and received the PSEAS Distinguished Service Award in 2013. Most recently, Dr. Dougherty was named to Engineering News-Record's 2013 Top 20 Under 40 in the Mid-Atlantic, which celebrates the excellence of young design and constructional professionals in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
An avid Penn State football fan, member of the Nittany Lion Club, and Life Member of the Penn State Alumni Association, Dr. Dougherty resides in Gaithersburg, Maryland. You can connect with him on twitter @JUDougherty.
