Penn State Greater Allegheny Professor to Address Students at Fall Commencement

Chancellor Curtiss E. Porter, Ph.D., will confer degrees on 39 students at Penn State Greater Allegheny?s fall commencement beginning at 7 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 18 in the Wunderley Gymnasium.  Diplomas will be awarded in a number of areas, including organizational leadership, political science, business, communications, applied psychology, and information sciences and technology.

 Mary Preuss, a member of the Penn State Greater Allegheny faculty since 1989, will address the students at commencement. Currently a professor of Spanish and comparative literature, Preuss has traveled extensively in Mexico and Latin America.  Her research has focused on the Mayan civilization in Mexico and Guatemala where she has recorded, transcribed, and translated ancient oral literature in an effort to preserve the stories of the Yucatec-Maya language and heritage for future generations.  

In 1982  Preuss established the Latin American Indian Literatures Association, a thriving international organization dedicated to the preservation and study of these literatures.  Since 1984 she has been the editor of the Latin American Indian Literatures Journal, a publication subscribed to from the Americas, Middle East, Europe and the Orient.  Preuss has presented her research at both national and international conferences and has published extensively in both Spanish and English.

Preuss received her bachelor?s in Spanish, her master?s of education and her doctorate in Hispanic Literatures from the University of Pittsburgh. She began her teaching career in the public school system, teaching in the Wilkinsburg, Mars and the North Hills school districts.  She has also taught at the college level at Clarion University, Chatham, Geneva, and Carlow Colleges. Preuss currently chairs the Foreign Language Department at Penn State Greater Allegheny and is the representative from our campus to the College of Liberal Arts at University Park.