After leading Penn State OPP for seven years, William Sitzabee will leave position

Penn State’s vice president for facilities management and planning is leaving the post after seven years, the university announced Thursday.

William Sitzabee is leaving the position effective Sept. 6. Thomas Rodgers, Office of Physical Plant assistant vice president of administration, will serve in the interim.

Sitzabee has been at Penn State since 2017 when he started as associate vice president for facility management and planning. He was promoted to vice president and member of the president’s council in 2020, the release states.

In his position he led Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant, overseeing nearly 1,700 employees and the university’s largest operating budget. The physical plant has more than 36 million square feet of facilities in more than 2,000 buildings. There are eight divisions in the unit: administration, business and finance, college of medicine facilities, commonwealth services, design and construction, environmental health and safety (EHS), operations and planning, design and properties.

Sitzabee, a retired Air Force senior officer and combat veteran, said September will mark 10 years since he retired from the military.

“We have an incredibly strong leadership team within OPP/EHS, which makes this a good time to transition. I am proud of what we have accomplished, including building and modernizing OPP, building and developing a great team, executing on the 2018-2023 capital plan, and addressing a growing backlog of maintenance,” he said.

In the release, Sara Thorndike, senior vice president for finance and business/treasurer, thanked Sitzabee for his leadership.

“I want to thank Bill for his leadership and dedication to Penn State, and for prioritizing and executing the University’s capital plans to address the maintenance of Penn State facilities and infrastructure,” Thorndike said. The capital plan supports the maintenance, health, safety and construction of facilities across the university, including new construction and renovations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sitzabee played a key role overseeing EHS. He and his team of experts worked on strategies to clean and disinfect campus facilities and prepare for a safe return to on-campus learning and working in fall 2021, the release states.

He also has an affiliate professor appointment with the College of Engineering. He’s served on Ph.D. committees and published eight peer-reviewed papers.

Among his many accomplishments highlighted in the release, he developed and implemented the $316 million West Campus expansion plan for the College of Engineering. He also led a public-private partnership to reduce Penn State’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25%. He served on many university committees and in the State College community.

A civil engineer, Sitzabee came to Penn State from Cornell University where he was the associate vice president of facilities engineering and project administration and interim vice president for infrastructure, properties and planning. Before he joined the administration, he was a department chair and professor of aerospace studies at Cornell.

Prior to that, he was the director of the engineering management program and an associate professor of civil engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology. He also served in the U.S. Air Force for more than 20 years.