Young Alumni Award
The Young Alumni Award is presented annually to a member of the alumni community who graduated in the last 15 years and whose professional accomplishments, service to alma mater, or selfless and caring work to benefit society are distinctive.
2025 Recipient
Winnie Okello '10
Winnie Okello '10 currently serves as the first parks and recreation equity program specialist at the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. In this role, she is developing a systematic approach to ensuring outdoor recreation and conservation across the Commonwealth is more equitably available and accessible.
Prior to her current role, she served as the first statewide strategic coordinator for the Office of Environmental Justice at Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP). There, she served as a technical expert on revising and implementing the Environmental Justice Policy, and helped secure nearly $1 million through the Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Justice Government-to-Government program. She spearheaded the development and implementation of self-advocacy mechanisms for more proactive outreach and engagement with communities in environmental justice areas. She also served as the lead coordinator for the Environmental Justice Interagency Council and the Environmental Justice Advisory Board.
Before joining PADEP, Okello served in various roles within the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to advance the research and implementation of recycled materials reuse in civil engineering applications through the Strategic Recycling Program and a multi-state Transportation Pooled Funds study. She was also pivotal in the restructuring of PennDOT's statewide Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System permit program.
Okello offers her professional expertise to the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine's Transportation Research Board, volunteering in various roles within the organization. She has served on the Resource Conservation and Recovery Committee, Stormwater Committee, and Women and Gender Issues in Transportation, of which she is currently subcommittee chair. She is also an expert panelist on the National Cooperative Highway Research Program for the development of Guidance for Implementing Equitable Transportation Decision-Making.
Okello has consistently volunteered with the Bucknell Engineering Alumni Association (BEAA) since her undergraduate years, when she was a student representative for the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). The first Black engineering alum to serve on BEAA's executive board, she has mentored students through various programs at the College of Engineering and Bucknell's Center for Career Advancement. She has been a guest speaker of various courses and student organizations in the College of Engineering, offered the keynote address for Bucknell's NSBE 30th Anniversary Celebration in April 2022, and has provided practical learning opportunities for students through internship with her non-profit, The Harassment and Assault Reporting Platform (H.A.R.P).
Okello founded H.A.R.P in 2020 in response to the rampant street and transit harassment incidents that dominated news headlines in the months leading to the murder of George Floyd. H.A.R.P is a single-source platform that gathers crowd-sourced data on harassment and assault incidents to better understand the prevalence of these issues in society. H.A.R.P increases awareness and shares learning opportunities through data storytelling. It is founded on the principles that we cannot measure what we do not count, we do not count what we do not value, we will not value what we cannot see, and we certainly cannot see what we choose to unsee.
Through H.A.R.P, Okello has coordinated the Annual Juneteenth Love in Action protest with fellow community advocates, highlighting the pervasive injustices perpetuated through the criminal legal system. The effort calls for real policy changes and accountability from the county government pertaining to Dauphin County Prison (DCP). In September 2024, this collective effort and persistent pressure resulted in milestone victories when County Commissioners voted to forgive the $66 million in pay-to-stay debt looming over formerly incarcerated people and their families. Moreover, in November 2024, Dauphin County Commissioners agreed to initiate a request for proposal for medical services at DCP, marking the first time in 40 years that the existing service provider will have to compete to maintain its contract at the prison.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Okello founded the Harrisburg Community Working Group to host virtual weekly lunch-and-learn sessions for the broader community. These sessions brought together technical experts, decision-makers, and community advocates to explore key elements and implications of the city's first comprehensive plan revision since 1974.
From her post-secondary beginnings at Lehigh Carbon Community College's Honors Scholars program to Bucknell's College of Engineering via the Jack Kent Cooke Community College Scholarship program, Okello's career and service to the community is a testament to the importance of investing in equitable access to higher education. As an engineering alum, she continues to live out NSBE's mission: to increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community through her passion, purpose and profession.