Alum of the Month - May 2019
Tyson Klukan ‘15 M’15

"Once we started talking I felt a connection to RMU and knew it’s where I wanted to spend my next four years."

Tyson Klukan ‘15 M’15 is proud to have been involved with starting six different local businesses in his hometown of Ford City over the past two years. Since being elected to city council in 2016, Klukan has become the vice president of Ford City Borough council and funneled $1.5 million in local and state funds for the community set 40 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. He oversees a municipal staff of 15 people with a $3.5 million budget. 

In his professional role, Klukan is the business retention and marketing coordinator for the Department of Economic Development in Armstrong County and credits the RMU School of Business for helping him find a passion that would lend him to excel in civic leadership 

“From day one professors like Steve Clinton, Dean Manna, and Jill Maher always pushed me and made sure I was doing my best,” says Klukan. “They were tough on me because they really cared and wanted to see me succeed.” 

In fact, Klukan was set to go to Penn State until he met with a professor during his campus tour, who highlighted RMU’s outstanding faculty members and personal attention. 

“My mother and I met with Dean Manna and he sold me on this place. Once we started talking I felt a connection to RMU and knew it’s where I wanted to spend my next four years,” he says.

While earning his integrated bachelor’s in marketing and master’s in data analytics, Klukan was vice president of American Marketing Association, a resident assistant, and member of RMU Investment Group, Student Government Association, and Alpha Chi Rho. 

As an alumnus, he stays connected with RMU by recruiting students to volunteer at the Ford City fire department’s Old Fashioned Street Fair each year. Klukan has been a volunteer firefighter with Ford City Hose Co. No. 1 for 12 years and helps put on the event each Labor Day weekend.

Klukan also joined RMU’s 1921 Club three years ago and is excited for the first game in the UPMC Events Center. The Colonials fan attended nearly every home basketball game during his undergraduate years and traveled with the team to select away games both as a student and alumnus. 

“I feel that a dream finally came true with this events center,” he says. “The university moved forward in building a new facility that will not only expand RMU athletics, but also give RMU an even larger national platform.”