(Butler, PA) A Mars resident who volunteers with suicide prevention coalitions in western Pennsylvania and a Butler resident who advocates for marginalized populations in the greater Pittsburgh area will be honored Saturday as Butler County Community College’s 2023 distinguished alumni.
Dr. Shanea Clancy and Ivory Dunlap represent the 19th class of former students to be recognized for utilizing their education and experience from BC3 to achieve significant levels of success and for their commitment to community service.
The Oak Hills Celebration on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township will also serve as an opportunity for current BC3 students who received a record 155 named scholarships from the BC3 Education Foundation in 2023-2024 to meet their benefactors.
Lucas Ray, of Butler, a sophomore psychology student at BC3 whose goal is to become a psychiatrist, will speak at the Oak Hills Celebration on behalf of scholarship recipients.
Clancy and Dunlap bring to 56 the number of BC3 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients since 2004. They are among the approximately 26,000 former students who earned at least 45 credits at BC3 since the college’s first class assembled in 1966.
"Shanea and Ivory went into fields where they can pay it forward and help others. We are absolutely proud of them."
Dr. Nick Neupauer, BC3 president

Clancy is employed with the Veterans Health Administration’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in Washington, D.C. Dunlap is director of the Office for Inclusive Excellence at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.
“They represent the best of our BC3 alumni who have come here to receive an education, gone out into the greater community and used their education and skills to make an impact in these very important ways,” said Megan Coval, executive director of the BC3 Education Foundation and external relations.
“Shanea working with suicide prevention and Ivory with marginalized groups extend what they have learned and the experiences they have had at BC3 to making the community a better place.”
Their professions and volunteer efforts, said Dr. Nick Neupauer, the college’s president, “speak to BC3. Shanea and Ivory went into fields where they can pay it forward and help others. We are absolutely proud of them and of the recognition they deserve.”
Clancy, a 2004 graduate of Seneca Valley High School, earned 64 credits at BC3 as a general studies student from 2004 to 2007.
She achieved a nursing diploma from West Penn Hospital; a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Clarion University of Pennsylvania; and a master’s degree in forensic nursing and a doctorate degree in nursing practice from Duquesne University. Clancy is pursuing an executive master of business administration degree in health care from the University of Pittsburgh.
Dunlap, a 1991 graduate of Butler Senior High School, earned an associate degree in early childhood education (Pre K-4) from BC3 in 1996.
She achieved a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from what is now La Roche University, and a master’s degree in student affairs in higher education from Slippery Rock University.

“I care about you”
Clancy has served on suicide prevention consortiums, alliances, networks and task forces in Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Lawrence, Mercer and Westmoreland counties, and with organizations that address addiction.
She has instructed four of the “Veteran Suicide: Suicide Prevention is Everyone’s Business” noncredit courses offered 11 times at BC3 since 2020, and trains Veterans Health Administration employees nationwide “about anything that touches suicide prevention,” she said.
Suicide prevention “is very important to me, as it should be to all,” Clancy said. “Not just for the veteran population, but for all populations. Suicide extends to all ages, races and nationalities. I don’t care who you are, how old you are, what race you are, I care about you.
“Sometimes people don’t know their value, respect themselves or know how to forgive themselves. They get stuck. I don’t mind getting in the trenches with them and connecting them with what they need.
Suicide, Clancy said, “is a knee-jerk reaction to extenuating circumstances. So if we have people in place – the community, family or friends – who know what to do, they can save a life and make a huge difference.”
Clancy is also president of Clancy Consulting Services and serves as marketing coordinator for the Butler Collaborative for Families.
BC3 “was a welcoming community. It was like a small town. When you are walking past people they said hello. That made it very easy to make friends. And I had amazing professors who were very versed in the classes they were teaching.”
Dr. Shanea Clancy, 2023 BC3 distinguished alumna
“It’s not about me”
Dunlap worked as an associate professor, and as an academic counselor and retention specialist at BC3 from 2009 to 2021.
The granddaughter of Walter Dunlap, who served three years as BC3’s first Black trustee until his passing in 1989, also worked in positions at the college in which she advised students from low-income households; assisted students with physical, mental or emotional disabilities; and instructed students about contemporary concerns surrounding historically marginalized populations.
She was a member of BC3’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council, which prepares students for living and working in an increasingly changing world; and of the college’s Green Zone, which helps students transitioning from military service to civilian and college life.
Dunlap is a member of the Butler Collaborative for Families, counseled individuals in crisis as an employee of the Victim Outreach Intervention Center and is a past member of Butler County PFLAG.
Working with marginalized populations, Dunlap said, “is all I want to do. That’s what I’m in this for. It’s to make a difference in people’s lives. It doesn’t matter to me if I see the difference or not, or if they tell me. I strive for it every day. … That’s the whole point of everything that I do. It’s not about me. It’s about everybody else.”
“There was more of a familial vibe at BC3, a familial touch to the institution. I was trying to figure out where I fit and where I would be at my best.”
Ivory Dunlap, 2023 BC3 distinguished alumna
Clancy chose BC3 because she was unsure of her career choice, because of the college’s affordability and “especially so I could still stay home while transitioning into higher education,” she said.
“It was a welcoming community,” Clancy said. “It was like a small town. When you are walking past people they said hello. That made it very easy to make friends. And I had amazing professors who were very versed in the classes they were teaching.
“I felt super-connected and supported at BC3. I realized I loved education, and that I was in it for the long haul.”
Dunlap transferred from Slippery Rock University to BC3 “not because Slippery Rock wasn’t the right fit for me, but because I was not prepared to be there,” she said.
“There was more of a familial vibe at BC3,” Dunlap said, “a familial touch to the institution. I was trying to figure out where I fit and where I would be at my best.”
Dunlap graduated with honors in BC3’s Class of 1996.
Ray, who will serve as student speaker Saturday at the Oak Hills Celebration, has received four scholarships from the BC3 Education Foundation and plans to graduate debt-free in May.