Ohio Northern University is pleased to announce that Pamela S. Hershberger, BSBA ’87, is establishing the Pamela S. Hershberger Endowed University Scholarship to assist Ohio Northern University students who have financial need. Hershberger’s sizeable planned gift will benefit students in any college and major at the University.
After earning her bachelor’s degree at Ohio Northern, Hershberger pursued a progressive 31-year career with Ernst & Young LLP before retiring in 2018. Her professional accomplishments include groundbreaking work and representation. When Ernst & Young promoted her to partner in 2000, she was the first woman to reach partner in the firm’s Toledo/Detroit offices. For many years she served as one of only two women partners in all of the northwest Ohio “Big Five” accounting firms. During her 18 years as a partner, she served many companies in a variety of industries, including Welltower, Owens-Illinois, Pulte Homes, HCR Manor Care, Cooper Tire & Rubber Company and Champion Enterprises.
As chair of ONU’s Board of Trustees and member of the Forward Together Campaign Steering Committee, Hershberger is leading by example. She has a motto: pay it forward. She was a first-generation college student who played volleyball and basketball in college, graduated at the top of her class and delivered the 1987 undergraduate commencement address, and she wants to help others have similar opportunities.
A long-time ONU donor, Hershberger has also been a generous supporter of The Roger D. Young Endowed Professorship in Accounting. She is a lifetime member of the Henry Solomon Lehr Society and the Heritage Club. In 2009, she established the Pamela S. Hershberger-Ernst & Young Endowed Scholarship Fund to assist accounting majors.
In 2016 ONU’s James F. Dicke College of Business Administration honored her with a Pinnacle Award, which recognizes individuals for their outstanding service and commitment to the business college. Additionally, she served on the Dicke College of Business Administration Advisory Board and delivered the Carroll V. Lovett Distinguished Lecture in 2019. Her talk was titled, “Shattering the Glass Ceiling.”
The Maumee, Ohio resident is the recipient of a 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award from ONU.
Along with her ONU Board of Trustees work, Hershberger also serves on boards for the Toledo Alliance for the Performing Arts, the Toledo Community Foundation, and The Andersons. She is past chair of the board for the Toledo Zoo, Junior Achievement of Northwest Ohio, and the Greater Toledo Chapter of the American Red Cross.