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- Tuesday,
- May 4, 1999
Volume 45
- Number 31
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$10 Million to the College: Robert Fox
Funds a New Program Including Three Professorships
Trustee Robert A. Fox has made a $10 million gift to the College of Arts
and Sciences to establish the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program, President
Judith Rodin has announced.
Mr. Fox, president and chairman of R.A.F. Industries, a private investment
company based in Jenkintown, is a 1952 graduate of the College.
Dr. Rodin said that the Fox Leadership Program will create three new
professorships, and will have innovative, inter-related components:
- All freshmen in the College will participate in a leadership program
shortly after their arrival.
- Leaders from business, politics, academia, the arts and public service
will meet with small groups of College students in a series of structured
and highly interactive programs throughout the academic year.
- Curricular innovations, including a major effort to enhance students'
speaking skills, will be part of the program.
- Students will have greater opportunities to practice leadership by
participating in curricular and extracurricular activities in the community
and have a chance to serve as mentors, trainers and leadership volunteers
throughout their undergraduate years.
- A public lecture by a world leader from politics or a variety of professions
will be held each year.
SAS Dean Samuel H. Preston welcomed the Fox Leadership Program as an
opportunity for students to develop "skills that complement their liberal-arts
education and prepare them for a lifetime of achievement." He said
he anticipates that two of the Fox Leadership Professorships will be held
by Dr. John DiIulio, professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton
University, who will join the Penn faculty in July; and Dr. Martin E.P.
Seligman, a professor of psychology who has been at Penn since 1972.
According to Dr. Richard R. Beeman, Dean of the College, the program
will begin in Fall 1999 with a non-credit course, Lessons in Leadership,
that will provide College students the opportunity to interact with alumni
leaders in a variety of fields.
In Fall 2000, the College will introduce the Fox Leadership Forum
as a vital component of New Student Orientation, Dr. Beeman said. "We
envision the Fox Forum as a weekend program, with opportunities for our
students to participate in interactive workshops with some of the most distinguished
academics in the country, including our Fox Professors of Leadership and
others, as well as with men and women who are known for their leadership
acumen. Other exciting courses in leadership will be developed by the Fox
Professors."
"We know we have bright, talented students at Penn," said Mr.
Fox, " but leadership comes not just from innate qualities but by nurturing
and developing skills at the earliest possible opportunity. Strong leadership
is essential in every profession, and I am delighted to be able to support
this unique opportunity to introduce leadership training into the curriculum
at the very beginning of the College experience."
Mr. Fox is a member of the Executive Committee of the Trustees who chairs
the Committee on Budget and Finance, and serves on the facilities and campus
planning and nominating committees. He is also on the Trustee Board of the
Health System and the Athletics Advisory Board.
His previous gifts include a $1 million gift to the $15 million Trustees
Challenge Grant that will match contributions to endow undergraduate scholarships;
funds to establish a chair in the School of Arts and Sciences; funds to
establish the Bob and Penny Fox Student Art Gallery in the Perelman Quadrangle;
and contributions to Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics.
His latest gift "exemplifies the leadership principles that inspired
the new program," Dr. Rodin said. "The Fox Leadership Program
has truly unlimited potential, and our expectation is that it will very
quickly become the preeminent program of its kind available in higher education
today."
Nursing Awards: Dr. Villarruel, Dr.
Spatz
Dr. Antonia M. Villarruel is the winner of the School of Nursing's Faculty
Teaching Award this year, and Dr. Diane Spatz has won the School's 1999
Undergraduate Advisor Award.
About Dr. Villarruel:
Assistant professor at the School since 1995, Dr. Villarruel has gained
national and international recognition in nursing, and in the broader health
and political arena, through her educational initiatives, research, and
publications, especially with respect to cultural diversity and minority
issues, Dean Norma Lang said in announcing the teaching award. An advocate
in nursing education, especially for minority populations, at the policy
level, Dr. Villarruel is president of the National Association of Hispanic
Nurses and was on the Advisory Committee for the First National Hispanic
Nurses Symposia. She was named by HHS Secretary Donna Shalala to the National
Advisory Council on Nursing Education and Practice, and currently serves
as the chair of its Diversity Task Force.
At the School of Nursing, she teaches at the undergraduate, graduate
and doctoral levels, focusing on human development, child and family development,
health and human behavior, and Latino health issues. She has developed a
course on Latino health issues and a study abroad program for undergraduate
students in Oaxaca, Mexico. A central theme in her courses has been a strong
community component. She is a frequent guest lecturer on practice and research
issues related to cultural competence.
"Through scholarly inquiry she has tackled some of the major health
care problems that place our nation's growing Latino population at high
risk," Dean Lang said. "Her work has focused on the development
of culturally sensitive pain measures for young Hispanic children, cancer
awareness in the Latino community, promoting safe sexual behavior among
adolescents, and conducting research with ethnic minority populations. Her
current areas of research include the development of a health promotion
curriculum for Hispanic adolescents. She is also principal investigator
for a multi-site study on the experience of Hispanic women following an
abnormal mammogram finding."
A graduate of Nazareth College in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Dr. Villarruel
took her MSN from Penn in 1982 and her Ph.D. from Wayne State in 1993. She
is on The Medical Herald's Top 20 list of the Who's Who of Latino
Medicine, and was named the U.S. Public Health Service's Primary Care
Policy Fellow in 1996. In November 1997, she was inducted into the American
Academy of Nursing.
About Dr. Spatz: An
assistant professor of nursing in the School's Health Care of Women Division,
Dr. Spatz serves a dual role as a perinatal advanced practice nurse at Thomas
Jefferson University Hospital.
Her research interests are in health services delivery to high-risk vulnerable
populations. Currently she is co-investigator with Dr. Linda Brown on an
NINR-funded research project examining nursing interventions aimed at improving
breast feeding and health outcomes for low birthweight infants. She also
is co-investigator with Dr. Linda Pugh, at Johns Hopkins, on another NINR-funded
research project, Breastfeeding Service for Low-Income Women.
In teaching such courses as Nursing 210--Care of the Childbearing Family
and a seminar course, Nursing 361--Breastfeeding and Human Lactation, she
is "committed to mentoring students beyond the classroom, particularly
in the pursuit of research activities," the Dean said.
Over the years, several of the students she has mentored have won Nassau
Awards for their research. In 1998, Dr. Spatz was awarded the School's Faculty
Teaching Award. She also was awarded the Nursing Excellence Award from the
Philadelphia County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Nurses Association.
Dr. Spatz received three degrees from Penn: her BSN in 1986, her MSN
in 1989, and her doctoral degree in 1995. Before being appointed to the
faculty of the School of Nursing, she was an instructor at Thomas Jefferson
University School of Nursing and staff nurse at Pennsylvania Hospital. She
continues to serve as co-chair of Pennsylvania Hospital's nursing research
committee and breastfeeding task force.
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Dedication of Steve Murray's
Way
An Open Invitation to the University Community
President Judith Rodin and Executive Vice President John
Fry invite you to join them in the dedication of Steve Murray's Way, the
new street constructed between Chestnut and Sansom Streets.
Please join Steve's family, friends and colleagues in celebrating
his many contributions and achievements, and the continuing development
of Sansom Common.
Monday, May 10, 1999, at 10 a.m.
Between Sansom and Chestnut streets and between the Graduate
Towers.
Reception to follow at the site. |
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Almanac, Vol. 45, No. 31, May 4, 1999
FRONT PAGE | CONTENTS
| JOB-OPS
| CRIMESTATS
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| FOR COMMENT:
Proposal for a Center for Cognitive Neuroscience |
| FOR
COMMENT: Final Report of the Working Group on Alcohol Abuse |
| TALK
ABOUT TEACHING | BETWEEN
ISSUES | MAY at PENN
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