Tuesday,
May 9, 2000
Volume 46
Number 32
www.upenn.edu/almanac/


Faculty Senate Leadership
 The Faculty Senate leadership for 2000-2001, as of May 3: Phoebe Leboy is the newly elected past chair; Larry Gross, center, continues as chair; and David Hackney is chair-elect. See SEC Actions [click here].

Graduate School of Education Awards

The Graduate School of Education has announced this year's recipients of awards for faculty and students. Two awards were given to faculty and three awards were given to students.

Excellence in Teaching: Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer, GSE Board of Overseers Professor of Education, director of CHANGES and director of DuBois Collective. Dr. Spencer is also a Salzburg Seminar Fellow. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. 
Outstanding Service to Students: Dr. Harris Sokoloff, adjunct associate professor, director of the Center for School Study Councils and the GSE Certification officer. He has a Ph.D. from Syracuse University.

Student Awards: William E. Arnold Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in a Doctoral Program: Joseph Youngblood; William E. Arnold Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in a Master's Program: Matthew Corcoran; and the Phi Delta Kappa Award for Outstanding Dissertation: Christine Andrews Paulsen.

The Award for Outstanding Service was presented to Dr. Sokoloff on May 4. The other awards will be presented at the GSE Commencement Ceremony on Monday, May 22, at 2:30 p.m. at First District Plaza.


Law School's Harvey Levin Memorial Award

Professor Robert A. Gorman, Kenneth W. Gemmill Professor of Law, is this year's Law School Class of 2000 recipient of the Harvey Levin Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence in recognition of his distinguished career as scholar, academic leader and teacher of generations of law students. In addition, he will receive the Distinguished Service Award which is presented by the Law Alumni Society to members of the Penn law community who have distinguished themselves by their outstanding service to the Law School. Professor Gorman was the 1968 recipient of the University's Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Professor Gorman joined he Law School faculty in 1965 and has served as associate dean for academic affairs under three deans. His fields of teaching and scholarship are copyright and intellectual property, and labor law. He is the author of numerous books and journal articles on those subjects. He served for many years as chair of the Law School's Educational Program Committee, and was author of the 1969-71 curriculum reform study that resulted in innovative changes in the Law School program. Professor Gorman served twice on the School's Dean Search Committee. He has been president of the American Association of University Professors, and president of the Association of American Law Schools.

 


New Roles for Dean Lang

President Judith Rodin announced last week that she had accepted with regret the decision of School of Nursing Dean Norma Lang to step down as dean, effective this summer. Dr. Lang, the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing, is a world-renowned nursing leader, educator and researcher. She has served as Dean since 1992 and will assume an endowed nursing professorship in the faculty.

"The University is deeply grateful to Dean Lang for the record of accomplishment the School has achieved under her leadership," said President Rodin. The School of Nursing is currently the top-funded private nursing school in federal research dollars from the NIH and consistently ranked in the top two schools nationally by the U.S. News & World Report survey of graduate schools. President Rodin continued, "We are delighted she will be rejoining the faculty as a pre-eminent teacher and researcher in the nursing community."

"I have thoroughly enjoyed my tenure as a dean here. I eagerly look forward to enhancing my research agenda and leadership role internationally," said Dean Lang, an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Nursing and developer of the Lang Model used to measure nursing's impact on patient outcomes. "Personally, I am inspired by the thought that, as a professor, I will have even more opportunities to mentor the next generation of nursing scholars."

"The University also appreciates Dean Lang's contributions in establishing a range of interdisciplinary degree programs," said Provost Robert Barchi. "These include Health Care Management in partnership with the Wharton School, Health Care Technology with SEAS, a submatriculation program with the Law School and a nutrition minor."

Dean Lang developed a tripartite mission for Penn Nursing, integrating research, education and clinical practice. In this way, the discovery of new knowledge can inform both education and practice which can then test it and stimulate additional research.

During Dean Lang's eight-year tenure, the School of Nursing:

  • Formed a system of centers for nursing research to focus and leverage nursing information as well as inter- and intra-disciplinary research in a program now emulated by other schools of nursing;
  • Established new research centers focusing in the areas of gerontological science; women, children and families; urban health; and serious illness while reinvigorating existing centers in nursing history, health services research and nursing research;
  • Acquired a major federal research grant for a new center in nursing outcomes, establishing Penn Nursing as pre-eminent in the field; and
  • Launched the Penn-Macy Institute for Academic Practice providing other schools of nursing with a framework for establishing academic-based clinical practices modeled on Penn Nursing's ground-breaking experience.

"A world-class school does not exist without the best possible faculty and students," said Dean Lang. "The incredible chemistry that occurs when the brightest faculty and students interact and are supported by a talented, dedicated staff is the hallmark of Penn."

Endowments rose from $5 million in 1992 to $25 million today enabling the School of Nursing to recruit the top nursing scholars. Five additional endowed professorships were also added to the School of Nursing faculty.

"Both education and research require substantial technical support today," said Dean Lang, noting that when she arrived at the School there were few computers. Plans are underway for a state-of-the-art Mathias J. Brunner Technology Center for the support of faculty and students. In addition, the School has successfully offered an innovative, real-time distance learning Masters Program in Nurse Midwifery.

Dean Lang has received many regional, national and international honors, notably fellowships in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Nursing and the Royal College of Nursing in London, England. She has received many national and international awards, is published widely and is frequently invited to speak around the world.

The focus of Dr. Lang's research has been a search for definitions, standards, criteria and measurements that describe the quality of health care. She is a principal contributor to the International Classification for Nursing Practice. Her model for quality assurance has been translated internationally. The classification system is patterned after the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases. This international nomenclature is helping nurses describe, study, teach and measure the practice of nursing.

During her tenure, Dean Lang has also served on several Boards of Trustees including the Franklin Institute, the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and the American Medical Peer Review Association. She has also chaired national and international committees including the International Council of Nurses International Classification for Nursing Practice Program, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations Nursing Standards Committee, the American Nurses Association Steering Committee for Data Bases for Clinical Nursing Practice, the American Nurses Association Clinical Indicators Projects and the ECRI Advisory Group on Clinical Practice Guidelines.

The search process for Dean Lang's successor will begin shortly.


Almanac, Vol. 46, No. 32, May 9, 2000

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