Leaving Penn

Dr. Larry Gross, Sol Worth Professor of Communication, will become the director of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California after 35 years at Penn's Annenberg School. He was a member of the groundbreaking Cultural Indicators team, headed by former Dean George Gerbner. Dr. Gross was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1998 and received the International Communication Association's Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award in 2001. He has mentored over 180 students through their theses and dissertations, more than any other professor at the School. He chaired the Faculty Senate (2000-2001), the Committees on Open Expression and Academic Freedom and Responsibility and served as moderator of University Council.

Dr. Larry Icard, associate professor and director of the Center for Intervention and Practice Research at the School of Social Work, will become the dean of Temple University's School of Social Administration as of September. The Center that he now heads will also be moving to Temple. Dr. Icard has directed the SSW's doctoral program in social welfare. Dean Reichard Gelles noted that this is the third time in three years that one of the School's faculty has been selected to move up to a major administrative position and the second time one has been selected to lead a school of social work. Since joining Penn in July 2000, Dr. Icard secured more than $6 million in grant-funded research, and is principal investigator on a $2.78 million grant form NIH "Helping Families Reduce HIV in African-American Youth." He will bring over $1.5 million in NIH grants with him when he assumes his new responsibilities at Temple.