New
Assistant Provost for Gender/Minority Equity Issues
Provost
Robert Barchi announced last week that Dr. Loretta
Sweet Jemmott, van Ameringen Professor in Psychiatric
Mental Health Nursing, has been named Assistant Provost,
effective May 1. Working closely with Associate Provost
Janice Bellace, Dr. Jemmott will have primary responsibility
for faculty gender and minority equity issues.
"Janice
and I are thrilled to have Loretta join us to ensure
gender and minority equity concerns remain at the forefront
of the University's strategic thinking," said Provost
Barchi. "Loretta's background and experience make her
a natural for this position. We couldn't have found
a better candidate to help us make progress in these
important areas."
Dr.
Jemmott's research has focused on numerous health issues
effecting women and minorities. She is one of the nation's
foremost psychiatric mental health nurse behavioral
scientists in the field of HIV risk reduction research.
Her premier contribution to the advancement of psychiatric
mental health nursing is the development of knowledge
on how best to facilitate and promote changes in health
behaviors. During the course of her career, Dr. Jemmott
has received over $74-million in federal funding, as
Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator for her work
on HIV prevention. She has led the nation in understanding
the psychological determinants underlying why people
engage in HIV risk-related sexual behavior and in developing
strategies for reducing those risk-related behaviors
among African American and Latino youth and women.
Dr. Jemmott has partnered with community-based organizations,
including churches, clinics and schools, to effectively
translate and disseminate her research into prevention
programs. Her work has resulted in the national dissemination
and translation of three of her evidenced-based HIV
risk reduction curricula by the National Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Adolescent
and School Health, as model curricula in their "Programs
That Work" initiative.
"I
am excited and eager to undertake this new role in
the Provost's Office," said Dr. Jemmott. "For me as
an African American woman, scholar, nurse, educator,
parent, community leader, and human being, the importance
of equity and fairness for all people has been and
continues to be one of my core life values. As an advocate
and ally for gender and minority equity, I hope to
continue the work that is presently being carried out
here at Penn in terms of recruitment, retention, education
and celebration of women and people of color. It is
critical that faculty, staff, students, and administrators
are prepared to live and work in a global society that
values, appreciates, understands and celebrates our
differences and similarities. What a better place for
this all to occur than here at the University of Pennsylvania--the
nation's leading educational institution."
Dr.
Jemmott is an internationally renowned scholar, having
been invited by the NIH as a U.S. delegate to South
Africa to help develop HIV risk-reduction research
initiatives. This resulted in a NIH funded HIV risk-reduction
study for South African youth. Dr. Jemmott's research
has changed public policy as it relates to the use
of theory-driven, culturally appropriate, evidenced-based
HIV risk-reduction interventions in community settings.
She has presented her research to the U.S. Congress
at an HIV Prevention Briefing and at the NIH's Consensus
Development Conference on Interventions to Reduce HIV
Risk Behaviors. Dr. Jemmott has received numerous prestigious
awards for her significant contribution to the profession,
to the field of HIV prevention research and to the
community. Two such honors, the U.S. Congressional
Merit Award and election to membership in the Institute
of Medicine, are honors accorded very few nurses.
"I'm
absolutely thrilled that one of our nursing faculty
members will be part of the University team that focuses
on minority and gender equity," said Dean of the School
of Nursing Afaf Meleis. "Her longstanding interest
in equity will help in our increasing focus on diversity
issues at Penn. I look forward to working with her
in this new position."
Dr.
Jemmott established and currently directs the School
of Nursing's Center for Urban Health Research and the
newly-funded Center for Health Disparities Research
and is Co-Chair of the University's Center for AIDS
Research, Behavior and Social Science Research Core.
"Having
Loretta on board, focusing on issues of gender and
minority equity will be an enormous boost to the Provost's
Office efforts in this area," said Associate Provost
Bellace. "This will enable us to make even more significant
progress in these crucial areas."