TCPW Awards: Dr. Abbuhl, Dr. Richmond

The Office of the Provost and the Trustees Council of Penn Women (TCPW) announce two awards to Penn faculty members.

Dr. Stephanie Abbuhl, professor and vice chair of emergency medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine, is the fourth annual recipient of the TCPW-Provost Award of Recognition, for significant contributions by Penn faculty to advancing the role of women in higher education and research at Penn.

Dr. Abbuhl was recognized for more than a decade of work improving the environment for female faculty at Penn, especially her leadership since 1998 of the FOCUS on Health & Leadership for Women Program, committed to improving the recruitment, retention, advancement and leadership of women faculty and to promoting women’s health research. She was one of the founders of the Penn Forum for Women Faculty and, most recently, received a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to enhance institutional culture, increase academic productivity and improve job satisfaction for women faculty at Penn. 

Dr. Therese Richmond, Andrea B. Laporte Professor in the School of Nursing, is the recipient of the TCPW 25th Anniversary Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising. This award, established to mark TCPW’s quarter-century milestone, recognizes undergraduate faculty advisors who have distinguished themselves in providing assistance and advice to their advisee students and who have made a significant impact on the academic experience of these students.

The Trustees’ Council of Penn Women is an international network of Penn alumnae. These leaders, by power of their example, support, foster and promote the advancement of women and women’s issues within the University, thus enriching the University community as a whole.

Guggenheim Fellows: Dr. Bourgois, Mr. Romano

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has awarded Fellowships to a diverse group of 175 scholars, artists, and scientists in its 89th annual competition for the United States and Canada. Appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, the successful candidates were chosen from a group of almost 3,000 applicants. 

This year Dr. Philippe Bourgois and Mr. Carlin Romano were selected as 2013 Guggenheim Fellows. Dr. Bourgois, the Richard Perry University Professor of Anthropology in SAS and Family Medicine and Community Health in the Perelman School of Medicine, was selected for his research project writing a book called Cornered—dealing the daily life in an impoverished US inner city neighborhood that has been turned into an open air drug supermarket plagued by violence, police brutality and public and private sector abandonment.

Mr. Romano, a writer, adjunct in the Annenberg School for Communication and critic-at-large of The Chronicle of Higher Education will be working on  ‘Is there an Asian philosophy?’ in which according to Mr. Romano, he will be “turning a cultural cliché on it’s head and see what’s there.”

Exceptional Commitment to Graduate and Professional Student Life

The President and Provost’s Citation for Exceptional Commitment to Graduate and Professional Student Life is presented to graduate or professional students, upon their graduation from Penn, who have been catalysts for transformative and lasting new developments that have enhanced graduate and professional student life at Penn.

The spring 2013 recipients are:
 
Evan Black (GSE)                          
Colleen Daley (GSE)                    
Susan Mello (Annenberg)           
Maria Murray (SEAS)
Scott Ordway (SAS/Music)
Akeesha Washington (GSE)
James W. Wiley, III (Law)

A reception to honor these student leaders will be held on Friday, May 10, 2013, 4:30 to 6 p.m., Graduate Student Center, 3615 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA. All members of the University are invited to attend. You must register by May 2. More information and registration can be found at www.gsc.upenn.edu/register

Neer Award: Dr. Carey

Dr. James L. Carey, director of the Penn Center for Advanced Cartilage Repair and Osteochondritis Dissecans Treatment, is among this year's recipients of the Charles S. Neer Clinical Science Awards for orthopaedic research. Dr. Carey and colleagues were presented the Award for a study they conducted on predictors of success in non-operative treatment of rotator cuff tears. The award honors Dr. Charles S. Neer II, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1942, and is given annually for the best shoulder research performed that year.

In 1985, Dr. Neer created a fund to recognize outstanding clinical investigation that contributes to the understanding, care and prevention of injuries to the shoulder and elbow.

Dr. Carey's new study is a follow-up to an initiative that earned the team the Neer Award in 2010 for its work in determining the effectiveness of using non-operative physical therapy to treat complete rotator cuff tears. More recently, when predictors of success were examined, the team found that the strongest predictor was patient expectation. Patients who thought the program would work saw greater success than those who expected the program to fail. The severity of the injury, pain level, and weakness were not associated with success. Other factors found to affect having surgery were higher activity level, younger age and not smoking.

Dr. Carey's research efforts are being conducted in conjunction with the MOON Shoulder Group.

Truman Scholarship: Ms. Economy

Ms. Christina Economy, a junior in international relations and economics in SAS at Penn, has been awarded a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, a merit-based award for college students who plan to pursue careers in government or in public service and who wish to attend graduate or professional school to help prepare for their careers.

She has interned at the Center for Democracy in the Americas and will be an intern at the US embassy in La Paz, Bolivia, this summer. At Penn, she has served on the Nominations and Elections Committee of Penn student government since her freshman year and currently is the vice chair.

Ms. Economy is among 60 US students awarded Truman Scholarships this year and is the 20th Truman Scholar from Penn since 1981.

Cullman Center Fellow: Dr. Holquist

Dr. Peter Holquist, associate professor of history has been named a 2013 fellow of New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. The international fellowships are given to scholars whose work would directly benefit from access to the research collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Renowned for the extraordinary comprehensiveness of its collections, the Library is one of the world’s preeminent resources for a diverse range of scholarly subjects.

At the Center, Dr. Holquist will be working on his forthcoming book, “By Right of War”: The Discipline and Practice of International Law in Imperial Russia, 1868-1917, exploring the codification and extension of the laws of war in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dr. Holquist is also the author of Making War, Forging Revolution: Russia’s Continuum of Crisis and the founder and executive editor of the journal Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History.

UN Foundation 'Champion': Ms. Hughes

Ms. Sarah Hughes, a staff assistant to Dr. Christopher Hunter, professor and chair of the Penn School of Veterinary Medicine’s department of pathobiology, has been selected as one of the 100 Shot@Life “Champions” of the United Nations Foundation. The Shot@Life Champions are selected to spread the word, lobby policymakers and raise money for improving global access to vaccines and to eradicate polio.

Through the work of numerous partner organizations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the American Red Cross, the American Academy of Pediatrics and UNICEF, the UN Foundation, founded by Ted Turner, has already played a role in reducing polio cases by 99 percent around the world. In the year ahead, the Foundation will work to boost distribution of measles-rubella vaccines to Rwanda and other developing countries.

As a Champion for the Shot@Life campaign, Ms. Hughes is looking for ways to involve the Penn community as well.

Philadelphia Award: Dr. June

Dr. Carl H. June has been selected to receive the 2012 Philadelphia Award for “his extraordinary advancements in gene therapy aimed at treating HIV and cancer.”

Dr. June and his team recently reported that of the first 12 patients treated with an experimental therapy his team developed to treat leukemia, nine–including two children–had complete or partial remissions from advanced intractable leukemia. Two adults remain cancer-free two and one half years after treatment.

The annual award, which carries a $25,000 honorarium, was created by Ladies’ Home Journal editor Edward Bok in 1921 to honor a local person whose work advanced “the best and largest interest” of the greater Philadelphia community. Winners have included mayors, philanthropists, business leaders and humanitarians.

ADEA Leadership Institute: Dr. Maggio

Dr. Margit Maggio (D’ 87), assistant professor of restorative dentistry, Director of Preclinical Dentistry and Director of Advanced Simulation, has been selected as a 2013-2014 American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Leadership Institute Fellow.

The ADEA Leadership Institute, which began in 2000, is a year-long program to develop the nation’s most promising dental educators to become leaders in dental and higher education. The Institute, unique to dental education, includes four phases throughout which Fellows undertake a variety of assignments designed to both guide and enhance their professional development. The Institute includes sessions in leadership theory, team building, communications, managing change, public policy, educational policy, legal issues, research and budgeting and financial management. Fellows are faculty and administrators from allied, predoctoral and postdoctoral dental education.

Dr. Maggio joins a group of the most promising dental educators and, upon graduation, will become one of only 285 members of the Institute.

VP & Council Member of Endocrine Society: Dr. Mandel, Dr. Lazar

Dr. Susan Mandel, professor of medicine and radiology, associate chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism and director of the Fellowship Training Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, has been elected vice president, Physician-in-Practice, of The Endocrine Society. Dr. Mandel will serve a three-year term as vice president, Physician-in-Practice (2013-2016).

In addition, Dr. Mitchell Lazar, Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism and Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism at the Perelman School of Medicine, was elected to serve as a council member, at-large.

They will collaborate with other newly elected Officers and Council members to lead the world’s oldest, largest and most active organization devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology. Founded in 1916, The Endocrine Society members represent all basic, applied and clinical interests in endocrinology.

Royal Swedish Academy Foreign Member: Dr. Percec

Dr. Virgil Percec, the P. Roy Vagelos Chair and professor of chemistry in SAS, has been elected as a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). An independent arena for the exchange of knowledge, the IVA is the oldest academy of engineering sciences in the world formed in 1919.

2013 Model Supervisor Award: Mr. Petrofsky

This year’s Model Supervisor Award was presented to Warren Petrofsky, Director, Information Security, UNIX Systems and Natural Science Computing, in SAS. The award was presented at the 2013 Models of Excellence Ceremony on April 9.

Mr. Petrofsky received a symbol of appreciation and a $500 cash award in honor of this recognition. He was selected from two finalists for the 2013 Model Supervisor Award, each of whom was nominated for their outstanding supervisory behaviors, including fairness, strong leadership and exceptional managerial skills. The other finalist was Peg Heer, Associate Treasurer, Gift and Investment Services, Office of the Treasurer, in the department of Finance. Ms. Heer received a symbol of appreciation and a $250 cash award.

For more information and to learn how to nominate a fellow colleague for a Models of Excellence or Model Supervisor Award, visit www.hr.upenn.edu/myhr/appreciation/models

AONE Prism Diversity Award: Dr. Rich

Dr. Victoria Rich, Chief Nurse Executive at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, has received the Prism Diversity Award from the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE). The award recognizes Dr. Rich’s efforts to promote diversity within the nursing workforce and enhance an understanding of diversity issues across the health system and greater community.

The annual AONE awards members who have demonstrated the “best of the best” in leadership practice, and whose work sets an example for every nurse leader. Since her appointment as Chief Nurse Executive in 2002, Dr. Rich has worked to create and cultivate globally-recognized diversity systems that have become a model for health care organizations. In 2003, she established the Global Nurse Program (GNP) in collaboration with Dr. Afaf Meleis and Dr. Barbara Nichols, as a resource center to address diversity in nursing and leadership roles along with global nursing issues. This program has since spawned several other initiatives, including the Nursing Cultural Competence Committee, the Circle of Women group, the Seedling Program and the Global Nurse Ambassador’s role at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP).

Cultural Vistas Fellow: Mr. Roman

Mr. Douglass Roman, a sophomore in mechanical engineering & applied mechanics in SEAS, has been chosen as one of seven US students to receive an inaugural Cultural Vistas Fellowship. The fellowship provides students the opportunity to gain professional experience through eight-week internship and immersion experiences in Argentina, Germany or Singapore during the summer of 2013. Mr. Roman will be studying in Argentina.