Final Report of the Consultative Committee for the Selection of a Dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice |
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September 2, 2014, Volume 61, No. 03 |
The Consultative Committee for the Selection of a Dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice was convened by President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price on August 28, 2013. During its almost four months of work, the full Committee met on 11 occasions and reported its recommendations to the President and the Provost on December 19, 2013. The Committee members were:
Chair
Joan C. Hendricks, The Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine (Vet)
Faculty
Joretha Bourjolly, Associate Professor-Clinician Educator, Social Policy & Practice, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (SP2)
Dennis P. Culhane, Professor of Social Policy, Dana and Andrew Stone Chair in Social Policy, Professor of Policy Research and Evaluation and Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry (SP2/GSE/PSOM)
John L. Jackson, Jr., Richard Perry University Professor of Communication, Africana Studies and Anthropology and Senior Advisor to the Provost for Diversity (ASC/SAS)
Emilio A. Parrado, Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology (SAS)
Phyllis Solomon, Professor, Social Policy & Practice, and Professor of Social Work in Psychiatry (SP2/PSOM)
Mark J. Stern, Professor of Social Welfare and History and Kenneth L. M. Pray Chair (SP2)
Irene Wong, Associate Professor, Social Policy & Practice, and Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry (SP2/PSOM)
Students
Sambuddha Chaudhuri, PhD Student (SP2)
Britney Y. Thornton, MSW Student (SP2)
Ex-officio
Joann Mitchell, Vice President for Institutio
al Affairs
Alumni and Overseer Representatives
Ann Nolan Reese, CW’74 and Chair of the School of Social Policy & Practice Board of Overseers
William H. Rivers, Jr., SP2‘62
Consultant to the Committee
Jonathan Fortescue, Park Square Executive Search
Staff to the Committee
Adam P. Michaels, Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the President
The Committee and the consultants began their work by conducting informational interviews and consultative meetings with individuals and groups throughout the School of Social Policy & Practice community, as well as many informal contacts, in order to better understand the scope, expectations and challenges of the Dean’s position and the opportunities and challenges facing the School in the years ahead. These consultative activities included full Committee meetings with Dean Richard Gelles, the School’s Associate Deans and senior leadership; open meetings for SP2 faculty, students, and staff; meetings of the Chair with the School’s Board of Overseers, faculty and administrators and staff; and extensive networking by members of the Committee with the School’s faculty and students, as well as with colleagues at other institutions. We also solicited advice and nominations from all faculty, staff, students and alumni of the School via email and reviewed a variety of documents about the School.
Based upon these conversations and materials, our initial meeting with the President and the Provost, and the Committee’s own discussions, a comprehensive document was prepared outlining the scope of the position and the challenges a new Dean will face, as well as the qualities sought in a new Dean.
The vacancy was announced (and input invited from the entire Penn community) in Almanac, and the position was advertised in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Hispanic Outlook, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, Women in Higher Education, Journal of Blacks in Higher Education and online on InsideHigherEd.com The members of the Committee were also very energetic in soliciting and recommending the names of potential candidates.
During the Committee’s deliberations, it considered the dossiers of several hundred candidates and potential candidates. The Committee then interviewed a group of 12 semi-finalists that included five women, four African Americans and two Hispanics. The Committee recommended six individuals from this group for consideration by the President.
On March 19, 2014, President Gutmann announced (Almanac March 25, 2014) the selection of Dr. John L. Jackson, Jr. as the next Dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice, effective July 1, 2014. Prof. Jackson is already well known and universally respected at Penn, where he is the Richard Perry University Professor, with primary appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Arts & Sciences and a secondary appointment in the School of Social Policy & Practice, as well as Associate Dean for Administration at the Annenberg School and Senior Advisor for Diversity in the Office of the Provost. A distinguished teacher, a renowned scholar and a visionary leader whose work crosses traditional academic boundaries and involves community partners in understanding and confronting societal challenges around the nation and the world, John joined Penn in 2006 as our first Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) University Professor.
—Joan C. Hendricks, The Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine and
Chair of the Consultative Committee for the Selection of a Dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice
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