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Honors & Other Things |
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February 3, 2015, Volume 61, No. 21 |
Related: Models of Excellence 2015
Wharton Dean’s Medal: Dr. Baker
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania announced the awarding of the Wharton Dean’s Medal, the School’s highest honor, to one of its most distinguished alumni, Jay H. Baker, W’56.
Wharton Dean Geoffrey Garrett said, “Presenting Jay Baker with the Dean’s Medal was a great honor. Jay is a true visionary and one of the Wharton School’s most cherished friends. Not only is he a titan of the retail industry and the number-one champion of retail’s role in business education, he is also an inspired philanthropist committed to making positive change in the world, providing leadership and generous support to universities, hospitals, museums, performing arts groups and more, all across the country. I am proud to recognize Jay’s lifetime of achievement and impact on the global business community by awarding him the Dean’s Medal.”
The Dean’s Medal was created in 1983 to recognize outstanding leaders of private enterprise, public service and academia. The awardees are chosen for their contributions to the enlargement of the global economy and to improvement in the lives of people worldwide. The Dean selects only a very small number of individuals who, through excellence in management, have truly made a difference in the creation of wealth and value and in the promotion of a peaceful and prosperous world.
Mr. Baker is the retired president and director of Kohl’s Corporation. He was named president of Kohl’s in 1986, when he helped lead a management buyout from BATUS. Under his leadership, the company grew from 40 stores to 350, with revenue increasing from $280 million into a $6 billion-plus corporation. Mr. Baker held executive positions with BATUS from 1977 to 1986, including general merchandise manager, director of stores for Saks Fifth Avenue, president and chairman of Thimbles and ultimately chairman for corporate buying, BATUS Retail. Prior to Kohl’s and BATUS, he had successful tenures at retailers Macy’s, Ohrbach’s and Famous Barr. Mr. Baker studied management and marketing as an undergraduate student at Wharton. After graduating in 1956, he served in the US Army.
Mr. Baker and his wife, Patty Baker, established the Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative in 2002, endowing it permanently as a Center in 2010. Mr. Baker is the Chairman of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center and a past member of Wharton’s Board of Overseers and Undergraduate Executive Board.
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Innovation Award: Dr. Brainard
Penn Medicine’s department of ophthalmology has been awarded a $115,000 grant from Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) to support research into the causes, treatment and prevention of blinding diseases. In addition, David Brainard, the RRL Professor of Psychology and director of the Vision Research Center and the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of Pennsylvania, was awarded a $300,000 Research to Prevent Blindness Stein Innovation Award.
Dr. Brainard’s grant will be used to forward his basic science research in understanding the relationship between retinal structure and function at the cellular scale, in collaboration with Penn’s department of ophthalmology. The award is given to researchers outside of the department of ophthalmology, but who are working to understand the visual system and the diseases that compromise its function working with colleagues within the department. Dr. Brainard is one of four researchers at four institutions who have received the award since it was established earlier this year.
To date, RPB has supported Penn with more than $5 million in research grants over 20 years.
“The funds will help us further our work in using advanced imaging techniques to understand retinal diseases,” said Joan O’Brien, chair of the department of ophthalmology at Penn and director of the Scheie Eye Institute.
Dr. Brainard, in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences, will work with Jessica Morgan, an optical engineer by training, to make adaptive optics imaging capable of accessing response to light at a single photo receptor cell level.
Dr. Brainard’s research program is primarily concerned with how human color vision works in healthy adults, with a particular interest in understanding how our perception of object color remains stable despite changes in the color of the illumination. His collaboration with Dr. Morgan will take the study of visual response to the fine spatial scale of individual photoreceptors. By taking advantage of a technique known as adaptive optics, they will image the eye at high resolution and stimulate it with very small points of light. By doing so, they hope to uncover the relation between structural changes that can be observed in the photoreceptors during the progression of disease and the ability of those photoreceptors to help us see. The research should facilitate the development of novel assessments of retinal health, provide new insights about disease mechanisms and guide the development of improvements in treatment.
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2014 Pressman Award: Dr. Cato
Robert K. Cato, chief of the division of General Internal Medicine at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, has received the Pressman Award for Distinguished Service to Internal Medicine from the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Physicians (PA-ACP).
The Pressman Award, which is the top honor from the Pennsylvania Chapter of the ACP, is given annually to a Pennsylvania internist who best demonstrates commitment to his patients and his community through advocacy as a practicing physician, as a leader within organized medicine, as an advocate for his patients and profession and for extraordinary dedication to the specialty of internal medicine.
“To say that Dr. Cato has advanced the field of internal medicine barely scratches the surface of his extraordinary contributions. He has demonstrated incredible commitment to his patients and community, while also serving as a leader in the field,” said Jack Ende, assistant vice president of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and assistant dean at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who nominated Dr. Cato for the award and introduced him during the PA-ACP’s annual awards dinner in last December in Hershey, Pennsylvania. “Dr. Cato is the embodiment of a Pressman Award recipient and as the highest honor the Pennsylvania Chapter of the ACP bestows, this award appropriately designates him as the state’s premier internist.”
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College Entrepreneur of the Year: Mr. Goldstein
A student and young entrepreneur at Penn’s Wharton School has won a major award.
“I was so humbled, to be honest,” said Wharton junior Aaron Goldstein after being named Entrepreneur magazine’s “College Entrepreneur of the Year.”
He won for developing a smart thermometer called “Fever Smart.” The wearable device has a computer chip in an adhesive bandage which, Mr. Goldstein said, can help parents keep tabs on a sick child’s fever.
“You can use the Fever Smart device to monitor their temperature remotely at night,” he explains. “And you can get an alert on your smartphone if their temperature starts to rise, and that way you’ll know to intervene.”
The 20-year-old West Palm Beach, Florida native raised $63,000 through crowdfunding to manufacture the Fever Smart. He’s been taking pre-orders (feversmart.com) for the $129 device and hopes to begin shipping later this month.
Mr. Goldstein says Fever Smart can also be used to monitor health workers treating Ebola patients or to keep track of the temperatures of soldiers in combat.
He says he’s honored by the award and its $5,000 prize, but Mr. Goldstein says he’s still studying behavioral economics and risk management, and that Fever Smart is not his full-time job…yet.
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Forbes’ 2015 “30 Under 30”: Ms. Gretebeck, Dr. Wright
Lisa Gretebeck, Penn Vet Class of 2015, and Nikki Wright, Penn Vet Class of 2014, have been named to Forbes’ prestigious “30 Under 30” list for 2015, in the healthcare category. Ms. Gretebeck and Dr. Wright are recognized for cofounding Pou Sante: Amar Haiti, which provides sustainable animal husbandry training and resources to impoverished families living in rural Haiti.
In 2012, Ms. Gretebeck and Dr. Wright received Penn Vet’s Student Inspiration Award and accompanying $10,000 prize, to bring Pou Sante: Amar Haiti to life.
Ms. Gretebeck and Dr. Wright recognized an opportunity to help the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, where an estimated 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Raising livestock for nutrition and income is a valuable option for families struggling to find their way out of poverty. Unfortunately, those who invest in animals often face production losses due to parasites, poor genetics, limited forage, unremitting natural disasters and environmental degradation. The lack of an efficient method to disseminate information and provide training further compounds the situation.
Pou Sante: Amar Haiti’s relationship with the communities in northern Haiti has provided education and training in sustainable goat management, while improving the health and productivity of the local animal population. This, in turn, has supported financial independence and community commerce. Since 2012, Pou Sante: Amar Haiti has successfully coordinated five trips to Haiti, brought over 20 veterinarians and veterinary students to Haiti to aid in the mission and provided veterinary care for over 1,000 animals. In 2014, the organization earned 501(c)(3) nonprofit status to ensure long-term sustainability. Pou Sante continues to bring in new veterinary leaders and maintain strong ties to the Haitian community. |
“Our students never cease to amaze me,” said Joan C. Hendricks, the Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine. “Lisa and Nikki are shining examples of the vital role veterinarians play in reducing poverty and hunger worldwide. They are true One Health ambassadors, demonstrating how human, animal and environmental health are inextricably linked.”
“It is an honor to be named to Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30’ list,” Ms. Gretebeck said. “Our experiences in Haiti helped me better understand the positive impact of veterinarians on both animal and human health.”
“Working with the Haitian community has been a life-changing experience,” Dr. Wright said. “I hope to contribute to additional One Health efforts in the future, aiding other underserved communities domestically and abroad.”
Ms. Gretebeck deferred graduation from Penn Vet for a year to spend an extra year in the Medical Research Scholars Program at the National Institutes of Health, where she is conducting research related to emerging zoonoses.
Since graduating in May, Dr. Wright has served as associate veterinarian at the Banfield Pet Hospital in Fairless Hills, PA, as well as a relief veterinarian for the Humane Society of the United States’ Pets for Life Program.
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Jonas Policy Scholar: Dr. Hallowell
Sunny G. Hallowell, a research fellow in Penn Nursing’s Center for Health Outcomes & Policy Research, has been named by the American Academy of Nursing as one of six 2014 Jonas Policy Scholars. Dr. Hallowell was selected from a competitive round of applications for the inaugural class of this program. She will serve for two years on the expert panel on breastfeeding.
Dr. Hallowell is a post-doctoral research fellow focused on the effect of nurse staffing and organizational climate in hospitals on neonatal and pediatric health outcomes. Her research interests include the effect of innovative models of healthcare delivery, advance practice nurse scope of practice, continuity of patient care and the science of human milk. She is a board certified pediatric nurse practitioner and lactation consultant.
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Governor’s Transition Team in Higher Education: Mr. Irizarry
Johnny Irizarry, director of the Center for Hispanic Excellence: La Casa Latina at the University of Pennsylvania, has been named to Governor Wolf’s Higher Education transition team. Mr. Irizarry teaches Latino and Puerto Rican Studies courses part-time at Temple University and in SP2 at the University of Pennsylvania.
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ACM Fellow: Dr. Kearns
Michael Kearns, National Center Professor of Management & Technology in the department of computer & information science, in SEAS, has been named Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for “contributions to machine learning, artificial intelligence and algorithmic game theory and computational social sciences.”
ACM recognizes members as Fellows for contributions to computing that are fundamentally advancing technology in healthcare, cybersecurity, science, communications, entertainment, business and education. The 2014 ACM Fellows hail from some of the world’s leading universities, corporations and research labs, have achieved advances in computing research and development that are driving innovation and sustaining economic development around the world.
ACM is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society and delivers resources that advance computing as a science and a profession. ACM provides the computing field’s premier Digital Library and serves its members and the computing profession with leading-edge publications, conferences and career resources.
Dr. Kearns’ research focuses on machine learning, probabilistic artificial intelligence, algorithmic game theory and computational finance. While the majority of his work is mathematical in nature, he has also participated in a variety of systems and experimental work, including spoken dialogue systems, software agents and most recently, human-subject experiments in strategic and economic interaction.
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2015 Community Engagement: Penn
The University of Pennsylvania is among 240 institutions in the United States selected by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to receive its 2015 Community Engagement Classification.
Colleges and universities with an institutional focus on community engagement were invited to apply for the classification, first offered in 2006 as part of an extensive restructuring of The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Unlike the Foundation’s other classifications that rely on national data, this is an “elective” classification. Institutions participated voluntarily by submitting required materials describing the nature and extent of their engagement with the community, be it local or beyond. This approach enabled the Foundation to address elements of institutional mission and distinctiveness that are not represented in the national data on colleges and universities.
“As one of the original campuses to have received this classification,” said David Grossman, director of Penn’s Civic House and Civic Scholars Program, “we are proud that Penn’s continued and expanded efforts in civic engagement–-as reflected in the Penn Compact 2020–- have again earned us this important distinction from the Carnegie Foundation. This recognition reflects the work of countless students, faculty, staff and community partners, all of whom share in this honor.”
“The importance of this elective classification,” said John Saltmarsh, director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE), “is borne out by the response of so many campuses that have demonstrated their deep engagement with local, regional, national and global communities. These are campuses that are improving teaching and learning, producing research that makes a difference in communities and revitalizing their civic and academic missions.”
“This is the first time that there has been a re-classification process,” said Amy Driscoll, consulting scholar for the Community Engagement Classification, “and we are seeing renewed institutional commitment, advanced curricular and assessment practices and deeper community partnerships, all sustained through changes in campus leadership and within the context of a devastating economic recession.” |
Related: Models of Excellence 2015
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Almanac -
February 3, 2015, Volume 61, No. 21
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