The 2015 Excellence in Teaching Award, Standing Faculty

Malitta Engstrom is a recipient of the 2015 Excellence in Teaching Award, standing faculty, in the School of Social Policy & Practice. She also received this award in 2014. Each year since her arrival at Penn in 2012, Dr. Engstrom has taught Foundations of Social Work Practice and Field Practice, a two-semester course in the master of social work program. She also mentors several doctoral students in the PhD in social welfare and DSW in clinical social work programs. She is recognized as an engaging teacher who is deeply committed to students’ learning and effectiveness as practitioners and researchers. Her warm, collaborative and rigorous approach encourages students’ best efforts and emphasizes the shared pursuit of social work excellence in action. Dr. Engstrom completed her graduate education in social work at Columbia University (PhD with distinction, master of philosophy and master of science) and undergraduate education in educational studies (with honors) and women’s studies at Brown University. Her research focuses on problematic substance use and co-occurring concerns, including involvement with the criminal justice system, HIV, victimization and mental health problems, particularly in relation to women and families. Numerous sources have funded her research, including the Penn Center for AIDS Research, the National Institutes of Health, the John A. Hartford Foundation and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Kenwyn Smith is a recipient of the 2015 Excellence in Teaching Award, standing faculty, in the School of Social Policy & Practice. He is a professor of organizational behavior and regularly teaches leadership, group and intergroup dynamics, organizational politics (the POWER LAB) and change management. At Penn, Dr. Smith has directed the Center of Workplace Studies, served as the faculty master of Ware College House, created the graduate program in nonprofit leadership and functioned as its inaugural director. An Australian citizen, Dr. Smith is an international scholar whose research experience ranges from prisons to schools, from businesses to healthcare institutions, from oppressed black townships in South Africa to NGOs in rural India, from pharmaceuticals in Belgium to financial services in urban America and from the World Bank to Philadelphians living with HIV/AIDS. During his career, Dr. Smith has helped to create a number of volunteer-based nonprofits (the best known being MANNA), worked on six continents and been involved in educating students from more than 100 countries, both at Penn and in nations as diverse as Brussels, New Guinea, India, Australia, Argentina and South Africa. Dr. Smith is working on three books, to be titled The Heart of Leadership: Lessons from Lincoln, Gandhi and Mandela; The Abundance Chronicles and Healing Economics.

The 2015 Excellence in Teaching Award, Non-standing Faculty

Alexandra Wimberly is a recipient of the 2015 Excellence in Teaching Award, non-standing faculty, in the School of Social Policy & Practice. She is a PhD candidate in social welfare at the School of Social Policy & Practice. She earned her master’s in social work from Simmons College, her master’s in public health from Harvard University and her undergraduate degree in art studio from the University of California, Los Angeles. Ms. Wimberly’s main research interests include substance use interventions for people caught in the criminal justice system. As a teacher of research methods, she strives to make research accessible and applicable to students who come to the classroom with a broad range of clinical, programmatic and policy experience, insights and goals.

Andy Lamas is a recipient of the 2015 Excellence in Teaching Award, non-standing faculty, in the School of Social Policy & Practice, where he teaches critical theory, alternative political economy and social finance. He earned his bachelor’s degree with honors from Davidson College (Phi Beta Kappa), his master’s degree from the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) and his JD from the University of Pennsylvania. He began teaching at Penn 25 years ago. His teaching, research and writing have focused on issues of social and economic justice. Mr. Lamas currently serves on the boards of the Radical Philosophy Review, the International Herbert Marcuse Society and the Bread & Roses Community Fund. He is a founding board member of two of the nation’s leading community development financial institutions, Center for Community Self-Help (North Carolina, California and Washington, DC) and TRF (The Reinvestment Fund in Philadelphia). He is also the founder and academic director of Penn’s Social Justice Research Academy, an annual summer program for high school students from around the world.