Penn Procurement Services has announced that Karoline Prosperi, procurement manager in the Division of Facilities & Real Estate Services (FRES), is the recipient of the Penn Supplier Diversity Impact Award.  Now in its third year, this award honors faculty and staff who have made outstanding contributions in advancing Penn’s goals in the areas of supplier diversity and inclusion.

Ms. Prosperi focuses on expanding diversity spend with minority- and women-owned enterprises (MWBE). In FY 2022 and FY 2023 (year-to-date), she served in the lead procurement role in directly awarding over $400,000 in diversity spend across several initiatives. Among the contract recipients were two woman-owned companies, including one that was based locally in Philadelphia; a local, Asian American owned business; and an African American owned company.  The agreements ranged from $15,000 to $175,000.

Among her other accomplishments, Ms. Prosperi teamed up with her FRES colleagues in design and construction to host monthly Meet & Greet sessions with newer, small MWBEs. As a result of this engagement, various opportunities for diverse suppliers came to fruition with contracts.  Included among these were a construction opportunity involving a partnership with a large, majority-owned business; a significant painting opportunity; and mechanical preventative maintenance work for fan coil units and HVAC equipment.

An Honorable Mention Award was bestowed this year to Yoosun Park, an associate professor in the School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2). As part of Dr. Park’s work, she significantly revamped one of the school’s foundation social work classes, “History and Philosophy of Social Work and Social Welfare.” On the evenings that the new class was held, participating students gathered before class to enjoy a meal together. Dr. Park took the initiative to seek out minority caterers who offered a range of menu items, including vegan options. Her initiative allowed SP2 to support community members who follow a vegan diet while also sustaining, local, minority-owned businesses. Dr. Park plans to propose more diverse caterers for Penn Marketplace. Penn Marketplace is a portal that houses information about Penn suppliers and which opens the door for them to participate in Catering@ Penn—Penn Procurement Services’ database of preferred suppliers that allows faculty and staff to search by diversity status as well as other criteria such as cuisine type, service offerings, sustainability and geographic location.

As Marie Witt, vice president of the division of Business Services, said, “This year’s Supplier Diversity Impact Award honorees have collaborated with their colleagues to take the University’s inclusion priority to a place where we are driving substantive impact at a critical time. Their intentional business practices are something that can be emulated by all of us to help fuel business growth among local and diverse suppliers.”