Excellence in Teaching Award, Standing Faculty

Amy Hillier is the recipient of the 2016 Excellence in Teaching Award, standing faculty, School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2). Dr. Hillier received her MSW and PhD from SP2. She is currently an associate professor of city & regional planning at PennDesign and holds a secondary faculty appointment in SP2. She teaches courses on geographic information sys-tems (GIS) mapping for city planning, social work and urban studies. Her research has focused on geographic disparities in health and housing, particularly across racial and economic groups, including issues such as mortgage redlining, access to healthful food, park use and exposure to outdoor advertising.

She is the co-director of The Ward: Race and Class in Du Bois’ Seventh Ward, a teaching, research and outreach project focused on WEB Du Bois’ classic 1899 book, The Philadelphia Negro. Through that project, Dr. Hillier visits Philadelphia public schools to engage high school students in discussions about historical and contemporary issues relating to race and racism. Most recently, Dr. Hillier has been collaborating with faculty, staff and students across and beyond campus to integrate content about gender and sexuality into graduate curricula in order to better prepare students to work with LGBTQ communities, particularly transgender youth of color. She is working with youth from the Attic, Philadelphia’s LGBTQ youth center, to advocate for greater support for transgender students within the Philadelphia public schools. 

Excellence in Teaching Award, Non-Standing Faculty 

Jacqueline Strait and Sarah Lidgus are recipients of the 2016 SP2 Excellence in Teaching Award for non-standing faculty. Dr. Strait graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and earned her MSW and DSW degrees from Penn. She has a great passion for clinical social work practice and specializes in helping young adults heal from trauma. Her research and writing focus on dissociative phenomena in clinical practice, particularly as it manifests in the therapist-client dyad. She teaches courses on mental health diagnostics and anxiety & depression in the MSW program. She is inspired by her students, “the brave hearts and brilliant minds” with whom she feels fortunate to think and learn.

Ms. Lidgus is a designer and educator whose work centers on issues of equity and social justice within cities. She is specifically focused on community-based projects across New York City through her creative practice, Small City New York. She has worked alongside organizations like the Center for Urban Ped-agogy, the Laundromat Project, the Design Trust for Public Space and the Public Policy Lab. Notable projects have yielded a community design school in Queens, a platform amplifying the art and activism of the South Bronx and a communications campaign around nail salon workers’ rights across New York. Previously, Ms. Lidgus worked as a design lead in IDEO’s New York studio, and with IDEO.org as part of their inaugural fellowship class. She taught design research at the School of Visual Arts and currently teaches design thinking at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice. This year Ms. Lidgus was named to GOOD Magazine’s GOOD 100 list, which highlights positive social impact through creative means.