Penn Provost Wendell Pritchett and Netter Center director Ira Harkavy named Terri Lipman of Penn’s School of Nursing and her partners at Inthedance, LLC as the recipients of the 2019 Provost-Netter Center Faculty-Community Partnership Award. The $10,000 prize is split between the faculty member and the community partner.

Dr. Lipman is the assistant dean for community engagement, the Miriam Stirl Endowed Term Professor of Nutrition and a professor of nursing of children. She also maintains a clinical practice as a pediatric nurse practitioner in the division of diabetes and endocrinology at CHOP.

Dr. Lipman was recognized for her outstanding engagement of Penn nursing students and faculty in Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) partnerships that work to improve community health, as well as for the quality and sustainability of her community partnerships, and the positive impact on both physical and mental health for all participants involved. She has taught ABCS courses continuously since 2006 and has helped grow the total number of ABCS courses in the School of Nursing from five to 11 since assuming the role of assistant dean for community engagement in 2015.

Inthedance, LLC was founded in 2002 as a movement and dance program that offers innovative ways to enhance physical exercise, range of motion, balance and body mechanics through dance. As a component of her ABCS teaching and research, Dr. Lipman and her partners at Inthedance, LLC launched the intergenerational Dance for Health (DFH) program at the Sayre Recreation Center in 2012 to increase access to physical activity. Since that time, DFH has expanded to four additional sites in West Philadelphia, engaged over 700 participants, and demonstrated a positive impact on cardiovascular health, memory, social support, and anxiety reduction.