Amy Gutmann: Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement
Penn President Amy Gutmann will receive The Pennsylvania Society’s coveted Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement this December.
“The Council of the Pennsylvania Society unanimously selected President Gutmann for her remarkable leadership in Pennsylvania, and her distinguished representation of Pennsylvania’s ingenuity to the world,” Robert Ciaruffoli, Jr., the Society President, announced.
President Gutmann will receive the award at the Society’s 120th annual dinner in New York City. She has been Penn’s President since 2004. Penn’s academic, technology, healthcare and community enterprises all have grown under her stewardship, making the university Pennsylvania’s third-largest private employer, and the largest private employer in Philadelphia
President Gutmann has also focused her presidency on expanding access to the transformative powers of a Penn education. A first-generation, low-income college student herself, she has more than doubled the number of students from low-income, middle-income, and first-generation families attending Penn. She also has continued her personal scholarship while leading Penn’s vast enterprise; her 17th book is scheduled to be published this August.
President Gutmann will be the 110th recipient of the Gold Medal. The Society will donate $50,000 to a Pennsylvania charity of her choice. The Society is a nonprofit, nonpartisan charitable organization that traces its roots to the 19th century.
School of Social Policy & Practice 2019 Teaching Awards
SP2 Standing Faculty
Roberta Iversen, associate professor in SP2, is this year’s teaching award recipient among standing faculty. Dr. Iversen uses ethnographic research to better understand and improve welfare and workforce development policy and programs and to extend knowledge about economic mobility, especially in relation to families who are working but still poor.
Dr. Iversen’s ethnographic accounts illuminate what low-income working parents need from secondary schools, job training organizations, businesses and firms, their children’s public schools and public policy in order to earn enough to support their families through work.
Housing policy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and workforce development programs and policy in New Orleans, Seattle, St. Louis, and Philadelphia have been improved by findings from Dr. Iversen’s research.
Dr. Iversen’s earlier book, Jobs Aren’t Enough: Toward a New Economic Mobility for Low-Income Families (2006; Temple University Press) presents new ways to increase the economic mobility of low-income families.
Dr. Iversen previously collaborated with Frank F. Furstenberg, Zellerbach Family Professor of Sociology and emeritus research associate for the Population Studies Center, on grant-funded “Families in the Middle” research, which was a multi-site examination of how middle-income families in the United States and Canada experienced the recession. One paper from this research (Iversen, Napolitano, & Furstenberg, 2011) is the first qualitative research manuscript to be published in the international journal, Longitudinal and Life Course Studies.
Dr. Iversen is currently working on a book manuscript, Transforming “Work”: What Work Was, Is, and Could Be (draft title). The book, based on qualitative research she has conducted since the 1980s, examines the experiences of individuals and families with labor-market work in relation to changes in the labor market since the 1980s. It concludes with new ideas about how work could be expanded and compensated beyond labor market jobs.
In fall 2011, Dr. Iversen was invited to provide district-level TANF administrators with policy recommendations for TANF policy reauthorization. In 2014, she was named to the inaugural class of Fellows of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR). From 2013-2018 she served on the Executive Committee of the Mayor’s Shared Prosperity Philadelphia anti-poverty initiative. From 2008-2018, she was associate editor for North America of the international journal, Child and Family Social Work.
SP2 Part-Time Faculty
Jane Abrams, a lecturer in the DSW and MSW programs, is this year’s part-time faculty award recipient. She received her BA in social work from Antioch University, her master’s in social work from Simmons College (now Simmons University), and her doctorate in clinical social work at SP2. Since earning her DSW in 2010, Dr. Abrams has been teaching Social Work Practice and Trauma and Psychodynamic Theory and Clinical Social Work Practice in the MSW program at SP2. She has maintained a private psychotherapy practice in Philadelphia for 25 years.
Her clinical specialties include treating adult trauma survivors and couples and providing clinical supervision. Prior to establishing her practice in Philadelphia, she worked as a senior clinical social worker in Healthcare Associates, an outpatient multidisciplinary practice at Beth Israel Hospital (now Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) in Boston, Massachusetts. As a clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, she provided clinical supervision for the MSW staff in the outpatient psychiatry department at Beth Israel. She has recently published articles in Psychoanalytic Social Work and The Clinical Social Work Journal. In 2014, she was chosen to participate in the Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Teachers’ Academy of the American Psychoanalytic Association and is on the faculty of the newly established undergraduate minor in psychoanalytic studies at Penn.
School of Nursing 2019 Teaching Awards
Dean’s Award for Exemplary Teaching
Kimberly Kovach Trout is assistant professor of women’s health in the department of family and community health, and she serves as the track lead for the Nurse-Midwifery Graduate Program. Dr. Trout teaches through her nurse-midwifery clinical practice at Pennsylvania Hospital, where she integrates didactic lessons with clinical teaching for Health Care of Childbearing Women Theory & Clinical, Intrapartum/Postpartum/Newborn Care Theory & Clinical, and Culture of Birth. Her contributions to these courses include restructuring content to enhance retention and inserting practicum experiences for more hands-on learning, ensuring clearer understanding of difficult material and the development of safer practitioners. Taking care to incorporate advances in pedagogical research, Dr. Trout engages her students through techniques like game theory, the use of case studies and performance-based testing. She has also had a lasting impact outside of the classroom, as former students take note of her generosity and genuine care in her mentorship and dedication to growing the next generation of clinicians and researchers. Her enthusiasm is contagious, as one student notes that “hers is a model of both teaching and sustainable collaboration, a push for the highest standards while maintaining the joy of doing research in the first place.”
Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence
LoriAnn Winner is senior lecturer in the biobehavioral health sciences department, and she is the associate director of the doctor of nursing practice for the nurse anesthetists (DNP-NA) degree program. She teaches multiple classes for the DNP-NA program, including Clinical Fieldwork for Nurse Anesthesia Practice I & II, Basic and Advanced Principles of Nurse Anesthesia Practice, and several Nurse Anesthesia residencies. Ms. Winner is a thoroughly engaged instructor, contributing in a number of service capacities that broaden the anesthesia knowledge that she brings back to her students. She writes questions for the board examination, is a section editor for the International Student Journal of Nurse Anesthesia (ISJNA), and serves on the board for the New Jersey Association of Nurse Anesthetists. She is a consummate learner, as evidenced by the fact that she is currently working to obtain a Penn Nursing PhD, and she instills that same passion for the pursuit of knowledge in her students. Ms. Winner advocates for her students, often working to help them get published in the ISJNA, and ensures that all learning needs are met and questions answered. She has been a formative presence for the DNP-NA program and its cohorts.
Dean’s Award for Undergraduate Advising
Beth Quigley is an advanced senior lecturer in the department of family and community health. Ms. Quigley has had a pronounced positive impact on students, both in her assigned cohort of advisees and in her regular interactions with those enrolled in her courses. Her advisees have found in her a role model whose influence goes well beyond helping them to pick and register for their courses. She has supported them through their professional growth with recommendation letters, job searches, and help with certification processes. Ms. Quigley’s role as an academic guide through study strategies and curricular requirements is especially appreciated among her students given the difficult nature of her course, Integrated Anatomy, Physiology, and Physical Examination. Equally important is the overall sense of comfort that Ms. Quigley provides for her advisees and students. Many credit her for their continued success at the School of Nursing and note the understanding, kindness and encouragement she brings to their most challenging moments in and out of the classroom. According to one student, “Professor Quigley is the reason why I can call Penn Nursing home. She served as the foundation and driving force for me finding the support system and team I needed.”
Dean’s Award for Exemplary Professional Practice
Amy M. Sawyer is an associate professor of sleep & health behavior and clinician scientist & educator in evidence-based practice and nursing science at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center (CMCVAMC). Dr. Sawyer has advanced evidence-based practice (EBP) implementation at the CMCVAMC in short order, bringing structure and efficiency to projects and processes and working to integrate EBP in less than a year. She has led a number of initiatives that have transformed the VA’s relationship with EBP, research and nurse education. Her contributions at the CMCVAMC include leading and reorganizing the EBP Committee, organizing an EBP retreat for the department of nursing (the first of its kind), leading the charge to reinstitute quarterly Nursing Research Grand Rounds, spearheading and managing the first Penn Nursing DNP capstone projects at the VA, expanding the VA’s DNP/PhD student collaboration model, and reviewing and improving policies and procedures to better facilitate EBP projects. Dr. Sawyer models a collaborative and collegial approach in all projects, bringing together constituents from a range of specialties and experiences to ensure that our veterans receive the best care informed by the latest research.
Student Nurses at Penn Undergraduate Award for Teaching and Dean’s Award for Exemplary Citizenship
Cynthia Anne Connolly is the Rosemarie B. Greco Term Endowed Associate Professor in Advocacy. Her efforts in the most recent initiative to evaluate the Accelerated BSN (ABSN) program this past year contributed to ensuring the program is of the highest quality and keeps the School competitive. This effort involved appointing and directing an advisory committee of colleagues, researching and reviewing the practices of more than 20 peer programs, studying current literature and data on the subject, soliciting feedback from current students and alumni, and engaging in discussion with faculty in a number of interviews and group meetings. She presented her findings to faculty, and she will be managing the orientation and current curriculum for the incoming group of ABSN students. In her work on this project, Dr. Connolly found ways to ensure that the students in this program are getting the engagement and education that represents Penn Nursing at its fullest potential. This eminently thorough and sustained effort is evidence of Dr. Connolly’s commitment to the School’s education mission and the School community at large.
Dr. Connolly’s teaching excellence is demonstrated in her passion for both the subject matter and classroom instruction. In the courses she teaches, she skillfully balances providing important insights and connections between the texts and current issues, while also letting the students lead the direction of the discussion based upon what they find interesting. She shares the wisdom acquired during her years of pediatric nursing and impresses upon the undergraduates never to think they are “just” nurses, but that through their unique perspective and interactions with patients, they can be advocates for patients and for needed changes in health care. She consistently goes above and beyond for Penn Nursing students. She took it upon herself to start a new and innovative minor: History, Health and the Humanities. Through the classes for this minor, students build a bridge between the humanities and sciences to fulfill themselves intellectually, build self-awareness, develop empathy and consider social justice and health-related phenomena through a new lens.
Dean’s Award for Exemplary Citizenship
Dawn Elizabeth Bent is a lecturer and program administrator for the DNP Nurse Anesthesia Program. She received this nomination from students in the inaugural DNP-NA cohort and a collection of peers who have witnessed her unwavering dedication to the program throughout the years. Dr. Bent’s support extends beyond her faculty duties and into an impactful working relationship with her students. When she assumed her program administrator role, Dr. Bent held open forums for students and advocated for beneficial program changes based on their feedback. She has also worked toward a more inclusive environment in health care, participating in the nationwide Diversity in Nurse Anesthesia Mentorship Program and preparing students of color for a successful career through her mentorship. Her nominators write, “Dr. Bent always works to promote an environment centered on communication, collaboration and student wellness. These are essential elements of any successful program, but they are often overlooked.” Dr. Bent has committed herself to the future of nurse anesthesia at Penn Nursing and beyond, and she has been a tremendously positive influence on her students and colleagues.
Barbara J. Lowery Doctoral Student Organization Faculty Award
Mary D. Naylor is the Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology and director of the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health (NCTH). Dr. Naylor’s priority is to best meet the needs of doctoral students so that they may learn, grow as researchers and excel in their careers. She leads by example and she inspires doctoral students to reach their career potential with her relentless dedication to advancing health sciences literature, her leadership in directing the work of top researchers, and her accomplishments in advocating for the passage of significant pieces of evidence-based interventions. Through Dr. Naylor’s creation of the Scholars Forum at the NCTH, she has facilitated vital mentorship for pre- and post-docs at the School of Nursing. Dr. Naylor is committed to creating an inclusive environment where early-career nurse scientists can grow and learn from one another. Not only does she encourage participation of doctoral students at NCTH meetings, but she has also invited doctoral students to contribute substantially in every stage of the research process: from the inception of the research question to being a first author on a peer-reviewed publication. Dr. Naylor represents the best values and ideals for what a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania seeks and requires from a mentor.
Patricia Corby: Dental Medicine Associate Dean of Translational Research
Adding to the depth of the School’s research and clinical faculty, Penn Dental Medicine welcomes Patricia Corby as associate professor of oral medicine and associate dean of translational research.
“Pat Corby joining Penn Dental Medicine will allow us to expand our care for people undergoing radiation therapy for oral cancer as well as greatly expand our clinical research program,” said Morton Amsterdam Dean Mark Wolff.
In the newly created position of associate dean of translational research, Dr. Corby will lead a team of translational scientists to design, validate and execute translational plans for the growing portfolio of Penn Dental Medicine research. In addition, she will serve as a key strategic resource for exploratory biology, experimental medicine and clinical science teams, providing key biological validation by leveraging insight gained from patient-derived functional, genetic and biochemical biomarkers.
Dr. Corby comes to Penn Dental Medicine from New York University (NYU). Since 2006, she has held faculty appointments within both NYU College of Dentistry and NYU School of Medicine. She was associate professor of periodontics and implants at the College of Dentistry as well as associate professor of population health and associate professor of radiation oncology at the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, both within the School of Medicine and NYU Langone Health, Office of Science and Research.
During that same period, Dr. Corby also served in leadership roles as director of Clinical Research Operations for NYU Langone Health, Office of Science and Research, and director of the Center for Large Scale Clinical Studies (CLSCS). Within NYU Clinical and Translational Research Institute, she served as co-lead, Clinical Trials Multi-site Support Unit, and institutional lead for recruitment. As director of Clinical Research Operations, she played a key role in realigning the clinical research operational services within the Office of Science and Research and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, including department-based research best management practices, internal site network development and management and ongoing efforts to streamline research administration. At the CLSCS, she led efforts to strengthen sponsored research by supporting faculty on study design, proposal development and grant application preparation for multicenter and large studies.
At NYU she also served as interim director of the Office of Clinical Trials (2015-2016); and associate director (2007-2014) and assistant director (2006-2007) of the College of Dentistry’s Bluestone Center for Clinical Research, which supports clinical investigators conducting phase I-IV clinical trials from the NYU College of Dentistry, NYU Langone Medical Center and affiliated NYU medical organizations.
Within her own research, Dr. Corby’s major interests are in supportive cancer care through the prevention and management of the symptoms and side effects of cancer and its treatment. This includes the identification of specific factors (oral health, innate immune response, microbiome crosstalk, genomics) that contribute to oral manifestations and the development of personalized oral care interventions to prevent and manage regimen-related toxicities. Among her current research projects is a large clinical trial to test the impact of oral health on reducing oral mucositis in patients receiving radiation for head and neck cancer. She is implementing an interdisciplinary program in collaboration with Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, department of radiation oncology, for this project, which is funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.
“We are excited to welcome Dr. Corby to our department of oral medicine and build upon our close ties with colleagues across Penn in helping patients facing cancer,” said Thomas Sollecito, chair and professor of oral medicine.
Dr. Corby holds a MS in biomedical informatics (2005) from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and did postdoctoral training in molecular biology/microbial genetics (2006) at Harvard/Forsyth Institute, Boston. She completed specialty training in periodontics and implants at Instituto de Ciências Saúde da Universidade Paulista, São Paulo, Brazil (1995) and earned her DDS at Fundação Tricordiana de Educação, Três Corações-MG, Brazil (1987).
Consultative Review Committee on the Reappointment of Steven J. Fluharty as Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences
President Amy Gutmann and Provost Wendell Pritchett have announced the formation of a Consultative Review Committee to advise them on the reappointment of Steven J. Fluharty as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. Dean Fluharty’s initial term as Dean will end on June 30, 2020. University policy requires that a Consultative Review Committee be established to advise the President and the Provost whenever the reappointment of a Dean is contemplated. In addition, each member of the standing faculty of the Dean’s School is given the opportunity to give confidential advice and views directly to the President and the Provost.
The members of the Consultative Review Committee are:
Chair
J. Larry Jameson, Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System, Dean of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, and Robert G. Dunlop Professor of Medicine (PSOM)
Faculty
Brenda Casper, Professor of Biology (SAS)
Robert Ghrist, Andrea Mitchell University Professor, Professor of Mathematics (SAS) and Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering (SEAS)
Avery Goldstein, David M. Knott Professor of Global Politics and International Relations (SAS)
Andrea Goulet, Professor of Romance Languages (SAS)
Sophia Z. Lee, Professor of Law (Law) and History (SAS)
Emilio A. Parrado, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology and Chair, Department of Sociology (SAS)
Deborah A. Thomas, R. Jean Brownlee Professor of Anthropology and Director, Center for Experimental Ethnography (SAS)
Students
Ida Nitter, PhD student, SAS
Arman Ramezani, BA and BS student, SAS and Wharton
Alumni Representative
Michael J. Price (W’79)
Ex Officio
Joann Mitchell, Senior Vice President for Institutional Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer
Staff to the Committee
Adam P. Michaels, Assistant Vice President and Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the President
Seth Zweifler, Office of the President
The Review Committee welcomes and encourages input from all members of the Penn community. Communications may be directed to any member of the Committee but are most conveniently forwarded to the Committee at sasdeanreview@upenn.edu or to Adam Michaels (adampm@upenn.edu), who is supporting the review process. Comments should be submitted no later than May 15, 2019.
Sarah Bush: Perry World House Lightning Scholar
Pennsylvania’s center for global policy engagement has announced that Sarah Bush, associate professor in the department of political science at Yale University, will be its 2019-2020 Lightning Scholar. Selected for both the academic rigor and policy relevance of her work, Dr. Bush will be in residence in Philadelphia for the academic year.
“The Lightning Scholars Program is one of the many ways Perry World House supports research relevant to those seeking to address global challenges, whether climate change or nuclear competition,” said William Burke-White, Richard Perry Professor and Inaugural Director of Perry World House. “In choosing Sarah Bush, we are promoting a top-flight scholar still early in her career, bringing a new voice to campus, and catalyzing research that will have a real policy impact.”
The Perry World House Lightning Scholars Program allows Penn to further support policy relevant researchers by inviting untenured faculty members for a semester or full academic year to Penn. In addition to producing a major research output, the Lightning Scholar is expected to collaborate with the interdisciplinary and vibrant community of global affairs scholars and practitioners at Perry World House.
Dr. Bush is the author of the book The Taming of Democracy Assistance: Why Democracy Promotion Does Not Confront Dictators (Cambridge University Press, 2015). At Perry World House, she will continue to examine how international actors try to aid democracy, promote women’s representation and support elections in developing countries. Dr. Bush will also complete a book, with Lauren Prather from UC San Diego, called From Monitoring to Meddling: How Foreign Actors Shape Local Trust in Elections.
Dr. Bush earned her PhD from Princeton University’s department of politics, served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, and taught at Temple University. Her writing has appeared in Comparative Political Studies, International Organization, Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, the Washington Post and ForeignPolicy.com.
Bart Brands: Inaugural Ian McHarg Senior Design Fellow
Bart Brands, director and founding partner of the renowned Dutch landscape architecture firm Karres en Brands, has been appointed the inaugural Ian McHarg Senior Design Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. Over the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years, Mr. Brands will lead a series of innovative design activities within the School and beyond.
“McHarg had a massive influence on Dutch landscape architecture, and like McHarg Bart brings big ideas to big problems,” said Richard Weller, co-executive director at the McHarg Center, professor and chair of landscape architecture, and Martin and Margy Meyerson Chair of Urbanism at Penn.
As a director and founding partner of Karres en Brands, a highly awarded international landscape architecture and urban design practice based in the Netherlands, Mr. Brands has led numerous landscape projects around the world. He played a major role in the hugely successful design of Federation Square in Melbourne, Købmagergade in Copenhagen, De Nieuwe Ooster cemetery in Amsterdam, the feasibility study for Cross River Park in London and, more recently, the development of the masterplan for Oberbillwerder in Hamburg. In recent years, he has worked primarily on campus planning and design, including the transformation of the Delft University of Technology and Science Park Amsterdam; for both projects Mr. Brands acted as supervisor.
Mr. Brands was a visiting lecturer at, among others, the TU Berlin; ETH Zurich; Academy of Architecture (Amsterdam/Rotterdam); Utrecht School of the Arts; Fuse Öresund Talks, Malmö; the International Landscape Master, Milan; TU Dresden; University of Edinburgh; University of New South Wales in Sydney; and University of California, Berkeley. He was also a member of the Beirat Tempelhof, an advisory committee for the development of the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin and adjunct professor at the RMIT University in Melbourne from 1998 to 2014. Currently, he is a visiting lecturer at the Technische Hochschule OWL University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Detmold.
The Ian L. McHarg Design Fellowship is a two-year appointment in the department of landscape architecture at the Weitzman School. The purpose of the fellowship is to afford an accomplished practitioner and/or academic the opportunity to curate a two-year research-by-design project that will critically advance the discipline of landscape architecture. The fellow will teach a combination of advanced design studios and seminars, give a public lecture and actively disseminate the outcomes of their research project through both exhibition and publication.
Mr. Brands’s appointment is one of a series of initiatives leading up to the launch of The Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology (Almanac October 23, 2018), when the multiplatform exploration of the legacy of Ian McHarg (Almanac March 20, 2001), Design With Nature Now (Almanac September 11, 2018), opens June 21, 2019.