Graduate School Rankings 2022
Each year, U.S. News & World Report ranks graduate and professional schools in business, medicine, education, law, engineering and nursing. Five of Penn’s Schools are in the top 10 list. Those in the top 30 are below; for more, see U.S. News’ website: www.usnews.com.
|
2021 |
2022 |
Wharton School |
1 |
2 |
Finance |
1 |
1 |
Real Estate |
- |
1 |
Marketing |
2 |
2 |
Executive MBA |
3 |
2 |
Accounting |
3 |
3 |
Business Analytics |
5 |
3 |
Management |
7 |
4 |
International |
5 |
6 |
Production/Operations |
6 |
6 |
Entrepreneurship |
6 |
6 |
Information Systems |
11 |
10 |
Graduate School of Education |
2 |
1 |
Higher Education Administration |
6 |
5 |
Education Policy |
7 |
5 |
School of Nursing |
3 |
3 |
Administration |
5 |
1 |
Adult/Gerontology, Primary Care |
1 |
2 |
Adult/Gerontology, Acute Care |
2 |
2 |
Pediatric, Primary Care |
1 |
3 |
Psychiatric Mental Health/Lifespan |
3 |
3 |
Nurse Practitioner-Family |
6 |
5 |
Nurse Midwifery |
7 |
7 |
PSOM-Research |
3 |
9 |
PSOM-Primary Care |
14 |
24 |
Pediatrics |
1 |
1 |
Psychiatry |
6 |
2 |
Ob/Gyn |
4 |
3 |
Internal Medicine |
4 |
4 |
Anesthesiology |
5 |
5 |
Radiology |
4 |
5 |
Surgery |
6 |
6 |
Clinical Psychology |
8 |
8 |
Law School |
7 |
6 |
Business/Corporate Law |
6 |
3 |
Contracts/Commerical Law |
6 |
5 |
Criminal Law |
6 |
7 |
Intellectual Property Law |
8 |
13 |
International Law |
14 |
14 |
Tax Law |
15 |
21 |
Health Care Law |
22 |
20 |
Clinical Training |
27 |
27 |
School of Arts & Sciences |
- |
- |
English |
- |
3 |
Psychology |
- |
8 |
Economics |
- |
9 |
History |
- |
11 |
Mathematics |
- |
16 |
Chemistry |
- |
19 |
Political Science |
- |
19 |
Engineering & Applied Science |
18 |
18 |
Biomedical/Bioengineering |
8 |
8 |
(—) Indicates not ranked. |
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School of Nursing 2021 Teaching Awards
The honorees listed below will be recognized during a virtual, end-of-the-year event on Thursday, May 27, 2021 from 3-5 p.m.
Dean’s Award for Undergraduate Scholarly Mentorship
Diane L. Spatz is a professor of perinatal nursing and the Helen M. Shearer Term Professor of Nutrition in the department of family and community health. Dr. Spatz’s impact on students’ scholarly growth is quite significant. Her mentees develop their scientific inquiry skills, including evaluating literature, crafting clinical research questions, data collection, and research dissemination. Dr. Spatz’s encouragement and mentorship inspire some of her undergraduate students to join the Hillman Scholars program, which has led them to obtain PhDs and develop their own programs of research. Students praise Dr. Spatz for her unwavering support and advocacy, ensuring they have adequate resources for their academic pursuits. An internationally known breastfeeding, lactation, and human milk expert, Dr. Spatz is a nurse researcher at CHOP’s Breastfeeding and Lactation Program and a clinical coordinator at CHOP’s Mothers’ Milk Bank. These positions have afforded Dr. Spatz’s mentees incredible opportunities, as she includes students in her research process and connects students of all class years. Dr. Spatz’s passion and ability to build a constructive and mutually rewarding relationship with her students, both inside and outside of the classroom, speaks to her embodiment of an ideal undergraduate scholarly mentor. Photo credit: Eric Sucar.
Dean’s Award for MS/MSN/DNP Scholarly Mentorship
Mamie K. Guidera is an advanced senior lecturer in the Nurse-Midwifery program in the department of family and community health. Ms. Guidera is well-known for her inspiring and creative nature. Nationally recognized for excellence in teaching by the American College of Nurse Midwives, Ms. Guidera is praised by her peers and her students for her ability to convey sensitive and complicated information in a way that motivates her students to continue their scholarly and professional work. Her deep commitment to student success has remained a constant aspect of her mentorship, which has seen her build lasting relationships and provide her students with guidance and feedback that inspires them to become well-prepared nurse scientists and midwives. Ms. Guidera mentors each student according to their needs, gifts, and talents, cultivating their academic, emotional, and social growth. In many instances, Ms. Guidera’s mentorship and dedication to student success has helped many struggling students to stay, and thrive, in their nursing program. Whether through her assistance with clinical placements or facilitating additional support for students who may need academic support, Ms. Guidera readily and expertly shares her exceptional knowledge on all projects, modeling a collaborative approach to mentorship.
Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching
Bridgette M. Brawner is an associate professor of nursing in the department of family and community health. Dr. Brawner’s undergraduate courses, Nursing and the Community, Research/Inquiry-Based Service Residency, and Psychological and Social Diversity in Health and Wellness, have all left an indelible impact on her students. Students consistently praise Dr. Brawner’s effortless presentation of complex concepts in such a way that students are able to understand and build upon such knowledge. Through skillful and stimulating communication, her lectures are innovative and use highly engaging teaching methods so that students build meaningful connections between concepts. Dr. Brawner’s graduate courses, Mixed Methods Research and Research Residency, are often described as enriching. Her lessons and class discussions meet students’ individual needs, ensuring that nursing students are well prepared to become successful clinical professionals and nurse scientists. Dr. Brawner provides a variety of resources, content, and opportunities for student discourse in both her graduate and undergraduate courses. She is approachable and kind and she understands the stress of a rigorous education. A dedicated professor and masterful teacher, Dr. Brawner builds relationships through course discussions and her investment in each student.
Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence
Aleaha Peoples is a senior lecturer in the department of biobehavioral health sciences. Ms. Peoples co-teaches Nursing of Young and Middle-Aged Adults with Maria White. Not only does Ms. Peoples consistently demonstrate expertise in her course curriculum, but she also stimulates student interest and fosters their professional development. Many students and faculty praise Ms. Peoples’ ability to present complex concepts and foster a diverse set of student interests, as well as develop students’ critical thinking skills. Her effortless ability to create an inclusive classroom environment, combined with her concern for student well-being, has allowed those who take her courses to become successful nurses, students, and researchers. Ms. Peoples delivers difficult, and sometimes abstract, course content in a variety of media to create memorable connections between course concepts and real-life application for all kinds of student learners. Course discussions create nurses who are critical thinkers and ask important, thoughtful questions throughout their didactic and clinical processes. Through her interactions with students inside and outside the classroom, Ms. Peoples’ dedication to student well-being and success is ever-present, and she creates meaningful, long-lasting relationships with her students.
Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence
Maria White is a senior lecturer in the department of biobehavioral health sciences. Students praise Ms. White’s seamless blending of her clinical expertise with her course curriculum. In her course Nursing of Young and Middle-Aged Adults, Ms. White and her colleague Aleha Peoples work to create a stimulating, yet compassionate, learning environment so that all students can develop excellent critical thinking skills. Ms. White’s students become nurses who are well-prepared and quick thinkers. Most notably, Ms. White strives to ensure her classroom environment is inclusive and welcoming, creating a rapport with her students. She is accessible, kind, and available for additional help when needed. Her use of diverse media to convey complex lessons allows all learners to understand the material and how to apply it to their future as clinicians. Ms. White’s teaching methods remain innovative and engaging every year and students appreciate her teaching style. Her classroom and relationship with her students are described as supportive, engaging, and kind. Ms. White’s enthusiasm is unparalleled, and her regular engagement with students, both inside and outside of the classroom, proves Ms. White to be an invaluable professor.
Dean’s Award for Exemplary Professional Practice
Deborah Becker is a practice professor of nursing in the department of biobehavioral health sciences. As the director of the Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program, Dr. Becker has worked to develop an online, three-course streamlined gerontology acute care program, not only preparing Penn Nursing students to be exceptional providers, but also assisting frontline nurses, advanced practice nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Dr. Becker collaborates with leaders at various clinical sites, including the University of Pennsylvania Health System, ChristianaCare, and the SIM Lab. Additionally, Dr. Becker’s leadership in the Annual Interprofessional and Intercollegiate Education Disaster Preparedness and Response Simulation prepares Penn students of all disciplines to use their critical thinking skills in order to approach, consider, and manage an emergency, especially with interdisciplinary colleagues. Students in Penn Medicine’s Critical Care Advanced Practice Fellowship praised Dr. Becker’s role in designing the curriculum and maintaining relationships with alumni of the program. Dr. Becker is recognized as an expert educator, collaborator, and thought leader who has consistently made significant contributions to nurse practitioner education and partnerships. She exemplifies a practice leader who has created lasting impact on nurse innovation and education.
Barbara J. Lowery Faculty Award, Doctoral Student Organization
Peggy Compton is the van Ameringen Chair in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing and an associate professor of nursing in the department of family and community health. Doctoral students praise Dr. Compton’s unmatched mentorship, generosity, kindness, and endless support for their success. In addition to her care and concern for her mentees, Dr. Compton is focused on providing opportunities for student growth and has helped with re-designing the DSO website. She establishes a mutual respect with her mentees and cultivates student interests in a diverse range of topics, preparing students for their future as clinicians and researchers. A dedicated mentor, Dr. Compton supports doctoral students through both formal and informal teaching and mentoring. As such, her students can practice creative freedom within her structured guidance. Dr. Compton’s leadership in planning the Nursing Annual Research Day, which allows students to disseminate their research, and her assistance in the review process of the DSO Health Equity Grant further evidence her influence on these future nurse researchers. As a warm and enthusiastic professor, Dr. Compton has had an incomparable impact on Penn Nursing students, shaping the personal and professional trajectory of many nurse scholars.
Outstanding Nurse Educator Award, Graduate Student Organization
Dawn Bent is a program administrator of the DNP-Nurse Anesthesia program and a lecturer in the department of biobehavioral health sciences. Dr. Bent has never wavered in her advocacy for students, maintaining their safety within clinical settings as a top priority. To ensure that educational needs are fulfilled, Dr. Bent has adapted courses when needed but maintained academic rigor without sacrificing content. Continuously complimented for her ability to go above and beyond for nursing students, Dr. Bent has devoted countless hours to the advancement of nurse anesthetist students and has always communicated with them promptly and honestly. Her classes, such as Advanced Principles of Nurse Anesthesia, create an environment of shared learning, emotional support, and cohesion amongst curricula. Dr. Bent’s expertise is not lost on students, as her instruction is unparalleled, relaying difficult content in a way that students can remember and apply to their own patients and healthcare delivery, elevating their professionalism as future nurse anesthetists. Dr. Bent has personified the leadership, character, and level of excellence she instills in her students. They have expressed their deepest gratitude for her contribution to the advancement of their nursing and leadership endeavors.
Undergraduate Award for Teaching, Student Nurses at Penn
Monique Dowd is a senior lecturer in the department of biobehavioral health sciences. Ms. Dowd’s class Fundamentals of Nutrition allows BSN students an important perspective on patient health. Ms. Dowd leads by example and brings a holistic approach to students’ nursing careers and patient care. Ms. Dowd’s undergraduates praise her ability to use real-life patient encounters to impart extensive knowledge to her students that will create thoughtful nurses and healthier patients. Ms. Dowd provides helpful, notable lessons on a variety of topics and health-specific diets, complete with anecdotes, statistics, and tangible examples. Additionally, she emphasizes the importance of cultural understanding when patients have cultural or religious dietary restrictions. As a clinician and an educator, Ms. Dowd seamlessly forges the bridge between her classroom and her clinical environments so that her students will be able to do the same with the knowledge they gain in her classes. A thorough and engaging instructor, Ms. Dowd ensures that the lessons in her course are applicable or relatable to content in other nursing courses, strengthening students understanding of nursing and nutrition. Ms. Dowd embodies the characteristics her students will strive to emulate in their careers.
Dean’s Award for Undergraduate Advising
Holly Harner is the Afaf I. Meleis Director of the Center for Global Women’s Health and a practice professor of women’s health. Dr. Harner’s extensive knowledge of the undergraduate curriculum and willingness to support students is a hallmark of her advising at Penn Nursing. Dr. Harner’s students are grateful for her accessibility, as she has made a significant contribution to their academic, professional, and personal development. In addition to her professionalism, her advisees have praised her kindness, knowledge, and insight into potential nursing career paths, whether it is a PhD or a specialization within the nursing field. Dr. Harner does not leave any question unanswered, thoroughly evaluating possible outcomes and explaining her reasoning for her advice to students. Her organization and great memory ensure that her advisees feel supported, heard, and that they are receiving individualized advice. Dr. Harner’s calm demeanor and positive outlook make undergraduate students feel at ease when they discuss academic or professional conflicts with her. Her ability to propose a variety of solutions to undergraduate challenges allows all students to thrive. Dr. Harner’s advice, leadership, and rapport with her students will propel these future nurses into successful careers.
Dean’s Award for Exemplary Citizenship
Annie Hoyt-Brennan is the director of the Helene Fuld Pavilion for Innovative Learning and Simulation and is a simulation education specialist. Ms. Hoyt-Brennan has led the simulation faculty and staff through an enormous challenge in delivering both virtual and in-person simulations for nursing students. In addition to simulations, this initiative included online and in-person skills training and disseminating simulation and skills training packets for students as the majority of courses moved to a digital format. Ms. Hoyt-Brennan’s leadership allowed nursing students to remain on track in their programs, successfully solving complex scheduling challenges in the lab. Other than clinical placements, the Simulation Lab provided the only in-person experiences that students had this past year. Ms. Hoyt-Brennan also managed all purchasing, tracking, supplying, and training on how to use personal protective equipment. Additionally, Ms. Hoyt-Brennan’s dedicated effort was instrumental in ensuring that students could attend clinicals in settings that advanced their learning, but where the site did not have extra PPE for students. Her quick problem-solving, innovative solutions, attention to detail, and commitment to students across all of Penn Nursing’s academic programs is impressive, heartwarming, and inspiring. Ms. Hoyt-Brennan inspires the Penn Nursing community to prepare successful nurses and students.
Penn Medicine Researcher: $1 Million Grant to Expand COVID-19 Treatment Discovery Platform
David C. Fajgenbaum, an assistant professor of translational medicine & human genetics and the director of the Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, was awarded $1 million by the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) to expand the scope of the COVID-19 Registry of Off-label & New Agents (CORONA) project and build out his team to accelerate treatment identification for COVID-19.
“For the last year, over 100 volunteers and members of my lab have worked on nights and weekends to extract and centralize data for CORONA which has been used to identify and advance the most promising treatments for COVID-19,” Dr. Fajgenbaum said. “With this grant from PICI, we can build out our team to integrate and analyze data with the effort and urgency that this global pandemic warrants.”
CORONA is the world’s largest database of COVID-19 treatments, covering more than 400 treatments that have been reported to be administered to more than 340,000 patients, helping researchers to identify and prioritize promising treatments for well-designed clinical trials and to inform patient care. With funding from PICI, several new tools are in development or have already been built, including an open-access dashboard that integrates data between studies and presents vital data points for prioritizing promising treatments, such as the number of randomized control trials that have been completed, the number that are open, the number that achieved their primary endpoint, and others.
“All of the really relevant and important data is listed right next to each COVID-19 drug and kept up to date,” Dr. Fajgenbaum said. “Given the hundreds of drugs that have been tested in the last year, the tens of thousands of published studies about them, and the global importance of finding truly effective treatments, we had to build a central tool like this. We can’t afford to let a promising treatment fall through the cracks.”
Fortunately, CORONA has been accessed by over 20,000 users and has served as a critical dataset for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). In fact, Dr. Fajgenbaum was recently selected to serve on the NIH’s ACTIV-6 team to select the most promising COVID-19 treatments for a large randomized controlled trial. He is also leading a similar effort for the CURE Drug Repurposing Collaboratory, a public-private partnership between the FDA, NIH, and Critical Path Institute. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Fajgenbaum also contributed to establishing a unifying definition for cytokine storm, the most deadly manifestation of COVID-19, and uncovered new mechanisms that can be involved in combating cytokine storm.
Additional members of the lab and volunteers on the effort include Sheila Pierson, Johnson Khor, Alexis Phillips, Amber Cohen, Ania Korsunska, and Matt Chadsey.
This process of drug discovery is very personal to Dr. Fajgenbaum and his team. Using a similar approach to CORONA, they have also discovered multiple promising treatment approaches for Castleman disease, which Dr. Fajgenbaum battles as a patient, and even used one of those treatments to induce an extended remission for Dr. Fajgenbaum.
The CORONA project currently has seed funding for one year and is actively seeking additional financial support. While they hope that they can contribute to accelerating the end of this pandemic within that timeframe, they also hope to turn this tool for COVID-19 into a platform for drug discovery and repurposing beyond COVID-19.
Penn and USC: New Annenberg Center for Collaborative Communication
At a time when tackling the world’s biggest challenges demands ambitious collaborations, two of the preeminent schools for communication and media studies—the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism—have jointly established the Annenberg Center for Collaborative Communication to enable their faculties and doctoral students to think and work across institutional, geographic, and disciplinary divides.
The first-of-its-kind center will provide a critical infrastructure for reimagining and potentially revolutionizing how communication can be used to address complex issues such as health care, data privacy, cultural and demographic change, politics, new media, gender and racial equity and justice, media literacy and policy, journalistic trust, and the restructuring of media industries in an evolving age of streaming and networked distribution.
USC Annenberg professor of communication Sarah Banet-Weiser—a leading scholar in feminist theory, race and the media, youth culture, popular and consumer culture, and citizenship and national identity—will serve as the center’s inaugural director. In this role, working closely with faculty and doctoral students from both schools, she will shape the center’s vision and goals and map out its future direction.
On July 1, Dr. Banet-Weiser will also join the faculty of the Annenberg School at Penn, becoming the first person with appointments in both schools. She will teach courses at Penn and USC.
Annenberg Penn Dean John L. Jackson, Jr., and USC Annenberg Dean Willow Bay note that the center’s aim encapsulates the enduring vision of the schools’ founder—Ambassador Walter Annenberg—who foresaw the centrality of communication to understanding the profound changes society faces. The center, they said, will build on the important work of uniting the skills, research, and intellectual vision of the two educational institutions he founded.
“Our founder and his daughter, Wallis Annenberg, have supported every opportunity for the two schools that bear their name to promote innovative enterprises that advance the public good through improved communication,” Dean Bay said. “Under Professor Banet-Weiser’s leadership, this center will urge our faculty and doctoral students to not only explore entirely new ways of working together, but to break down institutional boundaries that may slow down transformational social change.”
Dean Jackson added that Penn and USC are ideally poised to help solve society’s most vexing problems.
“This collaboration puts us in a unique position to address emerging global issues at a time when convergence and crisis, proliferation and disruption, challenge our world in unprecedented and unpredictable ways,” Dean Jackson said. “From industries to information, from culture and creativity to big data and networked media, from justice and empowerment to crises of media distrust and political polarization, there has never before been a greater urgency for scholars to engage.”
Dr. Banet-Weiser said she hopes to use her position as director to leverage the expertise and intellectual power of both schools.
“I want us to ask big questions about the future of communication and media, the impact of that future on the questions that matter most, and the most cutting-edge ways to educate our doctoral students interested in posing critical questions that anticipate media worlds yet to come,” she said. “I can’t wait to see what our collaborative strengths can accomplish.”
The Annenberg Center for Collaborative Communication will officially launch under Dr. Banet-Weiser’s leadership on July 1, 2021.
FactCheck.org and Univision Noticias Funded by Google to Address COVID Misinformation
FactCheck.org and Univision Noticias have been awarded funding from the Google News Initiative to produce fact checks about COVID-19 immunization misinformation and short bilingual video explainers.
The joint project is designed to combat viral misinformation and provide accurate information about vaccination to U.S. Hispanic households via videos in Spanish and English.
FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, and Univision are the only U.S.-based organizations among the eleven projects chosen for Google News Initiative funding, which was announced on March 16, 2021.
“We worked with Univision’s talented staff during the last two months of the 2020 election and we are excited to continue working with them on COVID-19 misinformation,” said Eugene Kiely, director of FactCheck.org. “Univision is the primary news source for Hispanics in the U.S. This gives us an opportunity to reach a larger and more diverse audience.”
“The pandemic and misinformation have disproportionately affected the Hispanic community,” said Jose Zamora, senior vice president of strategic communications at Univision News. “This exceptional partnership between Univision Noticias and FactCheck.org, with the support of the Google News Initiative, allows us to work with one of the most respected fact-checking platforms in the U.S. to continue and amplify our fight against misinformation and ensure that Latinos have access to accurate information. Univision Noticias is committed to serving its community through journalism and fact-checking; this partnership allows us to fulfill both purposes and our mission.”
The Google News Initiative launched a $3 million Open Fund in January for projects on COVID-19 vaccines that are directed at communities underserved by fact-checking organizations or targeted by misinformation. Google received more than 309 applications from 74 countries.
Early in 2021, FactCheck.org’s SciCheck program launched an expanded initiative to produce written and video fact checks about the coronavirus, COVID-19, and vaccines in Spanish as well as English in an effort to reach underserved communities where long-standing social and health inequities have put people at greater risk of illness and death from COVID-19, and where vaccination rates have been low. To date it has produced more than 15 articles and videos in Spanish, including guides to the FDA-approved Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Other fact checks in Spanish include:
A guide to FactCheck.org’s coronavirus coverage can be found here.