August 12, 2025 Volume 72 Issue 2

The University of Pennsylvania has launched the Penn Wrestling Lasting Legacy of Excellence Campaign, a fundraising initiative that aims to raise $34 million to lead Penn Wrestling into a new era. Penn Wrestling has also received a landmark $20 million gift from Dave Pottruck, an alumnus of the College of Arts & Sciences and the Wharton School, a former University Trustee, an emeritus member of the Penn Athletics Board of Advisers, and a former wrestling and football student-athlete.

“Dave Pottruck’s steadfast support for Penn Athletics has empowered our community of student-athletes and allowed them to thrive both academically and athletically,” said Penn President J. Larry Jameson. “A former varsity wrestler, Dave has launched the fundraising initiative to propel Penn Wrestling into the future with a generous gift that will provide resources to help the team compete at the highest level. We are deeply grateful for his continued leadership and philanthropy.”

“My time as a student-athlete shaped me in profound ways,” said Mr. Pottruck. “As a wrestler and on the football field, I learned stamina, discipline, and leadership. Today’s student-athletes are no different, and I hope that by supporting Penn Wrestling, I’m helping future generations of leaders develop their enormous potential. I’m also honored to share the naming rights with Roger Reina, the man who led and transformed Penn Wrestling for almost 40 years.”

“For decades, Dave has been committed to providing transformational experiences for Penn students, most notably in campus recreation, the Pottruck Center for Student-Athlete Success, and the Penn Athletics Wharton Leadership Academy,” said Alanna Wren, the T. Gibbs Kane, Jr. W’69 Director of Athletics and Recreation. “I’m grateful for Dave’s leadership in supporting both the capital needs of the wrestling program and its long-term financial foundation. This gift will be transformative for our wrestling student-athletes and will keep us positioned for Ivy League and national success.”

The centerpiece of the new initiative is a planned renovation to the Weightman Hall Gymnasium, which hosted the first-ever collegiate wrestling tournament. Once complete, the renovated space will become the Pottruck-Reina Wrestling Center, which will serve as the new home for Penn Wrestling, complete with state-of-the-art training facilities and modern locker rooms. 

The Weightman Hall renovation will relocate the varsity wrestling team’s practice facility to the second floor of Weightman Gymnasium. The 13,000-square-foot renovation includes two main components: an 8,900-square-foot wrestling room that will replace the existing basketball gymnasium, and a 2,400-square-foot team complex that will replace the adjacent Donaldson Room. The Pottruck-Reina Wrestling Center is slated to open in spring 2028.

“This transformational contribution will move Penn Wrestling into an elite circle of the most supported Division 1 wrestling programs in the nation,” said head wrestling coach emeritus Roger Reina. “With Dave Pottruck’s latest gift, our foundation is becoming ever stronger, and the sky is the limit.”

“Thanks to the incredible generosity of Dave Pottruck and the support of Alanna Wren, this is a stake-in-the-ground moment for Penn Wrestling,” added alumnus and head wrestling coach Matt Valenti. “We are building something special here in Philadelphia, in every way possible.”

“It’s exciting to imagine how the renovated facility will transform the experience for Penn’s wrestling student-athletes,” said Mr. Pottruck. “The fact that it will be in the exact location of the very first collegiate wrestling tournament is profound.”

In addition to the new facility, which is projected to cost $25 million, Penn Wrestling aims to bolster its endowment by $9 million. Mr. Pottruck’s gift includes $1 million to expand the Penn Wrestling endowment, which supports the operating expenses associated with running a nationally competitive program.

Additionally, $4 million will be used for a matching challenge that will be posed to the entire Penn Wrestling community. Each gift made towards Penn Wrestling’s operational endowment will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $4 million.

“This facility and overall fundraising mission will move Penn Wrestling into a very small circle of the nation’s most elite programs,” said alumnus Stephen Brody, co-chair of the Penn Athletics Wrestling Board. “The renovated facility will drastically improve the wrestling program’s physical footprint while providing the resources needed to develop wrestling student-athletes and compete for Ivy League and national recognition.”

“Dave’s generosity, leadership, and passion for Penn wrestling is second to none,” added alumnus Brett Matter, co-chair of the Penn Athletics Wrestling Board. “While his support of the facility will be critical in helping Penn continue to compete on the nation’s highest platforms, his challenge and focus on the endowment will be instrumental in motivating others to follow his lead and help secure the program’s legacy in perpetuity.”

The Lasting Legacy of Excellence Campaign aims to make Penn’s wrestling program largely self-sustaining and further its prominence in the Ivy League and in the national wrestling landscape.

Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw has been named the James and Nan Wagner Farquhar Professor of History of Art in the School of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Shaw, who joined the department of history of art in 2005, served as the Class of 1940 Bicentennial Term Professor in the department of history of art before being appointed to the Farquhar Professorship. She is also the inaugural and current faculty director of Penn’s Arthur Ross Gallery (Almanac July 16, 2024).

Dr. Shaw’s main areas of research include portraiture and issues of representation in the art of the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, from the 1500s to the present day. Her writing, curating, and teaching centers on the history of American art, art collecting, and museums. Author of the books The Art of Remembering: Essays on African American Art and History; Seeing the Unspeakable: The Art of Kara Walker; and First Ladies of the United States, Dr. Shaw has also published several recent articles and essays and contributed to numerous major exhibitions.

In addition to her teaching and academic research, Dr. Shaw has curated several important art exhibitions, including Portraits of a People: Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century for the Addison Gallery of American Art, Represent: 200 Years of African American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I Dream a World: Selections from Brian Lanker’s Portraits of Remarkable Black Women at the National Portrait Gallery, and most recently, After Modernism: Selections from the Neumann Family Collection at the Arthur Ross Gallery at Penn.

The late Nan and James Farquhar, LAR’39, both prominent supporters of art history at Penn, established this professorship in 1988. The professorship supports outstanding educators who share insights and knowledge with students and forge links between art history and related disciplines.

The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania (ICA Philadelphia) has announced the appointment of Johanna Burton as its Daniel W. Dietrich, II Director. A widely recognized voice in contemporary art and cultural education with over 15 years of leadership experience as a museum director, administrator, and curator, Ms. Burton currently serves as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles. She was previously the director of the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University and has held leadership roles at the New Museum in New York, the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, and the Whitney Museum. She will begin at ICA on November 1, 2025, working alongside ICA’s Board of Advisors and senior leadership team.

“Johanna Burton is among the most prominent and insightful leaders in contemporary art,” said Penn Provost John L. Jackson, Jr. “She has wide-ranging experience working with artists across media, mentoring curators, collaborating with students and faculty, and energetically drawing new audiences to art institutions on both coasts. We are very gratified to bring her to Penn at a time when the arts are more vital than ever, as articulated in our strategic framework, In Principle and Practice, and under the leadership of Tim Rommen, our new Vice Provost for the Arts. I am grateful to him and to the consultative committee of faculty and arts leaders who helped us arrive at this exciting moment for the arts at Penn.”

“Johanna brings a rare and powerful blend of curatorial vision, scholarly depth, and institutional vision,” said Mark W. Strong, chair of ICA Philadelphia’s Board. “Her commitment to both artists and public engagement resonates powerfully with the ICA’s mission. We’re excited for this new partnership as we chart the next chapter of the ICA’s groundbreaking and pioneering history.”

“ICA Philadelphia has always been a beacon for what’s next—prioritizing the emergent, the risk-taking, and the rigorously experimental—and I’ve long admired its role as both community anchor and hub for global discourse,” said Ms. Burton. “In many ways, this appointment returns me to the kind of institution that first shaped my curatorial and academic sensibilities, a focused but deeply influential center for artistic innovation within a pedagogical setting. To step into this position at ICA at a moment when the possibilities for institutional and cultural impact are so pressing is a profound honor. I am eager to build on ICA’s legacy of forging connections across campus, the city of Philadelphia, and the international arts community.”

In her current role as MOCA’s Maurice Marciano Director, Ms. Burton oversees all aspects of programmatic development, operations, and fundraising. She has also spearheaded major initiatives that have advanced institutional sustainability, curatorial innovation, and public engagement. During her tenure at MOCA, Ms. Burton has established a new organizational structure for MOCA’s senior leadership, which has included creating new senior positions that support internal culture and HR, as well as public outreach and engagement. She has overseen an expansion of MOCA’s fundraising and development initiatives, including the addition of more than a dozen new trustees during her tenure.

Ms. Burton has also been integral in expanding the museum’s live performance programs, deepening environmental initiatives, and relaunching the MOCA Focus series, which provides artists with a first solo museum show in LA. She was part of a groundbreaking initiative with LACMA and the Hammer Museum, in partnership with philanthropist Jarl Mohn, to establish MAC3, a new, civically minded model for collection building.

Before joining MOCA in 2021, Ms. Burton served as director of the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University. At the Wexner, she formulated the institution’s new strategic direction and creative vision, forging programmatic alignments and partnerships with the university and national and international organizations. She additionally brings experience in programming, outreach, and academia through her roles as the Keith Haring Director and curator of education and public engagement at the New Museum in New York from 2013 to 2019; director of the graduate program at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College from 2010 to 2013; and associate director and a senior faculty member at the Whitney Museum independent study program from 2008 to 2010.

As a curator, Ms. Burton has organized influential exhibitions such as Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon (2017) at the New Museum in New York, and Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology (2014) at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, along with major monographic exhibitions of artists including Simone Leigh, Jeffrey Gibson, Sherrie Levine, and Haim Steinbach. She has contributed writing to projects with artists including Carol Bove, Wade Guyton, Rachel Harrison, Ellsworth Kelly, and Sable Elyse Smith, and has edited five books, including Cindy Sherman (MIT Press, 2006). From 2015 to 2020, Ms. Burton was the series editor of Critical Anthologies in Art and Culture, co-published by the New Museum and MIT Press.

Ms. Burton’s appointment follows a six-month global search for ICA’s new director. Ms. Burton succeeds Zoë Ryan, who served as director from 2020 to 2024. Hallie Ringle, ICA’s Daniel and Brett Sundheim Chief Curator, will continue to serve as ICA’s interim director until Ms. Burton joins in November.

PASEF, the Penn Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty, is the organization of and for senior (age 55+) and emeritus and retired faculty from all schools and colleges of the University. PASEF encompasses both standing faculty and associated faculty with the rank of associate and full professor on the academic clinician, research, and practice tracks. Per its mission statement, PASEF “informs and advocates on matters of concern to senior and retired faculty through dialogue with the University administration and communication with its members and the larger community.”

PASEF shares important information relevant to senior and emeritus faculty with its members and engages with the administration when matters of concern to the membership arise. PASEF also does much more—see below. The core mission, however, is service to faculty retirees and faculty approaching retirement and advocacy on their behalf. The PASEF president usually meets monthly with the vice provost for faculty to discuss issues of concern. We thank Vice Provost Laura Perna for her assistance and willingness to respond to the concerns of retired faculty.

PASEF Size and Scope

PASEF’s membership is large and largely Philadelphia-based. As of July 16, 2025, PASEF has 2,245 members, including 1,354 senior faculty and 891 retired faculty. Of the retirees, 705 remain in the Philadelphia area.

The PASEF Council meets monthly throughout the academic year and attendance at council meetings is high, averaging 85–90%. Our meetings are hybrid, thus allowing those members who live far from Philadelphia or those travelling to participate. PASEF members sit ex-officio on the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and on four of the standing committees of the Faculty Senate: Faculty Development, Diversity, and Equity; Faculty and the Academic Mission; Faculty and the Administration; and Students and Educational Policy. PASEF designates a member of Penn’s Committee on Personnel Benefits. And PASEF’s president sits on the Executive Council of the Perelman School of Medicine-based organization, the Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty of the Perelman School of Medicine (ASEF-PSOM).

PASEF Activities

PASEF’s principal activities consist of membership programs, membership engagement and communication, community service, and engagement with the Penn administration to discuss issues of relevance to our membership.

Membership programs. (https://pasef.provost.upenn.edu/events/) PASEF offers retirement-related, academic, and cultural programs for its members. This past year’s retirement-related programs included Negotiating the Retirement Transition: What’s Next? (September 5), Medicare and Social Security: Concerns of Retiring and Retired Faculty (December 4), and The Nuts & Bolts of Retirement (May 1). These programs are intended to help faculty decide when they should retire, and to provide guidance on the various stages of the retirement process. All were offered this year as late-afternoon Zoom panels, with videos archived and available on our website. These panels on retirement draw the largest audiences of any of our programs, with around 80 people on average participating by Zoom and another 60 people on average watching the videos later.

Our primary cultural event this past year was our spring outing to the Frances M. Maguire Museum and the Barnes Arboretum at what was the original site of the Barnes Museum on April 30.

Our academic program this year combined a series of four Zoom Lunch lectures and three in-person lecture/receptions with video available afterwards when the speaker was willing to be recorded. Our Zoom Lunches were The Promise and Pitfalls of AI in Healthcare: A Nurse Scientist’s Perspective, presented by Amanda P. Bettencourt (November 13); Coral Reefs Are Sentinels of the Biodiversity Crisis, Katie L. Barott (January 8); Troy and Gordion: An Excavator’s Perspective on Two Legendary Sites in Anatolia, C. Brian Rose (February 6); and The Joseph Story: Genesis, the Qur’an, and Chartres Cathedral, Roger Allen (April 9). We hosted three in-person only lectures and receptions this year, with videos made available later. Our winter lecture/reception was a conversation with Penn President Emerita Judith Rodin and PASEF immediate past president Janice Bellace as the interlocutor on Philadelphia Then and Now: Penn’s Role in the Transformation. Our fall lecture/reception was by Francis X. Diebold on Climate Forecasting: Artic Sea Ice Melting – How Soon, and our spring lecture/reception was by Kevin B. Johnson on The Observer Project: Transforming Healthcare from the Outside.

And finally, this year’s Newly Retired & Emeritus Faculty Celebration honoring 56 professors, sponsored jointly by ASEF-PSOM and PASEF, was held on May 6 in the Jordan Medical Education Center Atrium, with remarks by vice provost for faculty Laura Perna, ASEF-PSOM president elect Fran Barg, and PASEF president Mitch Marcus, with piano music by past president Roger Allen.

Many people contribute to the success of PASEF’s programs, too many to list, but special thanks go to outgoing PASEF Program Committee chair Andy Binns and outgoing members Ed George, Eduardo Glandt, and Ann O’Sullivan, who worked tirelessly to make our programs happen for the past several years. We thank them for their service.

Membership engagement and communication. Membership in PASEF is automatic, but ongoing engagement of our membership depends on effective communication. Currently, PASEF has four key channels of communication: PASEF e-newsletters, the PASEF website, and two informational guides, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Faculty Retirement (https://pasef.provost.upenn.edu/retirement/hitchhikers-guide-to-faculty-retirement/) and our Guide to Continuing Care Retirement Communities (https://pasef.provost.upenn.edu/retirement/guide-to-retirement-communities/).

PASEF’s flagship publication is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Faculty Retirement, now in its 18th edition. Though not an official publication of the University, the Hitchhiker’s Guide has become the de facto retirement manual for Penn faculty. A membership survey last year indicated that the Hitchhiker’s Guide is considered an invaluable source of information for those nearing retirement. Annual updates and release notes are published each year, usually at the beginning of the winter semester. Janet Deatrick, Martin Pring and Janice Bellace ably managed this latest annual revision, which includes a newly designed cover and “Road Map to Retirement Planning” page, along with more detail on retirement benefits for parking, recreation and cultural activities at Penn. In several cases, the Hitchhiker’s Guide editors’ reaching out to confirm the details of retirement benefits caused benefits that had been dropped to be reinstated and, in one case, extended to all retired staff. The Hitchhiker’s Guide received 801 views by 591 users on PASEF’s website this past year.

Our Guide to Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs), was updated this past year by editor Paul Shaman to include four additional CCRCs and now describes 15 CCRCs in the Philadelphia area in addition to an introduction to what they offer and their differing financial structures. CCRCs provide a continuum of living settings for folks of retirement age, ranging from those of us who are fully active to those needing assisted living or skilled nursing care. The guide, now in its third edition since first completed in 2014, received 789 views by 542 users this past year.

Eight PASEF e-newsletters were sent to members in the 2024-2025 academic year. We also sent several “PASEF Alerts,” typically on benefit changes. The newsletter highlights upcoming PASEF activities; the president’s column alerts members to upcoming deadlines and changes in benefits, benefits administration, and other issues affecting retirees.

Marshall Meyer (chair) and Peter Kuriloff of PASEF’s Membership Engagement Committee initiated a new face-to-face activity for our membership this year—neighborhood book groups with meetings in volunteers’ homes. Two book groups were launched—one for Center City/West Philadelphia and another for the Main Line. Each had several meetings, with quite a large group in each area signed up for its mailing list.

Advocacy. PASEF’s leadership responds to changes to Penn’s benefits and privileges for retired and emeritus faculty and seeks to ameliorate changes that negatively impact our members. For example, we discovered last summer that the long-established Emeritus Parking Program was suddenly discontinued, replaced by a much more limited program. Working with Joe Russo in Business Services, we negotiated extensions to this new program that much better meet the needs of our members. We were also happy this year to support ASEF-PSOM’s request to the board of the University Club to introduce a discounted membership for retired faculty, leading to a new much reduced annual membership rate ($35 rather than the standard $75). We regularly respond to members’ questions and provide information when we perceive that members may not be fully aware of how to access benefits, such as the hearing aid benefit, or how recent benefit changes will affect them, such as the recent changes to Independence Blue Cross Medicare supplement plan for retirees.

While retired standing faculty have access to a wide range of retirement privileges beyond the benefits that Penn offers to all retired staff with sufficient Penn service, privileges to retired members of the associated faculty (research faculty, professors of practice, and academic clinicians) are limited. These faculty often gain access to the tools needed for their academic research and pursuits by being appointed as adjunct faculty, a process usually facilitated by supportive department chairs. Responding to this, PASEF this year initiated an ad hoc committee to investigate what privileges would be useful to retired associated faculty, to determine the current privileges offered locally by each of Penn’s schools, if any, and ultimately to advocate for a formal University-wide commitment to a consistent set of such privileges. The associated faculty who make up most of this committee’s membership were in strong agreement that the privileges most important to them were those that allowed them to remain connected to their colleagues and to continue their academic involvement. The committee noted that the privileges they most care about (email, access to academic and research buildings, etc.) would entail minimal costs to Penn. The committee will continue its work this coming year.

Community Outreach.  PASEF’s community outreach efforts include our newly revitalized Speakers Bureau and programs organized by our Community Involvement Committee. 

PASEF’s Speakers Bureau provides lectures to Philadelphia-area organizations, including CCRCs, clubs and libraries. It had become nearly dormant, with only two talks given last year, but was revitalized this year by PASEF associate director Sarah Barr and Jennifer Shotto, part-time assistant to the Penn Forum for Women Faculty and Gender Equity, who began also working for PASEF on a part-time basis through funding provided by Vice Provost for Faculty Laura Perna. Their efforts have led to significant growth in speaker invitations (from six per year on average since Covid to 25 this year), an expanded mailing list (from 79 to 194), an increased newsletter frequency (from 2 to 5), and the addition of five new faculty members to the roster.

This year, the highlight of our Community Involvement Committee’s efforts was a CPR training on March 1 at the Walnut Street West Library at 40^th and Walnut for the West Philadelphia community with the aid of The Mobile CPR Project Philadelphia. Twenty CPR “dummies” were present for participants to practice the current emergency CPR method by bystanders. Thanks to our Community Involvement Committee of Ana Lía Obaid, Iris Reyes and Brian Salzberg for their efforts.

PASEF Council and Committees. A list of 2024-2025 PASEF Council and committee members is appended. Thanks to all and especially to past president Janet Bellace and president-elect Peter Kuriloff for their counsel and support throughout.

In Memoriam. At every PASEF Council meeting, we note the passing of Penn faculty members and reminisce about their time at Penn. This year we sadly noted the passing of Paul Shaman, who edited and extended our Guide to Continuing Care Retirement Communities over the past several years and who served as PASEF president for two terms, from 2016-2017 and 2019-2020.

—Mitchell Marcus, 2024-2025 PASEF President

Appendix: 2024-2025 PASEF Council Members

Sherrill L. Adams—Dental Medicine (Biochemistry)—at-large member of Council; Faculty Development, Diversity & Equity (SCFDDE) representative

Gustavo Aguirre—Penn Vet (Clinical Sciences & Advanced Medicine)—at-large member of Council

Roger M. A. Allen—Arts & Sciences (Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations)—representative to Faculty and the Academic Mission (SCOF); former president

Regina Austin—Penn Carey Law—at-large member of Council

Janice Bellace—Wharton (Legal Studies & Business Ethics)—past president; representative to University Council Committee on Personnel Benefits (PBC); co-editor of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Faculty Retirement

Andrew N. Binns—Arts & Sciences (Biology)—at-large member of Council; chair, Program Committee

Peter Conn—Arts & Sciences (English)—library liaison

Janet Deatrick—Nursing (Family & Community Health)—co-editor of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Faculty Retirement; representative to Senate Executive Committee (SEC); former president

Edward I. George—Wharton (Statistics and Data Science)—at-large member of Council

Robert Hornik—Annenberg School for Communication—at-large member of Council; website and communications liaison

Peter Kuriloff—Graduate School of Education—president-elect; chair, Nominating Committee

Mitchell Marcus—Engineering & Applied Science (Computer and Information Science)—president; chair, Steering Committee

Marshall W. Meyer—Wharton (Management)—chair, Membership Engagement Committee; former president

Charles Mooney, Jr.—Penn Carey Law—at-large member of Council; representative to Faculty and the Administration (SCOA)

Gail Morrison—Penn Medicine (Medicine)—at-large member of Council; representative to Students & Educational Policy (SCSEP)

Ana Lía Obaid—Penn Medicine (Neuroscience)—co-chair, Community Involvement Committee

Ann L. O’Sullivan—Nursing (Family & Community Health)—at-large member of Council

David Pope—Engineering & Applied Science (Materials Science and Engineering)—secretary

Martin Pring—Penn Medicine (Physiology)—co-editor of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Faculty Retirement

Iris M. Reyes—Penn Medicine (Emergency Medicine)—at-large member of Council

Brian M. Salzberg—Penn Medicine (Neuroscience)—co-chair, Community Involvement Committee

Irene Wong—Social Policy & Practice—at-large member of Council

Former Presidents: Gerald J. Porter, Neville E. Strumpf, Ross A. Webber, Jack H. Nagel, Paul Shaman, Lois K. Evans, and Janice F. Madden

Beginning in the 2025-2026 academic year, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School will offer a new certificate of study in history and historical research methods, granted by the department of history in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences.

The certificate, one of more than a dozen certificates of study offered at Penn Carey Law, is open to all Penn Carey Law students. Certificates of study provide opportunities for credentials in additional areas, allowing for more concentrated coursework en route to specialized or focused career paths.

“I was immediately excited by Professors Karen Tani and Serena Mayeri’s proposal to create this new certificate, because the topics are increasingly important to the practice of law,” said Amanda Aronoff, managing director of cross-disciplinary programs at Penn Carey Law and director of student engagement for the Francis J. & William Polk Carey JD/MBA Program at Penn Carey Law and the Wharton School. “In addition, even though Penn Carey Law offers numerous and diverse cross-disciplinary offerings, there isn’t anything else like this certificate.”

The certificate arrives at a time of exciting growth for legal history at the school, which has seen the national recognition of multiple Penn legal historians in recent years as well as the continued expansion of the Legal History Consortium, uniting the school and Penn’s history department to foster innovative research, scholarship, and education in law and history.

“Despite the strength of legal history at Penn, we didn’t previously offer students structured opportunities that join law and history, aside from our JD/PhD program,” said Karen Tani, the Seaman Family University Professor. “That struck me as a big gap.” 

Additionally, Dr. Tani believes that offering law students more opportunities to engage with history as part of their education and careers will better equip them for today’s legal landscapes. “It’s clear that history has become increasingly important to Supreme Court rulings,” she said. “We see this in the court’s deepening commitment to originalism to decide constitutional questions, as well as in its turn to ‘history and tradition’ to determine whether the Constitution protects various ‘unenumerated’ rights.”

Dr. Tani points to some of the most important decisions of the past five years as examples—regarding abortion, affirmative action, firearm regulation, nationwide injunctions, and more. “We wanted to create a certificate that allows law students to be educated consumers of legal opinions that rely on history and to meaningfully engage with the methods and commitments of the discipline,” she said.

Students pursuing the certificate must complete four courses in the general area of history and historical research methods—one at Carey Law and three in the history department—as well as attend four history-sponsored events, such as workshops, lectures, or pedagogy seminars.

“Penn has long been a leader in legal history, and our JD-PhD joint program in American legal history has been a proud success,” said Jared Farmer, chair of the department of history at Penn. “We are excited to deepen the relationship between the School of Arts & Sciences and Penn Carey Law with this certificate program.”

Wharton Online has announced the launch of Leading an AI-Powered Future, a self-paced online executive program designed to equip professionals at every stage of their careers with the practical skills and confidence to lead in an era defined by artificial intelligence.

As AI continues to transform industries and workplaces around the globe, there is growing demand for leaders who can move beyond theory and apply AI to real-world challenges. Recognizing this shift, Wharton Online’s new program is tailored not just to senior executives, but also to emerging and mid-level leaders, functional managers, and business influencers who are expected to implement and drive AI strategy within their organizations.

“AI isn’t just a technology trend—it’s a leadership imperative that’s shaping the future of work across every sector,” said Stefano Puntoni, academic director of the program. “We designed Leading an AI-Powered Future to be accessible, actionable, and hands-on, so participants can immediately start making an impact, regardless of their technical background.”

The self-paced online program is guided by Wharton’s expert faculty: Stefano Puntoni, Lynn Wu, Nicolaj Siggelkow, and Christian Terwiesch. It also features guest lecturer Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn and a leading voice in AI.

Across four modules, participants will explore the future of AI and human agency, learn to design effective AI-human collaboration, discover how generative AI can transform customer experiences, and prepare for the evolving workforce. Each module blends foundational concepts with hands-on activities, helping learners build AI literacy, craft effective prompts, evaluate ethical considerations, and create actionable strategies for AI adoption.

Key program features include:

• Self-paced, 100 percent online format for maximum flexibility
• Core curriculum of hands-on activities and exercises
• Actionable frameworks to bridge strategy and practical application
• Focus on preparing teams and organizations for the future of work
• A Wharton digital badge of completion

Enrollment for Leading an AI-Powered Future is now open.

Beryl Richman Dean, L’64, a former lecturer in legal studies in the Wharton School and the former director of pre-law advisors in Penn Career Services, died on April 4. She was 87. 

Born in Philadelphia, Ms. Dean graduated from the Philadelphia High School for Girls, then went on to attend Vassar College, graduating in 1958 with a degree in philosophy and writing a thesis on “Law and Social Action.” 

She then came to Penn to earn her law degree, graduating in 1964. In 1972, she became a pre-law advisor at Penn’s Vocational Advising Center, the precursor to Penn Career Services. 

Three years later, she became director of pre-law advisors in the center; in 1977, she also became a lecturer in legal studies in the Wharton School. After leaving Penn in 1980, Ms. Dean became the deputy director of career planning and placement at the Philadelphia Bar Association, where she also authored a book titled The Definitive Job Hunting Book for Lawyers. 

Ms. Dean volunteered for the Philadelphia Committee for the Homeless, the predecessor to today’s Project HOME, helping to match homeless Philadelphians with jobs. She also served on the national board of directors of CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting). 

Ms. Dean is survived by her three children, Ilana, Daniel (Ellen), Rachel (Brian); grandchildren, Ruth, Alice, Andrew, Jennifer, Emily, Owen, and Jeffrey; and her sister, Deborah Feldman. 

Christine Eisler, executive director of faculty affairs in the School of Arts & Sciences and previously at Penn Nursing, died on May 24 after battling a rare and aggressive form of cancer known as Goblet Cell Adenocarcinoma. She was 48. 

Since 2005, Ms. Eisler had served as an administrator in several departments at Penn, including animal biology and biomedical science, both in Penn Vet. In 2011, she became the associate director of faculty affairs in Penn Nursing; she became the director six years later. In 2021, she became executive director of faculty affairs in the School of Arts & Sciences. 

Ms. Eisler is survived by her husband, Mark Lindsay; and her brother, Charles Eisler. 

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Christine’s name to METAvivor, an organization dedicated to metastatic breast cancer research, at http://donate.metavivor.org. 

Gloria Gay, the former associate director of the Penn Women’s Center and a lecturer in the School of Social Work (the precursor to the School of Social Policy & Practice), died on April 1 in Van Nuys, California. She was 90.

Before arriving at Penn, Ms. Gay served as the director of professional training for Planned Parenthood of Philadelphia and as a clinical social worker for the Navy Family Service Center in Philadelphia. For many years, she also served as a volunteer at the Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Project. In 2002, the latter organization recognized Ms. Gay’s service with a lifetime achievement award.

Ms. Gay came to Penn in 1985 as an affiliated social worker in the School of Social Work. The next year, she was appointed associate director of the Penn Women’s Center, a role she held until her retirement in 2010. From 1989 to 2008, she also served as an adjunct instructor in human sexuality education in the School of Social Work. She served on Penn’s Sexual Harassment Committee for many years and implemented sexual harassment training programs throughout the University that were designed for faculty, staff and students. She also organized many holiday drives to donate supplies to needy families in West Philadelphia.

Ms. Gay was a primary trainer on the team that educated principals, teachers, and counselors in the School District of Philadelphia. The program her group developed, Equity in the Era of Diversity, was implemented annually in the school district for over a decade. Ms. Gay was also a certified rape crisis counselor through Women Organized Against Rape and a certified domestic violence counselor through the National Association of Forensic Counselors. Ms. Gay’s commitment to stopping violence against women led her to become a highly sought-after trainer on domestic violence, and she traveled abroad to assist women in Serbia in coalition building against domestic violence.

In 2003, Ms. Gay received the Helen O. Dickens Lifetime Achievement Award from Women of Color at Penn for her contributions as a nurse, teacher, mental health worker, drug counselor, social worker, and leader (Almanac April 1, 2003). “She is one of the most widely known and respected individuals committed to promoting social justice, working to confront individual and institutional racism, heterosexism, sexism and class oppression,” said her citation. “She believes in the theory of one: of reaching out and helping one person at a time, and making a difference with every encounter.” Three years later, she received a Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Involvement Award (Almanac January 24, 2006).

Lemont C. Johnson, a former senior library clerk in the Penn Libraries, died on May 20. He was 87. 

Mr. Johnson joined Penn’s staff in 1969 as a stockkeeper in the chemistry department of the Faculty (today the School) of Arts & Sciences. In 1975, he became a library stack attendant in Penn’s School of Medicine Library; the next year, he moved to the Van Pelt Library, where he served as a senior library clerk. 

Mr. Johnson became a member of Penn’s Twenty-five Year Club in 1995. He retired from Penn in 2000. 

Mr. Johnson is survived by his husband, Ricardo Bostic. 

Thomas Peter Keon, an emeritus associate professor of anesthesiology & critical care in  Penn’s School of Medicine, died on May 13 from complications of Alzheimer’s Disease. He was 88. 

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Keon spent his formative years in Campbell’s Bay, Quebec, and Pembroke, Ontario. He attended Saint Patrick’s College in Ottawa, where he then began his teaching career teaching high school chemistry. In 1965, Dr. Keon earned his MD from the University of Ottawa; he went on to specialize in pediatric anesthesiology. He joined the faculty of Penn’s School of Medicine in 1978 as an assistant professor of anesthesia. Over the next decade, he also took up teaching duties at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he also served with the pediatric care unit; in 1987, he advanced to associate professor (clinician-educator). He retired from Penn in 1999 and assumed emeritus status. 

“His leadership [at Penn] spanned 25 years, during which he became known not just for his clinical excellence but for his calm presence, ethical compass, and unwavering humility,” said Dr. Keon’s family in a tribute. “He never sought recognition, preferring instead to let his actions speak—and they spoke volumes. Tom was the kind of doctor families and children trusted instinctively, and the kind of colleague who inspired by example.” 

He is survived by his wife, Janice; his children, Peter, Elizabeth, and Tim; three granddaughters, Kailey, Brinley, and Ella; and three grandsons, Tom, Will, and Finnegan. 

Larry L. Laster, an emeritus professor of epidemiology and biostatistics in clinical studies in Penn Vet and a former associate professor in Penn Dental Medicine, died on May 16. He was 84. 

Dr. Laster earned his BS in experimental psychology and mathematics from Pennsylvania State University in 1962, then came to Penn to earn his MA in biostatistics (1966) and PhD in economics, regional science, statistics, and educational psychology (1974). While at Penn, he worked as a statistician at the Kelly Foundation for Medicine and Public Health and completed a summer program in biostatistics at Yale University. In 1964, while working on his MA, Dr. Laster joined Penn’s faculty as an instructor in oral medicine at Penn Dental Medicine. He spent the next decade and a half as a member of Penn Dental Medicine’s research faculty (specializing in biometrics) before joining the tenure track in 1978 as an associate professor. He served in this role until 1997, when he moved to Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine, where he became a professor of clinical sciences and advanced medicine. 

Throughout his decades at Penn, Dr. Laster published peer-reviewed articles that related to both dental medicine and veterinary medicine. He retired from Penn and assumed emeritus status in 2009.

Dr. Laster is survived by his wife, Hong Yang; his children, Jeremy (Megan) Laster, Lori (Stanton Wood) Laster, Amy (Blake) Poe, and Emily Laster; his stepchild, Haohua Chen; and his grandchildren, Hattie and Piper Laster, Shiloh and Sacha Laster Wood, Torrey and Layla Poe, and Vincent Shepherd III. 

Contributions in Dr. Laster’s memory may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at www.stjude.org. 

Roberto (Bobby) S. Mariano, an emeritus professor of economics in the School of Arts & Sciences, died on April 17. He was 81.

Born in the city of Muntinlupa in the Philippines, Dr. Mariano graduated from the Ateneo de Manila high school (1958) and college (1962). Also in 1962, Dr. Mariano received an MS in statistics from the University of the Philippines. He then came to the U.S., where he received his MS in mathematics from the University of Illinois in 1963 and his PhD from Stanford University in 1970. He briefly took a faculty position at the School of Economics at the University of the Philippines, but then accepted a visiting lectureship in economics at the Wharton School at Penn in 1971. Two years later he joined the standing faculty as an untenured associate professor. The economics department moved to the School of Arts & Sciences in 1974. There, he became a full professor in 1980. While at Penn, Dr. Mariano chaired the University Council’s Committee on International Programs.

At Penn, Dr. Mariano conducted research on economic statistical models of commodities, including tin, rubber and wheat, and on the economy of the Philippines. He co-created the Diebold-Mariano test to evaluate forecast accuracy; the test has become a widely-used tool in econometrics. He was a fellow of the Econometric Society, serving on its executive council representing Southeast and South Asia, and served on the governing council of the International Association for Statistical Computing. His editorial contributions included service on the boards of the Journal of the American Statistical Association, International Economic Review, and Econometric Theory. He was a consultant on econometric modeling for forecasting and policy analysis for various central banks, government ministries, stock exchanges, and private companies in Asia and the U.S.  In 2022, he was appointed by Pope Francis to serve as a board member of the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority (ASIF), the Holy See’s financial intelligence and anti-money laundering unit.

In 2002, Dr. Mariano was appointed the founding dean of the School of Economics and Social Science at Singapore Management University (SMU), and his impact on SMU’s formative years was profound and enduring. At SMU, he oversaw the intake of the inaugural classes of the economics and social science bachelor’s programs and served as the vice provost for research and deputy director of the Wharton-SMU Research Centre, a collaboration between SMU and Penn. He was dean of SMU’s School of Economics from 2007 to 2010; during his tenure, he added three graduate programs: the master of science in applied economics, master of science in economics, and the PhD in economics.

Dr. Mariano retired from Penn in 2004 and took emeritus status; in his retirement, he served on the council of the Penn Association of Senior & Emeritus Faculty (PASEF).

“Bobby’s wisdom, kindness, and generosity touched not only his family’s lives, but the lives of all the students, colleagues, and friends who knew him,” said Dr. Mariano’s family. “His passion, commitment, zest for life, and love for his family and friends were hallmarks of his remarkable journey. Bobby’s love, laughter, and spirit live on in the countless lives Bobby touched.”

Dr. Mariano is survived by his wife, Julie; his son, Michael; his sister, Nomy; and numerous nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Philippine Jesuit Foundation, P.O. Box 312, New York, NY 10028, or by email at pjf@phjesuits.us. Please note that your donation is for the “ADMU Scholarship Fund (R. Mariano gift).”

Burton (Bob) Rosan, D’57, GD’62, an emeritus professor of microbiology in Penn Dental Medicine, died on March 31. He was 96.

Dr. Rosan obtained two degrees from Penn’s School of Dental Medicine. While a graduate student, Dr. Rosan served as a research associate and an instructor in microbiology. In 1963, a year after he graduated, he joined the Dental School’s tenure track faculty as an associate in microbiology. He advanced to assistant professor in 1965, to associate professor in 1967, and to full professor in 1975. Dr. Rosan served on Penn’s University Council and several of its committees, and was appointed to the oral biology and medicine study section of the National Institutes of Health in 1976. He retired from Penn in 1996 and was awarded emeritus status. In 2007, he received the Penn Dental Medicine Alumni Award of Merit. 

Dr. Rosan is survived by his children, Rhea Shapiro (Jerry), Felice Rosan (Joel Steckel), and Jonathan Rosan (Karen Bab); his grandchildren, Jaimie (Kyle), Ben, Phil, Sophie, Zach, Melissa (Garrett), Amanda (Tyler), and Spencer; and his grand-dogs, Teddy, Ozzie and Snacks. 

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Dr. Rosan’s memory may be made to Sharsheret.org, Kizzy’s Place, or to a charity of the donor’s choice.

Anita L. Zelinski, a former administrative assistant in the department of legal studies in the Wharton School, died on February 18. She was 83. 

Between 1989 and 2003, Ms. Zelinski served as a secretary and then as an administrative coordinator in the Wharton School’s department of legal studies. She retired in 2003.

Ms. Zelinski is survived by her daughters, Christina (Anton) Dell’Orefice, Suzanne (Ted) Evans, and Karen (Joe Balok) Zelinski; her sisters, Arlene (Marty) Devine and Lorraine (Ken) Burke; her nine grandchildren, Harlan, Christina, Liliana, and Madalena Dell’Orefice; Emileigh, Alexandra, Sophia, and Eamonn Evans; and Tyler Balok; her nephews, John (Paula) Zelinski, Martin (Tony Martinez) Devine, Dan (Angela) Devine, and Michael (Kellie) Burke; and her niece, Lauren (Brian) Fichter; and great-nephews and great-nieces.

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To Report A Death

Almanac appreciates being informed of the deaths of current and former faculty and staff members, students and other members of the University community. Email almanac@upenn.edu.

However, notices of alumni deaths should be directed to the Alumni Records Office at Suite 300, 2929 Walnut St., (215) 898-8136 or email record@ben.dev.upenn.edu.

I would like to thank Steven O. Kimbrough, Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions in the Wharton School, for his leadership this past year as chair of the Committee on Manufacturer Responsibility. I also thank all committee members for their participation and thoughtful contributions.

The committee’s report for 2024-2025 is below.

—Medha Narvekar, Vice President and University Secretary

Report of the Committee on Manufacturer Responsibility
2024-2025 Academic Year

It is my pleasure to report on the deliberations of the Committee on Manufacturer Responsibility during the 2024-2025 academic year. 

Code Compliance

As of June 2025, 125 of 126 licensees were reviewed and found to be in compliance with the code or are actively working to address any known violations. One licensee will not be seeking a renewal of its license and did not respond to our questionnaire. 

Additional clarification will be requested, if necessary, from licensees who reported that they encountered violations of the code or significant challenges in meeting, enforcing, or implementing practices that are consistent with the code. The committee will further review any outstanding issues when the committee reconvenes in the fall 2025.

I would like to express my appreciation to all the cmmittee members for their work on the committee.

—Steve O. Kimbrough, Chair
Professor, OIDD

Members of the Committee on Manufacturer Responsibility 2024-2025

Steven O. Kimbrough (Chair), Wharton 

Mark Stern, Social Policy & Practice

Daniel Camacho, UA

Jaydee Edwards, GAPSA

Bethany Robblee Schell, PPSA

Ex-Officio Members

Lizann Boyle Rode, Office of the Secretary

Christopher Bradie, Business Services

Sean Burke, Office of the General Counsel

Jessie Burns, Provost’s Office

Leah Popowich, Office of the President

Fifteen nursing professionals with ties to Penn Nursing will be inducted as 2025 fellows of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN). Three are current Penn Nursing faculty members and alumni, with the other 12 being Penn Nursing alumni. 

All inductees will be honored at a ceremony during the AAN’s 2025 Health Policy Conference, taking place from October 16-25, 2025 in Washington, D.C.

Penn Nursing faculty inductees:

• Amanda Bettencourt, GR’19, assistant professor, department of family and community health
• Halley Ruppel, NU’08, GNu’11, research assistant professor, department of family and community health
• Amy Sawyer, GR’07, professor of sleep & health behavior, department of biobehavioral health sciences

Penn Nursing alumni inductees:

• Sarah Abboud, GR’14
• Eeeseung Byun, GNu’06, GR’13
• Maya Clark-Cutaia, Nu’03, GNu’06
• Paul Thomas Clements, GNu’93, GR’00
• Kevin Hook, GNu’06
• Mary Dawn Koenig, GR’08
• Jessica Lazzeri, Nu’02, GNu’05, GNu’06 
• Shawna Mudd (Spears), GNu’99
• Jamille Nagtalon-Ramos, GNu’03, GRD’17
• Peter Preziosi, G’92, GRN’96
• Cathy St. Pierre, GNu’81
• Megan Streur, GR’16

The newest class of fellows represents 42 states, the District of Columbia, and 12 countries. They will join the academy’s roster of over 3,200 fellows, whose extensive expertise advances the academy’s mission of improving health and achieving health equity through nursing leadership, innovation, and science.

Penn Nursing’s Selena Ann Gilles, a practice professor in the department of biobehavioral health sciences and the associate dean for school and community engagement, has received the 2025 American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) State Award for Outstanding Contributions.

This award recognizes individuals who have made significant advancements in healthcare across the domains of practice, education, advocacy, research, and leadership (PEARL). The AANP specifically highlights those who have demonstrated exceptional efforts to enhance the image, profile, and visibility of nurse practitioners.

“Receiving the AANP State Award for Outstanding Contributions is a profound honor that reflects the incredible journey I’ve been privileged to take in advancing nurse practitioner education and strengthening global community health,” said Dr. Gilles. “This recognition is a testament to the power of academic-practice partnerships, culturally responsive care, and the transformative role nurse practitioners play in achieving health equity. I share this award with every student, colleague, and community partner who has joined me in this mission.”

Dr. Gilles accepted the award at the Salute to the States Award Ceremony on June 20, 2025, during the 2025 AANP National Conference in San Diego, California.

Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor Lynn Meskell has been elected to the British Academy, the United Kingdom’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

Dr. Meskell is one of 92 new fellows and one of 30 international fellows selected from universities in the United States, Ireland, South Africa, Singapore, China, Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Cyprus.

A world-renowned archaeologist, Dr. Meskell is the Richard D. Green Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, with joint appointments in the department of anthropology of the School of Arts & Sciences; the departments of historic preservation and city & regional planning in the Weitzman School of Design; and the Penn Museum, as a curator in both the Asia and Near East sections.

Dr. Meskell has published a dozen books, including ones examining natural and cultural heritage in South Africa, daily life in New Kingdom Egypt, and the history of UNESCO. Since 2011, she has conducted an award-winning institutional ethnography of UNESCO World Heritage, tracing what the politics of governance and sovereignty mean for diplomacy, international conservation, and heritage rights. She has undertaken a large-scale survey project in Syria and Iraq to assess public opinion on heritage destruction and reconstruction. Her other field work includes analyzing conflict and cooperation in more than 1,200 World Heritage sites in India. Her new book will chart the rise of heritage warfare and securitization, from UNESCO to NATO.

Dr. Meskell is the AD White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University, with a term spanning from 2019 to 2026; a faculty fellow at Penn’s Perry World House; a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities; and the founding editor of the Journal of Social Archaeology. She was recently named a 2026 Getty Scholar and has previously received grants and fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Science Foundation, Australian Research Council, American Academy in Rome, Utrecht University, Oxford University, and Cambridge University. 

President of the British Academy Susan J. Smith said the new fellows “bring years of experience, evidence-based arguments and innovative thinking to the profound challenges of our age: managing the economy, enabling democracy, and securing the quality of human life.”

Founded in 1902, the British Academy brings together over 1,800 leading scholars in the humanities and social sciences from the U.K. and overseas. The academy is also a funder of both national and international research, as well as a forum for debate and public engagement.

When someone survives a heart attack, the battle isn’t always over. In fact, nearly one-third of survivors go on to develop heart failure—a progressive weakening of the heart muscle that affects millions and contributes to roughly 500,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.

Noor Momin, the Stephenson Foundation Term Assistant Professor of Innovation in Bioengineering at Penn Engineering, is working to change that. Her lab’s innovative approach to immune modulation after heart attacks has been recognized with the 2025 American Heart Association (AHA) Transformational Project Award. This award supports groundbreaking ideas that hold the potential to significantly advance cardiovascular and cerebrovascular research.

Following a heart attack, the immune system springs into action to repair damaged tissue. But when that response lingers or becomes excessive, it can cause additional harm—like a repair crew overstaying its welcome and inadvertently worsening the damage.

Dr. Momin’s lab is developing a targeted strategy using cytokines to control this immune response. Cytokines are used by immune cells to communicate with each other and other cells. Instead of delivering just a cytokine, which can lead to harmful side effects in healthy tissues, the lab has re-engineered it to home to damaged heart tissue. Early preclinical tests have shown that this approach can prevent heart failure with minimal side effects.

The lab is now focused on conducting further dose and treatment schedule optimization, safety and mechanistic studies to move the technology towards clinical translation.

This line of research could lead to a fundamentally new way to prevent heart failure in heart attack survivors, directly supporting the American Heart Association’s mission to help people live longer, healthier lives.

Sixteen faculty-led projects have been selected to receive Penn Global research and engagement grants in 2025. The Penn Global Research and Engagement Grant Program, commonly known as the Penn Global Grant Program, supports new or established projects that use Penn research and expertise to advance knowledge in and of communities around the world. The grant program consists of the Holman Africa Research and Engagement Fund, the China and India Research and Engagement Funds, and the Global Engagement Fund. 

This year’s grantees are:

• Generative AI for Efficient and Equitable Healthcare on a Global Scale; Hamsa Bastani, Wharton School
• Adoption, Usage, and Optimal Financing of Electric Cookstoves; Susanna Berkouwer, Wharton School
• Global Lives of Medicine; Hsiao-wen Cheng, School of Arts & Sciences
• Cultural Adaptation of Digital HIV Intervention for Men Who Have Sex with Men in South Korea; Seul Ki Choi, School of Nursing
• Learning from U.S. and EU Approaches to Challenges in Modern Drug Regulation; Holly Fernandez Lynch, Perelman School of Medicine
• Latin American Economic History Book Project; Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, School of Arts & Sciences
• Environmental Awareness, Attitudes and Behaviors: Developing Curriculum; Femida Handy, School of Social Policy & Practice
• Penn-NYU Shanghai Project on Preparing China’s Children for the Future; Emily Hannum, School of Arts & Sciences/Graduate School of Education
• The Lived Refugee and Immigrant Experience in Greece; Fariha Khan, School of Arts & Sciences, and Fernando Chang-Muy, Carey Law School
• Safer Cesarean Deliveries: A Train-the-Trainer Program in Tanzania; Victoria Mui, Perelman School of Medicine
• Efficacy of a Novel Pediatric Resuscitation Educational Intervention; Madiha Raees, Perelman School of Medicine
• Creating Research-Based Animated Videos About the Dutch Caribbean Islands; Simon Richter, School of Arts & Sciences
• Policy and Technical Methods for Global Critical Infrastructure Protection; Benjamin Schmitt, School of Arts & Sciences/Kleinman Center for Energy Policy
• Implementation of Artificial Intelligence in Diabetic Retinopathy Care in South Africa; Michelle Sun, Perelman School of Medicine
• Climatic Hazards, Schooling, and Learning in Sub-Saharan Africa; Amrit Thapa, Graduate School of Education
• Transferable Clinical Algorithms from Medical Literature; Mark Yatskar, School of Engineering & Applied Science

“We are proud to support the important work led by our faculty and their commitment to global engagement,” said Amy Gadsden, Penn’s associate vice provost for global initiatives. “The strength of this year’s cohort reflects the breadth of actionable research and expertise across our faculty and demonstrates Penn’s reach and impact around the world.”

Ezekiel Emanuel, Penn’s vice provost for global initiatives, emphasized the importance of the grant program as a tool to lead on the great challenges of our time, a priority set forth by Penn’s strategic framework, In Principle and Practice.

“A top priority for our office—for over a decade now—has been to integrate knowledge across Penn,” said Vice Provost Emanuel. “That’s how we generate innovative solutions—we need to bring together faculty from different disciplines. We need that expertise and those experiences pooling together to spark fresh ideas. And that’s what this program is positioned to do: seed interdisciplinary initiatives that have enormous potential for addressing today and tomorrow’s biggest challenges.” 

Flavia Teles, a professor of basic & translational sciences at Penn Dental Medicine and a core faculty member of the Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry (CiPD), has received the 2025 IADR/IAP Ricardo Teles Clinical Research Award. Presented annually by the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) periodontal research group and the International Academy of Periodontology (IAP), the award recognizes investigators who have made innovative and significant contributions to the study of the onset, progression, and treatment of periodontal diseases.

Dr. Teles leads a world-class research program focused on the oral microbiome, particularly the discovery and characterization of previously uncultivated periodontal pathogens. Using cutting-edge cultivation and molecular techniques, her lab aims to identify hidden members of oral biofilms. The study of these new bacterial species may lead to the discovery of new compounds and metabolic pathways, which can foster the development of better strategies for prevention and treatment of periodontal diseases and other oral conditions.

Dr. Teles’s program also explores salivary markers of periodontitis progression and response to treatment, aiming to enable personalized, at-home monitoring of gum diseases. Through the CiPD’s AI in Oral Health Innovation Award, she is also working on a project that will harness AI-based approaches to integrate and analyze genetic, immunological, and clinical data along with demographic information to build models that predict the likely course of periodontitis in an individual. With such predictive models, patients could be evaluated at a community center or general dentistry practice and avoid unnecessary specialist visits, or, if needed, obtain specialty care more quickly.

“I am truly honored to have received this award,” said Dr. Teles. “First, because it was established in recognition of the contributions of my late husband and longtime collaborator, Ricardo Teles, to clinical periodontal research. Second, because it selected a paper from a study in which Ricardo and I worked together for years, that Ricardo led with such passion and dedication, but did not have a chance to see fully come to fruition. Third, because our daughter was there to witness this special moment.”

Dr. Teles’s multidisciplinary program is redefining oral health through the convergence of microbiology, immunology, informatics, and clinical innovation—promising earlier detection, personalized treatment, and improved outcomes for patients worldwide.

Penn Nursing’s Colleen Tewksbury, an assistant professor of nutrition science in the department of biobehavioral health sciences, has won the 2025 TREO Foundation LEAD Award for Excellence in Nutrition.

The TREO Foundation is the official foundation of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS). The LEAD Award—leadership, education, advancement, dedication—is one of the foundation’s most distinguished honors and is awarded to an ASMBS member who has demonstrated exceptional impact in the field and within the community of patients and professionals it serves.

“I’m incredibly honored to receive this award from TREO,” said Dr. Tewksbury. “Nutrition plays a powerful role in obesity care, and I’m proud to be part of a community driving innovation and equity in how we support people with bariatric surgery.”

The award was presented during the TREO Foundation LEAD Awards Gala at the ASMBS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, June 18, 2025.

Two World Cafe broadcasts from WXPN have been recognized with honors from the 2025 New York Festivals Radio Awards. 

A Bronze Radio Award in the news report/features category was awarded to Abdullah Ibrahim Hears the World in Many “Different Colors,” a feature produced and presented by World Cafe contributing host Stephen Kallao. The segment offers conversation with South African jazz legend Abdullah Ibrahim, now 90, as he reflects on his lifelong artistic journey—from playing with the Jazz Epistles in apartheid-era South Africa to his current release, 3. 

World Cafe host Raina Douris was awarded a Finalist Diploma in the craft/interview category for her interview with Nick Cave, promoting his album Wild God. Their conversation explored the relationship between grief and joy, the tension between spirituality and religion, and Mr. Cave’s evolving creative process following the devastating loss of his sons. 

Both pieces were produced at WXPN-FM and distributed by NPR. New York Festivals Radio Awards recognize the world’s best work in radio broadcasting. Since 1957, the New York Festivals competition has celebrated excellence in radio programs and currently issues awards across 14 audio categories. 

As the Weitzman School of Design prepares to open its first new building in more than 50 years—an interdisciplinary hub for research and teaching in the historic heart of Penn’s campus—for the fall 2025 semester, Weitzman News gathered members of the design and construction teams to talk about the making of Stuart Weitzman Hall. This conversation included Weitzman Dean and Paley Professor Fritz Steiner, MRP’77, MA’86, PhD’86; Stephen Kieran, MArch’76, co-founding principal at KieranTimberlake; and Mark Kocent, MCP’91, Penn’s University Architect. The building’s history and adaptive reuse will be the subject of an exhibition in early 2026.

What makes Penn’s campus special, and how does the new Weitzman Hall channel those qualities?

Fritz Steiner: It’s threefold. First, it’s a collection of important architecture, and we allow the architects to do a very high level of design without a lot of the constraints that exist on some other campuses. And then, there’s been a very long-term commitment to the campus landscape and its trees. So there’s a real balance, which is closely coordinated by the campus architect and the rest of his team and the campus landscape architect.

Mark Kocent: A number of years ago, we worked with the University Trustees to document a series of stated design guidelines. They are not very prescriptive: basically, we encourage architects to do buildings “of their time.” So, unlike a UVA that has a Jeffersonian approach—think red brick and white trim—or other schools that have a predominately gray stone palette, Penn’s approach has been a consistent focus on contemporary presence; ever since these design guidelines were developed by then University Architect Charlie Newman and the then SVP for FRES Omar Blaik.

From the time when College Hall was built, Penn’s buildings have reflected the leading architectural design and customs of their time, exploring innovation when possible. Much like Penn’s art collection, which is carefully reviewed, the same goes for our built environment. This is architecture of its time, that not only meets a programmatic need, but also advances the evolving theory and the practice of architecture.

Stephen Kieran: Among urban universities in the U.S., it’s got to be one of the best campuses for this reason. It’s got a landscape thread all the way through it from east to west—Locust Walk and Smith Walk—that’s continuous and different at every sector of the campus that it bifurcates. And it sits pretty much right in the middle of two parallel lines of the campus extending (almost) from the river well to the west. There’s some increasingly positive attention to urban streetscape making on the edges of the campus, and yet a true campus threaded through the middle of it with a remarkable suite of buildings and landscapes along it.

And the Weitzman School of Design now sits at a really prominent position pretty near the center, if you consider College Hall the center. This building really makes the Weitzman into a little mini campus within the campus. 

One thing that was on all of our minds was, “How could we improve Smith Walk?” It’s got some big buildings along it that are elevated above the ground, not very many doors, and the doors aren’t all that active. When you enter it now from across 34th Street, it’s got life, the landscape and the steps and the seats spill from the building down to the walk. The spaces at the ground level are public spaces that are visually open. I think it’s going to make a huge difference to the life of the campus at that very critical juncture.

In terms of the campus’s character, we’ve talked about history and greenery. What part does density play?

Mark Kocent: The one thing we don’t want to do is undervalue a site, since it’s unlikely to come back one day and add an extra story. If I recall, Stephen, you wanted even a little bit of a bolder presence on Smith Walk and maybe the budget pushed back a few feet there. I think the building always wanted to step out. In order to fit the program, the new building had to be a little bit longer versus wider. So there was a lot of discussion about the south side of this building and what it was doing to the open space along Smith Walk and what that would feel like.

Stephen Kieran: We certainly needed the space, but I think it’s been a real positive, in the end, for the building. It pretty much aligns with the edge of the adjoining engineering building [Towne], so it’s not out much further, but it really feels like a new building and something you could see the moment you cross 34th Street.

The original Morgan Building, in form, is inwardly focused. Our addition is a bit more extroverted. 

Fritz Steiner: Penn is largely a brick campus, and one of the beautiful things about the interior of the old building is just having the bricks exposed. It’s going to add an incredible amount of richness to the new space that KieranTimberlake has created in the classrooms and in the offices and the studio, a very rich use of the old brick. For the new brick, Steve found a beautiful, handmade Danish brick [from Petersen TEGL]. When they fire them, the temperatures vary, which creates different shades and textures on the bricks. And while they’re from Denmark, they’re also quite environmentally responsible. It has touches of red and touches of gray which, I think, will give it staying power will make this a distinctive building for centuries to come.

If the use of brick creates continuity between the historic building and the addition, there is a striking difference in the building envelopes, no?

Stephen Kieran: Our spatial model for the addition was a highly flexible loft structure, so there are no internal columns except for the passage in between the two buildings. It’s a clear span. Two floors of the addition are partitioned as studios for fine arts students, with some portions of them also easily repartitioned as offices. And the top level is an open-span classic design studio for architects and landscape architects and others. I think that was a model that artists have long adopted and made their own and has proven to work across time.

Part of how you do that is to have some continuity of the windows, in order to be as flexible as you can about the uses. In buildings like [KieranTimberlake’s] office, there are strip windows that extend the full length. At Weitzman Hall, for artists that don’t want [daylight], there are blackout shades. If, in 15 years, they want to turn the individual studio spaces into communal space, it’s easy to do. If they go the other way, and put more compartmentalization in it, that too is easy to do. The windows are largely concentrated on the east wall and to some extent on the west wall looking out at the Morgan Building; the north and south walls are somewhat more opaque. We tried not to do a curtain wall [a wall made up of windows] here—we just felt that from the outset that didn’t make sense for a design school. It can be uncomfortable, and from the outside, it doesn’t look very appealing because furnishings are right up against it.

Mark Kocent: With [the former] Morgan Building and the Lerner Center to its north, you had two buildings that were built in the late 1800s as the Foulke and Long Institute for Orphan Girls of Soldiers and Firemen. Morgan served as the classroom building [for the orphanage], whereas Lerner was the orphanage’s residential building. So the windows on Morgan were larger and the floor heights were different proportions.

Stephen Kieran: Programmatically, the uses that really work in the [former] Morgan Building are quite different than the uses that work really well in the new building. The Weitzman School has a real diversity of need that I think the combination of the two buildings really suits. You couldn’t almost do it new and have it work as well. It’s got a little bit of everything, from research areas to classrooms to faculty office spaces to studio art spaces to design spaces to various centers and archives.

Mark Kocent: Philadelphia has a tremendously rich history with pressed brick, which has a lot to do with the clay that was available in this region. When that clay was fired, iron oxide and different chemical reactions occur, creating the distinctive Philadelphia rust brick color. When it came to bridging the red and brown of the Morgan Building and the Towne Building, the brick that KieranTimberlake found was just a phenomenal blend of the two.

Adapted from a Weitzman School of Design news article by Michael Grant, July 18, 2025.

As surgeon general, Vivek Murthy declared loneliness an epidemic, comparing its effects to smoking nearly a pack of cigarettes every day. A combination of COVID stay-at-home orders, lives spent largely on screens, and the evolution of remote work has frayed our social fabric in new ways, with a recent Gallup poll reporting that as many as 52 million Americans continue to struggle with loneliness. What is loneliness doing to us? One answer may be sourced from Antarctica.

New research shows the negative, yet reversible, impact of spending time in isolated, confined and extreme environments—such as an Antarctic research station. Mathias Basner, a professor of sleep and chronobiology in the department of psychiatry and David R Roalf, a research assistant professor of behavioral neuroscience in the department of psychiatry, both of the Perelman School of Medicine, published their findings in the journal npj Microgravity.

Drs. Basner and Roalf measured if exposure to these environments led to structural changes in the brain, and if so, how they may be related to cognitive performance and sleep. Their study included individuals who “wintered over” in Antarctica—confined to a research station with a small crew in a hostile environment with no rescue opportunity during the Antarctic winter, a time when there is little to no daylight.

“We observed that the cell volume in certain areas of the brain was lower immediately after the winter compared to scans taken before the winter, and that most of these changes were reversible six months after the crew returned from Antartica,” Dr. Basner said. “We also found that better sleep during the ‘winter over’ was protective against brain volume loss.” 

In the newly published Antarctic study, two separate crews wintered over at the French-Italian Concordia station, commonly referred to as the “most remote station on Earth,” with all crew undergoing medical and psychological screening prior to selection. A total of 25 individual crewmembers arrived at and departed from Concordia station during the Austral summer and stayed an average of 12.7 months. At least for now, few of us rocket into space or work in an Antarctic research station—but loneliness persists. From a clinical perspective, combining loneliness with the act of social isolation is what can raise alarms.

“Loneliness is a feeling that people can have even when others are present,” said Nora Brier, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and director of postdoctoral training at the Center for Treatment and Study of Anxiety at Penn Medicine. “It reflects a subjective state of being and feeling, but not everyone who is socially isolated, or lonely, is depressed or anxious. When people are socially isolated and lonely in combination, the real risks to mental health can present themselves.”

Adapted from a July 17, 2025 Penn Medicine news release by Eric Horvath. 

Children’s Activities

8/20     August Storytime; reading of Joy Takes Root by Gwendolyn Wallace; explore mindfulness and herbal medicine in this soothing intergenerational story about our connection to nature; 10:30 a.m.; Outdoor Classroom, Morris Arboretum & Gardens (Morris Arboretum & Gardens).

Conferences

8/15     Designing Multi-Benefit Transmission Corridors: A Participatory Workshop; expanding and strengthening the electrical transmission system has emerged as a central challenge of the growing demand for electricity; this workshop explores the ways landscape design can imagine an expanded vision of ecological benefit and public participation; 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Kleinman Energy Forum, Fisher Fine Arts Library; register: https://tinyurl.com/mcharg-workshop-aug-15 (McHarg Center).

Fitness & Learning

College of Liberal & Professional Studies

Online webinars. Info and to register: https://www.lps.upenn.edu/about/events.

8/21     Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences Virtual Application Completion Session; 12:30 p.m.

8/25     Penn LPS Online Certificates: Meet Us Mondays; 12:30 p.m.

Graduate School of Education

Online webinars. Info and to register: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news-and-events/events-calendar.

8/15     Health Professions Education Certificate Program: Virtual Information Session; noon.

8/19     Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management, EdD Virtual Information Session; noon. Also August 21, 4 p.m.

8/21     Penn Chief Learning Officer Virtual Information Session; noon.

Penn Libraries

Various locations. Info and to register: https://www.library.upenn.edu/events.

8/13     AI Essentials; introductory workshop that will include hands-on activities to explore the core functions of popular generative AI tools, including those available at Penn; noon; room 223, Van Pelt Library.

8/14     Canvas 101 for Faculty and Staff; will introduce basic Canvas functions that will allow participants to set profile and notifications; navigate the Canvas interface; create content for a Canvas site; and post files, images, and videos; noon; Zoom webinar. Also August 22, noon.

            Coffee with a Codex: The Voynich Manuscript (Facsimile); Kislak Center curator Dot Porter will show participants a facsimile of Beinecke Library MS 408, aka the Voynich Manuscript; noon; Zoom webinar.

Talks

Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics

In-person events at room 337, Towne Building. Info and to register: https://events.seas.upenn.edu/calendar/tag/meam/list/.

8/12     Predicting Infant Center of Pressure Through Physics and Data Driven Modeling; Olaoluwaotan (Francis) Sowande, mechanical engineering & applied mechanics; 10:15 a.m.

This is an update to the Summer AT PENN calendar. The Summer AT PENN calendar is online now. To submit events for the monthly AT PENN calendar or weekly calendar updates, email almanac@upenn.edu.

Division of Public Safety
University of Pennsylvania Police Department Crime Report

About the Crime Report: Below are the Crimes Against Persons and/or Crimes Against Property from the campus report for July 28-August 4, 2025. The Crime Reports are available at: https://almanac.upenn.edu/sections/crimes. Prior weeks’ reports are also online. –Eds.

This summary is prepared by the Division of Public Safety (DPS) and contains all criminal incidents reported and made known to the Penn Police, including those reported to the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) that occurred within our patrol zone, for the dates of July 28-August 4, 2025. The Penn Police actively patrol from Market Street to Baltimore Avenue and from 30^th Street to 43^rd Street in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police.

In this effort to provide you with a thorough and accurate report on public safety concerns, we hope that your increased awareness will lessen the opportunity for crime. For any concerns or suggestions regarding this report, please call DPS at (215) 898-7297. You may view the daily crime log on the DPS website.

Penn Police Patrol Zone
Market Street to Baltimore Avenue and from 30^th Street to 43^rd Street

Philadelphia Police 18th District
Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue

Below are the Crimes Against Persons from the 18th District: 10 incidents were reported for July 28-August 4, 2025 by the 18^th District, covering the Schuylkill River to 49th Street & Market Street to Woodland Avenue.

The Division of Public Safety offers resources and support to the Penn community. DPS developed a few helpful risk reduction strategies outlined below. Know that it is never the fault of the person impacted (victim/survivor) by crime.

• See something concerning? Connect with Penn Public Safety 24/7 at (215) -573-3333.
• Worried about a friend’s or colleague’s mental or physical health? Get 24/7 connection to appropriate resources at (215) 898-HELP (4357).
• Seeking support after experiencing a crime? Call Special Services - Support and Advocacy resources at (215) 898-4481 or email an advocate at specialservices@publicsafety.upenn.edu
• Use the Walking Escort and Riding services available to you free of charge.
• Take a moment to update your cellphone information for the UPennAlert Emergency Notification System
• Download the Penn Guardian App which can help Police better find your location when you call in an emergency.
• Access free self-empowerment and defense courses through Penn DPS.
• Stay alert and reduce distractions; using cellphones, ear buds, etc. may limit your awareness.
• Orient yourself to your surroundings. (Identify your location, nearby exits, etc.)
• Keep your valuables out of sight and only carry necessary documents.

Purpose and Research Focus

The purpose of Penn’s Center for Molecular Studies in Digestive and Liver Diseases (CMSDLD) is to unite investigators with interests in digestive and liver physiology and disease and to stimulate others in the biomedical community to enter this area of research. One of the most important parts of this effort is the funding of pilot and feasibility projects.

Proposed pilot and feasibility projects should be related to the focus of the center, which encompasses molecular studies on the biology or disease of the alimentary tract, pancreas, and liver. Relevant investigations include those in developmental biology, nutrition, regulation of gene expression, growth, differentiation, the biology of stem cells, molecular genetics, bioengineering approaches to digestive diseases, gene therapy, and immunology, including growth factors and cytokines. Please note that preference is given to junior investigators and to proposals studying areas other than cancer, although we will consider applications from senior investigators and on cancer-related topics. Pilot project awards are for $40,000 for one year with a second year possible through a competitive renewal. Candidates will be notified by the end of November 2025. The funding start date is January 1, 2026.

Eligibility

All faculty members of the University scientific community (at the rank of instructor and above) who meet the eligibility requirements below are invited to submit proposals. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or hold permanent resident visas. There are three categories of applications, with preference given to those in category 1:

1. New investigators who have never held extramural support at the level of a NIH R01.
2. Established investigators in other areas of biomedical research who wish to apply their expertise to a problem in digestive and liver diseases.
3. Established digestive and liver investigators who wish to study an area that represents a significant departure from currently funded work.

Proposal Preparation

1. Submit the documents outlined below directly to Lillian Chau at Lillian.Chau@pennmedicine.upenn.edu. Complete proposals are due by Friday, September 12, 2025.
2. Format (submit as a single PDF, in this order)
   • Cover page: Must include an abstract of up to 250 words and a list of approved or pending IACUC/IRB protocols. If embryonic cell lines will be used, they must be from the NIH Embryonic Stem Cell Registry, and you must provide a list within your cover page. Finally, if your pilot grant will include human subject research, involving more than minimal risk, that will need to be included in the letter as well. NIH has to approve these studies in advance of an award. If you are not currently a faculty member but will be by the project start date of January 1, 2026, please state that explicitly in the cover letter.
   • NIH Biosketch
   • NIH Other Support
   • Budget and justification: One year, $40,000, one page only. No PI salary allowed.
   • Background, preliminary results, estimated core usage, research plan including statistical analyses, and future directions; up to three pages total.
   • Senior investigators should indicate how this project represents a new direction in their research.
   • References: One page.

Please note: The top applicants will be asked to present a five-minute summary of their proposal to the center’s external advisory board (EAB) on Thursday, November 13, 2025. Applications from top candidates identified by the EAB will be reviewed further by center leadership and members of the center community advisory board.

For additional information, please contact Lillian Chau at Lillian.Chau@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.

Registration is now open for the Penn Local Business Exchange, taking place on Wednesday, October 8, at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at 3680 Walnut Street. This event connects local businesses with regional partners and key decision makers at Penn and across Philadelphia. At 10:30 a.m., the event will begin with coffee and networking with leaders from local chambers of commerce and area organizations committed to supporting local businesses.  

The forum begins at 11 a.m. and will offer a platform for sharing ideas and unique perspectives on Philadelphia’s evolving business community. The forum will feature opening remarks from leadership of Penn and the City of Philadelphia. This will be followed by a conversation on construction, workforce development, and strategies to support the growth of local and small businesses. The forum will also include the presentation of the 2025 Penn Local Economic Impact Award. 

At 12:30 p.m., the expo will open, showcasing dozens of local suppliers across industries—from office supplies and catering to furniture, technology, professional services, construction, and the trades—alongside partner companies. 

Advance registration is required for the forum and expo. Theater seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, with overflow seating in the lobby, where the forum can be viewed virtually. Attendees are encouraged to arrive at 10:30 a.m. to check in, enjoy refreshments, and secure a seat in the theater. 

The Penn Local Business Exchange is hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, under the auspices of the Office of the Executive Vice President, Office of Government and Community Relations, Division of Finance, and Facilities & Real Estate Services. 

Register now at https://PennLocalBusinessExchange.eventbrite.com.

The $1 million Frontiers Planet Prize recognizes exceptional scientists who are working toward a greater understanding of planetary health and who are developing solutions to stay within safe operating limits.

Eligible Penn researchers must have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals between November 1, 2023 and October 31, 2025. The prize emphasizes scientific excellence and actionable solutions that help maintain the nine planetary boundaries: climate change, loss of biodiversity, biogeochemical flows, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone layer, atmospheric aerosol loading, land use change, overuse of freshwater, and novel entities. Nominations are welcomed for groundbreaking studies across all disciplines that provide original findings or insightful reviews. Scientists at any career stage are encouraged to apply by submitting their publication through the application form available in Info Ready.

Penn has been invited to nominate up to three faculty members for this opportunity. The internal selection process will be managed by the Environmental Innovations Initiative (EII) in partnership with the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. A faculty review committee will determine the final nominees to represent the University. Please contact Xime Trujillo at EII (Environmental Innovations Initiative) at xime@upenn.edu with any questions.

The deadline for the internal submission is September 30, 2025. Read the full posting for eligibility guidelines, criteria, and detail on the Penn internal selection process.

The Penn Staff & Community Choir was launched in fall 2024 under the direction of renowned Philadelphia vocalist and composer, Ruth Naomi Floyd. It brings together adults (21+) who are all Penn employees, Philadelphia residents, or both, to sing a range of music across genres and traditions. 

Those interested in joining can visit the choir page and complete the membership form. All levels of singing experience are welcome, beginners included. The choir is hosted by the Penn Office of Social Equity & Community.