THE PENNSYLVANIA MAY|JUN21 GAZETTE

Shelter from the Storm: The Case for Guaranteed Income

The Long Road to mRNA Vaccines Memoirs for All Ages Virtual Healthcare Gets Real DIGITAL + IPAD

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Digigaz_FullPage.indd 4 12/22/20 11:52 AM THE PENNSYLVANIA Features GAZETTE MAY|JUN21 Fighting Poverty The Vaccine Trenches with Cash Key breakthroughs leading to the Several decades since the last powerful mRNA vaccines against big income experiment was 42 COVID-19 were forged at Penn. 34 conducted in the US, School of That triumph was almost 50 years in the Social Policy & Practice assistant making, longer on obstacles than professor Amy Castro Baker has helped celebration, and the COVID-19 vaccines deliver promising data out of Stockton, may only be the beginning of its impact on California, about the effects of giving 21st-century medicine. By Matthew De George people no-strings-attached money every month. Now boosted by a new research center at Penn that she’ll colead, more Webside Manner cities are jumping on board to see if Virtual healthcare by smartphone guaranteed income can lift their residents or computer helps physicians out of poverty. Will it work? And will 50 consult with and diagnose patients policymakers listen? much more quickly, while offering them By Dave Zeitlin convenience and fl exibility. The potential to save lives and improve effi ciencies is tremendous. But can uncertain regulations and reimbursements, equity and access disparities, and shaky internet connections be surmounted? By JoAnn Greco

Writing Lives Middle school memories. Meditations on motherhood. 56 A prismatic accounting of the self. A long life well and furiously lived: on new memoirs by Jordan Sonnenblick C’91, Courtney Zoffness C’00, Beth Kephart C’82, and Nick Lyons W’53. COVER Illustration by Ryan Peltier

Vol.119, No.5 ©2021 The Pennsylvania Gazette Published by Benjamin Franklin from 1729 to 1748.

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––––––––––– EDITOR John Prendergast C’80 3 From the Editor | Saving lives, and seeing them. SENIOR EDITOR Trey Popp ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave Zeitlin C’03 4 From College Hall | A new generation’s “rendezvous with destiny.” ASSISTANT EDITOR Nicole Perry Letters ART DIRECTOR Catherine Gontarek 6 | Historical arguments, and more. PUBLISHER F. Hoopes Wampler GrEd’13 215-898-7811 [email protected] Views ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR Linda Caiazzo 12 Notes From the Undergrad | Home is where? 215-898-6811 [email protected] ––––––––––– 14 Alumni Voices | Pandemic connections that will last. EDITORIAL OFFICES Elsewhere The Pennsylvania Gazette 16 | “We’d entered without a map.” 3910 Chestnut Street 18 Expert Opinion | The roots of vaccine hesitancy among Blacks. Philadelphia, PA 19104-3111 PHONE 215-898-5555 FAX 215-573-4812 Gazetteer EMAIL [email protected] WEB thepenngazette.com 20 Campus | In-person Commencement, fall reopening, views to remember.

––––––––––– 24 Education Costs | Tuition and fi nancial aid for 2021–22 announced. ALUMNI RELATIONS 215-898-7811 24 Finance | Student-run credit union provides pandemic help and more. EMAIL [email protected] WEB www.alumni.upenn.edu 25 Heard on Campus | PEGOT John Legend C’99. ––––––––––– 26 Animal Health | Penn Vet takes care on the road with mobile unit. UNIVERSITY SWITCHBOARD 215-898-5000 27 Medicine | Orphan Disease Center looks to a new era of advances. ––––––––––– NATIONAL ADVERTISING 29 Environmental Justice | Water Center focuses on equity. IVY LEAGUE MAGAZINE NETWORK Heather Wedlake 30 Leadership | Bowdoin’s Whitney Soule to head admissions. EMAIL [email protected] PHONE 617-319-0995 31 Community Health | Lipman Family Prize goes to EarthEnable. WEB www.ivymags.com 32 Sports | Local games allowed; AD Grace Calhoun headed to Brown.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS? Go to MyPenn, Penn’s Online Community, at mypenn.upenn.edu to access and update Arts your own information. Or contact Alumni Records, University of Pennsylvania, Suite 300, 2929 Walnut 65 Calendar Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-5099; [email protected]. upenn.edu; Phone: 215-898-8136; Fax: 215-573-5118. 66 Painting | Smithsonian exhibit “remember[s] the ladies.” THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE (ISSN 1520-4650) is published Architecture bimonthly in September, November, January, March, 68 | Brick and mortar marketing in Building Brands. May, and July by Penn Alumni, E. Craig Sweeten Alumni Book Review House, 3533 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6226. 70 | Two views on how to make good. Periodicals postage paid at Philadelphia, PA, and addi- Briefl y Noted tional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes 71 to The Pennsylvania Gazette, Alumni Records, Suite 300, 2929 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-5099. Alumni PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE COMMITTEE: David S. Graff C'79 WG'84 (Chair); Miriam Arond C’77; Jean Chatzky C’86; 72 Gabrielle Glore W’91’s passion made Sylvie’s Love happen. Dr. Alan Filreis, Faculty; Eliot J. Kaplan C'78; Randall Lane C’90; Michael R. Levy W'68; James L. Miller W’97; 74 Amna Nawaz C’01 is a correspondent and anchor at PBS NewsHour. Sameer Mithal WG’95; Steven L. Roth W'66; Robert E. Shepard C'83 G'83; Joel Siegel C’79; Ann Reese CW’74, 76 Henry “Hank” Gutman C’72 has less than a year to help fi x NYC’s DOT. President, Penn Alumni. 81 Events The University of Pennsylvania values diversity and seeks talented students, faculty and staff from diverse back- 80 Notes grounds. The University of Pennsylvania does not discrimi- nate on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, 88 Obituaries color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, or status as a Vietnam Era Veteran or disabled veteran.

Printed by The Lane Press, Burlington, Vermont 96 Old Penn | Marking 100 years since a Sadie Alexander fi rst. FROM THE EDITOR

go to college, and about the the basic concept of telemed- hate mail she has received in icine has been around for a Promising the course of her work, which while, too. Use had been she attributes to the US history growing before 2020—but of “attaching shame and blame when lockdowns started last to the safety net.” Noting that spring, Penn went from 1,000 News Martin Luther King Jr. was telemedicine visits per month advocating for a guaranteed to 7,500 per day, to cite one income more than 50 years statistic from the piece. been said often that gram initiated in Stockton, ago, she told Dave, “This is not JoAnn spoke with Penn the pandemic has California, to distribute a new idea.” But it’s one whose Medicine physicians and re- exacerbated long- $500 monthly to selected time may be coming. Castro searchers and with alumni It’s standing inequities recipients for two years; re- Baker has “a lot of hope.” involved in the fi eld about in American society, wealth sults for the fi rst (pre-pan- As detailed in “The Vaccine the impact of that explosive inequality very much included. demic) year came out in Trenches,” by Matthew growth, the groundwork that While many in the US are March. They found that the De George, work toward the had been done previously, better off than they were a payments helped recipients new messenger RNA (mRNA) and what may lie ahead in a year ago (building up savings meet expenses and improve vaccines against COVID-19— post-pandemic era—includ- as they worked remotely their overall quality of life— now injecting hope into mil- ing issues of access and eq- while having fewer opportu- and did not, as is often lions of arms daily—goes uity. If those can be resolved, nities to spend), the economic claimed by opponents, create back nearly that long. While the technology could im- burden—in terms both of lost a disincentive to work. the Pfi zer/BioNTech and prove healthcare in rural and employment and having to Moderna vaccines were ap- other underserved areas and stay on the job in unsafe proved for emergency use in lessen time commitment and conditions—has fallen on Guaranteed record time, before that sprint other costs of doctor visits. lower-income households. income the race was more like an Also in this issue, in “Writing Among the policy responses ironman triathlon. Lives,” we highlight recently gaining traction even before payments The article recounts how published memoirs by four the novel coronavirus emerged Katalin Kariko fi rst became alumni writers—all very dif- was the idea of a universal do make a convinced of mRNA’s potential ferent, and well worth seeking basic income (UBI)—which as a young researcher and out. (For this, I was delighted Andrew Yang made a center- significant, eventually found a like-minded to write about Nick Lyons piece of his presidential cam- positive collaborator in Penn colleague W’53, whose relationship paign, for example—and the Drew Weissman. Amid many with the magazine goes back related, but more targeted, difference. setbacks, their work together even before my time here!) concept of a guaranteed in- led to the key breakthroughs Finally, “Gazetteer” opens come. In this issue’s cover While apparently this is the that paved the way for today’s with details on Penn’s sched- story, “Fighting Poverty with fi rst income experiment to be vaccines. But that achievement uled in-person Commencement Cash,” associate editor Dave tried in decades, more pilot may have only scratched the ceremony and planned full Zeitlin C’03 reports on new studies are on the way. Castro surface. The two researchers return for faculty, students, data showing that guaran- Baker and West will head a and others in Weissman’s lab and staff next fall, accompa- teed income payments do new center at Penn designed also share insights about nied by some views—both make a signifi cant, positive to serve as a clearinghouse for possible further use of the aerial and ground-level—of the diff erence in recipients’ lives. information and resources on technology in a broad array of campus now. (See our web- School of Social Policy & guaranteed income programs infectious and other diseases. site for a video supplement!) Practice (SP2) assistant pro- to aid in policymaking. It is noted in passing in fessor Amy Castro Baker and Dave also spoke with Castro JoAnn Greco’s article, her research partner Stacia Baker about her own back- “Webside Manner,” that an West of the University of ground, growing up watching 1879 Lancet article suggested Tennessee, Knoxville are an- her parents struggle and be- that telephone calls could alyzing the impact of a pro- ing the fi rst in her family to replace some offi ce visits, so

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 3 FROM COLLEGE HALL A Sense of Purpose, A Sense of Place, A Sense of Penn Looking ahead to better days—without forgetting what we’ve been through.

By Amy Gutmann

hiladelphia,” President Franklin go out into a world haltingly but deter- Americans when our population was far Delano Roosevelt once said, “is minedly returning to normal, but a less than a third of what it is today—and a good city in which to write world that will forever be after—changed the thing that jumps out at you is just “PAmerican history.” The occasion and altered in ways we don’t yet know how fast the memory faded. As one his- of that remark came on FDR’s renomina- or fully comprehend. Their task, their torian put it, “as soon as the dying tion to be his party’s candidate for a rendezvous with destiny, will not just be stopped, the forgetting began.” second term in 1936. The location, as we to make sense of it, but to use their skills And that forgetting, which in many re- all know, was right here at Penn, on and their sense to make it better. spects appeared intentional, was so very Franklin Field. It was in that same In September, the University has successful. The hue and outcry against speech that the 32nd president observed called all students, faculty, and staff to Americans wearing masks we all experi- how human history runs in a seemingly a full return to campus. As 2021 gives enced somehow elided right over the fact mysterious cycle, bringing his remarks way to 2022, we look forward (would that there are literally thousands of im- to a thunderous conclusion as he de- ‘ecstatically’ be too strong an intensifi er ages of our grandmothers and grandfa- clared: “To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is ex- pected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.” We know in retrospect, of course, that The thing that jumps out at you is just even though he spoke some years before how fast the memory faded [after 1918]. the outbreak of war in Europe, and fully half a decade before America’s entry into As one historian put it, “as soon as the it, FDR’s remarks were eerily prescient. Today, 85 years later, they seem hardly dying stopped, the forgetting began.” less so. This month, on May 17, I expect to stand proudly—joyfully—on that same Franklin Field where President Roosevelt spoke, to congratulate the here? I think not!) to a resumption of thers doing just that back in 1918—back amazing undergraduate Class of 2021, a some of the many experiences and tradi- in a time when the science of virology generation that indeed has had its own tions that make Penn uniquely Penn. was nascent, and the understanding of rendezvous with destiny. Freshman convocation. The Econ how to contain and control the deadly “Joyful” in fact does not begin to de- Scream. Toasting Penn football. Packed infl uenza outbreak was at best incom- scribe my feelings at being able to mark in the Palestra. Family weekend. Hey plete. Even so, our grandparents knew the waning of the pandemic with what Day. Class reunions. Just bumping into what they had to do. Yet undoubtedly, the will be the fi rst mass attendance event someone—literally—on Locust Walk. phenomena of open classroom windows, held on campus in more than a year. The list goes on and on. of restaurant dining and church services How apt, how appropriate, that it should How tempting it might be to throw our- alfresco, of masks and handwashing and mark the achievements and the tri- selves once again into the joy of human social distancing were not new. They umphs of these wonderful graduating contact while giving hardly a thought to were only new to us. Because somehow seniors who arrived at Penn in the sepia- what we have all just been through. Read we chose not to remember. toned days of 2017, a time we now fond- about the great infl uenza pandemic of This is the thought that needs to stay ly think of as before. They leave Penn to 1918—that killed an estimated 675,000 prominent even as we begin to so hap-

4 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 pily look ahead to better days to come: search ensued. Then came a key discov- matter what the restrictions, they too that we don’t want to forget. That we ery, described in a series of scientifi c could make a diff erence. So they orga- must not forget. But to do so, we are papers starting in 2005, that enabled the nized a nationwide eff ort to send indi- going to fi gure out how we remember. scientists to fool the body’s defenses and vidual letters of support and appreciation Perhaps here too, FDR was prescient— allow the synthetic mRNA to do its work to nurses and doctors caring for the sick- Philadelphia is a good city in which to [“The Vaccine Trenches,” this issue]. est COVID patients. They called their write history. And Penn will play a big This technology—never before suc- eff ort Lockdown Letters—a tribute to a part in it. Certainly from the very earli- cessfully employed in medicine—lies at unique moment in our history. As I write, est days of the pandemic, Penn was the heart of the Pfi zer and Moderna vac- more than 13,000 frontline healthcare charting a clear and truly historic course cines, two of the fi rst most eff ective vac- workers have received messages of hope of what was to come. From the start— cines developed in the fi ght against CO- from strangers who were simply willing when the question on everyone’s mind VID and a primary line of defense to take the time to share their thanks. It’s was ‘Just what is a coronavirus?’—the against the pandemic here in the United a small everyday act, but each individual world turned to Penn, and the four de- States. On December 18, Drew and Kata- letter is a piece of history. One letter, cades of pioneering research Perelman lin received their fi rst dose of the Pfi zer/ typical of the many thousands, said sim- School of Medicine Professor of Micro- BioNTech vaccine together at Penn, ply: “Your dedication, bravery, and cour- biology Susan Weiss had already under- more than 20 years after they began age have not gone unnoticed.” taken into that very question [“The their basic science collaboration. A century hence, someone will unfold, Mother of Coronaviruses,” Nov|Dec This is what is expected: to make these and read, and remember. This was a 2020]. Weiss’s lab had long been an epi- vital discoveries; to teach and spread generation of which much was expected. center of coronavirus research, respon- knowledge; and yes, to help us remem- A generation that gave its all. A genera- sible for training many of the scientists ber. Heather Starkey, a professor of Near tion that met its rendezvous with des- who were suddenly at the forefront of a Eastern Languages and Civilizations in tiny. This was Penn. global race against time. Alumni from the College, is doing just that. Working her lab became key players in the devel- with the Penn COVID-19 Community Ar- opment of vaccines, in public health chiving Project in the University Archives preparedness, and in undertaking ad- and Records Center, she has encouraged Alumni in Business ditional scientifi c studies of the virus to students in all her classes to write about Advertise your business or make it possible to test for and manipu- their experiences at Penn during the CO- profession with us and reach late the viral genome. VID-19 pandemic for posterity [“Gazet- 270,000 fellow alumni Meanwhile, the moment the SARS- teer,” Sep|Oct 2020]. Professor Starkey CoV-2 genome was sequenced, the dash refl ects, “Penn survived the 1918 fl u pan- ■ Must be a Penn graduate to create a viable vaccine commenced. demic, but we have very few archived ■ All ads prepaid Here again, key research many years in sources about what students, faculty, and See the current ALUMNI IN BUSINESS the making put Penn at the center of an staff experienced during that time. I hope on page 85. For more information or to unprecedented global eff ort. Decades that the memoirs that students submit place an ad, email Linda Caiazzo: before this, Penn researchers Drew to the archives will enable scholars in the [email protected] Weissman and Katalin Karikó began in- future to see how our university persist- vestigating a novel approach to creating ed—and to extract helpful lessons about IT’S NOT TOO LATE vaccines and other medicines by develop- surviving and fi nding meaning through TO BECOME ing synthetic messenger RNA that, when learning and community in a time of A DOCTOR injected into the body, would instruct adversity.” • Intensive, full-time preparation for medical cells to create specifi c antibodies to fi ght How better to sum up the sense of pur- school in one year against a targeted disease. However, pose and place that is Penn? Philadelphia • Early acceptance programs at select medical while making sound sense on paper, in may well be the perfect city to write the schools—more than any other postbac program • Supportive, individual academic and practice the procedure always failed be- history and create the memory of what premedical advising cause the body’s immune system was our nation and our world have been VISIT US AT WWW.BRYNMAWR.EDU/POSTBAC highly eff ective at recognizing the syn- through. And I have no doubt our stu- [email protected] thetic mRNA and destroying it before it dents know it too. Five members of the 610-526-7350 could accomplish its mission. Many years great Class of 2021 confronted the initial BRYN MAWR COLLEGE of painstaking and often frustrating re- COVID quarantine by deciding that no

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 5 LETTERS We Welcome Ideal audience, history Letters Please email us at [email protected]. Please note, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and human nature, facts Gazette offices are closed until further notice and we cannot retrieve postal mail at this time. Letters should refer to material published in the and lies, sharing a diffi cult magazine and may be edited for clarity, civility, diagnosis, losing seasons. and length.

Well-Matched We Are Not Taught to Disagree Congratulations on the Mar|Apr issue. with Respect I don’t remember a more interesting I have just read “The History Wars,” and one—including the one my junior year I applaud Jonathan Zimmerman’s direct in which a Daily Pennsylvanian piece approach and the fearlessness of his con- of mine was reprinted. victions. Having been a practicing social I’m sure it helped that I have been worker for 32-plus years, I agree that hu- friends with Budd Mishkin C’81 (whose man behavior, communication, and edu- essay “My Losing Seasons” appears in cation should become a stronger focus. “Alumni Voices”) since our days together Students are not taught how to think at UTV, that I was friends in high school critically, without fear, even if their per- with Jonathan Zimmerman’s older broth- spectives do not “conform” to some pre- er Jeff and that I majored in history (“The ordained thought process of the decade. History Wars”), that I’ve been a political Sadly, the teachers who would read junkie since the late 1960s (“Calling It”), these essays are not supported in ap- that I’m a humanist who lost his dad to preciating a student’s ability to formu- Alzheimer’s (“The Humanist Is In”), and late thoughts and present them. It is that my mom and younger daughter were/ human nature to be biased in some way are educators (“Black Education Before “Congratulations on by our own individual histories, but we Brown”), but kudos on a job well done. are not taught to disagree with respect, David Elfi n C’81, Bethesda, MD the Mar|Apr issue. to focus on the idea, not the person/ group delivering it. Keep Them Coming I don’t remember a Rewriting history, the “white-washing” Just wanted to take a moment to ac- more interesting one.” of the past, or now “multi-coloring” it, knowledge the great work in the Mar|Apr is also not the answer. It is our children edition. The articles on education (“The who will be making the change in Amer- History Wars,” by Trey Popp) and Al- of Jonathan Zimmerman, especially be- ican society, but only if critical thinking, zheimer’s (“The Humanist Is In,” by Julia cause I majored in history at Penn and respecting varying perspectives is en- M. Klein) were particularly insightful, consider myself a history buff . couraged and nurtured. well written, and enlightening. The Ga- Zimmerman’s comments were fact- This process should start in elemen- zette at its best—keep them coming! based, informative, insightful, nuanced, tary school, and by high school should Xiomara Corral C’84, Jersey City, NJ reasonable, and not tendentious in the be the norm. By college, it should be least. I wish that more academics, public expected. I agree with Zimmerman’s Well-Written Profi le intellectuals, and political pundits emu- quote, “We have radically diff erent un- I thoroughly enjoyed “The History lated him! derstandings of America right now. But Wars,” Trey Popp’s well-written profi le Vincent T. Lombardo C’78, Cleveland that’s not the problem. The problem is

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Untitled-11 1 3/17/21 2:52 PM LETTERS

we don’t actually have venues and insti- books and censoring speech has never Words Matter tutions to deliberate those diff erences.” led to a good outcome for a country. Are The subject article on Jonathan Zim- Sandra Clark Jones SW’88, Mill Creek, WA reeducation camps next? Have I just merman’s research and writings fasci- placed myself on a watch list? nated me, in part because we share ele- Bias on Full Display Eugene E. Nalence GEd’66, Drexel Hill, PA ments of personal history—I majored in The Mar|Apr issue illustrates the history at Penn, served in the Peace chasm that divides America and Ameri- “Silent Generation” Speaks Corps, and have lived abroad in several cans. This is clearly demonstrated by The Silent Generation is generally, countries. It was also fascinating as an “The History Wars,” written by senior well, silent. But with the passage of time example of subtle advocacy writing, for editor Trey Popp and introduced by a previously dormant voice struggles to the piece’s author, Trey Popp, injected editor John Prendergast [“From the the surface, like a seed seeking the sun, his own reading of American history and Editor”]. The bias of the editors is on full to make a public comment. So here’s politics into the report on the views of display and matches the orthodox view one from my Class of ’62 in the Wharton Professor Zimmerman. Such subtle in- of most media. School. WTH do you mean when you sertion of the author’s points of view The demonization of Donald Trump write, “The deadly attack on the US into the article serves as a model of the W’68 and his supporters has been a pri- Capitol on January 6 ... [was] abetted challenges presented by what Zimmer- ority of a signifi cant segment of Ameri- by a campaign of lies about election man calls the second failure of educa- can society. When anyone questions the fraud, resulting in a violent attempt to tion writ large—teaching people “to unequal burdens created by the Paris ‘Stop the Steal.’”? engage across their diff erences.” For Climate Accords, they are immediately You don’t have to be a graduate from example, Popp names the events of Jan- labeled as ignorant “climate change de- an Ivy League school to see that there uary 6 at the US Capitol building an nialists.” Questions about policies to was fraud in the most recent election. insurrection, using the same term a few control the pandemic become “disinfor- While you and I are approximately a paragraphs later for the rebellion of mation.” Anyone pointing to the devas- generation apart, our common heritage Southern states against the USA. Words tating crisis at our southern border must of higher education should enable both matter, as does the way they are pre- be “xenophobic” and “racist.” Any ques- of us to understand the biggest lie is sented. One must wonder if Zimmerman tions about some of the obviously odd that which denies election fraud. would see the irony in applying the same happenings in the 2020 election must Did you not read and absorb last issue’s term to a riot which resulted in an be contributing to the “campaign of lies letter from Aaron Yunis, representing a hours-long disruption of an election’s about election fraud” and probably third generation of Penn graduates, who certifi cation process and a years-long caused the “insurrection” of January 6. said that you “have no real interest in war that changed the nature of the Re- Anyone wondering about the suppres- promoting common bonds amongst public’s governance. sion of reports about the activities of Penn alumni”? As politics in the pulpit Ed Staff ord C’79, Philadelphia Hunter Biden must be unduly infl u- have no place, likewise I opine louder enced by “disinformation” or a “Russian than normal for one who was taught to Seek Help with Diagnostic Disclosure eff ort to infl uence the election.” be seen and not heard, that political par- I very much related to Jason Kar- When burning and looting last sum- ties and preferences distort facts and lawish’s comments, in “The Humanist Is mer were called “mostly peaceful pro- reason. Please. Think about it. Or maybe In” [Mar|Apr 2021], about the dilemma tests” and the events of January 6 were I should say, please think. of how and when to “come out” to others, called “armed insurrection,” we should Michele C. Greene W’62, Williamsport, PA whether about sexual orientation or Al- just accept that as reality. Now, there are zheimer’s disease. The challenge extends a signifi cant number of calls for generat- We respect the opinions of alumni and to any serious medical diagnosis. I was ing lists of Trump supporters to make it strive to present a diversity of views in this diagnosed with ALS in August 2017, and diffi cult to fi nd new jobs. space. However, no evidence of signifi cant shortly after that my (openly gay) pri- All of this is a continuation of the ha- fraud in the 2020 election has been pre- mary care physician told me that disclos- tred of Donald Trump. Continual false sented in any forum, and there is ample ing my diagnosis would be like “coming claims that Trump was a Russian agent evidence—in the form of judges’ rulings, out.” He advised meeting with a psychol- are acceptable. Concerns about the 2020 multiple recounts, and statements by state ogist who could help me talk through election process are conspiracy theories. election offi cials and leaders of law enforce- how to have thoughtful and caring con- We are in a time of very likely funda- ment and national security agencies—that versations with family and friends. His mental change in America. Banning the results were fair and accurate.—Ed. advice was invaluable. Two years later,

8 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 ® untold news after selling the company that my wife Covid-19: and I had co-owned for more than 25 years (the sale being a direct result of the Israel is on it! diagnosis), I again consulted a psycholo- gist about how to disclose my diagnosis to our employees, customers, and broad- er professional community. Despite a diagnosis that “sucks,” I have New Israeli drug cures Israel has lightning been fortunate to continue full-time 29 of 30 moderate to fast Covid Vaccine work for the new owners of our com- severe Covid cases. rollout. pany (admittedly from a motorized Instant Covid-19 Israel reports wheelchair and with heavy dependence Breath Test as precise Covid-19 cases on voice recognition software). I’m also as swab test. dropped 94% with lucky to be in my second clinical trial at Pfizer vaccine. MGH in Boston where I work with a re- markable research team—especially Israel donates Covid-19 vaccine to Help us educate Americans neurologist Katharine Nicholson C’04. Palestinian Authority. about Israel’s big role in Somehow, research spinal taps that I fighting Covid-19. have undergone with her have been made a little more tolerable by swapping stories of Penn undergrad experiences. Sign up to get monthly Follow us on Bruce D. Rosenblum C’81, Somerville, MA Israeli Innovation News at Facebook.com/untoldnews untoldnews.org Donate at Untoldnews.org Medical Advances Missing I enjoyed the Alzheimer’s article, “The Hu- manist Is In,” by Julia Klein [Mar|Apr 2021]. What was missing was the scientifi c is only a single sentence stating that the to be negligible. And many college and and medical advances of the Perelman schools were the product of a “unique professional teams have shown how to School of Medicine. Penn has become partnership” between these two men. I implement testing protocols that work. the leading immunotherapy center in would have been interested in learning The loss of two seasons by the spring the world. more about this “unique partnership,” teams will not only adversely aff ect the Raymond G. Perelman W’40 Hon’14’s gift how they found each other, what they student-athletes who came to school ex- (I would call it a giant gift) to the School shared in their thinking, etc. pecting to play and train for them, but I of Medicine has placed Penn at the fore- Ronald S. Banner M’67, Penn Valley, PA doubt that I am alone among alumni who front of research in the Alzheimer’s/Par- played intercollegiate sports at Penn who kinson’s disease fi eld. More on that would Overabundance of Caution? will show our displeasure with this deci- have added considerably to the article. I note with dismay the decision by the sion by withholding contributions to our Thomas Warren WG’67, Dublin, NH Ivy League presidents to cancel all sports teams until they are permitted to practice for the 2021 spring season. While I can and play. If fall sports are cancelled again, “Unique Partnership” Neglected understand the decision to cancel the it would lead me to wonder what the Ivy Thank you for your wonderful article indoor winter sports out of an abundance presidents are really up to. about the Rosenwald schools [“Black of caution (even though the rest of Divi- Edward Sproat EE’73 G’88, Frederick, MD Education Before Brown,” Mar|Apr sion 1 basketball schools seemed to play 2021]. As a Philadelphian, I had heard their seasons safely), it’s hard for me to About a month after the Ivy League can- of Julius Rosenwald and Sears & Roe- understand the rationale to cancel the celed its 2021 spring sports season, Penn buck. And Booker T. Washington is fa- 2021 season of outdoor spring sports. decided to permit its spring-season teams mous for so many accomplishments. Given that these sports are played out- to play games against only local competi- While the thrust of the article was on doors and the players are not usually in tion, beginning March 27. For more on the the buildings (the occasion for the ar- close contact, the risk to their health, Quakers’ modifi ed—but still long-awaited— ticle was a book of photographs) and the based on what we’ve observed and return to the fi eld, see “Sports,” this issue. schools’ many famous graduates, there learned over the past year, would seem

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 9 FOLLOW US ONLINE

THEPENNGAZETTE.COM @PENNGAZETTE VIEWS P. 1 2 P. 14 P. 16 P. 18 Notes from the Undergrad Alumni Voices Elsewhere Expert Opinion

Illustration by Martha Rich GFA’11 May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 11 VIEWS Notes from the Undergrad

Impermanent three, to attend a boarding school in Mas- sachusetts. During some school breaks I visited my grandparents in Chicago, and Residence during others I returned to Shanghai. My home became divided between three On the elusive idea of home. places: Massachusetts, where I went to By Chelsea Cheng school; Chicago, where my grandparents stayed; and Shanghai, where my parents lived. As I moved around between these oing home?” The customs offi cer raised his eyebrow. three places, home became a fl eeting and The customs offi cer looked at “Where are you from?” impermanent concept. me, waiting expectantly for an “Shanghai?” I replied, trying not to I had always been the most excited to “G answer. I was at the Boston Logan appear nervous. “Or Chicago?” The of- go back to Shanghai. Shanghai felt like Airport, on my way to my grandparents’ fi cer began to look annoyed. the closest thing to home, but the more house in Chicago for Thanksgiving break. “Where do you live?” He asked. I was away, the less familiar it became. It was supposed to be a simple ques- “I live in Massachusetts.” And then I The fi rst year I returned, the wet mar- tion, but I hesitated before replying, “No, added, “at school.” ket across from the compound where we my home is in Shanghai.” Eventually, the customs offi cer just lived had been taken down and a set of After a second, I remembered that on the gave me another look and let me go. tall, black gates closed off the area it form I had written “returning home” for my For my second year of high school I left used to occupy. I looked at the gates re- purpose of traveling. “Uhm, yes, actually.” Shanghai, where I had lived since I was calling mornings when I’d tagged along

12 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Illustration by Jing Li with my grandma to buy fruits and veg- my friends and I had spread out blan- university in Pennsylvania. But it’s not etables—waiting as she said hello to kets on damp grass, phone fl ashlights really in Pennsylvania, either—because familiar ladies in colorful aprons and turned on below our water bottles so I’m still staying at my grandparents’ arm warmers selling onions, turning my they glowed in blue and pink, cutting house in Chicago, and my parents still face when we walked past the raw mooncakes with a paring knife in the live in Shanghai. meats, and covering my nose when I dark because we couldn’t celebrate Mid- But growing up and moving to board- smelled fi sh. Next to the wet market Autumn Festival with our families. I ing school might have taught me that there had been a small vendor from missed sitting in the quietness of the home is a feeling rather than a place— whom we used to buy scallion pan- music center’s practice rooms at night, and one that might be easier to recog- cakes—but the vendor had also disap- toying with the piano keys and breath- nize in hindsight. Home is something peared. In the playground, the large, ing in the smell of dry rosin and wood. that will continue to change and trans- rusty blue swing I used to pretend was It was only by looking back at those form, escape me when I look for it, and a ship when I was little had been re- old photos while I was in Chicago that I then appear when I don’t. placed by a newer one. The rubber play- realized that Massachusetts had grown ground tiles that my brother and I used closer to me as Shanghai grew further Chelsea Cheng is a College freshman who is to peel from the ground to make stacks away, and that during my time at board- studying behavioral science and enjoys design we could stand on to reach the monkey ing school I had begun to fi nd some- and creative writing in her free time. bars had been replaced with ones that thing like a home. couldn’t be taken apart. As I spent the last few months in Chi- Even the smell of my house had changed. cago with my mom, who had gotten The living room no longer smelled like stuck there with me because of COVID fresh laundry, or canola oil from the restrictions, we looked for home to- kitchen, or the scent of cold nighttime gether. We discovered an H Mart just Admissions air that puff ed out of my mother’s soft 15 minutes away from where we stayed, down jacket as I hugged her when she and hunted down dried bean curd, admissions.upenn.edu came back from work. It now smelled of mung beans, and dried lotus seeds to- an herbal scent diff user my parents gether, walking through all the grocery bought at a mall, mixed with a little bit aisles. We found red bean mooncakes Penn Admissions of cat (who had become the newest mem- there, too, and we steamed blue crabs remains a resource ber of our household a year after I left). to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival to- Yet as the familiarity of Shanghai gether with my grandparents. for students and slowly eroded, I began to notice that Slowly, I realized I might have begun parents navigating Massachusetts was becoming increas- to fi nd something that resembled home ingly comfortable for me. I found myself again. I found comfort in the familiarity the college search laughing, playing games, and watching of putting on the blue slippers Grandpa process. Spirited Away with my dormmates on gave me, and opening up the freezer to the soft maroon sofa in the common see at least eight pints of Edy’s butter MORE INFORMATION: room. I remember studying with my pecan or coff ee ice cream that Grandma admissions.upenn.edu/ classmates in the winter by the fi replace ate while watching Chinese court dra- parents-families in my art teacher’s living room, cozied mas late into the night. I enjoyed hear- up with her dog and her kids. ing the music thrumming through the When the pandemic began, I couldn’t walls from Grandpa’s small computer INQUIRIES: go back to Massachusetts to fi nish the room, where he played a Chinese chil- [email protected] school year and had to stay in Chicago dren’s song from 1995 on his old speak- instead. I found myself staring at my ers. And as the weather turned cold, I phone in bed at night, the light from the enjoyed the warmth and coziness of my screen switching from yellow to blue to grandparents’ house. white as I fl ipped through old photos If you asked me where my permanent FOLLOW US ONLINE and looked back on my time at boarding residence is today, I wouldn’t know how THEPENNGAZETTE.COM school. I realized that I missed the New to answer. It’s not the boarding school England snow. I missed the day when in Massachusetts, because I’m attending

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 13 VIEWS Alumni Voices

cilitating workshops for the Posse Foun- dation, which helps high-achieving stu- Rice Pudding dents from under-resourced schools attend college. I was in my early 40s, a The pandemic, the stovetop, lawyer turned journalist/teacher looking and going beyond family ties. for a rewarding volunteer gig. I’m a fi rst- generation college graduate, and Posse’s By Marci Alboher mission spoke to me. Misa sought me out, looking for a men- don’t even like the idea of rice pud- ing my heart into creating meals for the tor. I was craving connection to younger ding. The texture makes me gag. But new parents instead. The rice pudding people in New York, where community as I followed a Nepali recipe meant had proven such a hit that her husband can be hard to fi nd. She reminded me of to nourish new mothers, I was com- started eating it too, and they requested myself in my fi rst job: so determined to forted by the smells of ginger and it for the next few weeks. make a diff erence, seeking out women Icinnamon fi lling my apartment and en- When the lockdown hit, so many of us who seemed to have it fi gured out. ergized by my new mission. were physically separated from older We met for coff ee and got close quick- It was July, a few months into the pan- and younger relatives. The way to show ly. I listened, off ered advice about work, demic, and a routine I’d begun in mid- love was to stay away, especially from invited her to networking events, and March had taken a beautiful turn. I was those who didn’t live nearby. Yet that left made introductions. In return she in- no longer spending weekends cooking a void, and the urge to fi ll it cemented a cluded me in her world, making me feel for a pregnant woman. My younger link between Misa and me. relevant and up to date. We clicked. friend Misa had just given birth to a We met about 15 years ago. Misa was I have a sweet spot for twentysome- healthy baby girl, Kimi, and I was pour- a twentysomething in her fi rst job fa- things. And before long Misa intro-

14 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Illustration by Jenny Kroik duced me to a slew of them. I was drawn Cooking was one of their favorite in- I embraced another fi rst: letting my to her crowd, a crew of practical ideal- person activities. Manny has a passion hair go gray. It felt like an appropriate ists who were determined to fi x all for it and wanted to learn some of the moment to wear my age a bit more that’s broken in our world and smart family recipes. My brother and I join proudly. As my friend the longevity ex- enough to get it done. on many Sundays. But seven months pert Ken Dychtwald recently quipped in I’m now 54 and a lot of my life feels later, my nephew and mother have the New York Times, it’s a good time to settled. These days I fi nd that I’m going barely missed a single week of “Meals be “useful more than youthful.” deeper rather than constantly shaking with Mema.” This was a time, too, of new perspec- things up. They’ve worked their way through tive. When I was in my thirties and many In contrast, every few months Misa family staples like Saucy Susan Chicken of my peers were consumed with having and her husband Nico take another big and Grandma Molly’s Biscochos (Greek- babies, I struggled through a 10-year step on life’s journey—creating roots, Jewish sesame cookies), plus Manny marriage with a man who couldn’t com- building a home, a community, a family. favorites like noodle kugel, French lasa- mit to having children. The question of As they went about all that amidst the gna bolognese, Mark Bittman’s no-knead whether I would become a mother turmoil of 2020, their commitment to bread—and at least a dozen other dishes. loomed over me like a constant cloud. I planning and building lifted my spirits. The planning has become elaborate. could barely attend a baby shower or In the face of all that chaos, they re- Every Wednesday, recipes swirl via birthday party without falling apart. I mained focused on a clear and ground- email. Manny started an Instagram ac- skipped a good number of them, sparing ing goal: to stay healthy and safe for count to show off his meals. myself the pain. Yet here I was itching to their child. Their cocoon is so far from When I texted photos of our meals to be involved in Misa’s new family. A baby their parents, who live abroad, and sib- Misa, she asked if she could place an shower over Zoom. Visits at the doorway lings, who live in distant states. Yet I live order for lasagna—plus avocados, al- and distanced chats while sitting on our only a few miles away. That proximity monds, and a few other items that her favorite bench. Pushing Kimi around and turned us into COVID neighbors. regular grocery purveyor lacked. Thus around the block in her carriage so that Outside of my husband and mother, and my pandemic deliveries began. her mother could run upstairs and eat. a few neighbors, Misa has been one of For the fi rst few weeks, I’d package up Delivering pastries and packing boxes the only people I’ve seen regularly. part of what I cooked with Mom and for their move to a new apartment. As someone whose work relates to ag- Manny, shop in a nearby market where There’s no doubt that I was making one ing, I can’t help putting a name to what’s I felt safe, then carry the items to Misa’s family’s life a touch easier—but the deep- going on with us. Though our rapport is apartment, two miles away. I didn’t want er truth is that all of it, especially the food, easy, I’m always aware of the age gap to take a taxi or the subway, so I was has been as much for me as it has been between us. I believe that a critical part dependent on good weather and my own for them. Many people have gotten the of aging well is what the psychologist two feet. Over time, I started cooking same lift from connecting with strangers Erik Erikson called “generativity”—in- things I knew Misa and Nico would like, across generations. My mother and vesting in something that will live be- separate from the meals we made in our Manny, for example, regularly deliver yond us, whether that is younger people family Zoom sessions. their extra food—in person—to older or other kinds of legacy. Parents practice This led to a series of fi rsts for me. I neighbors who don’t have family nearby. generativity naturally through their chil- took my fi rst bicycle rideshare as a way I never thought I’d say this, but now dren and grandchildren. But for the to make deliveries easier. Cycling opened that Misa has moved beyond her new increasingly large cohort of us who hit a whole new way of seeing New York mom diet, I miss rice pudding. I’m com- midlife without kids of our own, con- City, one I may have never tried had I fortable with the idea that I’ll never have necting with younger generations has not been committed to getting to Misa kids and grandchildren of my own. But I to be an intentional act. in a way that felt COVID-safe. have a taste of what it feels—and smells— Which gets me back to the rice pud- I took my fi rst pandemic taxi ride for like to nourish the next generation, some- ding. My cooking for Misa grew out of a food delivery. It was raining and my thing that will stay with me long after the a ritual to stay connected to my own usual methods wouldn’t work. Once in- days of physical distancing are over. family. Within the fi rst few weeks of side the cab, I realized that between the lockdown, my 79-year-old mom in New partition, masks, and open windows, Marci Alboher C’88 is author of The Encore Career Jersey and my 14-year-old nephew being in a taxi was no more dangerous Handbook, and a vice president at Encore.org, Manny in Florida decided to meet up than a masked conversation on the a nonprofi t that supports leaders bridging gen- on Zoom one Sunday to cook together. street. I’m now taking taxis regularly. erational divides [“Second Acts,” Sep|Oct 2013].

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 15 VIEWS Elsewhere

talk of Proust at the lively dinner table discussions with other artists and intel- lectuals. An autodidact, she was un- afraid to appear ignorant. “Let’s talk about Plato,” she’d propose. But it was In Search of Lost Time that prompted her search for self and meaning as an artist. She named numerous cats “Alber- tine” for one of the novel’s love interests. Later, when Greenwood married the British writer Charles Fenn, letters full of Proustian references sustained their of- ten long-distance marriage. Some con- veyed longing to discuss the latest vol- ume, others brimmed with accusations —“You would have driven even Proust mad,” or, “You’re as faithless as Albertine.” The demise of her marriage left Green- wood mired in regret about her lost youth, fi nancial choices, and life path. I returned to Swann’s Way in order to understand Marion Greenwood, but the novel also held up a mirror. When I started at Penn, I’d planned to become a social worker. Instead, literature called. In the 44 years since I graduated, I’ve become a writer and a teacher. At 65, an irrepressible urge to measure my life surfaced. Had I done anything worth- while? I didn’t need a madeleine to un- Bringing up the Dead leash a fl ood of memory, as the famous sweet had for Proust (though I could Searching for Marcel Proust, and everything else. now buy one at Starbucks). I arrived at By Joanne Mulcahy Père Lachaise with existential questions. It seemed fi tting that I ask them at Proust’s grave. Biographers are an obsessive lot, fol- e’d entered without a map. The The author of the seven-volume In lowing their subject’s footsteps, searching Père Lachaise cemetery loomed Search of Lost Time was an unlikely ob- for clues amid the evidence: letters in so large in my mind that I was session. I’d read parts of the fi rst book, archives, fragments saved, memories oth- sure I would instinctively fi nd my Swann’s Way, while I was an under- ers hold. But how do we enter the con- way to the right grave. To be safe, graduate at Penn. I found it a rough go. sciousness of another, especially a dead Wmy husband Bob photographed the faded But for nearly a decade, I’ve worked on “other”? At Penn, I spent one long night blue sign at a side entrance that identifi ed a biography of the Proust enthusiast and in the library transfi xed by Leon Edel’s the dead alphabetically and by number. 20th-century American artist Marion Writing Lives: Principia Biographica. I thrilled at the thought of passing the Greenwood. She dropped out of high Edel once compared the biographical tombs of writers I loved, along with lumi- school at 15 to study at the Art Students process to falling in love. Biographer naries like Edith Piaf, Amedeo Modigli- League in New York. At 18, she was one Richard Holmes calls the search a “haunt- ani, and Frédéric Chopin. But I wasn’t of Yaddo’s early residents. She called the ing.” Hilary Mantel reminds us, quoting seeking every famous grave. The object famous Saratoga Springs artists’ retreat St. Augustine: “the dead are invisible, of my pilgrimage was Marcel Proust. “my university,” and likely encountered they are not absent.”

16 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Photography by Bob Hazen Père Lachaise is the most visited cem- Our Oregon friends outlined the path to bored over the fi nal fi ve books for the etery in the world, named for the Jesuit Proust and bid goodbye. But gravestones rest of his life, bedridden with pulmo- confessor to Louis XIV. Secrets and sto- with Arabic writing fi lled the indicated nary illness. He didn’t live to witness his ries saturate the place. The October day spot. After multiple attempts, we fi nally work catapulted to its place in the West- of our visit was fi ttingly gray. Oak, ash, entered a narrow lane where a single rose ern literary canon. and maple trees formed a golden tower fl uttered atop gleaming black marble: At 24, Marion Greenwood rose to fame of autumn leaves over cobblestone paths. “Marcel Proust, 1871–1922.” Fifty-one years as the fi rst woman to paint a mural in We wandered past gigantic mausoleums seemed an impossibly brief span for the Mexico. Major awards, commissions, with domed tops like small basilicas. Oth- creation of his masterpiece. And where and critical praise for her portraits fol- ers rested behind rusted iron gates, their were the hordes that fl ocked to that liter- lowed. By the 1940s, she was one of the curlicue patterns choked by climbing ivy. ary rock star across the cemetery? most celebrated women artists in the Even Bob, who unlike me has a sense US. Then, as abstract expressionism of direction, was fl ummoxed by our eclipsed realism, the limelight faded. failure to fi nd Proust. The fuzzy photo Yet she persevered, creating remark- we were using as a guide simply didn’t able work that is little known today. match vine-tangled reality. I initially What does artistic or literary or any applauded the French refusal to give sort of reputation mean? Greenwood special prominence to the famous. But lamented her fading star and failed after two hours, I wished Proust’s marriage. Every impediment sent her tomb hosted a six-foot neon sign. back to Proust to wrestle with loss and I also regretted that I’d chosen to time’s merciless passage. To under- wear stylish ankle boots rather than stand how the past lived inside her, running shoes. Throughout our stay, I both indelible and elusive. To renew tried to blend into the intimidating her faith in the struggle to create art. Paris fashion scene with a form-fi tting She once told an interviewer that she jacket, skinny jeans, and scarves—all to frequented galleries to see the latest no avail. Something always screamed trends, then retreated to her studio to “American.” But as we scratched our paint portraits. “I’m just myself again. heads over Proust, I spied a group of I can’t help it.” women in hiking pants, hauling heavy To discover and be who we truly are: backpacks. If our own appearance an- Can we ask anything more of ourselves? nounced “American,” they shouted Greenwood died at age 60 from a “Northwestern.” I’ve never been so cerebral hemorrhage. I once visited happy to see fellow Oregonians. They her grave in Woodstock, New York, had entered at the proper place and turning to her as she had to Proust. received a printed map. Standing before slabs of marble and Our guides sought Oscar Wilde’s granite, we beseech the dead. Tell us grave but promised to direct us to what matters. Reassure us that the Proust. We followed them toward a lonely and often thankless work of gaggle of tourists surrounding a glass writing or painting or any passion can barrier protecting the Wilde mauso- sustain us, even if it’s not recognized, leum. Grease from the red lipstick even if it does not endure. kisses of zealous devotees had nearly We go to cemeteries for the same destroyed the original tomb’s fl ying reason we write biographies: to feel angel—a fi gure based on the British Mu- Proust began In Search of Lost Time in the spark that lit another’s life, and to seum’s Assyrian fi gures. In photos, the 1909, the year Marion Greenwood was learn how to kindle our own. hapless angel appears stricken with a born. Numerous editors rejected terrible case of measles. The cemetery Swann’s Way, so Proust published it at Joanne Mulcahy C’77 Gr’88 is the author of closed the tomb until the Irish govern- his expense in 1913. In the Shadow of Remedios: The Healing Life of Eva Castellanoz ment came forward to pay for the glass Young Girls in Flower followed in 1919 and Writing Abroad: A Guide for Travelers protected version. and won the Prix Goncourt. Proust la- (with Peter Chilson).

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 17 VIEWS Expert Opinion

Although Black Americans are not much more likely than whites to con- tract the virus, according to CDC data, they are almost three times as likely to be hospitalized for it and twice as likely to die from it. Given that stark reality, one might assume that African Ameri- cans would be lining up in droves for the vaccine. But that has not been the case. What’s behind this hesitancy? There’s been no shortage of experts weighing in on this question in US news media. But to fully grasp African Americans’ con- cerns, we need to take a step back to view the bigger picture. In that spirit, I went out and took the commonsense tack of talking to people. Too often, as one person memorably told me, the ex- perts talk about Black Americans as though “we are not in the room.” So I conducted structured interviews with 35 African Americans—men and women from a wide range of socioeconomic and professional backgrounds whose ages ranged from 34 to 92. Of the people I surveyed, 32 percent told me they either had or intentend to get the vaccine. To provide some perspec- tive, the infl uenza vaccine’s acceptance rate among African Americans, based on CDC data for the 2019–2020 fl u season, was 41 percent. (Current data show that the percentage of African Americans who Shot of Confi dence have or would take the COVID vaccine is rising—but a bit more slowly than for How talking about “vaccine hesitancy” distracts other racial groups in the country.) from the problem we really need to fi x. On its face, the ratio I encountered in my interviews appears to confi rm the By Christopher A. Womack diagnosis of so many experts: Black Americans suff er from a lamentably high rate of “vaccine hesitancy.” But if a OVID-19 has upended ordinary life in lives of Black Americans in meaningful single revelation emerged from my in- the United States, and perhaps no ways. Yet the pandemic has also exposed terviews, it was that this catchall phrase group has felt its wrath more acutely a dynamic that is far less appreciated—but obscures more than it illuminates. C than African Americans. The pan- whose importance has never been clearer: “Vaccine hesitancy,” in the defi nition demic has focused a searing spotlight on mistrust in our country’s healthcare sys- off ered by Noni MacDonald, a founding problems that have existed for many years. tem. And insofar as awareness of this member of the World Health Organiza- Some of them are news to no one: Ameri- problem has grown, it has mostly entered tion’s Global Advisory Committee on cans from a wide variety of backgrounds public discourse via a term that obfuscates Vaccine Safety, “refers to delay in ac- recognize that economic inequality and and compounds the real issue. The term ceptance or refusal of vaccination de- social exclusion continue to constrict the in question is “vaccine hesitancy.” spite availability of services. It is infl u-

18 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Illustration by Elizabeth Montero enced by factors such as complacency, in care that some chalked up to “uncon- Take the vaccine; it is safe. But for African convenience, and confi dence.” scious bias” and others could not escape Americans, any particular vaccine is only Vaccine hesitancy is a well-document- concluding was “on purpose.” Several re- one part of a bigger picture. Why should ed phenomenon in the general popula- spondents expressed an uneasy feeling I trust you, many of them wonder, given tion. Before COVID-19, experts typically that they felt they or their family members the pattern of mistreatment my commu- discussed it in relation to the refusal of had been pushed too aggressively to par- nity has suff ered at your hands? certain parents to inoculate their chil- ticipate in research studies. As one person The experts are right about one thing: dren against vaccine-preventable dis- told me, the issue isn’t that patients are there is an immediate need for wide- eases like measles, polio, and pertussis. recruited into medical research—which spread vaccination to blunt the progres- But the term may not be the best descrip- can benefi t us all—but rather the manner sion of this pandemic. But the only way tion of the concerns particular to the in which healthcare providers went about to get there is to recognize that, where African American community. The dif- it that disquieted them. Black Americans are concerned, the core ference lies in the fact that vaccine hesi- Concerns like these contributed to issue isn’t mistrust of a vaccine’s safety, tancy in the general population hinges mistrust among my respondents across but rather suspicion of a healthcare sys- on perceptions about the safety of par- the age spectrum and regardless of so- tem that has failed to earn their trust. ticular vaccines, whereas the main issue cioeconomic status. And they are re- Just as the pandemic has thrown this among African Americans is mistrust of fl ected in anecdotal and statistical evi- issue into stark relief, it also presents a the healthcare system in general. dence. When Serena Williams publicly golden opportunity to address it in a real The historical record is replete with revealed what struck her as a dismissive and lasting way. Thus far governments, instances of mistreatment of African reaction by healthcare providers to seri- vaccine manufacturers, and other entities Americans by the US healthcare system. ous complications after the birth of her have committed vast resources to reach They range from the experiments per- daughter in 2017, Black women across out to communities of color to discuss formed by James Marion Sims on en- the country had reason to nod in weary vaccine safety. All of those eff orts should slaved Black women, to the notorious unison: they are three to four times be applauded. But no less vital is change Tuskegee Syphilis study, to the non-ther- more likely than white women to die of within the healthcare system itself, to apeutic medical experiments conducted pregnancy-related complications. More make it more cognizant of and responsive on inmates of Philadelphia’s Holmesburg recently, the death of Susan Moore, a to problems of its own creation. prison in the latter 20th century. Yet for Black physician who died of COVID-19 Many of my respondents welcomed many of the people I interviewed, his- after alleging mistreatment by hospital the sense of urgency around the COVID torical examples took a backseat to their personnel because of her skin color, re- vaccine—but worried that the energy own intimate experience of today’s hos- inforced longstanding suspicions among would dissipate before deeper issues pitals and healthcare providers. many African Americans about where can be resolved. Will the White House Some of their refl ections echoed con- they rank in the hierarchy of concern. follow up press conferences combatting cerns common among many American Some of the people I interviewed re- “vaccine hesitancy” with task forces patients—like the feeling that doctors treat counted stories of family members and charged with addressing mistrust of the them with one eye on the clock, making friends who they felt suff ered mistreat- medical system? Will those expert rec- them feel more like “a number” to be dis- ment by the medical community that led ommendations be fi led in a binder, or patched than a person who merits close to severe consequences or death. In oth- spur meaningful action? As we address and unhurried listening. But 72 percent of er words: the mistrust is real, and it is a the issues of healthcare equity and dis- my respondents told me they thought the product not just of abstract history but parity, will we opt for quick-and-easy, healthcare system itself is biased against rather contemporary lived experience. or embrace the comprehensive improve- African Americans. The examples they In that light, it is easier to understand ment necessary to safeguard the health gave were not limited to historical refer- the origins of skepticism about COV- of every American? ences, but rather full of stories about their ID-19 vaccines. “How can you fi nd a vac- I feel optimistic that if we commit to the own mistreatment by the healthcare in- cine in a matter of months,” as one re- latter course, we can address and over- dustry. Some lamented failures in hospital spondent put it, “but when we discuss come mistrust of the healthcare system, care that seemed hard to explain except as health issues in the African American transforming it to the benefi t of us all. a function of racial disparities. Many ar- community, [they say]: We are working ticulated a sense of alienation from physi- on it—and that was 10 years ago?” Christopher A. Womack G’08 has over 30 cians who had no connection to the pa- Here is the disconnect: experts are tell- years of experience in healthcare, focusing on tient’s community—leading to defi ciencies ing the African American community, healthcare disparities and policy.

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 19 The campus from above, looking southeast from College Hall.

20 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 GAZETTEER P. 24 P. 2 7 P. 2 9 P. 3 2 Better Banking Researching Rare Diseases Water Equity Game Time

Photography by Greg Benson May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 21 Clockwise from top, this page: Green; University Meeting and GAZETTEER Campus 450-bed New College House West, Guesthouse; Fisher Fine Arts Library scheduled to open to students in Fall and Weitzman Pavilion; Wharton 2021; LOVE sculpture on College Academic Research Building. On the Horizon As Penn prepares for a limited in-person Commencement and a full return in the fall, here’s a look at what most of us have been missing.

you miss strolling Even as some students down Locust Walk? have migrated back this Taking photos beside semester, COVID-19 has dra- DO the Benjamin Frank- matically altered University lin statue? Marveling at new life over the past year and buildings that have gone up, curtailed opportunities to or revisiting old ones that enjoy campus for students have passed the test of time? and alumni alike.

Or perhaps it’s the hope that can be gleaned knowing that a return to normalcy may be on the horizon. In mid-March, citing the widespread distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine and other safeguards in place, the University announced the Perhaps these photos, of- “return to an in-person teach- fering a snapshot of Penn ing, research, and residential this March—one year after it environment for the fall of fi rst closed due to the pan- 2021,” barring any “unpredict- demic—will help alumni able turns” in the pandemic. who have kept their distance Also contingent upon the feel more connected. trajectory of the pandemic,

22 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Photography by Greg Benson and Paul Benson Sharp shadows at Penn Park; the Biopond awaiting spring; outdoor dining on Sansom Street.

family and friends of the grad- uates, as well as graduate and professional students, will not be able to attend. (The Univer- sity will broadcast a livestream at commencement.upenn.edu. All other graduate ceremonies will be presented virtually, and the initial plan to hold a sepa- the University announced rate in-person ceremony for plans to “hold one limited the Class of 2020, whose Com- in-person undergraduate mencement last year was en- Commencement ceremony tirely online, has been put off .) at Franklin Field on the Between those restrictions morning of May 17,” with and the fact that Alumni philanthropist Laurene Pow- Weekend will again be held ell Jobs C’85 W’85 serving as virtually, from May 14–15, it the Commencement speaker. will be a much quieter cam- The ceremony will include pus than it usually is this time academically eligible seniors of year—as we all eagerly who have abided by Penn’s await the day when photos asymptomatic testing proto- capture a University buzzing col during the semester. But with activity once again. —DZ

Photography by Greg Benson May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 23 GAZETTEER Finance EDUCATION COSTS Tuition and Aid the SFCU launched its emer- for 2021–22 gency loan program, which ran Academic Year in two waves from mid-March Undergraduate Tuition | $54,652 through July of last year. $11,358 “We wanted to get some- Housing | thing out there as soon as Dining | $5,946 possible,” says Tor Aronson Fees | $7,058 C’22, SFCU’s former chief Total | $79,014 lending offi cer and its current (2.8 percent annual increase) chairman. The program dis- Total Undergraduate Financial Aid pensed more than $20,000 in $259 million loans with discounted inter- (1.2 percent annual increase) est rates and longer deferral periods, the majority of which Since personal fi nance is not went to alumni, who make up generally taught in school, 35 percent of the credit “not a lot of people know, at union’s clientele. 18, how valuable things like While alums took the most credit scores are and how to advantage of the emergency build them,” Oulabi adds. To loans, SFCU board members that end, the SFCU recently predominantly focus on how set aside $1,000,000 for a free to help people they interact credit builder program de- with on campus: their class- signed to help students build mates, friends, and some- credit history without taking times even roommates. on a single dollar of debt. The Much of its work is geared program allowed participants toward assisting international to take out a $1,000 shared and fi rst-generation, low-in- secured loan in a frozen ac- come (FGLI) students navigate count they couldn’t access. a banking system that often Then, the SFCU made month- feels foreign. “I think a lot of ly payments to repay the loan Extra Credit people who come from less and any accumulating inter- privileged backgrounds have est on the customer’s behalf, The Ivy League’s only student-run seen their family members or reporting these to credit agen- credit union promotes financial their friends fall into the trap cies to allow the customer to of US debt,” says Mohammad increase their credit score. literacy for its classmate clients. Oulabi C’21, the SFCU’s former “We’re just doing what we CEO and a FGLI international were founded to do,” Oulabi student from Cairo, Egypt. “So says. “As a credit union, all the the early stages of One of only three student- there’s a lot of negative associa- revenue we make, we try to quarantine, while run federal credit unions in the tion with taking out credit give back to our members. We Penn students were country, the SFCU serves the cards in order to build credit wanted to help as many people learning how to bake Penn community—students, history and credit scores.” as possible—and not just dur- bread and squeezing alumni, and their immediate Among the benefi ts that the ing a time of crisis. We wanted inIn socially distanced walks, family members—with all the SFCU touts for international to make more permanent the executive board of Penn’s off erings of a typical bank, like students are not requiring a changes and improve people’s Student Federal Credit Union checking accounts, debit cards, social security number to open fi nancial lives in the long run.” (SFCU) went to work fi guring and transition loans. But when an account, free and unlimited About 100 employees man- out how to help those whose COVID-19 left some alumni incoming international wires, age the $7 million credit lives had been disrupted the and students scrambling to and a debit card that can be union, located at 34th and most by the coronavirus. fi nd secure jobs and housing, used worldwide. Walnut Streets (though much

24 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Illustration by Melinda Beck Heard on Campus

of the work is now done re- Lab (the University’s entre- motely). Founded in 1987 by Unlocking Futures preneurship hub)—Legend Kenneth Beck WG’87, Steven discussed a FREEAMERICA Feld WG’87 GrD’03, and Rob- John Legend on entrepreneurship, endeavor called Unlocked ert Kaplan G’88 WG’88 as the criminal justice reform, and love. Futures. Backed by Bank of fi rst (and still only) student- America and the venture run credit union in the Ivy philanthropy fund New Prof- League, the SFCU recruits it, Unlocked Futures funds students in much the same and brings together a new way that any other club on breed of social entrepre- campus might. There’s an neurs: those aff ected by the alumni board of directors that criminal justice system. weighs in on broad strategies Here’s an excerpt of those for the SFCU’s 1,000 members, remarks from Legend, who but it’s the students who run discussed the importance of day-to-day operations—a love in his work. (The entire chance to earn real-word ex- discussion can be viewed at perience in the fi nancial ser- venturelab.upenn.edu.) vices industry that Oulabi says he “could not have imagined” Cornel West, one of the before arriving at Penn. things he said, was that “Part of what’s great about justice is what love looks being small and entrenched in like in public. And I think the community we serve is what he meant by that is that that we can move very quickly if you love people that you and not waste time wonder- don’t even know … it shows ing what the Penn community itself in policy, it shows itself needs,” adds Emily Becker in justice, it shows itself in C’23, who was recently elected made clear by the The fi rst non-Wharton equality. So I use that as a the SFCU’s chief lending of- multiple references grad to win the award, Leg- guiding force for how I think fi cer. “We kind of just know to his membership end’s entrepreneurship and about my activism. How do I that, or know how to fi nd out.” in the EGOT club philanthropy is mostly root- show love for people I don’t While lacking in experience (winner of an ed in education and criminal even know? How do I show compared to more seasoned AsEmmy, Grammy, Oscar, and justice reform. Among other love for people who may be banking executives, SFCU lead- Tony) during a virtual event organizations, he’s started the overlooked, who may be un- ers believe being students is hosted by Wharton’s Venture Show Me Campaign, which der-resourced, who may be their biggest asset, not a hin- Lab in early March, John aims to give every child ac- oppressed, who may be out- drance. Case in point: the cred- Legend C’99 Hon’14 is best cess to a quality education, cast because they look diff er- it builder program was known as a talented musi- LRNG Innovators to empow- ent or they love diff erently or spawned after Aronson heard cian and performer. But as er teachers to redesign learn- they worship diff erently? one of his friends complain the recipient of this year’s ing, and FREEAMERICA to When it comes to what that about having a low credit score. Penn Wharton Entrepre- end mass incarceration. means with incarcerated “Our clients are our neurship Alumni Achieve- During one exchange with people, and people who are friends that we used to see ment Award, Legend was Wharton dean Erika formerly incarcerated, some- around campus all the time being honored with a very James—the moderator for times they’re at the bottom or talk with,” Aronson says. diff erent kind of prize—add- an event that also included when it comes to who society “We can hear really well ing a “P” to his “EGOT” to remarks from Ulrich, Penn shows love toward. … It’s what they are going through make “PEGOT,” Wharton President Amy Gutmann, easy for me to see their hu- and tailor our services to Vice Dean of Entrepreneur- and Ravi Viswanathan manity, and I want others to those candid conversations.” ship and Innovation Karl EAS’90 WG’98, advisory see their humanity too. And —Beatrice Forman C’22 Ulrich quipped. board chair of the Venture particularly when they come

Illustration by Anna Heigh May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 25 Animal Health Brittany Watson, left, and Chelsea GAZETTEER Reinhard stand in front of Penn Vet’s mobile unit (pre-pandemic photo). out of prison, they need the opportunity to contribute to society, whether it’s getting jobs, creating jobs as entre- preneurs, voting, getting housing. All sorts of ele- ments of being part of a com- munity and being part of society are made extremely diffi cult because they’re re- turning from prison. And so we started Unlocked Futures as a way to inspire and fund entrepre- neurs in the nonprofi t and for-profi t space who have been formerly incarcerated and give them opportunities to create jobs. They have ideas. A lot of them were hustlers in their own way, in a more illicit way, before they went to prison. And we want to give them an opportunity to create jobs and use that entrepreneurial spirit in a shelter partners, basic ani- way that’s legal and adds to New Set of Wheels mal health examinations in- their community, rather than home and in-shelter, humane detracting from it. … With a mobile veterinary hospital, education for high schoolers, I think the bottom line is Penn Vet’s Shelter Medicine Program and policy consults with area seeing their humanity, shelters [“A Double Reward,” knowing that nobody should has kept saving animal lives amidst Sep|Oct 2010]. be only defi ned by the worst COVID-19 restrictions. The mobile unit, acquired thing they’ve ever done. And in 2019 and supported in part I think part of the way I’m by the Bernice Barbour Foun- able to do that is knowing I a 40-foot-long hospi- The mobile unit off ers a dation and Pet Smart Chari- have family members who tal, the School of Vet- safe, controlled environment ties, is set to expand the pro- have gone through the same erinary Medicine’s for students to practice their gram’s reach even further. It thing. I know what it’s like As new mobile unit is surgical skills while also is designed for surgical pro- for them to come out and feel “actually larger than most helping homeless animals in cedures, medical and clinical like they have nowhere to surgery centers,” says Brittany need. Without it, the pro- assessments, and educational turn—when it comes to Watson V’10, clinical associate gram’s surgeries at its shelter outreach; and it off ers several housing, jobs, all kinds of professor of shelter medicine partner, the Animal Care & kinds of diagnostics, with things. There are so many and community engagement, Control Team of Philadelphia dental radiographs, dental doors slammed in their faces. and director of Penn Vet’s (ACCT Philly), would not machines, and ultrasound to And we wanted to create an Shelter Medicine Program. have been able to continue come eventually. opportunity for them to “It’s the only reason that we during the pandemic. However, like many initia- contribute to their can really operate [with ad- Under normal circum- tives, the rollout was delayed community and to make herence to COVID-19 restric- stances the Shelter Medicine due to the pandemic while better lives for themselves tions] because otherwise we’d Program off ers spay/neuter organizers determined what and for their families. —DZ be too close together.” surgeries with nine diff erent measures were needed to

26 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Photo courtesy Penn Vet Medicine

keep students, staff , and the During these unprecedent- community safe. ed times, Watson and Rein- New Era Dawning “The mobile unit allows us hard have also cocreated a As Penn’s Orphan Disease Center marks to go where we’re most need- new emergency prepared- ed in the community,” Wat- ness course for the Shelter 10 years, new technologies promise son says. And during the pan- Medicine Program. “We’ve demic, the team—which also had it in our docket for a re- major gains in treatments and cures. includes the Bernice Barbour ally long time,” Watson says. Assistant Professor of Clini- “And then when all this hap- cal Shelter Medicine Chelsea pened, we’re like, ‘Well, Reinhard, and the Bernice what’s a better time to teach Barbour Mobile Clinic Lead emergency preparedness and CVT Danielle Okulski—de- response than now?’” cided the greatest need was “We’re hoping it can be a at Philadelphia’s municipal permanent course,” adds animal shelter, ACCT Philly. Reinhard. Even when it wasn’t off er- ing treatments, the mobile “The mobile unit and the systems around it have proven useful during unit allows us the pandemic. In preparation to see patients in the unit, the to go where team implemented an elec- we re most tronic medical records sys- ’ tem, which for now is utilized needed in the for telemedicine visits. Wat- son says the telemedicine op- community.” tion has nearly doubled the amount of time they can pro- As an open-admission shel- vide public services through ter, ACCT Philly took in more their partner Pets for Life. than 17,000 animals in 2019. “It’s kind of like we’re set- Between 2017 and 2019, 38 ting this up as [the Shelter percent of all surgeries at Medicine Program’s] hospital ere’s to hope, shining Held virtually from Febru- ACCT Philly were performed system,” she explains. “And from Jim’s lab in Phila- ary 24 to 25 and titled “A New by Shelter Medicine Program then because we have the hos- delphia as a beacon Era of Rare Disease Diagnos- participants, lifting a signifi - pital system, we can then do “H around the world,” tics and Therapeutics,” the cant fi nancial and practical the telemedicine; whereas if said Penn President Amy Gut- symposium featured panels burden off of the shelter. we didn’t have the mobile unit mann, kicking off the 10th an- on ethics, patient voices, In the same time period, and the systems surrounding niversary symposium of the global access to treatments, the Shelter Medicine Pro- it, it would be very diffi cult— Orphan Disease Center—Jim patient registries, and indus- gram completed more than probably impossible, hon- being James Wilson, the Rose try perspectives and incen- 11,247 total surgeries and estly—for us to execute.” H. Weiss Professor at the Perel- tives. The high-powered line- 1,000 exams across all of its When COVID is no longer a man School of Medicine and up of speakers included Wil- shelter partners. Those num- major factor, she says, the director of the ODC, estab- son; founding donor George bers will surely rise post-CO- program will use the mobile lished at Penn a decade ago to Weiss W’65 Hon’14; acting VID when the mobile unit— unit for community clinics “facilitate and fund research, Food and Drug Administra- which offi cially launched last and, down the line, as an as- and develop transformative tion commissioner Janet October and is typically at set in disaster and emergen- therapies for rare diseases Woodcock; Francis Collins, ACCT Philly twice a week—is cy response, and in animal with signifi cant unmet need,” director of the National Insti- operating at full capacity. cruelty cases. —NP in the words of its website. tutes of Health; former UK

Illustration by Jeff Koegel May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 27 GAZETTEER

Prime Minister David Cam- In recent years, several gone to faculty at Penn and tially” going forward and a eron; and Nobel Prize winner therapeutic platforms with Children’s Hospital of Phila- “virtual explosion of gene Michael Brown C’62 M’66 the “potential to treat dis- delphia (CHOP), he added. therapy trials” is currently in Hon’86, whose keynote ad- eases at their root” have George Weiss “didn’t even progress. “To put it bluntly, we dress—“An Orphan That emerged, he said, “which know what an orphan disease have a problem of our suc- Saved Millions”—described really form the basis of our was” until a family member’s cess,” he said. Approvals for how his work on the rare con- work.” He listed protein re- diagnosis led to “a long period new treatments for these dis- dition familial hypercholes- placement therapy and mes- of discovery” and a decision to eases “will continue to out- terolemia spawned the statin senger RNA (mRNA) therapy approach Penn about starting strip our ability to detect drugs used by 20 million peo- [See “The Vaccine Trenches,” a center “to help all kids” suf- them through traditional ple to control blood pressure, page 42]; gene therapy, the fering from them, he said. He newborn screening pro- lower cholesterol, and pre- focus of Wilson’s own work; praised Penn Medicine leaders grams—and this problem will vent heart attacks. (Sympo- and—“the new kid on the for their receptiveness and only get worse.” sium sessions can be viewed block”—genome editing. This follow-through on the idea— Wilson noted that the 1997 at the center’s website.) technology “really cuts at the and added that Wilson, be- science fi ction fi lm Gattaca— heart of the pathogenesis of sides being brilliant, has “busi- which posited a seemingly these diseases by correcting ness DNA, which is very rare implausible future where the specifi c mutation,” but in the scientifi c community.” genetic testing at birth deter- “Approximately “while very powerful in con- When Weiss proposed a mined a person’s fate—was cept, many forms of genome walkathon to raise money released just a few years be- one in 10 people editing may be limited to and awareness in Philadel- fore the human genome was individual patients with indi- phia, Wilson recalled, he successfully sequenced. are living with a vidual mutations,” he said. countered with a bike ride for Already the time and costs The ODC fi elds two fl agship representatives of diff erent required for sequencing have rare disease.” programs to promote re- rare disease communities and gone from 15 years and $300 search. JumpStart involves their supporters. Dubbed the million to something like 19 collaborating with rare dis- “Million Dollar Bike Ride” by hours and less than $500, Citing the dictionary defi - ease communities to provide Weiss, it has become ODC’s Wilson said, predicting that nition of orphan as meaning expertise and pilot grants to “marquee fundraising event,” the costs will continue to “isolated, abandoned, not collect information and de- Wilson said. He initially drop. “A logical application of supported, or not funded,” velop research toward treat- thought $1 million was a this powerful new technology Wilson clarifi ed that “aban- ments. In six areas designat- stretch, but in 2019 (before a would be to use whole ge- donment in this context does ed as Programs of Excellence, pandemic-induced pause last nome sequencing at birth to not refer to the love and com- the center is making a more year), “we hosted 32 disease diagnose those who will de- mitment of family, friends, signifi cant commitment teams, 750 cyclists and volun- velop rare monogenic dis- and caregivers for those liv- based on ODC’s potential to teers, and raised directly and eases, focusing on those that ing with rare diseases”—who “add value” in realms where through matching funds $2.2 can be treated, and this in fact play a critical and cen- “transformative treatment is million for 36 awards.” (Regis- would allow a newborn tral role in the fi eld—but the feasible,” Wilson said. tration is open for the 2021 screening program to ad- reluctance of the pharmaceu- Grants generally run one to event, which will be held vir- dress what will be the esca- tical industry and other two years, at $50,000– tually on June 12.) lating number of diseases for stakeholders to devote re- $100,000 annually, with the The genetic diseases the which there are treatments.” sources to the roughly 7,000 hope that investigators will ODC focuses on strike cruelly NIH director Francis Col- known rare genetic diseases. be able to go on to secure early in life, and Wilson high- lins—who led the Human Ge- “Lost in this calculus,” he more stable government or lighted the need for broader nome Project—echoed the added, is the fact that, while corporate funding. ODC has screening of newborns to theme of technological ad- numbers for any one condi- funded 400 awards totaling identify patients early enough vance and emphasized the tion are small, in the aggre- more than $38 million to 120 to benefi t from new therapies. need for approaches to treat gate “approximately one in institutions in 25 diff erent This is especially important multiple diseases. “I don’t 10 people are living with a countries; 76 grants totaling since orphan drug approvals know of any other technology rare disease.” more than $8 million have are likely to “grow exponen- that has advanced this quick-

28 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Environmental Justice

ly,” he said of genomic se- quencing. “People say you can’t ever get faster, better, and cheaper; you have to pick two out of three. This time we got three out of three.” But while “the precise DNA misspelling responsible” for nearly 7,000 conditions has been identifi ed, only 500 or so have an FDA-approved eff ective therapy. “That num- ber grows, but grows slowly,” he said. “What you’d really like to have is a scalable ap- proach that could be applied to lots of these disorders, not just one at a time.” Refl ecting on the center’s fi rst decade, Wilson recalled “the futility of what our dis- as executive director of the cipline was” in his early Water Everywhere, Camden County Municipal years as a clinical geneti- Utilities Authority and is on cist—and the distance trav- For Everyone the New Jersey Environmental eled since. “Clearly, that’s Justice Advisory Council—is changed in this new world, The Water Center at Penn part of a team that is collecting where there are potential and analyzing data on the lim- answers, even beyond hope, addresses inequities throughout iting factors to achieving for individuals living with the region and country. “swimmable” conditions in the rare diseases,” he said—cre- urban sections of the river. ating a whole new set of Kricun says equity lies at challenges around ethics, the heart of this and many access, reimbursements, and illions of people in To paraphrase the old other water issues facing the other issues. “These are New York, New Jer- poem—water, water is every- US. “The good news about high-class problems, but sey, and Pennsylvania where but there’s nary a the water sector is that we ones that we are defi nitely regularly turn to the drop in which to swim, or don’t need some undiscov- going to have to tackle.” Delaware River for boat, or fi sh for those who ered or untapped technol- While the pandemic has recreation,M whether it’s tub- live by the 27-mile stretch of ogy,” he says. “Best practices posed signifi cant personal ing in Bucks County, hiking in the Delaware that fl ows by already exist. … Our goal at and professional challenges the Catskills, or sunbathing in cities like Philadelphia, The Water Center is to iden- over the past year, “I really Cape May where the river Camden, and Chester. tify the low-cost, low-hanging believe that the setbacks that empties into the Delaware “Why shouldn’t downstream fruit—interventions like we’ve realized with COVID Bay. Yet millions of others urban residents have a clean planting rain gardens to soak are even more galvanizing aren’t able to take advantage river that they can enjoy just up stormwater or installing for the rare disease commu- of such assets, and they can’t as their more affl uent neigh- netting to capture debris nities,” he added. “I can’t even enjoy the river as it bors do?” asks Andrew Kricun, from sewer overfl ows—that even speculate what it’s go- winds through their own a senior advisor at The Water can ensure clean water in ing to be like when we cel- neighborhoods because it Center at Penn, whose mission aff ordable ways that don’t ebrate 20 years—but I know remains cut off by busy high- is to encourage solutions to result in rate increases.” it’s going to be a very inter- ways, industrial wastelands, global water challenges. Kri- Healthy watersheds are es- esting ride.” —JP or overgrown shorelines. cun—who previously served sential for many other aspects

Photograph by Rob Dolecki May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 29 LEADERSHIP of daily living aside from rec- Coming from a background reation, of course. A glance at in urban water systems, Whitney Soule Tapped as the list of threats that the Neukrug decided to make New Admissions Dean World Economic Forum pre- cities his focus. In less than Replacing Eric Furda C’87, who left Penn after 12 years at the dicts we’ll all be facing in the three years, the center has end of 2020 [“Furda Says Farewell,” Sep|Oct 2020], next decade reveals that sev- completed 10 projects, Whitney Soule has been named the University’s vice eral, including extreme including two spon- weather, climate action fail- sored by the Heinz provost and dean of admissions, effective July 1. ure, natural disasters, and Foundation that in- Soule has three decades of experience in admis- biodiversity loss, are directly volve eff orts around sions, including the last 13 years at Bowdoin Col- associated with water. Plus, metropolitan Pitts- lege, where her tenure was marked by increasing the about 10 percent of the burgh. The fi rst provided numbers of students of color, fi rst-generation students, world’s population still lacks an assessment of the chal- and students on fi nancial aid. reliable access to basic drink- lenges and opportunities for In the announcement on her hire, Penn President Amy Gut- ing water, according to the the city to improve the qual- mann and Provost Wendell Pritchett Gr’97 said that Soule World Health Organization. ity of and access to its water “shares our strong belief—proven true in Penn’s growing strength Problems with potable water resources for all constitu- and continued success—that excellence and diversity in higher even occasionally plague ents; the other off ered rec- education are inextricably linked.” Americans, and one Water ommendations on ensuring Soule began her career in college admissions at her alma ma- Center project examined the a safe, sustainable water dis- ter, Bates College, and then spent 11 years at Connecticut Col- issues that caused the water tribution system for the fi - lege, before moving to Bowdoin in 2008. Under her watch, Bow- failures in Flint, Michigan— nancially distressed, shrink- doin’s selectivity grew with a decreasing admit rate and a grow- while determining whether ing city of Duquesne. ing admit-to-matriculant yield rate. She also joined with col- similar conditions exist in Small municipalities are leagues to create a unique collaboration with other highly selec- other post-industrial and eco- particularly strained when it nomically challenged cities in comes to technical assis- tive liberal arts colleges that improved the ability of students, the Great Lakes region. tance and funding options, families, and counselors to learn more about the opportunities When former Philadelphia observes Karl Russek, direc- available at those types of institutions. Water Department Commis- tor of programs and applied “The admissions team at Penn has a reputation for creative ap- sioner Howard Neukrug CE’78 research at the Water Center. proaches to building talented and diverse classes each year,” launched the Water Center in “So many of the communi- Soule said in a statement. “For me, one of the most rewarding 2018, he spoke with “a lot of ties that are experiencing the aspects of admissions work is the matchmaking between appli- diff erent people [and] ended most signifi cant eff ects of cant and school and doing so with systems that are responsive up with the concept of water inadequate access to water and supportive both for the students and for the institution. Penn’s as the universal connector,” he and regular fl ooding tend to commitment to excellence, access, inclusion, and innovation, and says. “It touches upon every- be poor cities,” he says. “Just the dedication to these values in Penn admissions, is a natural fi t.” thing from climate change to fi lling out the applications Since Furda’s departure, John McLaughlin C’05 has been serv- failing infrastructure.” Thanks for state funds can cost tens ing as interim dean of admissions. Gutmann and Pritchett to those hot-button issues, of thousands of dollars, not praised the admissions department veteran for “his exemplary Neukrug says, awareness has to mention the manpower, work and his love of Penn and look forward to his continued con- grown about the importance time, and expertise they in- tributions to our campus community in the years to come.” of ensuring universal access to volve. But if these cities miss clean and safe water. “So, even out on addressing fl ooding though the problems continue issues, say, there’s further the path. “Our goal is to pro- formation they require, and to grow, I no longer have to erosion, property values go duce a document that basi- here’s where to send it.” explain what a watershed is,” down, and the tax base de- cally sits local offi cials down Russek is an example of the he adds. (It’s the origin point of creases. It just accelerates and lays everything out for newer breed of experts that a water system, the spot that the cycle.” He’s currently them,” he says. “You have the Water Center is attract- channels rainfall and snow- leading a team that will pro- these problems, here are the ing. Unlike Kricun and Neu- melt through waterways and duce a “Local Decision Mak- programs that can help you. krug, he isn’t an engineer nor eventually into reservoirs.) ers Guide” aimed at easing Here’s how to collect the in- does he have a background

30 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Photo courtesy University Communications Community Health

in public utilities. He studied tion programs at Wharton water restoration at the Uni- Dirt Destroyers Executive Education and the versity of Alaska and then EarthEnable, which replaces Center for Social Impact Strat- spent more than two decades egy, and an ongoing partner- in environmental underwrit- unsanitary dirt floors in rural Africa, ship with the University. ing—assessing natural re- wins 10th annual Lipman Family Prize. Datar says the prize money source damage, risks, and comes at a key time as EarthE- industry/regulatory issues— nable’s micro-franchising before arriving at Penn to business model of training pursue a master’s in environ- and equipping local masons mental studies. Meg Kramer to sell and install its fl oors can LPS’18, the center’s director now be taken “to the next lev- of strategic development, el so we are able to both cer- came to Penn for the same degree following a career in pharmaceutical marketing. “The leadership and And Erica DePalma LPS’20 innovation of our joined the center as its re- search program coordinator prize community while focusing her studies on continues to grow.” hydrology. She’s already as- sumed lead roles in projects tify as well as train them.” And related to West Philadel- the other Wharton benefi ts phia’s Cobbs Creek and also “come at the perfect mo- South Bend, Indiana. ment because a lot of our ris- One of the Water Center’s ing leaders haven’t had the four primary objectives is to type of educational opportuni- attract and support the next ties like an exec ed program— generation of water leaders, and that would have been re- Neukrug says. “The issues ally hard for us to aff ord.” around water go much further hen Gayatri Datar homes were a longstanding Founded and endowed by than the concerns of a utility, fi rst arrived in Rwan- source of concern, she Barry Lipman W’70 and his which delivers water and ser- da eight years ago, she learned—and replacing them wife Marie Lipman, the Lip- vice,” he observes. “They bring was eager to improve “a ubiquitous need that man Family Prize is celebrat- into play things like green in- community health in hadn’t really been addressed ing its 10th anniversary this frastructure, community out- Wone of the world’s poorest before, to our knowledge.” year, having given out $3.3 reach, education and equity, countries. But it was only Such is the origin story of million to social impact orga- and the design and landscape after several discussions with EarthEnable—a company that nizations, including a winner of cities. It’s a real change for rural Rwandans—initiated delivers low-cost fl ooring so- and two other honorees each the industry and it happens to through a Stanford entrepre- lutions to Rwanda (and, more year. In addition to EarthEn- hit squarely with the types of neurship course called “De- recently, Uganda) and in April able’s winning prize, The Lu- projects that today’s gradu- sign for Extreme Aff ordabil- won Penn’s Lipman Family minos Fund and Promoting ates—whether they’re just ity”—that she determined the Prize, which is “given to one Equality in African Schools— entering the workforce or best way to do so. organization that celebrates both of which focus on in- whether they’re looking for a “The dirt fl oor kept coming leadership and innovation to creasing educational access complete career change—like up over and over again,” Da- the social sector with an em- for children in need—snagged to work on. We’re getting peo- tar says. Whether it was a phasis on impact and trans- $100,000 apiece as fi nalists ple that didn’t used to come child crawling and putting ferability of practices.” The out of more than 115 appli- into the water business, and their hands in their mouth or award comes with $250,000 cant organizations. they’re coming with ideas dust clouds fl oating every- in unrestricted cash, access to “The leadership and inno- and excitement.” —JoAnn Greco where, the fl oors in people’s tuition-free executive educa- vation of our prize commu-

Photograph courtesy EarthEnable May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 31 Sports Emma Nedley connects on a three-run GAZETTEER home run during Penn’s softball doubleheader sweep of St. Joe’s on April 3. nity continues to grow and we continue to look forward in expanding our social im- pact footprint with these new organizations,” Barry Lipman said in the announcement. “The important work of these three honorees in such un- precedented times highlights the continued need of our social impact work.” EarthEnable’s impact has already been felt. According to a World Bank study, replacing a dirt fl oor with a clean one has been shown to reduce di- arrheal disease by 49 percent and parasitic infections by 78 percent. And the locally sourced earthen fl oors the company uses, as well as a re- cently developed plaster prod- uct, are much more aff ordable and environmentally sustain- the pandemic. The Ivy’s deci- able than a concrete fl oor. Once Again, Play Ball! sion was particularly tough for For Datar, the proof is in the spring-sport athletes, who both the numbers—the rap- Though the Ivy League season also saw their 2020 seasons idly growing organization was canceled, Penn’s spring-sport cut short at the onset of the achieved 150 percent growth pandemic [“Dashed Dreams,” and served 10,282 individuals teams returned for local action. May|Jun 2020]. across several districts of “It was pretty devastating,” Rwanda and Uganda in admits King. Even with the 2019—and the anecdotal evi- hen Penn softball But the softball stadium’s advancement of COVID-19 dence she hears while living coach Leslie King prime location at the center vaccines and the safer nature in Rwanda. “Little things I looked around Penn of a semi-public park created of playing outdoors, the “big never would have realized,” Park on a warm Satur- a unique moment for players sticking point for the league the EarthEnable CEO and day afternoon, she saw and passersby alike to enjoy was travel,” King says. “They cofounder says—like how peo- Wpeople stop what they were a live Penn sporting event for didn’t want to make an ex- ple no longer have to rewash doing to sit on the grass and the fi rst time in more than a ception for athletics,” when their clothes if they fall from a gaze onto the softball fi eld. year. “Mentally and physi- other university-sponsored clothesline and get muddy. She saw picnicking families cally,” King says, “it was just travel has been restricted. “It’s a one-time intervention look over with curiosity. She so healthy for everybody.” But about a month after the and it doesn’t require any be- even saw the Easter bunny. While the games have cer- Ivy League’s decision, Penn havior change,” she says. “Once No spectators are offi cially tainly uplifted spirits, it’s been received University and Phil- the fl oor is there, it’s there. allowed at any games—one of far from a return to normal. In adelphia Department of Pub- And it’s something people the rules implemented when mid-February, the Ivy League lic Health approval to move actually want. That’s been a the University decided in canceled its spring sports sea- into “Ivy Phase Four,” which thing that continues to in- March to allow its spring- son, wiping out an entire year allowed for local competition spire me as much as the health sport teams to play a modifi ed of conference competition fol- beginning March 27. (Previ- impact—everyone wants to live schedule against teams within lowing previous cancellations ous phases that went into in a nicer-quality home.” —DZ a 40-mile radius of Penn. of fall and winter sports due to eff ect earlier in the semester

32 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Photograph by Tommy Leonardi C’89 SPORTS allowed teams, including bas- for a second straight year Penn Athletic Director ketball and football, to prac- after 125 consecutive previ- Departs for Brown tice together for the fi rst time ous runnings. in close to a year.) Star performances were After almost seven years as Penn’s athletic director, M. Grace “It felt like we got dealt bad also not lost. In Penn’s sec- Calhoun left on April 19 to take the same position at her alma news after bad news after ond track meet on April 3, mater, Brown University. bad news for months,” King senior Camille Dickson broke Hired in 2014 to replace Steve Bilsky W’71 as the T. Gibbs Kane, says. “And to fi nally get that the program long jump re- Jr. W’69 Director of Athletics and Recreation [“Passing the Baton,” little bit of good news that cord. And that same day, ju- Sep|Oct 2014], Calhoun oversaw Penn’s 33 varsity athletics pro- you guys can play some soft- nior Emma Nedley belted a grams, 38 club programs, and other intramural and recreational ball was great.” three-run home run to lead offerings for students, faculty, and staff. An “optimist by nature,” the Quakers to a softball During her tenure, Penn teams won 27 Ivy League or conference King had kept city rivals like sweep over St. Joe’s on a day championships in 16 sports, as well as three individual national titles Drexel, Saint Joseph’s, and the team honored its fi ve and three national runner-up team fi nishes. In addition, Penn had 133 Villanova on Penn’s sched- graduating seniors. All-Americans, 226 individual NCAA Championship qualifi ers, 31 Ivy ule, so the softball team had King is excited to see what League Players of the Year, and 119 Ivy League individual champions. games teed up when March Nedley and the rest of her In the announcement, Penn President Amy Gutmann said that 27 arrived. So did John “very talented class” can do Calhoun “will depart having left an indelible mark on Penn Athletics— Yurkow’s baseball team. The next year after two straight not only on the fi eld of competition but also in a deeply felt commit- harder part for him was get- pandemic-shortened sea- ment to the overall health, safety, and success of our student ath- ting his players back in the sons. But she does have some letes and in the strategic planning and operations of the division.” fl ow after so much time on reservations about the future Calhoun began her career in athletics administration in 1993, a the sideline. “Starting the of the program since the Ivy year after graduating from Brown, where she was a member of the season the way we did, I’ve League has been the only track and fi eld team. She worked for six other institutions before never felt that unprepared Division 1 conference to can- arriving at Penn, where she continued Bilsky’s priority of expanding before as a head coach,” says cel sports this year. fundraising efforts and upgrading athletic facilities, leading a suc- Yurkow, whose team lost its “I’m fearful that potential cessful development campaign that is on track to raise $200 mil- fi rst fi ve games before recruits are going to look at lion by the end of the academic year. sweeping a doubleheader the conference and just think Calhoun also helped revive Penn’s storied men’s basketball pro- against La Salle. they don’t really care about gram, which had fallen on hard times, with the hiring of Steve Dona- Without any champion- athletics,” the softball coach hue as head coach in 2015. And she’s been a national leader in ships to contend for or NCAA says. “I don’t think that’s the intercollegiate athletics, chairing the NCAA Division 1 council and tournaments to strive toward, case; I think the Ivy League the Ivy League Directors of Athletics. Yurkow and King see the 2021 cares about the health and Calhoun has four daughters with her husband, Jason Calhoun, who season as being more about safety of its players. But I has been head coach of Penn’s men’s golf team since 2017. Calling staying sharp and acclimating don’t know if that’s the per- the decision to leave Penn “bittersweet,” she said, “I will miss these freshmen (which could give ception out there.” relationships dearly, but the tug of my alma mater is strong.” them an advantage over other Yurkow is less worried Rudy Fuller, a senior associate athletic director for intercollegiate Ivy League teams heading about that being a problem. programs and a former Penn men’s soccer coach, will serve as the into next year). But it varies “I can tell you that we haven’t interim AD until a permanent appointment is made. —DZ from program to program. skipped a beat in terms of While Penn’s national-cali- recruiting,” the baseball ber lacrosse squads had dif- coach says. “The opportunity Council of Presidents grant- “It was almost a surreal fi culties fi nding teams to that Penn provides both on ed senior student-athletes if feeling,” he says. “The fi rst play, the men’s and women’s and off the fi eld far out- they enroll at a graduate game, seeing our guys get track and fi eld teams were weighs any doubt.” school of their current uni- dressed and putting on their able to set up several meets There are other uncertain- versity (a departure from Ivy uniform, that’s when it start- at Franklin Field, including ties on the horizon, including norms). But for Yurkow, the ed to really sink in.” one on April 24 to at least whether any players will try joy of opening day at the ball- King agrees. “To see them partially replace the Penn to use an extra year of eligi- park overrode anything else put their jerseys on,” she says, Relays, which was canceled bility that the Ivy League at the time. “that was a moment.” —DZ

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 33 FIGHTING POVERTY WITHCASH

Several decades since the last big income experiment was conducted in the US, An assistant professor at Penn’s School School of Social Policy & Practice assistant of Social Policy & Practice (SP2), Castro Baker is an unlikely target for such vit- professor Amy Castro Baker has helped riol. She still has a hard time under- standing why anyone—even a troll from deliver promising data out of Stockton, the darkest corners of the internet— would send menacing letters to her of- California, about the eff ects of giving people fi ce or, even more harrowingly, to her no-strings-attached money every month. suburban Philadelphia home. “On the one hand, it’s scary. When Now boosted by a new research center at people are going out of their way to fi g- ure out where you are, that’s frighten- Penn that she’ll colead, more cities are ing,” admits Castro Baker, sitting in a plaza outside the SP2 building on a late jumping on board to see if guaranteed income February afternoon, the last vestiges of winter failing to fend off flocks of can lift their residents out of poverty. Will it masked students eager to enjoy all the work? And will policymakers listen? outdoor spaces that campus has to off er. It’s doubtful any of them are as excited By Dave Zeitlin as Castro Baker, who in one week’s time my Castro Baker SW’04 remembers will see research that she spent years one piece of hate mail more than any working on made public for the fi rst of the others. It contained letters that time—the same research that led to the were cut from the pages of a maga- hate mail, which, in many ways, only zine and glued onto a piece of pa- intensifi ed what’s become her career Aper—like a ransom note from the movies. mission. “On the other hand,” she con- “Misogyny, white nationalism, white su- tinues, “if you’re not being criticized in premacist rhetoric” is how she describes some ways then I feel like maybe you’re it. “A hodgepodge of internet rumors.” not asking the right question.”

34 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHEN SCHUDLICH May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 35 The question that Castro Baker set out that living in poverty is more of an im- people will spend any government mon- to answer was this: What would happen pediment than it is a motivator—an idea ey that’s not integrated into a specifi c to a person in or near poverty who re- that the SEED data would seem to sup- social welfare program on drugs or ceived no-strings-attached guaranteed port. Per the fi ndings, the $500 monthly other vices. In Stockton, people spent payments every month? And the answer, payments “removed material barriers to their SEED cash on basic needs, includ- at least from one pilot program, was full-time employment and created capac- ing food (nearly 37 percent), home goods even more promising than she imagined ity for goal setting and risk taking, once and clothes (22 percent), utilities (11 when she and her research partner Sta- basic needs like food and utilities were percent) and auto costs (10 percent). cia West, a professor at the University of covered.” In February 2019, 28 percent of Less than one percent was spent on al- Tennessee, Knoxville, were selected to the SEED recipients had full-time employ- cohol or tobacco. “The thing about guar- coordinate and evaluate the Stockton ment; one year later, that number jumped anteed income is that it pushes back at Economic Empowerment Demonstra- up to 40 percent. In contrast, the control a lot of things that make people very tion (SEED), the nation’s fi rst mayor-led group (Stockton residents who partici- uncomfortable,” Coltrera says. “It re- guaranteed income demonstration. pated in the study but did not receive quires trusting people. And especially in Launched in February 2019 by Michael monthly payments) saw only a fi ve per- this country, there’s not a lot of trust of Tubbs, then the mayor of Stockton, Cal- centage point increase in full-time em- folks who experience poverty.” ifornia—and supported by funding from ployment over the same one-year period. And that’s where Castro Baker believes the Economic Security Project, the Rob- West likens it to a college graduate hav- the hate comes from. “I’m white but the ert Wood Johnson Foundation, and pri- ing enough economic security to aff ord to pushback I hear a lot—both from trolls vate donors—SEED gave 125 Stockton take an internship, which would put them and commentary—is really rooted in residents, selected randomly from neigh- in a better position to land their next job. anti-Blackness,” the Penn professor says. borhoods at or below the city’s median “We always think about people as an ‘oth- “We spent many years in the US attach- household income, $500 per month for er,’ especially someone who receives a ing shame and blame to the safety net.” 24 straight months (unconditionally and guaranteed income payment or maybe But buoyed by the promising Stockton with no work requirements). Prelimi- someone who’s very low income,” West data, and now spearheading a new cen- nary fi ndings were released this past says. “We look at them as somehow being ter at Penn that will analyze similar pilot March from the fi rst year of the experi- undeserving and someone who will squan- programs in other US cities, she plans to ment (pre-COVID, from February 2019 der the money and quit working. But I continue to drive the conversation for- to February 2020). They showed, among think if we regard people in the same way ward. “What’s been most surprising other things, that recipients of the cash we regard our families and ourselves, then about the pushback is that when it experienced reduced income volatility, you really change the narrative.” comes, it’s very ugly,” she says. “But the showed improved mental health, and, “I was defi nitely excited that the critics support far outweighs the pushback.” perhaps more surprisingly, were likelier could not fi nd the narrative they wanted to fi nd full-time employment. (Post- to fi nd in the data,” adds Erin Coltrera now convinced that the sim- COVID data will be released next year.) SPP’14, who teaches at Penn with Castro plest approach will prove to “That is the biggest pushback we get: Baker and served as SEED’s research be the most eff ective—the that if you give people money, no strings and program offi cer on the ground in “I’m solution to poverty is to attached, they’re going to stop working,” Stockton. For her an equally compelling abolish it directly by a now widely dis- Castro Baker says. “We never thought data point involved the health and well- cussed measure: the guaranteed income.” that would happen because that’s ab- being responses from the participants, This quote graces the website of a new surd. Who can live on $500 a month who fi lled out surveys throughout the group called Mayors for a Guaranteed anywhere, let alone California? But what program and reported greater decreases Income (MGI), founded last June by we did see was that the $500 created a in anxiety and depression than the con- Tubbs and the Economic Security Project new kind of cognitive capacity where trol group. “You’re not talking about tak- (which is led by Facebook cofounder people could take risks in the economy ing a pill,” Coltrera says. “You’re not talk- Chris Hughes) to create a coalition of that they couldn’t take before, because ing about some sort of medical interven- American mayors to advocate for direct, they had a cushion and their wellbeing tion. You’re literally just talking about recurring payments. But the words are was in a healthier space.” reducing the anxiety and stress of peo- not new. They were written more than While people have indeed argued over ple’s lives so that they can feel better.” 50 years ago, by Martin Luther King Jr. the years that government money is a dis- The data also ran counter to a long- “This is not a new idea,” Castro Baker incentive to work, others have insisted standing assumption among critics that says. “It’s been around since the birth of

36 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Amy Castro Baker, standing here outside of College Hall, believes Penn is a good home for the recently launched Center for Guaranteed Income Research. democracy and was the subject of Dr. King’s last book. But the question I often get is: why now?” The US has tested basic incomes be- fore with studies in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Seattle–Denver Income Maintenance Experiment, and with the creation of the Alaska Permanent Fund in 1982. But the idea has been picking up steam recently, with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey among the Silicon Valley execu- tives advocating for it with a $15 million donation to MGI, and Chris Hughes ar- guing in the New York Times early in the pandemic last May that “a guaranteed income should be permanent American policy, not just an emergency measure to help with this crisis.” Currently about 40 mayors, from American cities both big and small, have joined MGI, which together with the School of Social Policy & Practice in Oc- tober established the Center for Guar- anteed Income Research. Castro Baker and West will colead the Penn center, which has the stated goal to “consolidate the key learnings from the pilots taking place in MGI member cities, to address knowledge gaps in the contemporary understanding of guaranteed income’s impact for Americans, and to allow the organization to layer data with anec- dotal evidence in federal advocacy.” One big factor for the momentum swing was Andrew Yang’s calls for every American adult to receive $1,000 month- ly payments from the federal govern- ment during his 2020 presidential cam- paign, bringing the idea of universal basic income (UBI) from the fringes of the internet into dinner table conversa- to go to fi ght poverty through stimulus ents. We keep trying to fi x a new econo- tions. (Castro Baker makes sure to draw payments and child tax credit expan- my with old tools. And it’s not working. a distinction between UBI and guaran- sions. “But really, this is something that And then the pandemic, of course, has teed income, with the former going to activists and researchers have been cracked this wide open.” everybody and the latter generally tar- working on for decades,” Castro Baker Castro Baker fi rst encountered the idea geted “to reach households at or below says, pointing to the Great Recession of guaranteed income at graduate school a particular income threshold” or cer- between 2007 and 2009 as “this tipping at Penn, but she wasn’t always a staunch tain populations.) More recently, Presi- point where people are now working believer in it. Her tune only changed dent Joe Biden Hon’13’s $1.9 trillion more and making less. And if you’re un- when she began to do research with American Rescue Plan showed how der 35, you’re part of the fi rst generation West six years ago. “We kept writing much further policymakers are willing to do economically worse than your par- about mortgage foreclosure, the gender

Photograph by Tommy Leonardi C’89 May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 37 wealth gap, the racial wealth gap, and They decided to send in a letter of in- money wouldn’t get taken back by the she kept saying, ‘Amy, we have to talk tent anyway, not really expecting to be government in taxes.” about guaranteed income,’” Castro Bak- selected as the research team. “We’re Interaction with Stockton residents er recalls. “I said, ‘No, we’re not talking not economists; we’re social scientists,” continued to be vital for their “mixed- about that. No one’s going to publish our Castro Baker says. “We’re early career. method” randomized controlled trial, papers.’ We had arguments about it con- We’re junior scholars. But we kept look- which combined quantitative and qual- stantly as we were writing. And I fi nally ing at it and said, ‘Why not throw your itative data, the latter of which relied on gave in. She was right … It was probably hat in the ring?’” people fi lling out surveys (a long-form a failure of imagination in terms of what After several meetings in 2018, they one every six months in addition to I thought people would tolerate. I just were selected to run the fi rst modern monthly surveys via text message) as didn’t think people were ready for it— basic-income experiment in the US since well as “in-depth interviewing in peo- and I was totally wrong.” the 1970s, fi lling Castro Baker with ple’s homes and communities, and what Before Castro Baker was convinced of “equal parts terror and excitement.” we would call short-form ethnography,” the merits of guaranteed income by West, Soon the question shifted from why Castro Baker says. “The best science, West was convinced by none other than not? to now what? when it comes to social science, is the Dolly Parton. While driving home one science that’s rooted in context and com- day, West, a Tennessee native, heard an ust as the timing seemed right for munity. And you can’t do that from your NPR interview with the country music this kind of income experiment, so offi ce. It was just as valuable for us to icon, who discussed her plan to give un- did the place. Once known as the collect the stats as it was to spend hours conditional monthly cash payments to foreclosure capital of the country, and hours sitting with people and hear- families who lost their homes in the 2016 Stockton was walloped by the sub- ing their experiences of how they made Great Smoky Mountain wildfi res. “And I Jprime mortgage fi nancial crisis more sense of guaranteed income.” was like, ‘Oh my god, Dolly Parton is do- than a decade ago and has yet to recover. While West led the quantitative side of ing guaranteed income—literally for the About one in four residents now lives in the study, she was pleased to let Castro fi rst time since 1982 in the US, and never poverty. Castro Baker also calls the north- Baker focus on the qualitative compo- in the context of an environmental disas- central Californian city a potential bell- nents, calling her partner “one of the ter.’” West called Parton’s foundation and wether for the country due to its diver- most brilliant qualitative scientists in the off ered to analyze the eff ects of the pay- sity and population of roughly 300,000. US right now” because of how she can ments. She found that people were able Harder to fi gure out than the why and pull narrative threads through hard data. to save their money or put it toward re- the where was how to conduct the ex- Coltrera agrees with that assessment, building their homes as intended. periment—and present the fi ndings in saying, “I think Amy really is one of the “It all comes down to income inequality the most compelling way. Plus, Castro only people in the country that can do driving so many of our social problems,” Baker was suddenly confronted with the this work this way.” That’s one of the West says. “A person with an addiction “huge ethical implications” about which main reasons why Coltrera, who has that has money can go to treatment. A residents to pick to receive the payments been a teaching assistant for Castro person with an addiction that has none is and to be in the control group. “It’s re- Baker and a Penn adjunct professor, up- going to have so much worse outcomes. ally a question of whose economic future rooted her life in Philadelphia to relocate Looking at all of these social problems, I’m are you going to change,” she says. “Sud- to Stockton to work as SEED’s research like, ‘Well shit, if people just had money, denly decisions ordinarily made by re- and program offi cer. But it took plenty that would probably fi x it, right?’” searchers in the privacy of their offi ce or of not-so-gentle persuasion. “Oh my god, Studying the real-world implications in conjunction with colleagues was a I told her she was absolutely nuts!” Col- of guaranteed income wasn’t such a no- political process and a public process.” trera recalls as her fi rst response to the brainer for West’s academic mentors, Soliciting feedback from the Stockton job off er. But “the more Amy pitched who told her she’d never get tenure that community, Castro Baker and West re- what SEED could possibly do, the more way. Castro Baker had similar conversa- vised their plan to ensure that anyone I kept thinking this is the kind of work I tions when she and West were weighing over 18 had an equal chance of being want to be doing because it gets at the whether to work with SEED. “I was told chosen after applying but that the selec- root of so many of the social problems explicitly by many senior people in my tions would come from residents who we face in social work every day.” fi eld, ‘Do not touch this project. You do live in a neighborhood with a median Coltrera—who’s since transitioned into not have tenure. You are risking your income at or below $46,033, because of a similar role at the Center for Guaran- career. This is crazy.’” a “tremendous desire to make sure the teed Income Research—was also swayed

38 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 “That’s about by Castro Baker’s emphasis on “what a things next to each other.” National me- social worker would bring to the table.” dia brimmed with such stories this what it means to Coltrera quickly learned why, conduct- spring. One Stocktonian told the Atlantic be human. And the ing home visits to manage 300 relation- that the SEED cash allowed her to pay ships and deal with logistical challenges off some credit card debt, buy groceries idea that something such as dropping off gift cards to com- without going to a food bank, and secure pensate people for fi lling out surveys a new apartment after a fi re. Another so small, like $500, (since the SEED payments were no- told USA Today that she used the money can shift that for strings attached, this part of the experi- to pay bills, buy her kids gifts, and fi x her ment was not mandatory); helping to car so she could keep working. someone is pretty troubleshoot the devices that partici- Two particular stories from SEED par- pants used for those surveys and debit ticipants stood out the most to Castro remarkable.” cards through which SEED funds were Baker. One was told to her by a dad, strug- distributed; and generally just “making gling to pay his bills, who was suddenly sure they feel heard, they feel connected, able to buy his daughter a prom dress and and they know that we’re still here.” shoes. “What that meant in terms of dig- moved into their home because they Sometimes, Coltrera adds, the partici- nity, that he was able to show up for this didn’t have a place to stay. She became pants simply wanted to talk. And they child in a way he couldn’t before, you can’t the fi rst in her family to go to college, still do, texting Coltrera just to touch even measure that,” she says. “And for the matriculating at Cairn University, a small base even though she’s now back in teenager being able to participate in a Christian school in Langhorne, Pennsyl- Philadelphia full time. (Before COVID, normal rite of adolescence, those types of vania. From there, she went on to earn a she was in Stockton about 80 percent of dignity things that took place within the master’s in social work from Penn, where the time; from about May 2020 through experiment are incredibly powerful.” she spent much of her time working with this past February, she split her time The other involved someone who was the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s between Stockton and Philly more even- able to get dental work done, allowing Homeless Health Initiative, which pro- ly due to the pandemic.) “Our hope is them to smile more and move their hand vides free health services to families liv- they feel this is reciprocal—that we’re away from their face during conversa- ing in local emergency housing shelters. not just mining them for their lives and tions. “That’s about what it means to be Castro Baker continued to practice so- information,” says Coltrera, citing “hor- human,” she says. “And the idea that cial work after graduating from Penn, ror stories about research on popula- something so small, like $500, can shift primarily in West Philadelphia, and “real- tions where they don’t get to feel like that for someone is pretty remarkable.” ized you can spend a whole career telling they’re part of their own narrative.” everybody how big and bad every social “One of the neatest parts for me was uch of Castro Baker’s work can problem is, but at a certain point you kind actually working with the control be framed through the lens of of have a responsibility to do something group,” she adds. “These are folks not her childhood—“a phenomenal about it.” After getting a PhD from CUNY getting the money and are doing it be- childhood,” she says. “But the Graduate Center at Hunter College (where cause they know there’s fundamentally struggle to make ends meet, she studied the impact of mortgage fore- something important happening here Mthat is my story.” She grew up in Scran- closure on women while raising two now- and they want to be a part of it.” ton, Pennsylvania, where her dad was a teenage kids), she briefl y worked as an For Castro Baker, seeking out such a toolmaker and her mom had a range of assistant professor of social work at the high level of community engagement diff erent jobs, from cleaning houses to University of Wyoming before Penn drew wasn’t just the right thing to do but an working retail. They were both smart, her back in 2015 with a full-time faculty important way to “move the needle Castro Baker says, but had trouble get- job off er and the opportunity to study so- around poverty and justice” because “sci- ting ahead in the blue-collar city marked cial inequities and predatory lending entists tell terrible stories.” Giving Amer- by industrial decline. “I really saw fi rst- markets, especially as it pertains to wom- icans the opportunity to hear directly hand what it was like watching my par- en and minorities. “If you want to sort of from Stockton residents, some of whom ents work and work and work, and it push the boundaries and ask big ques- shared their experiences with the press, was never enough,” she says. tions and maybe do things in a non-tradi- “really jolted the narrative and ground The oldest of four, Castro Baker shared tional way in terms of research, Penn re- the data into real stories,” she says. “It’s a room with all three of her siblings for wards that type of innovation,” she says. been really powerful to have those two parts of her life. At times, other families “So it’s a good home for me.”

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 39 She also thinks Penn is a good home for diff erent parts of the country (West is gram at the federal level: with defi cits, a the Center for Guaranteed Income Re- particularly interested in the rural South) payroll tax, and with transfers funded by search, pointing to SP2’s commitment to and for diff erent subpopulations (Castro external sources. “Under all three sce- social justice and Provost Wendell Pritch- Baker is curious about women and care- narios, a Universal Basic Income program ett Gr’97 in particular as a champion of givers). “What we don’t want is a bunch dampens hours worked, capital services, this kind of work. “What’s been really ex- of replication where every city is target- GDP, and Social Security revenues.”) citing,” she says, “is how nimble Penn has ing the same population and asking the As a self-described “pragmatist,” Castro been in responding to the scale of the same questions,” says West, adding that Baker tends to focus on the art of the pos- project” as the number of MGI pilot pro- she hopes over the next three years, the sible, and has felt encouraged that US grams that the center is running continues center will be able to provide a “sample mayors are looking to take matters into to grow. Those include Pittsburgh; New of around 2,000 people spread across the their own hands to fi ght for the roughly Orleans; Saint Paul, Minnesota; Rich- US, instead of just one sample of 125 in 10.5 percent of Americans in poverty—and mond, Virginia; Oakland, California; New- California.” Castro Baker adds, “One of the many more who are “hovering just ark, New Jersey; Patterson, New Jersey; my fears as a scientist is the political mo- over that line where they cannot get ahead and Gary, Indiana. (Other mayors who are mentum is moving faster than the data. and don’t qualify for the safety net either.” part of MGI include those from four of the So my job and my team’s job is to make She’s similarly optimistic that basic in- country’s seven most populous cities—Los sure the science catches up to the political come has for many years garnered bipar- Angeles’s Eric Garcetti, Houston’s Sylvester momentum, so we don’t have big, expen- tisan support, from Andrew Yang to Rich- Turner, Philadelphia’s Jim Kenney, and sive policy mistakes. There’s a ton we ard Nixon. “On the left, people see guar- San Antonio’s Ron Nirenberg ASC’01.) don’t know about guaranteed income.” anteed income as a solution to structural “We’re the fi rst ones to fi nish one of One question that continues to loom injustice,” she says. “On the right, it’s these experiments, so people keep call- large is how governments would pay for more about a push for effi ciency and the ing us, saying help us,” Castro Baker says. this. And while they each have their own idea of more libertarian strains of “Not many researchers right now in the ideas—“We know that budgets are moral thought saying the government shouldn’t country are working on this. So the idea documents and you can tax corporations tell you what to do when you have needs; behind the center is to create a cohesive and incredibly wealthy people at the rates you’re an expert on your own life.” body of science around cash, such that they should be taxed,” West says—they’re In addition, students in her SP2 policy as policy proposals are coming into mul- not ready to answer big policy-related analysis courses have developed more tiple tiers of government, we’ll have a questions about how UBI or guaranteed “intolerance and impatience around jus- body of science to back it up.” income might aff ect the broader economy tice” each year, Castro Baker says. And The center will both expand on the Stock- at the federal, state, and local levels. “I’m now the pandemic has “exposed the frac- ton study and draw lessons from it. One of an applied social scientist, so I don’t look tures in our economy that have been the main lessons? “Oh my gosh, it’s really at labor market or macroeconomic ef- there for decades. People have not recov- hard to give people cash—really hard,” says fects,” Castro Baker notes. ered from the Great Recession, and the West, who recently moved from Tennessee Her SP2 colleague, Ioana Marinescu, pandemic has just amplifi ed it.” to Philadelphia in January to colead the has studied the latter and concluded in a Yet through all the suff ering that CO- center (and because she and Castro Baker Wharton Public Policy Initiative paper VID-19 has caused, and the looming eco- are now partners in life as well as in re- published in 2019 that “giving people nomic threats that lie ahead, Castro search). “You can’t just write checks to cash with no strings attached has only a Baker believes change may fi nally be on people. We’re contacted by incredibly well- small negative eff ect on work, and can the horizon. “On the one hand, we’re meaning nonprofi ts from across the coun- improve educational and health out- watching poverty skyrocket because of try who want to do guaranteed income comes, especially among the most disad- the pandemic. And the ways in which right away. But there’s so much work that vantaged. Paying for such a program, we’re exacerbating the gender and racial goes into building trust in the community, however, is not a trivial matter. As politi- wealth gap in the time of the pandemic into choosing the right disbursement mech- cal appetite for UBI is growing, a new is terrifying to me,” she says. “But at the anism based on the population, into deal- UBI program is more likely to be imple- same time, it’s forcing a conversation ing with people losing SNAP or TANF ben- mented at the state level than at the fed- about how we want the economy to work efi ts. It’s really not as simple as it looks.” eral level.” (The Penn Wharton Budget and what we want the safety net to look As for adaptations, the center’s leaders Model analyzed UBI in 2018. Using its like that’s been a really long time coming. would like to see more data about wheth- own set of econometric assumptions, it “So I have a lot of hope.” er guaranteed income works the same in estimated three ways to fi nance a pro-

40 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021

The Vaccine Trenches

Key breakthroughs leading to the powerful mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 were forged at Penn. That triumph was almost 50 years in the making, longer on obstacles than celebration, and the COVID-19 vaccines may only be the beginning of its impact on 21st-century medicine.

By Matthew De George

atalin Kariko is most comfortable oNTech, the German pharmaceutical com- COVID-19 vaccines to hit the American at a lab bench. That’s where she’s pany she joined in 2013. (She remains an market—technology revolutionized and spent most of a career that dates to adjunct professor at the Perelman School refi ned at the Perelman lab in which the late 1970s. Even as a lead re- of Medicine.) But the diligence that served Kariko worked for decades—you don’t searcher on papers that broke new her so well in the lab still shines through get any self-adulation. Nor do you get Kground in gene therapy, even as a vice as she reviews the path she’s taken any resentment at the many entities that president of an emerging biopharmaceu- through fi ve decades of science research. turned down her research funding re- tical power, she was never above doing Speaking from her home offi ce in the quests—no matter how justifi able a bit the unglamorous work in the lab: the Philadelphia suburbs in February, Kariko— of bitterness might be. repetitive cell culturing and data collec- Kate or Katy to her colleagues—strikes Instead, you get a tour through the his- tion that she easily could have delegated. a tone most remarkable for its magna- tory of all the stepwise improvements, Lately her time in the lab has been re- nimity. When you ask about the mes- from Kariko’s lab and collaborators duced by the COVID-19 pandemic, along senger RNA (mRNA) technology behind across the world, that have led us to the with a shift to a more advisory role at Bi- the fi rst two commercially available current moment, in which mRNA off ers

42 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS GASH May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 43 Katalin Kariko

iled her job prospects at Penn—she and her Perelman colleague Drew Weissman, a professor of infectious diseases, battled to defend its merits. They persevered in part because of their openness to trying new things, to share their fi ndings and entertain new possibilities even when their ideas were met with skepticism. The end product is a pair of safe and eff ective vaccines, produced by Moderna and a partnership between BioNTech and Pfi zer, that have sped to market in record time. They are based on mRNA, which codes for a molecular analogue of the spike protein that lines the SARS- CoV-2 virus, and uses that analogue to teach the immune system to develop antibodies against the virus. Yet this technology isn’t just a powerful weapon against the pandemic. The underlying method represents a new frontier in biologic medicine whose vast possibili- ties encompass infectious diseases, can- cer treatments, and even repairing au- toimmune and genetic conditions. “We knew when we started with this technology that it would be very useful if a pandemic hit, because it’s so fast and so easy to make a vaccine with it,” Weiss- man says. “But we weren’t hoping for a pandemic to prove that.”

eissman’s journey to mRNA start- ed with a photocopy machine, where he used to jockey for pole position with Kariko. At least that’s what he likes to joke. Even if Wthey hadn’t spent so much time in line to run off pages from academic journals, Kariko is certain she would’ve found Weissman sooner or later. not just a chance to stanch a global pan- came before us, and people will use our The basic science of ribonucleic acid demic but also a promising new plat- data. Of course, everything was impor- (RNA) was well established by the time form to tackle all manner of diseases. tant that those people did. I would hug Kariko arrived at Penn in 1989. Discovered Though she’s not above enjoying the them if I could.” in 1961, it plays a foundational role in just acclaim she has lately received for the Kariko’s attitude is a key part of how about all forms of life, enabling cells to technology she’s long championed, she and others helped unlock the prom- synthesize proteins encoded in their ge- Kariko quickly puts her contributions to ise of a method that many dismissed as nome. In human cells, the genetic code it in perspective. a clinical dead end in the 1990s. When rests in double-stranded DNA (deoxyribo- “Science builds on science,” she says. the sector struggled to attract funding— nucleic acid). Genes are transcribed in the “We always built on the people who when Kariko’s attachment to it imper- nucleus to messenger RNA (mRNA), which

44 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Photograph by Candace diCarlo Drew Weissman

travels into the cell’s cytoplasm and is translated into proteins in the ribosomes. Some viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, use single-strand RNA instead of DNA as their only genetic information. Kariko arrived at Penn during what she calls “a revolution” for mRNA science. She was hired by Elliot Barnathan C’77 M’81 GM’86 GM’87, then an associate professor of medicine, to conduct basic research in his lab, which focused on blood vessels. Even in that position, Kariko was always looking for ways to incorporate mRNA, either as a remedy or part of the investigation process. Excite- ment in the fi eld was growing. In 1985, the fi rst polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machines, which allowed scientists to

Kariko and Weissman helped unlock the promise of a method that many dismissed as a clinical dead end in the 1990s.

customize strains of RNA, were patented. (Even three decades later, Kariko de- scribes that new technology as “so em- powering.”) Another key advance was the development of positively charged lipids that could encase and deliver negatively charged RNA to cells, a technology made Those fi ndings ran against the prevailing was drawn to the potential power this commercially available in the late 1980s. wisdom that because mRNA too easily class of molecules might have in medi- By 1990, the Human Genome Project degraded in the body, it wouldn’t have cine. If you could tailor mRNA to inject added attention to the fi eld of genetics, therapeutic value. into cells, you could control which pro- though it shifted funds toward DNA re- Kariko traces her interest in mRNA teins they produce, what genes they ex- search. Despite that, a proof of concept back to her fi rst day in the lab in her na- press, what metabolic pathways they fol- study of synthetic mRNA translation in tive Hungary in 1978, when her graduate low. Her zeal earned her a reputation as living mouse models was published in supervisor tasked her with collecting a “the RNA hassler,” at Penn and beyond. 1990, and the fi rst therapeutic use of RNA sample of RNA that could be shipped to “I went to meetings and if someone was in rats was reported two years later. a lab in New Jersey for sequencing. She sitting next to me, I’d ask what they were

Photograph by Candace diCarlo May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 45 doing and I always off ered, ‘Oh I can created role as senior research investiga- Kariko. The more they chatted, sharing make an RNA for you,’” Kariko recalls. tor. When Barnathan left for the private tidbits of their research, the more “the “Kate was really just unbelievable,” says sector in 1997, she joined the neurosur- RNA hassler” made Weissman wonder Barnathan, who is now the executive di- gery lab of David Langer C’85 M’90 if mRNA could be useful in his lab. Soon rector for research and development at GM’98 for two years [“Alumni Profi les,” they were collaborating. Janssen, a pharmaceutical company un- Jan|Feb 2020]. But even as she bounced The pairing proved to be kismet, and der the Johnson & Johnson umbrella. around between increasingly tenuous while the infusion of funds from Weiss- “She was always incredibly inquisitive. perches, she continued publishing, in- man’s new lab didn’t solve all the fi nan- She read voraciously. She would always cluding a 1999 paper (based on research cial quandaries, it opened up new ave- know the latest technology or the latest done in 1996 with Barnathan) in which nues for Kariko’s explorations. They paper, even if it was in a totally diff erent she used urokinase receptor proteins to endured frustrations along the way. area, and she’d put two and two together demonstrate eff ective overexpression of Kariko had little success in getting grants and say, ‘Well why don’t we do this?’ Or, in vitro transcribed mRNA in living cells. or interest from venture capitalists. At ‘Why don’t we try this formulation?’” Weissman arrived at Penn in 1997, hav- times it seemed like the powers-that-be That enthusiasm paid off as funding ing spent seven post-doctoral years at the were rubbing her nose in it. In the early dried up in the 1990s. At that time, National Institutes of Health. In a lab run 2000s Kariko and Weissman were ap- mRNA began to fall out of favor. Since by Anthony Fauci, Weissman explored the proached by a pair of MBA students com- mRNA interventions couldn’t modify the role of dendritic cells, one of the “sentinel peting in a Wharton School entrepre- genome the way DNA therapy theoreti- cells” that detect and help defuse threats neurship competition, but the idea of a cally could, they were seen as short-term to the immune system, in HIV infection. company built around mRNA technol- aids, not the moonshot solution to At Penn, his research focused on dendrit- ogy was, according to Kariko, deemed thorny problems like hereditary dis- ic cells’ broader response to pathogens. too implausible by the contest’s board. eases that attracted much of the funding. As he dug into the literature, Weiss- “Katy and I worked on this from the Kariko was demoted from the tenure man spent countless hours xeroxing beginning,” Weissman says. “We never track in the mid-1990s, from a research pages from academic journals … which gave up. We never felt that it was bad assistant professor position to a newly meant a lot of time waiting in line with technology and we had to stop. But we

really challenged by something unexpected that you see what the Bringing the Vaccine characteristics and the culture of an organization are. Looking back at the last year, it’s really extraordinary. I feel really privileged to be to the Masses part of an organization that responded so well to this challenge.” Mace Rothenberg C’78 offers a rueful laugh when recalling his 2020 Rothenberg joined Pfi zer in 2008 and spent 10 years in its oncology calendar. As Pfi zer’s chief medical offi cer, his duties included traveling department, rising to chief development offi cer of oncology in 2016. He to the company’s many labs and research stations around the world—a became CMO on January 1, 2019, a position he held until his retirement task once done in person, no Zoom required. On his itinerary for the fi rst in January 2021. (He’ll remain with the company until the spring and will week of March: a trip to meet teams at Pfi zer’s research and development then shift to an advisory role.) Having done most of his clinical research center in … Wuhan, China, where COVID-19 was fi rst identifi ed. in cancer, he wasn’t well acquainted with mRNA vaccinology before the That trip never happened. By March, Wuhan was starting to see the pandemic. Like everyone at the company, he got a crash course as Pfi z- light at the end of a months-long tunnel of lockdowns. The United er partnered with BioNTech, the Germany-based fi rm founded by the States was staring into the abyss, with schools closed and business- husband-and-wife team of Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci. es shuttered. Rothenberg’s check-ins with employees, in Wuhan and One thing Rothenberg was familiar with was Pfi zer’s potential to elsewhere, shifted from the usual to the extraordinary, emphasizing play a key role in coordinating a complex endeavor. In pulling measures to keep employees safe without disrupting a global supply together a company-wide effort, Rothenberg relied on a key standby chain of medications, COVID-19-related and otherwise. of his history: collaboration. One of his most signifi cant projects in By January, Pfi zer CEO Albert Bourla decided to put Pfi zer out front oncology research was helping to create Project Data Sphere, a in the vaccine quest, marshalling resources throughout the pharma- digital “library-laboratory” that allowed scientists to share in-process ceutical giant. and pre-published cancer research. Launched in 2014, it has “It was really a test of the organization’s strength and culture,” allowed researchers to share ideas, leading to more than 100 novel Rothenberg says. “We talk about culture a lot, but it’s not until you’re datasets and more than 20 peer-reviewed papers.

46 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Kariko had little success getting grants had to fi ght the entire way. We spent time or interest from venture capitalists. trying to get people, biotechs, and phar- maceuticals interested in this. It took a At times the powers-that-be seemed to long time, but now we’ve achieved it.” be rubbing her nose in it. Despite those setbacks, the work con- tinued. Kariko and Weissman improved the technology by conquering one ob- Kariko dampened the unwanted immune take that information, put that together, stacle at a time. response, a process they patented in 2005 and keep iterating on how to do it.” One major issue was RNA’s inherent and have licensed to companies including The nucleoside breakthrough thrust toxicity. Free-fl oating RNA outside of cells Moderna. (BioNTech, which Kariko the technology into the fast lane. In re- is usually a sign that something is wrong, joined in 2013 as a senior vice president, cent years it has been deployed widely, like rupturing cells or viral intrusion. Its funds research at Weissman’s lab.) though most treatments remain in clin- presence triggers an infl ammatory re- From afar, Barnathan sees the totality of ical trials, which can take up to a decade sponse, and the space between cells is full Kariko’s work in this fi eld as a “patchwork” or more to complete. Moderna in 2010 of enzymes that rapidly degrade RNA. Its of little solutions, that when stitched to- used it to regenerate pluripotent stem short half-life outside of cells was a major gether produced an innovative whole. cells, and there is growing recognition impediment to overcome. “She would take those pieces of informa- that mRNA-based techniques could open By 2004, the pair had worked out which tion, put it all together, and she wanted a a new frontier in gene editing that could receptors their therapeutic mRNA pretty thing that would keep you warm complement the power of CRISPR-Cas9, tripped. Kariko noticed that a diff erent and was beautiful, and that’s what her the DNA-editing method that was hon- type of RNA, transfer RNA, rarely triggers mRNA was,” Barnathan says. “It was a ored with the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chem- the immune system. She theorized that patchwork quilt of putting together little istry. In 2014, Kariko joined BioNTech it slipped under the radar due to modifi - scientifi c discoveries here and there— cofounders Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tu- cations in the nucleosides that comprise some which had been discovered a long reci to author a paper hailing mRNA as it. By tinkering with the nucleosides in time ago, some that were just published “a new class of drugs.” An article by her synthetic mRNA, Weissman and in Science the day before. But she would Weissman and Kariko the next year

The same tack proved useful for COVID-19. Pfi zer was transparent zine. “As an industry, we committed to work as one team to harness with its protocols for clinical trials, releasing them to the public in our scientifi c expertise, our technical skills, and our manufacturing September. The company shared preliminary results, providing a win- capabilities to do everything in our power to get life-saving break- dow into the process and inviting feedback from colleagues. Like throughs into people’s hands as quickly as possible.” other institutions, it used pre-print servers, which publish scientifi c Like Penn mRNA researcher Drew Weissman [see main story], papers before peer review, to permit promising information (and, Rothenberg has taken a public advocacy role. Pfi zer launched a se- Rothenberg concedes, some bad data) to reach scientists faster ries of public-service announcements through the “Science Will Win” than the usual publication process. campaign, including videos of Rothenberg laying out the vaccine’s Collaboration has been vital on the distribution side, too. Pfi zer’s benefi ts in layman’s terms. His physician’s bedside manner evident, global president of vaccines is Nanette Cocero Gr’93 WG’94. In her Rothenberg says he approached it as though talking to his mother. 15 years at Pfi zer, she’s worked all over the world, formerly leading the It’s hardly conventional marketing—vaccine contracts come through emerging markets division of Pfi zer’s Innovative Health business. governments, so Pfi zer isn’t competing for consumer market share, She’s also the chair of the Vaccine CEO Steering Committee of the In- per se, but rather competing against misinformation—but then this ternational Federation of Pharmaceuticals and Manufacturers Associa- isn’t a conventional challenge. tion (IFPMA), which sets industry-wide best practices on access and af- “I think more than for most other products, there really was a need to fordability. IFPMA was an early participant in COVAX, a joint effort by educate people because this was a new platform, this was a disease the World Health Organization; the Coalition for Epidemic Prepared- that people didn’t know about, and we didn’t have long-term follow-up ness Innovations; and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Against a virus that on the vaccine or even the disease,” Rothenberg says. “We’re now learn- knows no borders, global cooperation and coordination are vital. ing more about that as we go along,” and at each step “educating the “The spirit of collaboration that we have seen in this pandemic is public about the disease, about protective measures you can take, and something I hadn’t witnessed before but that I hope will continue about how the vaccine was developed—and addressing some concerns long into the future,” Cocero said in an interview with Wharton Maga- and misinformation that’s out there regarding an mRNA platform.”

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 47 billed mRNA as “fulfi lling the promise ples) from scientists at the beginning of While many companies are pursuing of gene therapy,” a technology coming the outbreak. “A year ago, a message COVID-19 vaccines by diff erent methods, “out of the shadows and into the spot- came over the internet and we could the fi rst two to hit the market utilize light,” as Kariko wrote. In 2017, Weiss- learn what is the sequence of the virus,” mRNA. The Pfi zer/BioNTech vaccine man and his colleague Norbert Pardi, a Kariko said during a Perry World House began its Phase 3 clinical trial last July research assistant professor of medicine, panel in January. “If it had happened 20 and received emergency use authoriza- hit a signifi cant milestone in the produc- years ago, you had to have physically the tion from the US Food and Drug Admin- tion of a single-dose mRNA vaccine for sequence in your hands, the viral con- istration on December 11. A week later, Zika virus that was eff ective in mice and struct in your hands. But here, the infor- Moderna got the green light. (Three rhesus macaques. Pardi has since turned mation was suffi cient.” other vaccines in various states of devel- his attention to other pathogens, includ- The vaccines produced by Moderna opment and approval, from AstraZene- ing mRNA-based infl uenza vaccines. and BioNTech/Pfi zer have two compo- ca/Oxford, Janssen/Johnson & Johnson, “We had the platform, we just needed nents: mRNA, cased in lipid nanopar- and Novavax, utilize other technologies, to fi gure out what we wanted to do with ticles (LNPs). The latter is a delivery some of which off er advantages includ- it,” Pardi says. “It’s extremely versatile. device, an extra layer of cloaking that ing longer shelf life and less stringent We can use it for many, many purposes.” helps localize delivery without sparking storage temperature requirements.) Weissman says that when he fi rst heard an unwanted immune response. The “It was with bated breath that we of the novel coronavirus causing severe mRNA encodes a protein analogous to watched the development of this vaccine,” respiratory disease in Wuhan, China, his the spike proteins that protrude from said Paul Offi t, the Maurice R. Hilleman mind didn’t automatically jump to mRNA. the SARS-CoV-2 virus and allow it to Chair of Vaccinology at the Perelman And for all her decades of promoting the bind to and infect cells. Dendritic cells School of Medicine, at the same Perry therapeutic possibilities of mRNA, Kariko take up the mRNA, translate it to pro- World House panel. “And both the Pfi zer didn’t either. “When I heard about it in teins that are incorporated into the cell and Moderna products have been remark- February, I thought, ‘Oh, it is in China; it membrane, and present these engi- ably successful, at a level I think no scien- won’t get here,’” she recalls. “But the CEO neered products to the body to induce tist would have predicted a year ago.” of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin, he’s a visionary, an adaptive immune response. The pro- There are some limits to what we know and he immediately thought, ‘Oh, we need cess produces antibodies that remain in about these COVID-19 vaccines, mostly to do something with that.’” the bloodstream so that if a vaccinated because we’ve had a limited time to ob- individual encounters SARS-CoV-2, a serve their eff ects. The trials for both ver- hese days Weissman spends much neutralizing response can quickly be sions passed the required safety hurdles, of his time outside the lab, talking mounted. (Both vaccines encode identi- but questions remain about long-term to non-scientists about COVID-19 cal spike proteins; their proprietary eff ects for certain population subgroups, vaccines that use mRNA. In those mRNAs diff er slightly in the non-coding like pregnant women. Clinical trials on conversations, he walks a fi ne line. regions and utilize diff erent lipids.) children are also just getting off the TYes, the vaccine came together with un- mRNA vaccines have a lot going for ground. These questions can’t be an- precedented speed—less than a year them from a safety perspective. Since they swered until there’s been more time to compared to the more typical timeline don’t contain any of the pathogenic sub- study them. The same can be said of the of up to a decade. But no, the technology stance—seasonal fl u vaccines, for in- virus itself, which humans have only isn’t new. Only the application is. stance, use heat-killed or weakened virus, known for a little more than a year. “People say, ‘I’m afraid of this vaccine; which is why a small percentage of people Yet the mRNA vaccines have already it was developed 10 months ago,’” Weiss- can get sick from them—there’s no chance achieved an impressive track record, with man observes. But he is quick to answer: of contracting COVID-19 from the vaccine. more than 60 million doses dispensed by “It wasn’t. We developed modifi ed RNA The therapeutic mRNA in the vaccine can- mid-February. They are 95 percent eff ec- 15 years ago.” not penetrate the nucleus, so it can’t alter tive at blocking infection and 100 percent The mRNA technology is ideal for the the genome. The vaccines produce a rela- eff ective in blocking severe infection. challenge: quick, safe, and eff ective. It is tively robust and durable immune re- Vaccines, Offi t emphasizes, involve a risk/ produced in a cell-free system, tran- sponse. Studies as of early 2021 indicate reward calculus. The risks of a virus that scribed in vitro from enzymes and a ge- that the vaccine still protects against some has killed millions are known and dire. The netic template in a few hours. There was of the newly emerged variants of SARS- risks of the vaccine remain largely theo- nothing that physically needed to be CoV-2, though they show a “small but retical, as a full understanding of rare side- transported (i.e., cell cultures or sam- signifi cant” reduction in effi cacy. eff ects in certain populations will simply

48 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 The technology offers a plug-and- take more time to develop. “When you look the NASDAQ stock symbol MRNA—be- through all the data, you can’t help but be fore its fi rst treatment had been ap- play platform compelled by the safety and effi cacy of this proved. Its market capitalization is now vaccine,” Offi t said. “The choice to get a north of $50 billion. BioNTech’s market promising drug vaccine is an easy one right now.” value has grown from $3.39 billion at its development in a initial public off ering in October 2019 to hen Weissman and Pardi pre- more than $26 billion in January 2021. fraction of the sented a paper in 2017 on an LNP- Kariko’s current research deals pri- encapsulated mRNA vaccine marily with cancer treatments, including time required by method, recent human history a partnership with the pharmaceutical was on their mind. Twice in the company Sanofi . BioNTech is also ex- traditional methods. Wprevious two decades, coronaviruses had ploring treatments for the autoimmune caused respiratory viruses that reached disease multiple sclerosis, which has pathogens that can potentially cause an epidemic status: SARS in 2002, MERS in showed promising early results. Weiss- outbreak and can potentially cause the 2012. Taking the long view, it was not a man’s lab at Penn has fi ve mRNA vac- next pandemic, and we have to be ready matter of if another pandemic would cines in trials, covering seasonal fl u, HIV, for those events. And the way to be ready happen, but when. While they were fo- and herpes. Weissman has funding from is to develop vaccines prior to those out- cused to some degree on the “renaissance the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation breaks. And the messenger RNA technol- in the fi eld of therapeutic protein deliv- to pursue a possible single-injection ogy is really fantastic because if you de- ery” that mRNA off ered for conditions remedy for sickle cell anemia, an mRNA velop these vaccines, these prototype ranging from cancer to hereditary ge- therapy that would target bone marrow vaccines, and if you have an outbreak and netic diseases, Pardi in particular had a stem cells to rewrite the area of the ge- maybe the virus that causes the outbreak growing understanding of how the nome encoding aberrant proteins. is slightly diff erent from the vaccine mRNA technology could be mobilized in Even within the narrow lane of infec- strain, you can use the technology to very the face of an infectious disease. tious disease, the scale is mind-boggling. quickly adjust the vaccines.” Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pan- The World Health Organization has Those challenges lie in the hypothetical demic, that perspective still applies. If the identifi ed around 150 infectious zoo- future. The pathway to get there with the past is any guide, there will be another notic viruses, those that have jumped technology, if history is any guide, is to pandemic sometime in the future caused from animals to humans. Estimates of chip away at problems sequentially. For by a virus like SARS-CoV-2, maybe one the reservoir of potential zoonotic vi- now, mRNA’s potential is being showcased deadlier than the current crisis. The tech- ruses in mammals vary widely, from globally at a critical moment, even as nology that informs the COVID-19 vac- around 10,000 to half a million. Any one many additional innovations are being cines presents a powerful weapon in the of them may have the potential to mu- tested. The arduous journey from theory arsenal for when that day comes. tate and jump from animals to humans to application is a rewarding one for those “The technology really is limitless,” like SARS-CoV-2 did. who have shepherded the technology. Weissman says. “There are thousands of It’s possible that the next blockbuster “It’s very important to know that what diseases, there are hundreds of vaccines use for mRNA is a disease unknown to I’m working on is something useful,” Par- that we could make, many of which science. But the technology’s simplicity di says. “And now, we see that the work is we’re working on. A lot of it is how to and scalability off er a plug-and-play very useful … and we hope that we can pick, and we pick based on how impor- platform promising drug development come up with more RNA therapies in the tant the disease is and how doable it is.” in a fraction of the time required by tra- future and help even more people—not Economic incentives play a role—and ditional methods. just vaccines but also other kinds of med- that dynamic has now fl ipped. From a “I think governments and policymakers icines. It’s a really fantastic feeling, and technology for which Kariko once strug- also need to learn the lesson that they this is what keeps us moving forward.” gled to obtain thousands of dollars in should support basic science, and they “It’s a fantastic feeling,” Weissman adds. funding, mRNA therapy is now a multi- should support vaccine development “I’m a clinician, so my dream was always billion-dollar industry. AstraZeneca, for prior to a pandemic because it’s too late to develop something that would make instance, paid Moderna $240 million in to develop vaccines in the middle of a people better. And I think we’ve done that.” 2012 for drugs that hadn’t yet been de- pandemic,” Pardi says. “You need to de- veloped. Moderna was valued at $7 bil- velop these vaccines before a pandemic. Matthew De George is an author, newspaper ed- lion when it went public in 2018— with We know many of the viruses and other itor, and freelance writer based in Philadelphia.

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 49 Webside Manner

Virtual healthcare by smartphone or computer helps physicians consult with and diagnose patients much more quickly, while off ering them convenience and fl exibility. The potential to save lives and improve effi ciencies is tremendous. But can uncertain regulations and reimbursements, equity and access disparities, and shaky internet connections be surmounted?

By JoAnn Greco

arly in his career, and all through rooms at the Hospital of the University since the doctors were having some diffi - medical school, C. William Hanson of Pennsylvania (HUP) and Pennsylvania culty with the procedure. I remember that III M’83 maintained an interest in Hospital. At the same time, he and his they had covered and sedated the patient, technology, even working in data crew kept tabs on data coming in from but were so caught up in what they were processing and computer science for bedside ventilators and EKG machines doing that they didn’t realize that the com- Ea spell. But passing the dim hours be- and blood pressure instruments. bination of draping and medication was tween sunset and sunrise on the second Overnight shifts are usually left to young- impacting the patient’s ability to breathe. fl oor of a bland University City building er fellows and residents rather than attend- I turned on the mic. Hey, your patient’s crammed with routers and servers was ing physicians. Nurses vary in level of ex- pulse oximeter is showing decreased oxy- never part of his plan. Yet that’s where he perience, and they can’t be everywhere at genation and the respiratory rate is drop- often found himself in the early 2000s: once. “So, it was for me to be constantly ping. You need to interrupt the procedure sitting before a bank of video monitors— vigilant,” says Hanson, professor of Anes- and access the airway—now.” a sort of night watchman, albeit one with thesiology and Critical Care, Surgery, and a lifesaving and groundbreaking mis- Internal Medicine as well as Penn Medi- Hanson was practicing an early version sion—as the inaugural medical director cine’s chief medical information offi cer. of what today we call connected care, or of one of the country’s fi rst “teleICU” One evening comes to mind. “A patient more familiarly, telemedicine. The con- programs. Accompanied by several criti- was getting sicker, just deteriorating, and cept has been around at least since 1879, cal care nurses and a clerical assistant, needed a catheter placed in the neck,” when an article in the Lancet discussed he’d spend the night watching feeds from Hanson recalls. “The situation required using the telephone to reduce unneces- cameras placed in 30 intensive care immediate monitoring and intervention sary offi ce visits. In 1925, the cover of

50 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 ILLUSTRATION BY LAURA LIEDO May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 51 Science and Invention magazine showed The New House Call when it was created 11 years ago, he’s been a doctor diagnosing a patient over radio. By the end of March 2020, telehealth steadfastly pulling together the system’s Distance monitoring developed more visits had increased by 154 percent com- disparate telehealth threads, trying to get fully during the Mercury space program pared to the same week the prior year, a handle on the limiting factors while at- when NASA’s ground control captured according to the Centers for Disease tempting to expand Penn Medicine’s ef- medical information from orbiting space Control and Prevention—which prompt- forts beyond doctor-to-doctor interactions capsules. In recent years, telemedicine ed an outpouring of the future has ar- and into patients’ living rooms. When the has been used mainly for doctor-to-doc- rived studies and articles. One report pandemic struck, “we had pretty good tor communications, and it’s proven last summer from McKinsey & Company foundations in place,” he says. “Our experi- tremendously eff ective. New research predicted that “with the acceleration of ence with what we now call the Penn E- from the Perelman School of Medicine consumer and provider adoption of tele- lert eICU was extremely helpful during and Independence Blue Cross, for ex- health and extension of telehealth be- that initial COVID-19 storm when the ICUs ample, examines data from a period in yond virtual urgent care, up to $250 were overwhelmed. We were so impressed 2016–17 when primary care physicians billion of current US healthcare spend by the benefi ts that we now are covering transmitted photos over a secure appli- [compared to $3 billion pre-COVID] upwards of 350 ICUs using the technology.” cation to a dermatologist instead of re- could potentially be virtualized.” But supporting ICUs as they adjusted to ferring patients to make an in-person Suddenly, a new term entered our lexi- an onslaught of patients deathly ill from appointment with the specialist. The con, one which, broadly speaking, encom- a little-understood malady was just a part response time dropped from 84 days— passes both synchronous care—like that of the work. No matter how much experi- the time frame between referrals, next fi rst video call you took from your doctor ence they had under their belts, Penn and available offi ce appointment, and diag- during the pandemic—and asynchro- other healthcare providers had to ramp nosis—to under fi ve hours, with no sig- nous, which might involve, say, collection up hard—and fast. When cities went into nifi cant increase in medical costs. of your blood pressure or glucose levels lockdown, medical offi ces shuttered right Lauren Eberly is one clinician who’s from that smartwatch you’re constantly along with restaurants, gyms, and hair been engaging with local providers in checking. The common take: think of salons. Not only would telehealth reduce places like Rwanda and Liberia to review telemedicine as the new house call. patient demand on overwhelmed health- patient data and telementor to help sup- Hanson remembers his dad, an old- care facilities, suggested the CDC, it could port patient care remotely across the fashioned general practitioner, making also expand access to care, reduce disease world for years. “I’ve always thought that old-fashioned visits to patients’ homes. exposure for staff and patients, and pre- we should utilize this technology more “That was the paradigm then—the doctor serve scarce supplies of personal protec- to interact directly with patients and came to you,” he says. “Then we got into a tive equipment. As it adhered to those reach patients with barriers to accessing prolonged period where the patient came recommendations, Penn jumped from care,” says Eberly, a fellow in cardiovas- to the doctor, the service, the test. It didn’t fewer than 1,000 telemed visits a month cular medicine and an associate fellow matter how far away or close it was. A lot to 7,500 a day. “We went from a period of at Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of of inconvenience and ineffi ciency entered ‘it’s nice to have,’ to ‘it’s absolutely essen- Health Economics with an interest in the system.” Just ask anyone who’s taken tial,’” Hanson says. healthcare disparities and inequity. hours off from work, driven in circles The McKinsey report observed that “A lot of us have been wanting and wait- searching for a parking spot, and sat in a American consumers’ adoption of tele- ing to move telehealth to the patient end waiting room for 45 minutes—after sched- health skyrocketed—from 11 percent in for a long time. It can be such an asset for uling an appointment weeks in advance. 2019 to 46 percent—in light of cancelled patients who fi nd it really hard to get to While the benefi ts are clear, so are the in-person visits. That growth was seen a clinic and who can feel so much more questions. Among them: access, equity, across all kinds of systems, with man- comfortable in their own homes,” she inclusivity, patient and doctor comfort aged care consortium Kaiser Perman- adds. “And for physicians, it off ers the levels, insurer and regulator resistance, ente reporting that more than 80 per- chance to see into their environments, to privacy and security concerns, and—more cent of its appointments were conducted peek in their medicine cabinets or to in- than a year into the pandemic—Zoom fa- by phone or video during April 2020 vite family into the picture for insights tigue. “The shift isn’t going to be easy,” says compared to 15 percent prior to the pan- on how everyone is doing. George Demiris, a professor of informatics demic, and an ever-expanding breed of “But there was no impetus until the at the Perelman School of Medicine. telehealth-only platforms with internet- coronavirus forced everyone to look more Hanson knows that. Since assuming the ready names like iCliniq, Amwell, and closely at how we could make it happen.” role of chief medical information offi cer MeMD experiencing similar leaps.

52 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 “It’s like we The largest, oldest, and fi rst publicly raced through the time; then after the visit, making sure traded one in the bunch, Teladoc Health, they get all of the required follow-ups for example, clocked a 100 percent in- awareness phase, and testing” and more. Everything from crease in virtual visits from the fi rst week booking appointments to staying in of March to the fi rst week of April last almost skipped the touch with patients in between visits year. All told, in 2020 the company di- (mostly by text), to sending and fi tting rectly delivered 10.6 million virtual visits, adaptation part, patients with remote monitoring devices and enabled another 3.9 million visits and got to the point where appropriate, had to be worked out. for the 600 hospitals and health systems Adusumalli and the telemed team were that use its proprietary platforms. “If you where this is also charged with delivering a training think about consumer life cycles, it’s like program for systemwide clinicians on how we raced through the awareness phase, the expected to use the video vendor platform Blue- almost skipped the adaptation part, and Jeans and developing an overlay applica- got to the point where this is the expect- norm all at once.” tion, Switchboard, that connects the sys- ed norm all at once,” says Teladoc CEO tem’s electronic health record (EHR), Jason Gorevic C’93. annually, and in 2019 it reached that num- sends text messages, and handles all of the ber in its fi rst quarter. More than 70 million other logistics. Security concerns governed A Long Time Coming Americans now have access—primarily via the preference for proprietary software, Teladoc was on an upward trajectory their employers and insurers—to the 7,000 adds Mary Elisabeth (Liz) Deleener, direc- even before the pandemic. Founded as clinicians in the Teladoc Health Medical tor of network telemedicine. “We hold a service off ering remote phone consul- Group. “We’re not in the business of dis- privacy to the highest standard,” she says, tations in 2002, around the time when rupting healthcare,” Gorevic says. “We’re “which is why we don’t allow any of the Penn was debuting its teleICU, the com- in the business of transforming it.” thousands of providers who use the system pany grew slowly. “I actually thought it Hanson agrees. “I believe the model to go with any tech platform they want. would move a lot faster,” recalls Gorevic, that Teladoc off ers as a vendor—to help Multiple platforms mean multiple risks.” who became its CEO in 2009. someone with a sore throat, a cough, a Gorevic was a senior at Penn when the headache, reach a doctor quickly—is a Overcoming Obstacles Clinton administration’s ultimately un- modern paradigm that works,” he says. There were certainly bumps in the successful push for healthcare reform “We’ve spoken with them, but we’ve cho- early days of the pandemic—Teladoc, for inspired him. He didn’t want to be a doc- sen to stay in-house.” That was achievable instance, scrambled to add new doctors tor but wondered if there was another because the system already had a clinical to its networks, and some patients strug- way he could help fi x the system. After informatics team established, as well as gled with uncharacteristically long wait graduating, he landed at Oxford Health, the tech chops in place. “But we had to times for appointments. But for the in- where he was involved in the design, de- develop things like virtual private rooms, dustry in general, the “incremental im- velopment, and management of a tele- messaging capabilities, and workfl ow provements over time, not only from the phone medical advice service staff ed by systems on the fl y,” he adds. tech standpoint but regarding regula- registered nurses. He then spent fi ve years People like Srinath Adusumalli GM’18 tions about state boundaries and insur- outside of the healthcare arena, working Gr’18 Gr’21, who serves as assistant chief ance reimbursements, defi nitely helped,” at early-stage tech companies like mail. medical information offi cer in addition observes Deleener. “The barriers were com, which he helped take public in 1999. to teaching at Penn Medicine in his car- starting to come down, but COVID He’d do the same for Teladoc in 2015, a diovascular specialty, were ready to help. opened the fl oodgates.” The Trump ad- pivotal year in which the company also “Even two years ago, the tech wasn’t re- ministration quickly expanded access to embarked on a series of acquisitions that ally there,” he says. “Plus there were bar- and coverage of telemedicine—previ- continues to this day and sued the Texas riers to an increased uptake when it ously limited to virtual check-ins, on-site Medical Board for ruling that physicians came to reimbursement and regulation, clinics (such as at a workplace), and rural had to personally meet patients before re- plus the workfl ow was not to scale. So we populations—for Medicare members. motely treating them. (A 2017 bill allowed started by fi guring out who the patients Almost as immediately, many state li- virtual care without prior in-person con- are, who we should use this with; then, censing boards began issuing waivers to tact.) By the end of 2015, Teladoc notched what about the patient preference; then the restriction that doctors and nurses its one millionth virtual visit ever; two on to making sure that patients and pro- attend to patients based only in the states years later it was hosting that many visits viders get into the room at the same in which they practice. The Telehealth

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 53 Modernization Act of 2020, a bill now in “said telehealth had enabled them to adults and their caretakers, points out the Senate, aims to permanently remove provide quality COVID-19-related care, Demiris, whose research focuses mainly many of the regulatory restrictions on acute care, chronic disease management, on designing and evaluating how tech- telehealth that were temporarily lifted. hospital or emergency department fol- nology can be used in geriatrics. “When Another obstacle that’s been chipped low-up, care coordination, preventative you think about COVID, it was the elders away: the reluctance of both doctors and care, and mental or behavioral health. … who were told they should stay where patients to try new things. Hanson re- Sixty percent reported that telehealth has they were,” he says. “Telemedicine was members that hesitancy surrounding improved the health of their patients, of great help in bridging the distance the teleICU. “There was some pushback, while more than 80 percent indicated and delivering care to people.” along the lines of Big Brother is watch- that telehealth improved the timeliness Demiris is interested in seeing the tech- ing me,” he says. “But we were able to of care for their patients. A similar per- nology go much further, though. In part- show that having this extra layer of over- centage said that their patients have re- nership with the School of Nursing (where sight, or support, depending on how you acted favorably to using telehealth for he also teaches) and with funding from looked at it, was associated with de- care.” In the McKinsey report cited ear- the National Institute on Aging and the creased mortality, fewer complications, lier, 57 percent of providers said they CDC, he’s studying the effi cacy of sensors lower costs, and shorter ICU stays.” viewed telehealth more favorably than that calculate escalating fall risk by assess- Deleener, a clinical nurse by practice, they did pre-COVID and 64 percent were ing a wearer’s gait and balance. Since says “it was brand new when I started, more comfortable using it; patient ap- those living in low-resource neighbor- and I remember standing in front of a proval was even greater, with 76 percent hoods with poor housing conditions have video monitor and thinking, How am I indicating they were highly or moder- twice the risk of falling, the study will going to use this thing to treat my patient? ately likely to use virtual healthcare going consider refi nements to the product based It’s no diff erent than any other kind of forward and 74 percent of telehealth us- on feedback from low-income older change in methods clinicians have gone ers describing themselves as highly satis- adults, their caretakers, and clinicians. through—like moving from paper to the fi ed. And, says Gorevic, “we even have EHR and being intimidated. But now I physicians who come to us because they Easing Access think clinicians understand that virtual want to dedicate the entirety of their care There’s no overlooking that telemedi- visits are meant to supplement treatment to the virtual market.” cine’s promise is tempered by a persis- where appropriate and best for the pa- The scope of what can be done virtu- tent digital divide. “There are plenty of tient. If you use it in the right circum- ally has widened considerably beyond older adults who don’t own a computer stances, and the patients have access, and the call-a-pediatrician-at-two-in-the- or a smartphone or have internet access the technology is high quality, most clini- morning “urgent care” that was the or experience with technology,” Demiris cians fi nd that they are able to do their original modus operandi for enterprises says. “What happens to them—or people work much more effi ciently.” like Teladoc. Off ering access to practi- who are hard of hearing, or visually im- With familiarity has come comfort. tioners in some 450 subspecialties, from paired, or who don’t speak English? “When it became basically mandatory dermatologists to dietitians, Teladoc More needs to be done on designing sys- and the only way to continue seeing pa- says that despite the initial pandemic tems that are fl exible, intuitive, easily tients, clinicians quickly adapted,” says surge, less than 10 percent of its 2020 adaptable, and inclusive.” Demiris. “It was interesting to hear them visits wound up being COVID-related. Eberly recently served as lead author of say, Why weren’t we using this before? It In some areas such as mental and behav- a detailed study looking at the experi- was forced compliance, which I think is ioral health, adds Gorevic, “we’ve moved ences of nearly 150,000 patients who were sometimes the only way to go with these more and more towards creating longi- scheduled for an in-person visit at Penn kinds of changes.” Now, some Penn pro- tudinal relationships rather than epi- Medicine during the fi rst two months of viders are even reserving their evenings sodic ones.” A relatively new Teladoc the pandemic. Just over half completed a and weekends to hold telemed clinics in initiative, Primary 360, is another ex- telehealth visit instead (the rest were can- order to free up their weekdays for pa- ample, as it attempts to fi ll the void for cellations or no-shows), split fairly evenly tients requiring in-person visits. the roughly 25 percent of Americans between video and telephone. Penn clinicians aren’t alone in their (and the 45 percent of 18- to 29-year- The study noted various inequities: embrace of this new world. More than 75 olds, according to Kaiser Permanente) older, Asian, and non–English-speaking percent of clinician respondents to a re- who have no primary care physician. patients had lower rates of telemedicine cent survey by the American Medical As- Another demographic that can benefi t use, and older, female, Black, Latinx, and sociation and several other organizations greatly from virtual healthcare is older poorer patients in particular were associ-

54 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 “Healthcare ated with less video (as opposed to tele- tute for an in-person encounter. These are providers have to phone) use. As far as language goes, Eb- improvements that can signifi cantly aff ect erly says “since we were able to notice very the overall medical experience for the bet- be trained how early on that non-English speakers were ter. If someone can be seen sooner and opting not to participate in remote visits, diagnosed faster, if we can catch some- to deliver empathy we started integrating a new program thing earlier, if someone doesn’t have to over a video call.” that reaches out right away in most major move on to an ER or wait for a specialist, languages, as well as American sign lan- we’re saving lives and saving money.” guage. With just one click, the user can In one pre-COVID survey conducted at Today’s medical students are, almost choose simultaneous translation.” Penn, researchers found that even low- by defi nition, a lot more comfortable To counteract some of the other barri- tech remote interventions can help. They with FaceTiming and texting and down- ers, Eberly and Adusumalli (who served saw a fourfold reduction in rehospitaliza- loading apps, points out Allison Hare, as senior writer for the study) are part tions of hip- or knee-replacement pa- who is taking a year out of her medical of a team trying to secure funding for a tients who enrolled in a program that training at Penn to complete a clinical pilot program to develop, distribute, and collected data from wearable step coun- informatics fellowship with Hanson. provide training for Connected Care kits ters and used conversational text messag- She’s created a course, offered this that would include patient-appropriate ing to “hover” over them and encourage spring, that examines the potential of diagnostic tools or apps (such as a blood them to meet milestones for recovery. clinical informatics. “The overall goal is pressure cuff , EKG monitor, or glucom- There’s a still softer, more holistic side to generate interest from the students eter) and an internet- and video-enabled to this, too, one that allows clinicians to in the tech-med space,” she says. “Among tablet preloaded with access to the gain a richer perspective about their pa- my peers, there’s a lot of excitement myPennMedicine portal. tients’ lives. “Our providers are always about creating smart health systems. telling me, You know, I got really inter- The interpersonal dynamic is a huge Into the Future esting insights from seeing Mrs. Smith component of what so many of us love As hospital systems and commercial in her kitchen or her bedroom. It was about practicing medicine. Making tech- virtual health providers tackle these is- surprisingly organized, or I didn’t real- nology another way to connect with a sues, they are also keeping an eye on the ize she had so many steps to climb,” says patient, to help them create a care plan future to learn how they can expand Hanson. “We see our patients for such a that they’re comfortable with, is some- their care options. “We are researching limited time in our offi ce and we miss thing that I and other medical students and piloting various virtual peripheral what happens where they’re out in their feel will be really big going forward.” tools,” says Deleener. “But we’re proceed- own world. It’s a huge opportunity.” For Hanson, who’s had a year now to ing relatively slowly.” But clinicians, just like the rest of us, digest the transformation of an initiative Gorevic seems antsier, his foot resting will have to learn to improve their web- that was “more or less a backwater into lightly on the brake while he waits at the side manner. “Healthcare providers have something that suddenly became front yellow light. “There’s a boom in con- to be trained how to deliver empathy over and center in the delivery of our mission,” nected devices and self-diagnostic test- a video call,” observes Demiris. “We did a the traffi c light is already green to drive ing that’s going to expand the scope of course at Penn Nursing on that, remem- forward. “I spent at least 10 years trying what we can do without the consumer bering to look straight into the camera, to build up this capacity in our organiza- having to go to a medical facility,” he expressing agreement by nodding more tion, so I’m not being Pollyannaish when says. “We want to be prepared to take than you might normally. The in-person I say that I’m confi dent that telemedicine advantage of them when they receive element can never be fully conveyed on- has a signifi cant role to play in tradition- approval and come to market.” line, but on the other hand there is some al medical care—and it would have taken It’s tempting to think that devices such literature that says that some distancing a lot longer to get where we’ve gotten as these—which meld artifi cial intelli- can help with patients who feel embar- without the pandemic forcing our hand. gence, augmented reality, and algorithm rassed or reluctant to discuss private mat- So that’s been a kind of ray of optimism technologies with traditional medical in- ters.” The AMA has produced several and hope in the midst of what’s been a struments like stethoscopes—“are all won- tutorials on the subject, advising clini- very challenging time for our providers derful, with no downsides and nothing to cians to, among other things, dress pro- and our patients.“ complain about,” says Hanson. “That’s not fessionally, make sure patients are set up appropriate—but neither is the Luddite technically, have a backup plan, and cre- JoAnn Greco is a frequent contributor to philosophy that says this is a poor substi- ate in-depth conversation. the Gazette.

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 55 Writing Lives

Middle school memories. Meditations on motherhood. A prismatic accounting of the self. A long life well and furiously lived.

56 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 ILLUSTRATIONS BY RICH LILLASH May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 57 so happened that in recent The Boy Who Failed Show and Tell book to his students—who related months we received copies of (Scholastic, 2021) is narrated by “Jordan strongly to it, even though it took place IT new memoirs by four accom- Sonnenblick” in fi rst-person, present in New York and concerned kids whose plished alumni writers—Jordan tense, and it reads as smoothly as a novel greatest struggles are dealing with an Sonnenblick C’91, Courtney by Jordan Sonnenblick—though the au- irritating sibling. “That universal feeling Zoffness C’00, Beth Kephart C’82, thor insists every word is true. in childhood that you’re nothing,” he and Nick Lyons W’53—all remark- How does a writer squeeze nearly 200 says, “and wanting to be something, that able in their own way, and with pages out of a year of being nine? just transcends.” remarkably different approaches. In recent history, famed Norwegian Sonnenblick says that, when he began Their arrival, via the Gazette’s writer Karl Ove Knausgaard expounded writing, it was easy to recall his child- inbox or mailing address, came at length about the minutiae of his child- hood voice—and it shows. Jordan fo- in close enough succession for co- hood in My Struggle, but some found the cuses on tiny details that adults forget, incidence to seem something like exercise tedious at times: “After a few elevating them into huge problems, the fate, so we decided to put them hundred pages of this, I started to grumble: way kids do. together for this feature.—Ed. I understood that this was ‘My Struggle,’ The book is set in 1978–1979. The but did it also have to be my struggle?” Three Mile Island partial nuclear melt- wrote James Wood in a mostly favorable down makes an appearance, as students 2012 review in the New Yorker. in Jordan’s class are told to “skootch your The late Ned Vizzini—author of It’s tushies into the wall” in a suddenly seri- Kind of a Funny Story and other YA nov- ous version of the school’s atomic fallout els, who, like Sonnenblick, attended New drills. But aside from that, and refer- York’s Stuyvesant High School—in 2000 ences to era-appropriate technology like Coming of Age published Teen Angst? … Naaah, a book records, the story is a timeless one—al- The year of being nine. of personal essays about specifi c years though the occasional arguments be- in grade school through high school. But tween Jordan’s overworked parents have ot every writer has a life worthy of those were couched as memories, writ- a realistic, contemporary edge. a full-length memoir—and even ten in a more mature voice. His fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Fisher, fewer would try to make a whole Sonnenblick’s memoir, recommended becomes his nemesis, singling him out book out of one year in elementary for ages 8–12, is aimed squarely at kids like for chastisement for lack of attention and school, assuming they even re- the narrator. His goal was to show those other failings, telling him he’ll never Nmembered it. readers they could make mistakes and still amount to anything. One incident in- That’s probably why, when he thought turn out all right. “I was an absolute mess volves a class show-and-tell in which Jor- back to his troubles in school, the young of a kid,” he says. “But I turned out to be a dan brings in his beloved pet snake (the adult (YA) fi ction writer Jordan Son- happy adult. I think the message of the only one he tells his worries to) that ends nenblick C’91, who is also a former Eng- book is ultimately hopeful: if I could be in disaster. Ultimately, believing he has lish teacher, initially planned to write OK in the end, anybody can.” deliberately remained seated during the a book for adults about how his experi- On the second page, Jordan tells us, “I Pledge of Allegiance (he’s actually expe- ences as the “bad” kid in class helped am a nobody. I am the un-legend. … I’m the riencing paralyzing anxiety), she hauls shape his teaching practices. But after second smartest kid in the grade and the him to his feet and slaps him—leading his laboring unsuccessfully over the manu- second-best singer, thanks to William Fe- parents to transfer him to a new school. script for much of 2018, he abandoned ranek, who is the smartest kid in the grade, At that point, Jordan’s life begins to take that approach in favor of a memoir the shortest boy in the grade, and the kid a turn for the better. His new school is about his fourth-grade year targeted at with the best voice in the school. He has more diverse, both ethnically and intel- young audiences—at which point he three things. Three! ... I get in trouble at lectually, and he likes his new teacher, fi nished writing in six weeks. “I realized school a lot, but not in a cool way.” despite her name, Miss Tuff . There are the parts I found the most universal [in Sonnenblick and his publicists have some detours along the way, the main one the original manuscript] were those compared the tone and themes to novels being a possible cancer diagnosis for his about the worst years of my childhood,” like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Tales of father—the occasion for an embarrassing Sonnenblick says. “That was when I a Fourth Grade Nothing. He says that, moment when he bursts into tears in decided to write a series of memoirs while working in Houston for Teach for front of Miss Tuff in the hallway, blubber- about those particular rough patches.” America after Penn, he taught the latter ing, “How am I supposed to just sit here

58 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 and do nothing when my dad has Miss Tuff notices Jordan and his ... C ... c ... cancer!” (In this case, friends reenacting Saturday Night memoir is kinder than fi ction, Live skits at school, and invites and the diagnosis turns out to them to write and perform some have been a mistake.) of their own in front of the class. Sonnenblick grew up in Staten When one of his jokes (a play on Island, New York, a middle-class the old Irish Spring soap ad, for Jewish kid who enjoyed summer “Jewish Spring—it’s kosher for camp more than school, like his Passover”) gets a laugh, “a feeling narrator: he was smart but not fl ows over me that I have never the smartest kid, and asthmatic. felt before,” Jordan says. “I feel He says he straightened out in powerful! My words are control- high school for two reasons: One, ling my class! I almost feel like I he was goofi ng around in class am getting away with something. one day and a girl he had a crush This is what I want to do with my on turned around and called him life.” After the show ends in tri- on it. The other reason was a little umph, with Miss Tuff clapping, less commonplace—Frank Mc- he adds: “I am a star. No, better Court was his teacher in his se- than that: I am a writer.” nior year of high school. The ac- Sonnenblick says that response claimed author of Angela’s Ashes to the book has been positive so “later blurbed my fi rst novel,” far. Among the first reviews, Sonnenblick says. “He was a ma- Carolyn Phelan of Booklist wrote, jor shaping force in my life.” “Some memoirs record parts of At Penn, Sonnenblick majored in Eng- “That universal the author’s childhood, but few off er lish but didn’t take writing courses, feel- such a vivid portrayal of a single year.” ing he’d learned enough from McCourt. feeling in childhood Miss Tuff —to whom the book is dedi- But he wrote jokes for the Penn Band, that you’re nothing, cated—liked it, too. She “thanked me pro- serving as announcer freshman year, fusely for bringing back so many happy and played drums for Mask and Wig. He and wanting to be memories of that time in her life,” he says. also says his college English courses, in “I shouldn’t have worried, because she is which he learned to “take literature something, that still, all these years later, the kindest and apart,” were helpful with writing. He was most gracious person on earth.” (The particularly infl uenced by Paul Fussell’s just transcends.” teacher who hit him is no longer living.) class on the Age of Pope in his sopho- The dedication reads: “To Elizabeth more year, he says. Tuff Duff y, the best fourth-grade teacher After Teach for America, Sonnenblick in the world, for understanding that came back East and taught for 10 years sometimes the most diffi cult student is at Phillipsburg Middle School in New the one who needs love the most.” Jersey. Among his eighth graders was a he and his wife—Melissa Soff a Sonnen- What’s next? Sonnenblick says he’s work- student named Emily whose brother blick C’91, whom he met senior year at ing on the sequel, The Boy Who Failed had cancer. Sonnenblick looked for a a show at Irvine auditorium—had two Dodgeball, which takes place in sixth grade book to help her and couldn’t fi nd one. kids, now 19 and 23. “and is mostly about my preadolescent So he wrote his fi rst novel, about a stu- In the new book, there are seeds of love aff air with trouble and danger. There’s dent whose sibling has cancer, called hope: Young Jordan discovers his pas- also the death of John Lennon, the time Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie (Scho- sions. His parents get him drum lessons, my friends and I led a rebellion against our lastic, 2005). It was translated into 15 and he believes the drums are “magic.” English teacher, several fi ghts, and my languages, with 750,000 copies printed. He loves his pet snake, crying when he fi rst-ever date.” Since then, Sonnenblick has published has to release her off spring into the wild. Sonnenblick adds, “I think it should six more novels for teens and four books And he likes to read. There’s even a hint be a fun read.” —Caren Lissner C’93 for middle-grade readers. Along the way, of his future career.

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 59 The Messiness book, she says, because they didn’t shy away from complexity. of Motherhood As she writes in “Boy in Blue,” Nature and nurture. her young son had noticed some- ourtney Zoff ness C’00 is a thing while monitoring the NYC fi ction writer. It’s the form precinct station on their street she studied at Penn and every day: the one that led her Most people we see in hand- through two master’s de- cuff s, he says, have brown skin. Cgrees. Fiction even won her He holds my gaze, scans it for £30,000 in an international something. Opinion. Emotion. short story contest, where her He wants to know what this competitors included Curtis Sit- means, how to feel about it. tenfeld and Miranda July. They do, I say, gut seizing. I So the fact that Zoff ness’s debut sustain wide eye contact, an at- book is a memoir-in-essays comes tempt to buy time. I think, This as a curveball, including to the is how the association coalesces: author herself. “I should make the good/bad with the cop/crimi- clear that this book sort of came nal with the white/brown. together by accident,” she says. “I I mutter something about how was cheating on my fi ction with Black and Latinx folks make up what I thought were these one- less than a third of the popula- off s. I didn’t realize I was actually tion but more than half of those writing a book.” imprisoned. That criminality But now that book is scoring starred and law enforcement are complicated, reviews (Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Zoffness isn’t that people with white skin break just as Book Page) and appearing on lists of the interested in many laws. Everything feels inadequate. most anticipated titles of 2021 (Publish- Opaque. ers Weekly again, Lit Hub, The Millions). coming off as a Zoff ness isn’t interested in coming off Spilt Milk (McSweeney’s Publishing, as a mom who has all the answers in 2021) opens with anxiety—a familiar state mom who has all Spilt Milk—or even “the most lovable for Zoff ness, but one she’s just started to and perfect person,” she says. “I certain- glimpse in her fi ve-year-old son. As in the answers— ly cop to my own shame and my own most of the book’s essays, she glides be- fl aws” in these essays, “and I hope that tween time and space with ease, in this or even “the most makes me a more credible narrator.” case building to a subtle examination of But what’s it like to reveal these piec- nature versus nurture. Could her son be lovable and es of yourself to readers whom you’ll exhibiting anxiety because of the genes she never meet? To have them know so passed on, because of her parenting, or perfect person.” much about you? “They actually don’t because, as she writes, “I am both his na- know that much about me,” she says. ture and his nurture”? “They certainly know the stories that Further meditations on motherhood I’ve shared, but this is a carefully cu- fl ow throughout the book, as Zoff ness rated book.” writes in lyrical prose about her own If you’ve only read Spilt Milk, you complicated mom; her friend’s role as a won’t know, for instance, that Zoff ness gestational surrogate; and navigating grew up in Westchester, New York, her four-year-old’s worshipful obsession where she used to write her own songs with police offi cers at the same time the and plays and perform them. You won’t Black Lives Matter movement is accel- read about the thrill she got from bind- erating. That and the surrogacy essay ing her own book in fourth grade, the are the ones she’s most proud of in the poetry contest she won in high school,

60 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 or how she drew editorial cartoons at of prominent fi ction competitions. In other meditation, this time on mother- Penn for the Daily Pennsylvanian. 2012, she began teaching at Drew Uni- hood in the time of coronavirus. You will, however, learn about her fi rst versity, where she’s now the director of Here she is, writing in the New York panic attack, suff ered in the bathroom creative writing. Times about the experience. She and her of Penn’s fi ne arts building during a The “biggest literary highlight of my husband are in-home quarantining their Drawing II class. “I held the stall walls life,” at least so far, arrived in 2018, asthmatic younger son, in an attempt to as my breath thrashed and the world when she won the Sunday Times Short stop his virus from ripping through their galloped and the tiles trembled under Story Award—a British competition family. But now he’s just called for her: my feet,” she writes. “I sweated through launched in 2010. Aside from bestowing “Your highness?” I say, poking my a pair of overalls. My teeth chattered all £30,000, the prize placed her in the covered face inside. He is upright on his the way home.” company of past winners, including bed, hair mussed. He stares at me. Then You won’t read about the A+ she land- Pulitzer Prize alums Junot Diaz and he opens his arms wide. ed for an advanced fi ction workshop her Anthony Doerr. “I remain the only win- There is a fl icker of panic in his face, a senior year at Penn, though it was a land- ner of that prize who didn’t already question mark, that I won’t approach. mark moment in her becoming-a-writer have a published book,” she says. Or maybe I’m projecting; for a blink, I journey. “I literally wept,” she says. “I In Zoff ness’s winning entry, “Peanuts hesitate. I worry he sees this. I am afraid didn’t even know you could get an A+.” Aren’t Nuts,” you’ll fi nd shades of “Hot of my own child. Zoffness counts herself among the for Teacher”—the second essay in Spilt I can’t promise that I exuded calm in founding members of Kelly Writers House, Milk. Through diff erent framing, both the moment my youngest reached out to which formed during her Penn years. She dig into the experience of being a woman, me, as much as I wanted to. Tried to, hosted “Speakeasy” open mics there—a the object of male desire, and the some- Zoff ness confesses a few paragraphs later. series that’s still running today. Though times-blurry lines between creepy behav- But what I could supply, without pre- she never presented her own work, she ior, inappropriate advances, and assault. tense, was comfort. Love. knew she’d keep writing after graduation. Like some of her other work, “Peanuts” On his warm bed, my son and I wrapped At fi rst she became a journalist, work- teeters between funny and tragic, oc- our arms around each other tight and ing for MTV Networks’ internal maga- casionally hitting both keys at the same did not speak a word. zine. When her journalism “kept getting time. “I think those are my favorite reg- —Molly Petrilla C’06 more and more creative,” she sent in a isters to inhabit in both genres,” she says. rant from her personal journal and was “I try to be in all those places at once accepted to Johns Hopkins’ Writing because that, to me, feels like life.” Seminars. “Once enrolled, I couldn’t rep- Though she’s been tinkering with per- Beheld licate what I’d done, nor could I explain sonal essays for over two decades now, the On the search for selfhood. why it had satisfi ed,” Zoff ness remem- ones in Spilt Milk all come from the past bers in a Spilt Milk essay. “I spent the several years. “For the most part, these 2015, better than a decade deep in next six months working backward, tak- pieces were written as I became a mother the thickets of midlife, Beth Keph- ing stories apart, sorting out mechanics. and was seeing all things in new ways,” she art C’82 woke up bewitched by a The process was defl ating. Painful.” says. “Something would happen, and I IN painter who’d been dead for 18 But along the way she discovered writ- would want to capture it and comment on years. But that sentence harbors a double ers like Lorrie Moore, who showed her it and question it. And the essay form re- imprecision. The spell may have fallen at that “you’re allowed to be really funny and ally facilitated my ability to do that.” midnight, not morning. And bewitched is dark and very female in your writing,” she Still, “fi ction is my fi rst love,” she says. a freighted word to pin on a woman of says. She also began to fi nd a balance be- She’s working on several fi ction projects any age, much less a formidably lettered tween lyricism and narration. “Early on, at the moment while also teaching, book one now tending an emptied nest. Maybe my stories were either melodramatic and promoting (her spring calendar is stuff ed entranced comes closer to the truth, or not beautiful, or like prose poetry where with events, including a—virtual—return captivated, or mesmerized. nothing happened,” she says. to the Kelly Writers House in May) and Or possessed. By the time she’d fi nished a second raising her two young sons. But when “I called her by her apostrophes,” Keph- master’s at the University of Arizona and COVID-19 invaded her home earlier this art writes of Henriette Wyeth: “N. C. Wy- returned to teach writing classes at year, asymptomatically infecting both of eth’s daughter. Andrew Wyeth’s sister. Jo- Penn, Zoff ness’s stories were getting her kids, it was the personal narrative to seph Hergesheimer’s extra-marital published and reaching the fi nal rounds which Zoff ness returned once again. An- squeeze. Peter Hurd’s wife. F. Scott Fitzger-

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 61 ald’s neighbor. Paul Horgan’s suburban home forever tomor- friend. Peter’s and Ann Carol’s and row afternoon, he is painted in Michael’s mother. I called her like this memoir as something akin this because I called myself the to the author’s photographic same. Father’s daughter. Husband’s negative: a kind of reverse image wife. Son’s mother. And only after inextricably tethered to its com- that, for both of us: artist.” panion. But Kephart’s essays de- For Kephart—the author of lineate more than the contrasts more than 30 books spanning half and congruencies that comprise a dozen genres—Henriette held their marriage—that make up out a tantalizing possibility: “fi nd- any marriage. It is the transfor- ing myself inside another self, mations that she’s after. Holding learning myself through her.” a vase he has potted, inspecting Chased over three thousand a photograph he has taken, “I miles and how many canvases learn more about my own seeing. and letters and through a dozen I change the conversation that I drafts, Henriette Wyeth would am having not just with him, but prove elusive. “I’ll be the only one with myself.” I fi nd,” Kephart concluded. But Kephart can summon visions by the end of Wife | Daughter | of herself with vivid detail. Kaya- Self (Forest Avenue Press, 2021) king across a smooth-topped lake —in which Henriette rears up in on a puff-sky day, the yellow a single essay among many—it is blades of her paddles are dragon- hard to be so sure. fl y wings, and her biceps prettily swell. Early in this triptych essay collection Some memoirs— But back at the dock she needs Bill’s help Kephart hears her husband say “Happy to hoist the shell from the water—and it anniversary” and looks up from the most—recount is not her own view of herself that in- pages of Michael Ondaatje. “Is this how trigues her, but his. In “the glow of an we discover the truth, evolve?” that a life, often an abjectly dubbed TV show” he turns to genre-shattering writer asks. “By gather- look at her and she cannot imagine what ing together unconfi rmed fragments?” extraordinary one. he sees. “I kept watching the show; my That is the mode of this stealthily pro- This one examines husband kept watching me. What do you vocative work, which begins with Keph- see? I wanted to ask him, but no transla- art’s incarnation as Bill’s Wife. “We are life, unnarrowed by tion is a good translation,” she writes. not Zelda and F. Scott. We are not Geor- “What do you see?” she asks herself gia and Alfred, Frieda and Diego,” Keph- the singular article. again, and here exposes her real plea: art declares, aiming less to telegraph “As if my husband might do the work of humility than the deeper intention of knowing me.” this book. Some memoirs—most—re- As Daughter, Kephart primarily fi lters count a life, often an extraordinary one. herself through the lens of her aging This one examines life, unnarrowed by father. Helping him sell the house the singular article. It is a more intimate where he raised their family. Helping and ambitious undertaking. him through the pages of photograph Bill is a visual artist—a photographer albums: Thanksgiving in the Luray Cav- and potter and illustrator whose wood- erns; a Shenandoah overlook; Gradua- cut-style monochromes grace the pages tion Day, June 1952, University of Penn- of this volume. A sinewy Salvadoran sylvania. Helping him through the whose mother tongue remains foreign throes of ICU delirium. The caregiving to Beth, who sometimes talks and some- in these pages is rendered with a ten- times doesn’t, who travels in solitude derness to sting the eyes of any child and might contentedly forsake their who has carried a parent’s burden, and

62 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 it is eloquent with emotional insight. takes stock of herself: “You don’t know fruitful “buff er zone”), and basketball Yet something unsettling lurks in the who you are.” player (better than he should have been). depths. After untold days at her father’s She chases an answer in Henriette As a writer, Lyons is best known for his bedside, after miles conducting nostal- Wyeth—a standout essay—but is the self “piscatorial” essays in books like The Sea- gic car rides in the Volvo he can no lon- revealed by that journey any more de- sonable Angler and A Flyfi sher’s World, ger drive, after bringing him to see hot- fi nitive? The revelation of the Self section and readers who only know him from air balloons in colors beyond counting is the impossibility it presents. The hard- that genre may be unprepared for the fl oat breeze-ward “like musical notes, er Kephart presses inward toward herself, breadth and darkness in Fire in the like a harmony sung only in soprano,” the more implacably her father and hus- Straw. He eloquently describes what fi sh- he tells her: Go. It is time that she come band and son and mother come seeping ing has meant to him from childhood: see him less. He wants time alone: in through the cracks. In every self there “Always, somehow, wherever I was and “time,” as she interprets it, “to harbor is “an infi nitude,” she concludes. whatever I did, I leaned like a magnet to and protect his secrets.” But are any of them truly and purely the numinous world of water, hungry for And here the dilemma swings open our own? That question—which Kephart the mystery beneath the surface, the elec- like a trap door, for if so much of what does not spell out but purposefully tric jolt when a fi sh takes the bait, a bob- we are is determined by what we are to skates around, inscribing it into the ice— ber dips under, the line tugs.” others—not just how they see us, but beats at the heart of this elegant and The book begins with a betrayal, when how we understand the selves that evocative inquisition. As for answers, fi ve-year-old Nicki is taken from the “lab- emerge from our relationships with those are plural. But surely there is sig- yrinthine apartment” in the Bronx he them—then who are we in their ab- nifi cance that the fi nal essay culminates shares with two bachelor uncles, his sence? This is a universal question, but with Kephart frozen in the doorway of grandparents, and his widowed mother also, in this volume, a gendered one. her mother’s hospital room, resplendent and abandoned at a boarding school. It Because Kephart, like so many women, in precisely the kind of red dress she was a “perfectly decent place,” not some- has woven her life into those of “two never wore but which her mother found thing “out of Dickens,” he writes, but still men, my husband and my father, who— beautiful, standing still to elongate her scarring. It teaches him a general reserve, most of the time in normal circumstanc- mother’s pleasure and her own: “not and leaves him with a permanent dis- es—are most comfortable alone.” moving, not breaking the illusion of my tance from and distrust of his mother: “I So the book’s third section, Self, is es- temporary self.” —Trey Popp spoke to her increasingly with more cau- pecially compelling. Delving into her tion and care and began to live more and adolescence, Kephart exhumes an early more in the cave of my own brain.” attempt at an answer: lying. After a (Many years later, in a harrowing pas- childhood in the thrall of being “good” Life’s Call sage that is one of the book’s strongest, or even “perfect,” lies became a means “An aging man still in love with he writes of keeping vigil over his moth- to conjure up charisma and attract at- words and a handful of people.” er’s dead body while waiting for the tention. Lying about the intensity of a medical examiner to show up days after schoolboy’s aff ection. Lying about how she had died suddenly in her apart- many hours she could keep a Hula-Hoop here’s a problem with the subtitle ment, his ruminations on their relation- from falling off her waist. Lying actual of Nick Lyons W’53’s memoir, Fire ship interrupted by gruesome details fi sh stories, shifting her sister’s catch to in the Straw: Notes on Inventing a about the growing stench and the dif- her own hook. Lying, eventually, on the Life (Arcade, 2020). It really should fi culty of getting her stiff ened corpse page—in poems, in fi ction. Yet some lies be Lives, plural. out of the bathroom.) that are easy to tell turn out to be less TIn his going-on-90 years, Lyons has After his mother remarries, to a man easy to live with. She looks in the mirror tried on—no, inhabited fully; he’s not named Arthur Lyons who wants to adopt and discovers that “the lies are chang- one to do things by halves—multiple him, Nicki balks at fi rst, but agrees, ing, the lies are changing you.” identities: teacher, editor, entrepreneur, thinking the alternative is a return to Where then does her true self lie? As writer, lover of literature (all the more boarding school, “that mausoleum.” It’s an undergraduate humiliated by peers ardent for coming late to his passion), Arthur who will eventually encourage ridiculing her poetry, Kephart retreats and (lifelong) fi shing enthusiast. This him to go to Wharton, where he makes into “history, calculus, biology, econom- brief but packed book fi nds room for all a few friends and gets to play alongside ics, law, accounting.” Writing a thesis on of them—plus his experiences as a stu- the great Ernie Beck W’53, but doesn’t the dawn of engineering schools, she dent (fi tful, then obsessed), soldier (a take away much else. (He calls—unavail-

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 63 ingly—on the memory of Beck in For a good chunk of that time, to a later chapter about the end of make ends meet, he also worked in his basketball days limping home book publishing, and eventually from a city hoops court.) became executive editor at a major Time in the army, stationed at a house. When a tenure committee miserable but Paris-adjacent mili- he chaired at Hunter is arbitrarily tary outpost in France, turns out overruled, it comes across as a wel- to be a pivot point, awakening a come escape hatch to set out on his powerful desire in him to read and next endeavor, building on his edi- write. Reading Lyons’ account of torial contacts and experience, as coming alive to literature is to the founder and publisher of what truly understand the concept of a became the Lyons Press. “voracious” reader. “Now I could In fi nancial terms, this seems not study hard enough, reading like jumping from the frying pan— with the same thought that this or the tepid-but-slowly-boiling was a meal for my brain, some- academic pot—into the fi re, but thing I needed to live.” And he goes Lyons managed to both survive at writing with the same furious and put out work of which he is energy, renting a tiny room in justly proud (though chagrined at Greenwich Village, where he alter- bigger publishers stealing his au- nates long solitary walks through thors). He’s also bracingly honest the city with marathon stints at the about the near-constant fi nancial typewriter—though little comes of struggles involved in keeping his the eff ort at that point. business afl oat and providing for But a class at the New School, his family while staying a half-step where a life-changing teacher tells him, Reading Lyons’ ahead of creditors along the way. “Remember. You’re not dumb, Nicki. Toward the end of the book, there’s a You’re just illiterate,” leads him to Bard account of lovely idyllic period after Lyons sells the College, then graduate school at the Uni- press in which he and his beloved wife, versity of Michigan, and life as a literary coming alive to the painter Mari Lyons, are able to con- man. In “Some Woodstock Summers,” a centrate on their respective arts, and to version of which appeared in the Gazette literature is to travel “every year to Paris, Madrid, Ven- [“Alumni Voices,” May|Jun 2020], Lyons ice, Florence, and walked everywhere describes how, after laboring over fi ction, truly understand and spent long days in the great muse- poetry, and academic writing, it was by the concept of a ums,” and he “managed to fi sh intently way of a fi shing story that he hit on the again.” It’s cut short by her death from prose style—“earthy, nimble, wry, full of “voracious” reader. cancer, soon after their 58th wedding wit and worms and celebration”—that anniversary. “She had given me life. She would serve him in hundreds of essays had been my life,” he writes. and more than 20 books written or edited. But despite his losses—including the After graduate school, Lyons took a job death of one of his four children—life still at Hunter College, where he taught for calls to him. Sorting through Mari’s stu- close to 30 years. He is modest about his dio, his face is suddenly refl ected in some professorial career (“My only academic darkened glass: “I see a runneled face, an gift—a minor, narrow one—was a fl air for aging man still in love with words and a taking this literature that I loved, which handful of people, still with much work I knew had transformed my life and to do, important to him. The old fi re I might transform other lives, and sharing found in me, that sustained me, is banked it enthusiastically with others”) and mor- low, but the orange coals are bright.” dant in his description of campus politics —John Prendergast and academic snobbery.

64 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 ARTS P.66 P.68 P.70 P. 71 First Ladies Name-Brand Buildings Good Business Briefly Noted

Red Etchings: Soviet Book Illustrations from the Collection of Monroe Price The Midwest Experience: Ormandy in Minnesota Calendar plus dozens more online Annenberg Center Penn Museum annenbergcenter.org penn.museum/collections Kelly Writers House LIVESTREAM EVENTS writing.upenn.edu/wh/ SCHEDULED VISITS May 6: Ayodele Casel Living With the Sea: Charting Visit the website for links to May 7: Eddie Palmieri Afro- the Pacific virtual events, archived programs, Caribbean Jazz Quartet Invisible Beauty: The Art of PoemTalk podcasts, and the May 27: Matthew Neenan Archaeological Science PennSound poetry collection. Arthur Ross Gallery Through Jun 6 Penn Libraries arthurrossgallery.org Slought library.upenn.edu/collections/ slought.org SCHEDULED VISITS online-exhibits Through Jul 25: An Inner World: SCHEDULED VISITS Remarkable Figures: Women in 17th century Dutch Genre Painting Visit website for exhibit information the Art of Ashley Bryan ICA The Jewish Home: Dwelling on the World Café Live icaphila.org Domestic, the Familial, and the worldcafelive.com SCHEDULED VISITS Lived-In PROVISIONALLY SCHEDULED SHOWS Visit the website for In Sight: Seeing the People of the Ben Vaughn Quintet Woman Reading a Book by a Window, May 15: Gabriel Metsu, ca. 1653–54. exhibit information Holy Land May 21: Simrit

Courtesy The Leiden Collection May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 65 Lucy Ware Webb Hayes by Daniel Huntington, 1881. ARTS Painting

wenty-one-year-old Abigail Powers Framing First Ladies had just begun a full-time teaching career in upstate New York when The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery she met 19-year-old Millard Fill- more, an older student who was presents presidential wingmates. Tbarely able to read. Soon they were falling in love, and when Fillmore’s family relo- cated they kept up a correspondence. They eventually reunited and married in 1826, seven years after fi rst meeting and more than two decades before Fillmore became the nation’s 13th president. Dur- ing her time in the White House, Abigail continued her interest in lifelong learn- ing, installing a reference library in the mansion and inviting authors like Charles Dickens and Washington Irving to visit. Less than a month after Fillmore left offi ce, she died of pneumonia. It’s a safe guess that most living Ameri- cans haven’t retained all that much his- torical knowledge about Fillmore, and it’s an even surer bet that we know less about his wife. The same could be true of wom- en like fashionable Frances Cleveland, the young bride who joined the president while he was already in offi ce and quick- ly became the Jackie Kennedy of her time. Or Helen Taft, the fi rst presidential wife to ride with her husband during the in- augural parade. Or Caroline Harrison, who established the presidential china collection, initiated a restoration of the mansion, and most signifi cantly, raised funds to create the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity School of Medicine on the condi- tion that it open enrollment to women. Other fi rst ladies, of course, have more decidedly etched themselves into the na- tional memory, starting (almost) from day one when Abigail Adams implored her husband, John, to “remember the ladies.” “This group is fi lled with bright, ambi- tious women,” says Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, the Class of 1940 Bicentennial Term Associate Professor of History of Art, who curated Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (scheduled to be on exhibit through May 23 and available online at fi rstladies.

66 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Courtesy the White House Historical Association Ellen Arthur by Charles Milton Bell, Michelle Obama by Amy Sherald, 2018. reproduction after the original 1870-1880 Ida Saxton McKinley by Emily Drayton Taylor, 1899. hand-tinted albumen print; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Boris Chaliapin, 1960-1961. si.edu). The exhibition’s title comes from a letter Julia Gardiner Tyler wrote to her mother after she became the fi rst woman to marry a sitting president. Shaw adds, “I think it’s fair to say that many of them were smarter than their husbands.” Shaw, whose research and teaching often emphasizes portraiture, says that she “wanted to focus on what made each of these women’s lives singular and to examine their portraits for hints at the way she presented herself.” As an exam- ple, she cites Ida McKinley, who suff ered from terrible seizures. “In the miniature watercolor we have on exhibit, she’s in profi le off ering a view of her cropped hair,” says the historian. “It’s a style she wore on the recommendation of doctors who believed that long, heavy hair con- strained the cranial nerves. And so she’s owning her disability. She’s basically say- ing, No, I don’t have a huge bun of hair back here. This is how I look. I was, like, wow, we can really get a sense of her strong attitude through this portrait.” Another of the curator’s favorites is a reproduction of a sepia-toned, hand- tinted albumen silver print of Nell Arthur in which she wears a double-strand pearl necklace. Less than a year before her hus- band, Chester A. Arthur, was elected vice president, she died of pneumonia; after Arthur became president, he kept the photograph on his nightstand at the White House. “Some of these portraits are quite intimate,” Shaw observes. “There are so many great love stories and family memories associated with them.” Other standouts are dramatically larger, survive), watercolor miniatures on ivory, the show, Shaw also produced a compan- including a trio of full-length depictions works on paper, and one marble bust. The ion book. Most of the works were drawn in oil. In one, Lucy Hayes stands regally latter is of Harriet Johnston, one of sev- from the collection of the Portrait Gallery, draped in a crimson velvet gown. “It just eral women presented who were not but a dozen are on loan from the White blew me away when I saw it installed,” spouses of a president; in this case John- House and several are from other libraries, says Shaw. “It reminds you of how infre- ston served as fi rst lady for her bachelor including the National First Ladies Li- quently we see women portrayed so bold- uncle James Buchanan. brary in Canton, Ohio. “I was really sur- ly.” The assemblage consists mainly of oils The exhibition is the result of Shaw’s prised by how small it is,” Shaw says of on canvas (including works by a few well- recent 18-month stint as senior historian that last. “It’s like a high school library. known names like Thomas Sully and Ce- and director of research, publications, and And when you think it’s for all of the fi rst cilia Beaux), but it also features photo- scholarly programs for the gallery. In ad- ladies—what a contrast to how each pres- graphs (including of Mary Todd Lincoln, dition to tracking down the 60 or so piec- ident gets his own huge, architect-de- since no verifi ed painted portraits of her es (depicting 55 women) that appear in signed library.” Even this small nod to the

Clockwise, from left: Courtesy of Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; National Portrait Gallery, May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 67 Smithsonian Institution; White House Historical Association; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Architecture The PSFS headquarters ARTS brought the International Style to Philadelphia’s skyline. signifi cance of fi rst ladies didn’t exist, however, until Hillary Clinton helped The Building bring the idea of a First Ladies National Historic Site to fruition. (See www.fi rstla- dies.org/libraryobjective.aspx for more.) Is the Product Incidentally, Clinton was the fi rst pres- idential spouse to pose, in 2006, for a Architecture as marketing. portrait commissioned by the National By JoAnn Greco Portrait Gallery. (The National Portrait Gallery didn’t actually begin commission- ing portraits until 1994, after George H. W. Bush left offi ce.) It’s not surprising that when such recognition came, it be- gan with Clinton, since no prior presiden- tial spouse had been as involved in the day-to-day activities of the administra- tion. But as one section of the exhibition notes, by the mid-20th century fi rst ladies were clearly expected to advocate for is- sues they were passionate about. Via her prolifi c writing and public speaking, Eleanor Roosevelt, depicted in a multi-portrait in poses that include thinking, writing, knitting, and removing her glasses, was the fi rst presidential spouse to develop her own activist plat- forms. Later, Betty Ford (portrayed wear- ing a vivid blue top that echoes her ceru- lean eyes) gained attention for her advo- cacy for abortion rights and ratifi cation of the Equal Rights Amendment, and Nancy Reagan (adorned in her signature red) famously encouraged Americans to “Just Say No” to illegal drugs. The gig continues to evolve. For in- stance, the current fi rst lady, Jill Biden, is the fi rst who has chosen to keep her day job (as a college professor). And as we inch closer to a fi rst gentleman (see Douglas Emhoff , our rstfi “second gentle- man”), chances are we’ll be in for some more changes. “That individual will have Building Brands: Corporations and to decide how he spends his unpaid labor 1932, architects George Howe Modern Architecture and uses his bully pulpit, just as the wom- and William Lescaze placed a By Grace Ong Yan en before him have,” says Shaw. “But I very big, very bright neon sign on Lund Humphries, 208 pages, $69.99 think the things we focus on will be dif- top of a new headquarters build- ferent. We’ll be looking for other clues to ing in downtown Philadelphia. of interior design at Jeff erson University, his personality in a portrait—since not so InIt read, simply: P S F S. With that gesture, explores those fi elds’ intersecting trajec- much will be conveyed by appearance advertising and architecture leaped light tories by examining four corporate head- and clothing and hairstyles.” years into the future. In Building Brands, quarters erected during successive mid- —JoAnn Greco Grace Ong Yan Gr’10, assistant professor century decades.

68 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Photograph courtesy Hagley Museum and Library Entrance to the Rohm & Haas building in Philadelphia.

It’s a novel approach. If we even con- new headquarters—rounds out each case company became, Ong Yan reproduces sider buildings as branding agents— study. Each chapter is illustrated with a a pamphlet emblazoned with a graphic along with, say, packaging and logos and plethora of architectural sketches and representation of the blob-like conical print ads—our thoughts refl exively turn working drawings, as well as posters, bro- shapes of the columns. to store design, or that of restaurants and chures, and other advertising materials. Next, the 1951 Manhattan headquar- hotels. “We think of corporate modern- Ong Yan draws upon such ephemera— ters for another consumer products con- ism as mute imposing glass slabs,” Ong everything from a Corning glass adver- glomerate, Lever Brothers, introduces Yan says. “But each of these buildings tisement to a Milwaukee Sentinel arti- the book’s fi rst truly modern building. actually communicates directly with a cle—to illustrate how Frank Lloyd The work of a large corporate design wide audience—whether through its sign Wright’s involvement in the 1939 head- fi rm, Skidmore Owings and Merrill, its [PSFS Building], architect [S. C. Johnson quarters for the wax and polish maker form of a “tower on a slab” would jump- & Son Administration Building], form S. C. Johnson was viewed as a notewor- start a spate of similarly-styled offi ce [Lever House], or material [Rohm and thy selling point from the beginning. buildings that would soon frame Amer- Haas Building]. Corporate headquarters And, she writes, the Racine, Wisconsin, ica’s downtown canyons. Swathed in are like going to the heart of the matter, building was a good thing for Wright striking green glass and raised on stilts, to the source of the goods being mar- too. Coming just as he was emerging though, the building off ered a little keted,” continues Ong Yan, who has from a dry spell, it thrust him fi rmly into something extra and quickly achieved worked as an architect in the offi ces of I. M. Pei, Rafael Viñoly, and Renzo Piano, and in interdisciplinary branding design for Gensler, an architecture, interior de- sign, and planning giant. “They’re a way of branding the company behind the products.” Her book begins with the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, whose headquar- ters was poised on the brink between Deco and Modern. Highlights of its de- sign include a masterful blend of vertical and horizontal banding; a swooping, corner-hugging lower façade; and … that sign. More akin to a billboard, it’s tasked with searing the corporate name into the public’s consciousness. When the build- ing’s designers argued that initials were the way to go—since they took up less space than the cumbersome name and thus could be much bigger and more leg- ible—they literally created a new brand. “Though ‘PSFS’ would not regularly be the modernist era. Best of all, Ong Yan icon status. It needed no signs, no retail, used in the [bank’s] advertising until al- notes, Wright’s democratic ideals found no big-name design fi rm (although its most two decades later,” writes Ong Yan, affi nity with the company’s progressive lead architect Gordon Bunshaft would “the acronym’s association with the in- employment policies. With an open go on to gain individual acclaim). For stitution began with the audacious sign.” plan, skylit clerestory window, and or- Lever House, form most defi nitely did In each chapter, Ong Yan sets up each ganic dendriform columns, the build- not follow function. project with a brief look at the building’s ing’s interior spaces presented a digni- Ong Yan returns to Philadelphia for her location in time and space, then profi les fi ed place to work and served as a man- last case study, the Rohm and Haas head- the commissioned architects and their ifestation of Wright’s belief in an archi- quarters. Built in 1964, it off ers at once design choices. The corporation’s histo- tecture that looked toward and em- the most subtle, and most direct, form of ry—focusing on its advertising before, braced nature. To demonstrate how in- branding through architecture: the during, and after the construction of the trinsically linked the building and the prominent use of a new material (plexi-

Photograph courtesy Ezra Stoller/Esto May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 69 Book Review

glass) invented by the chemical company. Credited to the Philadelphia fi rm now Samaritans known as EwingCole, the building’s ex- terior is largely the work of Pietro Bel- luschi, an Italian-born modernist and and Charlatans dean of architecture at MIT who was brought in as a consultant. Quoting min- Righteous commerce and holy hype. utes from a 1962 meeting, Ong Yan writes By Dennis Drabelle that it was Belluschi who advocated for incorporating plexiglass “in a manner expressive of its inherent qualities and ixteen years ago, I ascertained what worried not to duplicate other building materi- profi led Bill Novelli volunteers the most when als.” Used most extensively in the signa- C’63 ASC’64 for this their two-year stint ended: ture louvered sun screens hung on the magazine [“Gray Is not whether they would fi t upper fl oor windows, it also popped up Good,” Sep|Oct 2005]. in back home or fi nd a job consistently inside, from the doorknobs SBut only now, after read- there, but the possibility to the lobby chandeliers. ing Novelli’s new book, that “sand would blow So, where do we go from this “apogee” Good Business, do I fully over their tracks and … all of a “comprehensively branded environ- appreciate what I took their hard work in the ment,” as Ong Yan terms it? As the mar- for granted then: his country where they had keting environment becomes increas- smarts and sanity. served would disappear.” ingly cluttered with attempts to grab Before writing about Novelli moved on to gen- everyone’s attention, is branding through Novelli, I had once repre- Good Business: The Talk, Fight, erate commercials for the architecture even relevant anymore? In sented a federal agency Win Way to Change the World reelection of Richard Nix- By Bill Novelli C’63 ASC’64 her conclusion, the author says yes, con- on a task force whose Johns Hopkins University Press, on, and although his outfi t tending that “[w]ith the growing virtual chairman, the CEO of a 368 pages, $27.95 was not technically part nature of corporate identities today, ar- Fortune 500 company, of the infamous CREEP chitectural branding … is ever more invariably said “antidote” (Committee to Re-elect the important precisely because of the mate- when he meant “anecdote,” as in “Let me President), the two entities worked to- rial presence of place.” illustrate that point with an antidote.” I’d gether. A cynic might jump to the conclu- But Ong Yan concedes that as the pan- also worked for a boss who couldn’t get sion that Novelli has spent most of his demic continues to make working-from- through the weekly staff meeting without subsequent career at nonprofi ts to atone home an increasingly viable option, the humiliating at least one of his underlings. for that proximity to burglary and cover- case for the corporate headquarters has In contrast, the CEO of AARP (as No- ups. But he portrays himself as a lifelong weakened. “Everything is being re- velli then was) spoke impeccable Eng- centrist, and before challenging that thought now,” she says. “Companies lish, treated his subordinates as partners claim, you might want to consider his need to be fl uid and recognize that even in problem-solving, and made sure that takedown of market-worshiping econo- if they don’t require as much workspace, meetings ended with everyone aware of mist Milton Friedman, bombastic novel- they can still use architecture to brand.” who would do what to achieve the de- ist Ayn Rand, and other apostles of every- From the Woolworth and PSFS buildings sired goal. Good Business—a blend of man-for-himself capitalism. “No law to today’s skyscrapers, many corporate autobiography and plea for corporations mandates that shareholder interests su- owners have always occupied just a frac- to have and heed a conscience—evokes persede the long-term health of a com- tion of the towers that carry their the Novellian drive, clarity, and respect pany,” Novelli writes in Good Business. names, she points out. And even in the for coworkers that this reviewer didn’t Not only that, but “doing well by doing case of, say, Philadelphia’s two Comcast make enough of in 2005. good actually accomplishes what Fried- buildings, where the media company The accent in the book’s title should man advocates—increase profi ts.” remains the majority tenant, the corpo- be on Good. Novelli got his fi rst taste of As cofounder of a public relations fi rm, rate name isn’t brandished. “And yet, working for public betterment when he Novelli spent several years in his own when you drive on I-76,” she says, “you joined the Peace Corps in 1970, though corner of the private sector; eventually, know who owns the buildings.” not as a volunteer. Novelli’s remit was to however, he gravitated back to public but market the agency, and in doing so he nongovernmental service. After serving

70 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Briefl y Noted

RAVENOUS: Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and as acting CEO of CARE, a humanitarian product or service by creating a matrix the Search for the organization, he accepted an off er to lead for it. As an example, he cites the sports Cancer–Diet Connection a campaign against tobacco ads pitched promoter Mark McCormack, who did by Sam Apple, faculty to kids. His account of this eff ort makes well for himself by whipping up “a com- (Liveright, 2021, $28.95.) for the longest episode in the book, and prehensive system of player rankings” Nobel laureate Otto Warburg, Novelli is rightfully proud of the suc- for the game of golf. a biochemist and homosex- cesses, including the euthanasia of Joe Many of the case studies Schein pres- ual of Jewish descent, ranked among the most Camel, who embodied the alleged cool- ents seem to rely more on clever slo- despised fi gures in Nazi Germany. Longtime ness of smoking in ads for Camel ciga- ganeering or strategic grandstanding Penn writing instructor Sam Apple recounts how rettes. It took years—and Novelli had than on “hype,” with its connotation Warburg survived the Nazis and how his break- through cancer research was rediscovered in moved on to lead AARP by the time it was of exaggeration to the point of overkill. the 21st century—including via a number of over—but the campaign paved the way While reading the book, I kept think- key fi ndings made at Penn. for the Family Smoking Prevention and ing of a song from the musical Gypsy, THE COMPANY Tobacco Control Act of 2009 and contrib- in which young Gypsy Rose Lee’s fel- DAUGHTERS: uted heavily to the transformation of low stripteasers teach her that “You A Heart-Wrenching smoking from a sign of sophistication to Gotta Get a Gimmick” to diff erentiate Colonial Love Story by a mark of pitiable addiction. yourself and succeed. That’s essen- Samantha Rajaram G’97 Now approaching 80, Novelli teaches tially the Schein approach. (Bookouture, 2020, $10.99.) This historical novel set in at Georgetown, where he started Busi- Toward the end of his book, Schein 17th-century Amsterdam ness for Impact, a university center de- acknowledges that its appeal may be and Batavia (modern day Jakarta) tells the story voted to the principle that strongest for a certain of two women forced by circumstance to sign building “social and envi- type of reader. It’s pretty with the East India Company as Company ronmental strategies into easy, he writes, for those Daughters. Sailing to a colonial Dutch outpost, [a fi rm’s] core business who “grow up with the they become the brides of male settlers and fall can improve financial right educational oppor- in love—with each other. performance as well as tunities, right background, PHILADELPHIA BUILDS: Essays on Architecture create greater good for … right interests, right per- by Michael J. Lewis G’85 society as a whole.” sonality, and right race … Gr’89 (Paul Dry Books, Michael F. Schein C’99 to make [their] way in 2021, $24.95.) Architec- shares Novelli’s disdain the world using tried- ture critic Michael J. Lewis for Ayn Rand. In his Hype and-true channels.” For explains why Philadelphia Handbook, Schein con- those not so blessed, has produced so many ex- fesses to an early infatua- however, “creating a life traordinary architects, including Louis Kahn, tion with Rand’s didactic full of opportunity re- Frank Furness, and Robert Venturi. This collec- novel The Fountainhead, The Hype Handbook: 12 quires more unconven- tion of 22 of his best essays examines topics Indispensable Success Secrets ranging from Kahn’s little-known project to de- followed by a grownup tional methods,” many of from the World’s Greatest sign a memorial for Vladimir Lenin to a profi le of realization of “how little Propagandists, Self-Promoters, which fall into the cate- Willis G. Hale, cult hero of Philadelphia hipsters. her characters resemble Cult Leaders, Mischief Makers, gory of hype. THE DEPORTATION any human beings I have and Boundary Breakers That’s refreshingly hon- MACHINE: America’s By Michael F. Schein C’99 actually encountered.” est, and it should be not- Long History of Expelling McGraw Hill Education, Immigrants Yet Schein does not shy 224 pages, $28 ed that not even the well- by Adam away from citing charla- favored Bill Novelli has Goodman Gr’15 (Princeton tans and rogues as exem- been above resorting to University Press, 2020, plars of eff ective hype. Take Madame hype-ish tactics. When Novelli and his $29.95.) Goodman, an as- sistant professor of Latin Helena Blavatsky, who got rich and fa- anti-smoking colleagues decided to go American studies at University of Illinois at Chica- mous by inventing a religion called The- after chewing tobacco, too, they restyled go, examines how federal, state, and local offi cials osophy and pushing it in a bible of her it “spit tobacco.” have targeted various groups for expulsion, own making, the exotic-sounding Isis from Chinese and Europeans at the turn of the Unveiled. You might want to do some- Dennis Drabelle G’66 L’69 has a new book com- 20th century to Central Americans and Muslims thing similar, Schein suggests—not nec- ing out this fall: The Power of Scenery: Frederick today, in this sweeping and engaging narrative. essarily founding a cult but selling your Law Olmsted and the Origin of National Parks. Visit thepenngazette.com for more Briefl y Noted.

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 71 ALUMNI P.74 P.76 P.80 P.88 A Journalist’s Journey Running the Roads Alumni Notes Obituaries

Tessa Thompson, center right, fi lms a scene with Aja Naomi King during the making of Sylvie's Love, produced by Gabrielle Glore W’91. Old Story, New Lens Years in the making, this producer’s film centers around Black elegance and romance in the 1950s and 1960s.

72 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Photograph courtesy Amazon Studios Gabrielle Glore W’91 “It’s about looking at the rom canary yellow hats to With enthusiastic reviews Black experience After Eugene Ashe outlined offi ce bar carts, Mad Men from critics and viewers, the his vision for his next proj- and The Marvelous Mrs. fi lm marks her farthest-reach- through the lens ect—which became Sylvie’s Maisel resurrect 1950s ing—and, she says, most per- of humanity Love—Glore quickly signed and ’60s America piece by sonally fulfi lling—project to on to help him make it hap- Fretro piece. But Gabrielle date. But narrative fi lm pro- as opposed to pen. Neither of them expect- Glore W’91, who considers her- ducer is a role Glore has been adversity.” ed it would take more than self a fan of both shows, kept inching toward ever since her seven years to start fi lming. noticing what they left out. days at Penn. “There were a lot of no’s “When you look at the As her friend Jennifer along the way,” Glore recalls. Black characters in a show Baltimore C’89, whom Glore The same thing that made like Mad Men, for the most met her second day on cam- Sylvie’s Love special—that it part they’re assistants and el- pus, notes, “It’s interesting to was a story not seen before— evator operators,” she says. see her on this journey of be- was also the reason that stu- She saw the same thing in coming a storyteller, because dios and fi nanciers were other contemporary fare set I think she’s always been one wary. “No one really wanted midcentury: Black charac- to study relationships. She’s to take a chance,” she says. “A ters were either consigned to fascinated by others’ stories. lot of what we heard was, shallow roles or framed That’s what makes her such a serves as the festival’s direc- ‘There’s no comparable fi lm through their trauma. good friend. Sometimes she tor and head of program- we can equate this to.’” Where, she wondered, were remembers my life better ming. This year marks her But she kept pressing for- the Black men and women who than I remember it.” 17th with Urbanworld, which ward. “It was Gabrielle who fi lled her own family albums? Glore came to Wharton from is scheduled to run from gave me the strength to per- “Myself and many others I St. Louis in the late 1980s, al- September 29 to October 3. severe and believe that it know can look through old ready planning on a career in “We’re looking for the most would happen,” Ashe says. photo albums and see this ev- marketing. She didn’t realize interesting stories from “Just having a comrade in eryday elegance of the Black that most of her classes would around the world that are go- arms meant so much to me, community and their Black focus on fi nance and account- ing to educate our audiences and she was that comrade.” families,” Glore says. People ing instead. “I had to be much and move them in some way,” In the end, Glore had a who launched their own com- more proactive around my Glore says. “It’s also an oppor- hand in everything from panies. Who attended prep job search,” she says, “because tunity to lean into content script development to cast- schools and became debu- at that time, entertainment creators of color, women, and ing suggestions to landing fi - tantes. Who fell in love and companies weren’t coming to the LGBTQ community, so nancing. She was also on set cooked big family dinners Wharton for recruiting.” that all of these traditionally for the entire fi lming process and grooved to their favorite She turned down an off er marginalized communities and ran point with Amazon jazz albums. from Procter & Gamble and have an opportunity and a when they acquired Sylvie’s And then one day she found went to HBO, where she platform to share their work.” Love at Sundance. them: inside the script of an helped promote the network’s Working so close to fi lms “I call Gabrielle ‘The Velvet old-fashioned love story, set newest series and original and the people who make Hammer,’” Ashe says. “She in the late 1950s and early fi lms. After moving through them revved up Glore’s own always tells me the truth, in a 1960s, that centered around multiple marketing roles interest in storytelling. She ex- diplomatic way, which I ap- Black characters who dwelled within parent company Time ecutive produced a family preciate.” (Her friend Balti- in those smaller, everyday Warner, Glore launched her dramedy called Dirty more compares Glore to a moments. Glore became a own branding, marketing, Laundry in 2006 and invested cheetah: “She moves quietly producer on that movie, Sylvie’s and production LLC in 2002. in ESPN Films’ documentary but swiftly.”) Love, which debuted at the HBO became Glore’s fi rst Through the Fire. But the Written and directed by Sundance Film Festival in client, and through that game-changing moment came Ashe, with a cast led by Tessa early 2020 and launched on work, she met the founder of in 2012, when she chatted with Thompson and Nnamdi Aso- Amazon Prime Video last a fl edgling fi lm festival called a writer/director who was de- mugha, Sylvie’s Love follows December—thanks to nearly Urbanworld. She’s been in- buting his fi rst narrative fi lm the on-again/off -again love a decade of her persistence. volved ever since, and now at a festival in Atlanta. story between a jazz saxo-

Photograph courtesy Gabrielle Glore May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 73 ALUMNI Amna Nawaz C’01

phonist and a young woman The newsroom became a ref- whose dad owns a record Finding Refuge uge—“a place that was just in shop. The soundtrack is search of the facts,” she says. transportive, the costumes “And that kind of focus, I and sets rival any episode of in the Newsroom think, really grounded me.” Mad Men or Maisel—but the It still does. At diffi cult mo- cast is almost entirely made This Pakistani American journalist ments, she recalls the advice up of Black and Latinx actors. adds “complexity and nuance” to a of one mentor, the late politi- “It’s about looking at the cal reporter and analyst Cok- Black experience through the wide range of issues around the globe. ie Roberts, to just “duck and lens of humanity as opposed fi le.” After stints with ABC to adversity,” Glore says. “We News and NBC News, Nawaz wanted to center on these is now a senior national cor- Black characters in a way respondent and primary sub- that is aspirational and stitute anchor for PBS News- didn’t have any of the story Hour, as well as host of New- rooted in trauma.” sHour’s arts and culture se- The character of Sylvie ries, Beyond the Canvas. (played by Thompson) felt The PBS gigs capitalize on familiar. Glore saw her late Nawaz’s diverse interests and mother’s sense of style, ele- ability to segue from charm to gance, and love of music in her. toughness. She can quiz sing- She also saw shades of her own er Reba McEntire about the career ambition. “Pursuing country music scene, then what I want to pursue and grill Turkish President Recep going after it is very much a Tayyip Erdoğan about his part of who I am,” she says. mass imprisonment of jour- She hopes Sylvie’s Love nalists and political oppo- marks a pivot in her career, nents. In December 2019, she with a focus entirely on story- became the fi rst Muslim telling—especially stories American to moderate a pres- about the experience of Black idential debate, memorably women and other people of asking Democratic contender color. “That is very much a Andrew Yang to react to be- thread through everything ing the only candidate of col- that I do,” she says. In the next mna Nawaz C’01 she was covering the 9/11 at- or left in the race. “I don’t see few years, she hopes to shift all learned from her par- tacks. “That changed every- anything incongruent with her work to creative producing. ents to “do what you thing,” she says. “It changed being able to one day have a At the moment, Glore is al- love and throw yourself our country. It changed our tough interview with an ad- ready working on several new into it,” she says. “I al- world. It certainly changed ministration offi cial, and then fi lms and TV series. They range waysA thought that would be how I was perceived as a Mus- the next day turning around from animated to unscripted, law because I love to write, I lim woman in this country. It and interviewing Yo-Yo Ma or narrative and episodic an- love to argue, and I love really just pulled the rug out talking to Ray Allen about his thology, “but they all fi t that learning new things. I from under me.” NBA career,” Nawaz says. architecture of: How do we thought every new case Amid rising Islamophobia, At a Fortune magazine con- do something diff erent? How would off er that.” she felt scrutinized for “being ference, Nawaz brought rigor do we see the unseen?” she says. But after graduating from a visible brown woman in and scarcely concealed out- “It feels like an exciting new Penn, she needed a break from America.” On the subway, she rage to her interrogation of chapter,” Glore adds, “and I’m school and accepted a year- nervously turned her grand- former US secretary of all about new chapters.” long fellowship at ABC News’ mother’s prayer ring around homeland security Kirstjen —Molly Petrilla C’06 Nightline. A few weeks later, to conceal its Arabic script. Nielsen about the Trump ad-

74 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Photograph courtesy PBS NewsHour “There are ministration’s policy of fami- Islander communities, and California, where Sofi ’s ly separation at the southern no good guys shared an Emmy Award for mother also was waiting. “I border. The encounter re- an NBC News Special, Inside lived every minute of that fl ected Nawaz’s passion for or bad guys, or the Obama White House. story,” Nawaz says. For an- stories about women and good countries or In 2015, ABC off ered her a other piece, she traveled to children, and especially im- job anchoring its livestream Brazil to report on the wel- migrants and refugees. bad countries.” coverage. “It was a chance to come extended to Venezue- Journalism is the family help build something,” she lan refugees fl eeing econom- business, though Nawaz nev- says. She joined the network ic and political chaos. er expected to enter it. Her fa- seven months pregnant with “There are no good guys or ther, a Pakistani broadcast “and I immediately felt this her second child, and after a bad guys, or good countries journalist, came to the US in pull, like I had to be there.” few weeks of maternity leave, or bad countries,” Nawaz the early 1970s to attend Co- She knew she had found plunged into anchoring elec- says. “It’s our job to add the lumbia University’s Graduate her path. Still, she sometimes tion coverage and other break- complexity and nuance. And School of Journalism and felt isolated. “One of the ing news. (Her husband, Paul the Brazil trip hit perfectly at stayed. Her mother joined things I’ve always felt I was Werdel, a fellow journalist and the intersection of the things him soon afterwards, aban- lacking was other women former product director for that I always try to guide my doning her medical studies in who look like me, and I think the New York Times, has since journalism with: you give a Pakistan and devoting herself that’s been a challenge,” she become the primary caregiver voice to the people who don’t to raising three daughters. says, “and it continues to be a for their two daughters.) have any power, and then “We had kind of a dual up- challenge for a number of At ABC, Nawaz reported a you hold the people who do bringing,” Nawaz, the middle women of color. Because of- documentary from the Texas have power to account.” child, recalls. School years tentimes you look ahead at Panhandle, Roberts County: A During the pandemic, were spent in Alexandria, Vir- the job that you know you Year in the Most Pro-Trump Nawaz has covered the expe- ginia, and summers in Paki- can do, and that you think Town, and hosted a podcast, rience of frontline medical stan, “to see our family and you need a chance to do, but Uncomfortable, about issues workers and vaccine rollouts learn our language and our there hasn’t been someone dividing the country. When in Virginia and West Virginia, culture and our history,” she like you in the role.” Donald Trump W’68 won the and hosted a podcast series, says. “We grew up straddling After working as a produc- presidency, she says, “we knew America, Interrupted: The both worlds and cultures, er and investigative journal- it was going to challenge us, Longest Year. She reported something a lot of fi rst-gener- ist, Nawaz became the Islam- and I think that defi nitely from the US Capitol grounds ation kids can relate to.” abad bureau chief and corre- proved to be true.” Forcing the during the January 6 riots At Penn, she captained the spondent for NBC, reporting press to confront the spread of and, in March, traveled to the fi eld hockey team; majored in on Pakistan, Afghanistan, misinformation and polariz- southern border to explore politics, philosophy, and eco- and the region. Her back- ing political rhetoric, she adds, the plight of unaccompanied nomics; and spent the spring ground, including her fl uen- “pushed us to be better.” children and other migrants. semester of her junior year cy in Urdu, “absolutely was In 2018, she accepted an of- With the ongoing public studying abroad at the Uni- an advantage,” she says. She fer by PBS NewsHour to com- health and economic crises versity of Zimbabwe. Re- covered the US raid on Osa- bine anchoring and report- and America’s attempt to re- searching her senior thesis on ma bin Laden’s compound ing, along with “thoughtful defi ne its place in the world, “the viability of democracy in and the Taliban attempt to storytelling and space for “there are so many problems fl edgling states,” she saw, in murder Malala Yousafzai, a thoughtful conversations”— that need urgent addressing,” the country’s descent into vio- Pakistani activist for female what she calls “the dream job says Nawaz, now back in her lence, “what happens when a education who later won the for a journalist.” childhood hometown of Alex- democracy crumbles.” Nobel Peace Prize. For NewsHour, Nawaz fol- andria. “Anyone who thought After Nightline, Nawaz During her fi rst pregnancy, lowed the journey of an asy- things would slow down after completed a master’s degree Nawaz relocated to New York lum-seeking three-year-old the Trump administration in comparative politics at the City. She covered foreign af- Mexican girl, Sofi , separated was sorely mistaken. If any- London School of Economics. fairs, oversaw a new multi- from her grandmother at the thing, there are more stories Meanwhile, though, “the US platform project aimed at the Texas border. They were re- that we need to be telling war in Iraq started,” she says, Asian American and Pacifi c united seven weeks later in right now.” —Julia M. Klein

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 75 ALUMNI Henry “Hank” Gutman C’72

to lock up those two-wheel- Outside Track ers. He’s also being pressed to speed up bus service with ex- How a retired intellectual property lawyer clusive lanes and aims to al- became NYC’s transportation commissioner. ter the way goods move through the city. And he’s pushing to make permanent ave I flunked retire- was named commissioner of Now Gutman’s daunting the new car-free outdoor ment?” jokes Henry New York City’s Department of mission—and he only has un- gathering zones and sidewalk “Hank” Gutman Transportation, a $1.3 billion til the end of the year (and dining locations that popped C’72, responding to annual operation with about the mayor’s term) to shape up during the pandemic. recent New York 6,000 employees. A surprising it—is to help make the city’s “As an unexpected byprod- “Hmedia grumblings about a choice for such a big job, he streets safer and more ac- uct of the pandemic, we’ve dis- 70-year-old “outsider” with was tapped by a longtime ad- commodating for pedestri- covered alternate uses of the “little experience” in the field mirer, Mayor Bill de Blasio, ans, bicyclists, and public streets with long-term benefits taking over a critical city agency. to replace Polly Trottenberg, transportation users. His and can tap into stimulus Postponing retirement plea- who’d left to join the Biden city-rethinking “to-dos” in- money and infrastructure sures like sailing and playing administration as Pete Butti- clude adding multiple miles money to help us maximize tennis with his family in Nan- gieg’s deputy in the US De- of new bike lanes and boule- our efforts,” Gutman says. tucket, Gutman in February partment of Transportation. vards and 20,000 secure slots “Thousands of people have

76 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Photograph courtesy NYC Department of Transportation transitioned to healthy, pollu- cial and political upheaval,” he man started to understand “where kids study in what tion-free bike commuting. So recalls. “The Vietnam War the machinations at the De- looks like a place of business now we have to make their was a major concern, of partment of Transportation. and then get summer jobs at rides safer with better planned course. I thought I would go Those de Blasio appoint- actual businesses in the yard,” lanes and give them more to law school”—Harvard as it ments came during an auspi- as well as a graduate film places to secure their bikes. turned out—“and then use cious time for Gutman, who school program that collabo- “Why should Rome and that knowledge to be a public was already into overtime at rates with Steiner Studios, Paris be the only cities service do-gooder, maybe get his law firm despite a man- one of the earliest tenants of praised for outdoor dining into politics. But then I got se- date that partners retire at the Navy Yard and the largest with great food? New York duced by Wall Street, fell like age 62. (He managed to film and TV production facili- now has that, too. And why Zelig into all these amazing squeeze out an extra two ty outside of Los Angeles. can’t we also adopt the Euro- opportunities with clients like years to complete a huge At his appointment, de Bla- pean model for moving goods CBS, Intel, Verizon, Apple, and global fraud case.) “There’s sio hailed Gutman as “a vision- around town in small pedal Lotus. Now I’ve finally come one good thing about a forced ary leader whose decades of carts and electric vehicles full circle … with my first paid exit in your early sixties—you civic life in this city have made that don’t clog up the streets, government job since I was a still have the energy and en- New York City fairer, better, pollute, and disrupt life in the law clerk in 1976.” thusiasm to start another ca- and more accessible.” poorer neighborhoods?” For 20 years, Gutman, a reer,” he says, adding that his As for the ticking clock of Gutman is an unlikely longtime Brooklyn Heights 100-year-old father, William accomplishing his goals be- choice to solve these urban resident, has been voluntarily Gutman ChE’42 “has wisely fore a new mayor is elected concerns. He made his mark beating the drum, doing pro counseled: ‘The angel of in November and sworn in as the chief intellectual prop- bono legal work and other- death has a hard time hitting on January 1, Gutman is erty lawyer at the firm Simp- wise helping clear the way for a moving target.’ I think those thriving on it. son Thacher & Bartlett, tus- the redevelopment of the bor- are words to live by. We all “Some might view this job sling over the ownership ough’s downtrodden water- know stories of people who as a lame-duck appointment. rights to “microprocessor de- front into the now impressive retire and do nothing and I see it as having a tight time- sign, software programs, net- 85-acre Brooklyn Bridge Park, end up dying soon after. So table for getting things done,” work interface cards, mono- designed by the globally re- why go there, when there’s al- he says. “Some things we can clonal antibodies, stereo iso- nowned Michael Van Valken- ways stuff to do?” get done in a year, others mers” and more in litigation burgh (who also designed Under his leadership and we’ll get underway or will be that took him before the US Penn Park). That’s where thanks to a “great CEO and long-range projects where we Supreme Court and around then-New York City Council- management team,” the have a good plan in place. So the world. But he believes the man de Blasio first saw Gut- Brooklyn Navy Yard has dou- whoever the next mayor is problem-solving and story- man in action, confidently bled occupancy under Gut- will hopefully find it attrac- telling skills he learned in his unsnarling bureaucratic red man’s watch to “bring quality tive and finish the work. A past career will help guide tape, chasing off corrupt play- manufacturing and creative sense of urgency can be bene- him in his new one. “I think ers, and working the room at jobs to the city when people ficial if you use it properly. At it helps to be an outsider,” he neighborhood meetings. said it was impossible,” he this stage of my career, it says. “I’m someone who will Seven years ago, de Blasio says. More than 500 tenants, gives me the opportunity to ask the hard questions and began asking Gutman to take collectively representing make a contribution—hope- not take the bureaucratic on more civic-minded roles— about 12,000 jobs, are spread fully a lasting contribution. ‘That’s the way we’ve always first as the unpaid chair for over 300-plus acres, and busi- “There’s a whole different done it’ as an answer.” the nonprofit development nesses range “from the larg- kind of satisfaction in help- It’s an ideology and second corporation steering the est rooftop soil-based farm in ing to create things that calling that’s been gnawing at Brooklyn Navy Yard, a gig North America to the leading make a difference in people’s him since his freshman year Gutman still retains. More maker of body armor for the lives and things that will out- at Penn, when he participated recently, he participated on military … [to] the oldest live you. They won’t remem- in a College Hall sit-in to pro- the mayor’s expert panel continually operating spirits ber you, but it doesn’t matter. test the gentrification of Uni- helping to salvage the crum- distiller in New York,” Gut- The satisfaction you get is versity City. “It was an alto- bling Brooklyn–Queens Ex- man says. He also touted an from the doing.” gether tumultuous time of so- pressway. That’s where Gut- on-site STEAM high school —Jonathan Takiff C’68

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 77

ALUMNI Notes We Want to Hear from You

“We’ve recently authored EMAIL [email protected] Please include your school and year, along a book together, ... published with your address and a daytime telephone number. We include email addresses only when requested or obviously implied. just a few days before we Please note, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gazette offices are closed until further notice and we cannot retrieve daily postal mail. welcomed our ninth child. ... Email is preferred. ALUMNI NOTE DEADLINES 7/15 for the All eight siblings love the Sep|Oct issue; 9/15 for Nov|Dec; 11/15 for Jan|Feb; 1/15 for Mar|Apr; 3/15 for new baby and don’t yet care May|Jun; and 5/15 for Jul|Aug. Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–16, 2021! much about the book.” 1961 —Kent Lasnoski C’05 and Caitlin Lukens Lasnoski C’05 H. Robert Fiebach W’61 L’64 has been honored by the Pennsylvania Bar Association with an annual award in his name. Formerly from Marquis Who’s Who in America and Mar- known as the Promotion of Women in the 1948 quis Who’s Who in American Law. He is a life- Law Award, the Robert Fiebach Promotion Hon. Harold Berger EE’48 L’51 has been time honorary trustee of the Federation of of Women in the Law Award recognizes Penn- honored by a Special Philadelphia City Council Jewish Charities of Philadelphia and the re- sylvania law fi rms, solo practitioners, and Resolution recognizing his public service and cipient of the Children of the American Dream other organizations providing legal services contributions to academia and the national Award of HIAS for leadership in the civic, legal, that have instituted programs that help wom- legal community. Harold is a World War II US academic, and Jewish communities. en lawyers continue to advance their careers. Army veteran and serves Penn in multiple Robert is senior counsel at the law fi rm Coz- roles, including on the board of advisors of the en O’Connor, in its commercial litigation School of Engineering and Applied Science, as 1952 department; and he is also cochair of the chair of the Friends of Biddle Law Library, and John S. Thomas CE’52 has authored a fi rm’s legal malpractice group. as a member of the executive board of Penn new book, Astronomical Weather. From the Law’s Center of Ethics and the Rule of Law. In book’s description: “Curtailing carbon fuels addition, he was the recipient of the inaugural will cause economic chaos across the world 1962 Lifetime Commitment Award of Penn Law. as we have no economic alternative. Astro- Leon Lewis G’62 is editor of a new book of Among items recognized were his service as nomical Weather informs the reader of the essays by fi lmmakers and fi lm scholars discuss- chair of the National Committee on the Fed- character of this global warming threat; and ing cinematographer John Alton. Published by eral and State Judiciary of the Federal Bar As- assesses its validity.” McFarland, the book is titled John Alton: Essays sociation, his service as a judge of the Philadel- on the Cinematographer’s Art and Craft. phia Court of Common Pleas, and his receipt Steve Stovall W’62 ASC’63 writes, “Wel- of the Special Service Award of the Pennsylva- 1953 come to Denver. Not! Moved here after 24 years nia Conference of State Trial Judges. Harold Dr. Monroe E. Trout C’53 M’57 has been on a ranch in southwestern Colorado to be also served as chair of the aerospace law com- awarded the Winston Churchill Leadership nearer to kids and better medical facilities. Not mittees of the American, Federal, and Inter- Medal by America’s National Churchill Mu- so sure what a good idea that was. Back in the American Bar Associations, chaired the Inter- seum, which is located on the Westminster country, I always knew where my keys were: in national Conferences on Global Interdepen- College campus in Fulton, Missouri. He was whatever car truck or tractor I drove last. Wel- dence at Princeton University and was elected recognized for his community service and come to the big, bad city. Night before inaugu- to the International Academy of Astronautics longtime contributions in the areas of educa- ration, thieves stole all four wheels off of our in Paris. A cofounder and managing partner tion, healthcare, and the arts. Monroe is chair ancient BMW. Same night someone broke into emeritus of Berger & Montague, Harold is a emeritus of American Healthcare Systems and the building where our mailboxes reside and recipient of a National Achievement Award Cytyc Incorporated, now known as Hologic. stole all the mail from all of us in the complex.

80 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Events

Can’t wait until we fi nd a small suburban home ily therapy. It is in its second edition (2015). outside the big, bad city. At least I don’t have to From 1990 to 1997, during the collapse of the plow snow. And leave the keys in the tractor.” Soviet Union and its aftermath and while I was a professor at Loyola, I provided consultation Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–16, 2021! to Polish university schools of social work, and spent much time developing and codirecting 1966 a social work program at Vytautas Magnus ALUMNI WEEKEND Phyllis Maletzky Fisher CW’66 and He- University in Kaunas, Lithuania. We (30 volun- Alumni Weekend 2021 will not be lene Hollander Lepkowski CW’66 teers from universities and practice settings held as an in-person event but will be reconceived with virtual programs held GRP’78 write, “Dear 1966 Class Women: over the world) developed collegially what is May 14–15, 2021. Please visit: www. Don’t miss our Women’s Cross-Country now a fl ourishing bachelor’s, master’s, and alumni.upenn.edu/alumniweekend. Brunch Zoom Event, scheduled for Thursday, doctoral level program, with a focus on social May 13, at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT. Our featured development and development of practice, ap- VIRTUAL speaker will be classmate Laurie Burrows propriate for that part of the world with its In light of ongoing global health concerns, Grad CW’66. We’ll also have time to con- history. It was the fi rst social work university visit www.alumni.upenn.edu/clubs to find nect and chat in smaller groups as well. program in Lithuania.” the latest information on Regional Club Though we will miss being together in per- Bruce Rocheleau C’67 has published In- events in your area. And be sure to check son, we look forward to this virtual event!” dustry First: The Attack on Conservation by out www.alumni.upenn.edu/govirtual for For questions and registration, email phyllis. Trump’s Interior Department. The book is an abundance of virtual events and digital fi [email protected] or [email protected]. available on Amazon Kindle. Bruce is a pro- resources available for alumni. fessor emeritus in the department of public administration at Northern Illinois Univer- 1967 sity and now resides in Delray Beach, Florida. Urban Renewal, 1915–2020. From the pub- Robert Constable SW’67 GrS’70 writes, “I lisher’s press materials: “[The book] provides have been remiss in not keeping Alumni Notes a recontextualization of American gentrifi ca- current with my publications and other develop- 1969 tion, planning, and policymaking. He argues ments since my doctoral graduation. However, David Barudin W’69 writes, “I’m excited to that gentrifi cation must be understood as an I owe a real debt to the School of Social Work announce that Alternate Routes: Coming of Age urban phenomenon with historical roots in and to my mentors, professors Lloyd Setleis, in America’s Largest Generation is now available the very early 20th century.” Harold Lewis, and Mollie Utkoff , for helping me as a Kindle e-book and paperback. It’s a true-life Dr. Arnold Meshkov C’71 M’75 GM’79 to develop as a practitioner and scholar. Their picaresque tale of a couple’s adventures traveling writes: “Disappointed that my 50th Reunion insights and understanding of social work can America’s squiggly, black, alternate routes on is postponed in person, but necessary. I am be found in whatever I have done. I began an roadmaps. Set in the mid-1970s during a time of still practicing cardiology in Abington, Penn- academic career in 1970 and retired as a full social upheaval, the trip is a treasure hunt of sylvania, after leaving an academic position professor at Loyola University Chicago in 1997 surprises and unexpected encounters with col- at Temple University School of Medicine in to go back to my fi rst love, which was social orful characters. … Readers of any generation 2015. Norma and I have now been married 50 work practice with couples and families in my will likely recognize in this true-life novel some years (after our wedding, we moved into the own private practice and in an inner-city parish. of their own formative dilemmas and experi- Grad Towers on campus—smallest apartment This direct contact with people’s needs fed my ences.” Alternate Routes is David’s debut novel. ever but it was great for us). We have two chil- further writing. I have written at diff erent times He lives in Southwest Virginia with his wife. dren, Adam and Karen, and four grandchil- about social work values and ethics, social work Dr. Richard W. Cohen C’69, a psychia- dren, all of whom live near us. I think so often education, school social work, and social work trist practicing in Philadelphia, has been of my nine years on the Penn campus (college, with families. One of my books, School Social appointed to the editorial advisory board of med school, internship) as the true best and Work: Practice, Policy and Research, chronicles Clinical Psychiatric News. formative years of my life. I’ve had four best the development of school social work as a spe- friends for over 50 years now, all classmates: cialization through eight diff erent editions from Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–16, 2021! Ira Garr C’71, Dr. Bruce Kehr C’71, Dr. 1982 through 2015. Another, Social Work with John Cullen C’71 V’75, and Rand Agins Couples and Families: Content and Process, out- 1971 C’71 L’74. I am proud to say that I have writ- lines what is the content and process of social Dennis E. Gale GCP’71 has written a new ten a book that will be published in April, work practice, with a heavy integration of the book, The Misunderstood History of Gentri- called Chasing the Widowmaker: The History many developments in the parallel fi eld of fam- fi cation: People, Planning, Preservation, and of the Heart Attack Pandemic, telling the

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 81 ALUMNI Notes

story of the amazing advances that have oc- Reunion in 2023. Larry Finkelstein W’73 years. ... My book describes the current state of curred in the last 70 years to prevent the heart L’76, Wendella Fox CW’73 L’76, Bill Keller 10 forces—capitalism, technology, the internet, attack. Looking forward to an in-person re- C’73, Mark Maas C’73, Robert Drumheller politics, media, education, human nature, the union next year! Wishing good health to all.” C’73, and I traded memories of Penn days, past environment, population, and transportation— Rev. Dr. Bill Nelsen Gr’71, who has a reunions, and wistful thoughts of those we’d like and how they are driving society in predomi- PhD in political science, was recently select- to see again. Lots of time to plan and perhaps to nantly negative ways. I describe the salient ed by AARP Minnesota as one of its “50 Over meet virtually for some class events in advance. features of each and, most important, how 50” honorees for 2020. He writes, “I was rec- We’re eager to be in touch with anyone who has powerful and critically interconnected they are.” ognized as one of the 50 most accomplished 50th Reunion ideas and organizational energy. and inspirational Minnesotans (and one of (Quite a few more have already signed on since 10 in the nonprofi t sector), all noted for ‘cou- to pitch in.) Most importantly—we need help 1975 rageous, compassionate, and selfl ess acts of fi nding contact info for those others in the Class Burton Nadler C’75 GEd’78, the former service by Minnesotans over the age of 50.’ of 1973 for whom Penn has no email address. director of the University of Rochester’s Career AARP noted my leading Scholarship Ameri- Please send alumni news, and contact details, and Internship Center, has written a new book, ca to become the nation’s largest private- etc., to [email protected], and stay iCan Succeed Handbook: The Simple and Vi- sector scholarship organization and my en- alert for plans as they unfold.” able Guide to Internships, Careers, Admissions, tering parish ministry at the age of 66. I Networking and More. From the book’s press currently serve as interim pastor of First materials: “iCAN is an acronym that identifi es Lutheran Church in St. Peter, Minnesota.” 1974 techniques and requisite optimism related to Dennis J. Curran C’74 G’74 has been internships, careers, admissions, networking, named Professor of the Practice in the po- and related achievements. ... The guide includes 1972 litical science department of Tufts Univer- time-tested steps and overviews how clearly Deborah Willig CW’72 has been select- sity. Dennis was a Boston trial attorney for expressed fi eld, function, and fi rm-focused ed as a 2021 ‘Women Leaders in the Law’ by 23 years and later served as a Massachusetts goals can be attained using comprehensive yet legal media publisher ALM. Deborah is man- trial judge for another 15 years. simple personalized strategies.” aging partner of Willig, Williams & Davidson, Walter E. Jospin W’74 was honored on Jay Rogoff C’75 has authored a new book a labor, employment, workers’ compensation, April 13 at the Anti-Defamation League’s 2021 of poetry, Loving in Truth: New and Selected and family law fi rm in Philadelphia. Virtual Jurisprudence Luncheon with the Elbert Poems. He writes, “With over 100 poems from P. Tuttle Jurisprudence Award. The award is my six previous books and over 40 new po- given in recognition of individuals in the legal ems, it stands as a strong summation of my 1973 community who best exemplify Judge Tuttle career as a poet.” Dr. Jay Rabinowitz C’73 has retired after and ADL’s steadfast mission to secure justice Mark Silow C’75, chair of the law fi rm Fox 40 years as founder and senior pediatrician and fair treatment for all people. Walter is a Rothschild LLP, has been named to the Power at Parker Pediatrics and Adolescents in Park- partner with the law fi rm Finch McCranie LLP. 100 list by the Philadelphia Business Journal. er, Colorado, where his associates include Brian B. Lambert PT’74 writes, “I retired This list recognizes leaders who have helped Amy Hourigan Gensler EAS’89 and Brian recently after 44 years in private PT practice expand and strengthen the Greater Philadel- Stanga C’98. He recently received the Career in the Springville, Utah, area. My practice phia business community. Mark is noted for Teaching Scholar Award from the University emphasis was orthopaedic/sports medicine having “negotiated the only signifi cant deal of Colorado Medical School, where he is a rehab. During my career, I built a successful completed by a large Philadelphia law fi rm clinical professor in pediatrics. During his private practice with three clinics and two [in 2020] ... acquiring 21-lawyer San Francisco- career, he served as the fi rst president of the hospital contracts.” based Greene Radovsky Maloney Share & medical staff at Parker Adventist Hospital, was Elizabeth Titus GEd’74 WG’82 see Hennigh LLP,” which nearly doubled Fox’s a speaker at American Academy of Pediatrics Dominika Jaworski Turkcan SPP’12. presence in the Bay Area. annual meetings on the topic of integrating Brian T. Watson C’74 GAr’78 has written mental health into one’s medical practice, and a new book, Headed into the Abyss: The Story wrote Cute Kidbits: Funny Conversations Kids of Our Time and the Future We’ll Face. He 1977 Share with Their Pediatrician. writes, “After graduation, I practiced architec- Bruce Curley C’77 writes, “Based on my 40 Anita Sama CW’73 writes, “Looking well ture professionally until 2002, and then became years of professional and volunteer American past a year some of us would like just to forget, a full-time journalist, writing columns for the civil defense work, I’ve founded a company, a few of us got together one March afternoon for Salem News in Massachusetts until 2017, when Tactical Civil Defense, to prepare parents and a Zoom chat to begin thinking about our 50th I stopped to write a book. I completed it in two grandparents to teach their children and

82 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 grandchildren survival skills. I am on the ad- Jewish Community Center of Greater Balti- Joe Jablonski C’81 L’87 has written his fi rst visory board of the National Museum of Civil more at the 2021 Baltimore Jewish Hall of novel, A Thing with Feathers, under the nom de Defense, and I’m also the volunteer vice presi- Fame. According to the press release, this plume J. John Nordstrom. From the book’s press dent of the American Civil Defense Association, event “honors exceptional Jewish Baltimor- materials: “[The book] tells the tale of two trou- where I’ve written civil defense articles for the eans who have made signifi cant contributions bled lawyers who fi nd redemption in soulmate Journal of Civil Defense. My latest article is to the local and global community through love, after they meet, quite unexpectedly, as ‘Children and Civil Defense.’ Please go to TAC- their life’s work in fi elds such as science, edu- coworkers in a county law library. ... Underlying DA.org to read these articles and for free, prac- cation, business, medicine, law, politics, com- the events in the novel is the fi ctive, and quintes- tical, family-oriented preparation material to munity service, sports and the arts.” sentially romantic, dream of a modern-day Ed- deal with natural and man-made disasters.” gar Allan Poe meeting a modern-day Emily Robert J. Walczer W’77 has been ap- Dickinson in the 21st century. ... Based on a true pointed director of sales for the northeastern 1980 story, this novel is fi ctional autobiography.” Joe US at SunMed, a manufacturer of respira- Robert S. Greenvald C’80, who is known writes, “The University of Pennsylvania is men- tory and anesthesia devices. Robert writes, professionally as Rabbi Reuven Greenvald, tioned numerous times throughout the novel.” “SunMed has an advantage servicing the has been appointed director of the program Kyra McGrath L’81 writes, “I’m joining hospital and outpatient centers due to their for fi rst-year rabbinical and cantorial stu- the board of PRX (Public Radio Exchange), North American–based production centers. dents at the Hebrew Union College–Jewish a media company specializing in audio jour- With the recent acquisition on Westmed In- Institute of Religion. He writes, “First-year nalism and storytelling, which distributes corporated, SunMed is now over $180 million students begin their fi ve-year graduate pro- iconic public radio programs like This Amer- in sales. My responsibilities now include gram in Jerusalem, and so I will be relocating ican Life and The World and also produces a managing a sales force of six full-time reps to Israel in June, where I’m looking forward growing list of podcasts including the Radio- and several distributors while also training to connecting with many Penn peers who are topia network. Each month PRX reaches over and in-servicing medical staff and clinicians.” already living over there.” 28.5 million listeners and generates in excess Dr. William B. Neusidl EE’80 was re- of 70 million downloads.” cently honored for 35 years of membership in Roy A. Seliber W’81 has written a memoir, 1978 the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He The Race Is Long: Life Fragments from John A. Chatzky C’78 see Phil Stekl C’81. holds three patents and invented the Neusidl Dorchester to Whidbey Island. He writes, “The Corneal Inserter for corneal transplants. He Race is Long follows my path from a working- writes, “My career has been a great combina- class Dorchester neighborhood of triple-deck- 1979 tion of bioengineering and ophthalmology.” ers in Boston all the way to Seattle’s Whidbey Michael S. Hoff man W’79 writes, “I’m Island. On the journey, I learned that life has pleased to check in. Since 2018, when I moved Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–16, 2021! been one long endurance eff ort. My decades from Cambridge to southern Vermont, I’ve of running have provided me much fulfi ll- embarked on my ‘cherry’ career. I’ve estab- 1981 ment, as well as the delayed gratifi cation nec- lished HeartStorm Farmstead, an agritourism David Cohen C’81 EAS’81 G’81 L’86 essary to get me through everything from destination: 11 acres of beautiful meadows, WG’86 has produced a fi lm, Space MOMs, completing marathons to surviving lympho- farmland, and trails. Ahead of COVID, it’s been released by 1091 Pictures and Random Media. ma and the current COVID-19 pandemic.” an ideal setting to be free and host family and He writes, “Space MOMs is inspired by the true Phil Stekl C’81 writes, “Although my com- friends. We have 50-plus animals (alpacas, story of normal working moms who played petitive rowing career did not begin or end at goats, hens, dogs, and cats). Southern Vermont crucial roles as engineers on India’s 2014 Mars the University of Pennsylvania, it did benefi t is both American rural and culturally eclectic. Orbiter Mission (MOM). It is an inspiring there in ways that only that program would My two sons are well established in their ca- story of underfunded underdogs fi ghting to yield. The singularity came courtesy of the man reers in health and with their families. I have overcome impossible odds. The movie is now who led it: Theodore ‘Ted’ Allison Nash. As far a share in a grandson and granddaughter. available on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, as I am concerned, Ted and the other young After a career of travel and business, this is a Xbox, VUDU, and FandangoNOW, as well as men joining ranks to be guided by him are healthy contrast of peace and hosting. Come on several cable and satellite systems.” what made Penn ‘Penn’ to me. My strong fi nd your way to www.heartstormvt.com.” Niloofar M. Haeri C’81 Gr’91, a profes- hunch is that I am not alone in making that Marc Platt C’79, a producer whose projects sor of anthropology and program chair of claim. Forty-plus years after my last race under include Broadway’s Wicked [“Passion Plays,” Islamic studies at Johns Hopkins University, Ted’s leadership, I can still hear his command- May|June 2016] and the movies La La Land has written Say What Your Longing Heart ing voice and feel the charge of passion that and Legally Blonde, has been honored by the Desires: Women, Prayer, and Poetry in Iran. he infused into the sport and, in turn, into my

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 83 ALUMNI Notes

soul. I have recently published a book, titled edition of their book, America’s Scientifi c Trea- chief community health equity offi cer at The Wondrous Sport of Rowing, with a fore- sures: A Travel Companion. From the press Thomas Jeff erson University in Philadelphia. word by fellow Penn grad and cherished team- materials: “[The book] takes readers to mu- She also serves in the university’s health sys- mate John A. Chatzky C’78, which, although seums, homes of famous scientists, geological tem as the chief medical offi cer of Thomas not a direct account of the man, was born of formations, botanical gardens, zoos, observa- Jeff erson University Hospitals. what he emitted: commitment, excellence, tories... [It] contextualizes the historical sig- Dr. Amy Hourigan Gensler EAS’89 see community. For me, no other person has em- nifi cance and uniqueness of each site, in ad- Dr. Jay Rabinowitz C’73. bodied these messages—with as much energy dition to providing information like address- Scott Krase W’89 see Jillian Wynn and caring resolve—as has Ted A. Nash.” es, telephone numbers, hours of entry, hand- Pohly C’91. icapped accessibility, dining, transportation, Lisa Niver C’89 is a fi nalist for a National and the corresponding website. ... Whether Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award in 1982 you are planning a road trip or looking to en- the Book Critic category. She writes, “Cross Jody Ellant W’82 L’87 writes, “After nine gage with history from the comfort of your your fi ngers that I am a winner! In February, months in self-imposed pandemic sequester, couch, [this book] is sure to satisfy your crav- I gave my fi rst keynote speech (virtual) at a mostly here at my home in Connecticut, I was ing for scientifi c and technologic history.” travel conference. I would love to connect with surprised and delighted to have been select- fellow alums in the book space as I am working ed by Managing IP Magazine as one of the Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–16, 2021! on my memoir. More about my writing, awards 50 most infl uential people in intellectual and videos with over 1.3M views can be found property in 2020. As a reformed complex real 1986 on my website, lisaniver.com/one-page.” estate transaction attorney, it is truly a hoot Dr. David Biro C’86 has written his fi rst David Perry L’89 see David Dwares L’88. to be honored for work that I stumbled into novel, This Magnifi cent Dappled Sea. His fi rst Wendy Prager C’89 see Jillian Wynn defending our family business.” work was a book of nonfi ction titled The Lan- Pohly C’91. guage of Pain: Finding Words, Compassion, and Relief [“Arts,” Mar|Apr 2011]. 1983 John K. Fiorillo W’86 has been elected 1990 Shaun Eli Breidbart W’83 is a stand-up president of the Chester County Bar Associa- David J. Glass C’90, a family law attorney comedian and head of Liberty Comedy, an tion for 2021. John is an attorney at Unruh and former therapist, writes, “I’ve been re- independent producer of stand-up comedy Turner Burke & Frees and serves as cochair elected managing partner of my fi rm Enen- shows for theaters. He writes, “My corporate of the fi rm’s litigation department and chair stein Pham & Glass. My book, Moving On, title is actually comedian, executive director, of its creditor’s rights department. about reinventing yourself in the fi rst year and chief chocolate offi cer. I toured in New after divorce [“Briefl y Noted,” Jul|Aug 2019], Zealand, Australia, and Thailand just before remains a bestseller on Amazon.com.” the pandemic, bringing the number of con- 1988 Nihal Mehta Gr’90 writes, “My book tinents on which I’ve headlined comedy David Dwares L’88 and David Perry Quantum Computing: Program Next-Gen shows to fi ve. My plans to increase that num- L’89 write, “We are pleased to announce our Computers for Hard, Real-World Applications ber have been delayed by the pandemic, but cofounding of Stratagem Advisors LLC in was just published and is available on Amazon I hope to resume international touring soon.” Washington, DC. Stratagem is a boutique and at fi ne bookstores around the world. Us- consultancy helping established and start-up ing a lot of visuals (over 450), I introduce an property and casualty insurance companies, intuitive way to think about quantum comput- 1985 policyholders, law fi rms, agents/brokers, and ers and explain why they can solve problems Dr. Kieran Cody C’85, an orthopedic other businesses that touch professional li- in minutes that would take supercomputers shoulder specialist at Bucks County Ortho- ability insurance mitigate risks and seize thousands of years. For those who like math, pedic Specialists, was granted approval from opportunities. Our website is www.stratage- there’s lots of that too, but it’s grounded in Pennsylvania’s Department of Health for a madvisorsllc.com.” pictures to drive home the terrifi c beauty of new shoulder replacement protocol. Accord- Jeff Serota W’88 see Jillian Wynn Pohly this new way of computing.” ing to the press release, it is “the fi rst and C’91. only total shoulder replacement program Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–16, 2021! approved for an ambulatory surgery center in eastern Pennsylvania.” 1989 1991 Stephen M. Cohen C’85 and his mother, Dr. Sandra E. Brooks GM’89 has been Jillian Wynn Pohly C’91 is the develop- Brenda H. Cohen, have published the second promoted to executive vice president and ment and marketing coordinator at one2one

84 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 ALUMNI IN BUSINESS A guide for Gazette readers seeking to reach USA Foundation, which was founded by stores and on Target.com. I am so grateful for thethe bbubusinesssiiness serservicesviices off PPenneennn grggraduates.radaduauattees.s Scott Krase W’89, and is where Wendy the early support of many Penn friends and Prager C’89 serves as executive director [see encourage all of my classmates to try it out!” story on our website, dated Feb. 22, 2019]. Edward Palm Gr’93 writes, “I am pleased Jillian sends this update about the founda- to report that Getty Images has accepted 100 tion: “When COVID-19 hit in March 2020, photos I took in Vietnam while serving as an one2one was perfectly poised to quickly cre- enlisted Marine with the Corps’ Combined ate COVID-19 relief programs in communities Action Program. As I reported before, I have across the country. One of the largest pro- published a book about the Combined Action grams created came to us from fellow alum- Program and my life and times, including my nus Jeff Serota W’88 and his wife Peir, who experiences as a graduate student at Penn, wanted to help small businesses in their called Tiger Papa Three: Memoir of a Com- Manhattan Beach, California, community. bined Action Marine in Vietnam.” Working together, the Serotas and one2one raised $600,000 to award 47 grants to local businesses. Two other notable COVID-19 re- 1994 lated programs that were created benefi ted Menno Ellis W’94 writes, “I am current- individuals and businesses in Philadelphia: ly executive vice president of healthcare solu- the Philadelphia Restaurant Workers COV- tions at 3D Systems. This is my third role ID-19 Relief Program awarded over $180,000 with the company, and I am having a blast to 320 Philadelphia restaurant workers; and running an incredible portfolio of 3D print- the Stay Strong Philly Program awarded over ing and other leading technical solutions for $100,000 to small business owners in Phila- the largest pure-play company in this space.” delphia. Another program that was funded, the National Domestic Violence COVID-19 For advertising information, email Linda Caiazzo Relief Program, was created for the sole pur- 1995 at [email protected] or call 215-898-6811. pose of helping women experiencing domes- Debra Pickett C’95 Gr’95 writes, “I’ve tic violence, which has increased sharply due launched a new publication delivering busi- to the pandemic.” ness news and analysis to law fi rm leaders. As publisher of DeNovo (www.denovobrief. com), I’m revisiting the role of columnist that 1998 1992 I began at the Daily Pennsylvanian and con- Rachel Ehrlich Albanese C’98 L’01, a Meera Joshi C’92 L’95 has been appointed tinued at the Chicago Sun-Times from 2001 partner at the law fi rm DLA Piper, has re- by President Joe Biden Hon’13 as deputy admin- to 2005. I also continue to manage Page 2 ceived the New York Institute of Credit istrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Ad- Communications, the legal industry com- Women’s Division’s Executive of the Year ministration, an agency of the US Department munications strategy fi rm I founded in 2010 Award. From the press release: “[The award] of Transportation. Prior to this appointment, after holding media consulting roles on mul- recognizes excellence and entrepreneurial Meera had been a principal and New York gen- tiple political campaigns. Both DeNovo and spirit. ... [It] is presented to individuals who eral manager at Sam Schwartz, a transportation Page 2 are headquartered in Chicago, and I have achieved noteworthy success in busi- consultancy fi rm founded by Sam Schwartz divide my time between my offi ces there and ness and have assisted other women in GCE’70 [“Street Fighter,” Mar|Apr 2016]. the Wisconsin home I share with my hus- achieving their goals.” band and three sons.” Anthony B. Crawford EAS’98 L’12 has been promoted to partner at Reed Smith LLP 1993 Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–16, 2021! in the fi rm’s New York offi ce. As a member of Stacy Sukov Blackman W’93 writes, “In the insurance recovery group, Anthony’s early 2020, I launched Stryke Club, a new skin- 1996 practice focuses on assisting policyholders care line aimed at teen boys. My partner is a Dawn Lanzalotti Luedtke C’96, assis- in complex insurance coverage issues, and pediatric dermatologist, and with her guidance tant attorney general for the state of Mary- his clients range from banking and fi nancial we formulated a line of novel, eff ective, and land, has been appointed to the board of institutions to religious organizations. clean formulas targeting boys’ unique needs. A trustees for Olney Theatre Center, an offi cial Dr. Brian Stanga C’98 see Dr. Jay Rabi- year later we rolled out in over 1,000 Target state theatre of Maryland founded in 1938. nowitz C’73.

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 85 Victor Deupi Gr’99 has published two new 1999 books. He writes, “The fi rst, Cuban Modernism: 2000 Marlyn Attie W’99 writes, “In 2013 I Mid-Century Architecture 1940–1970, was writ- Daniel O. Jackson GEd’00 has written a started and now currently run the nonprofi t ten with Jean-Francois Lejeune. It focuses on new book that will be released in April, Lan- Espacio Creativo (‘Creative Space’) and the the modernist generation of architects active guage Teacher Noticing in Tasks. From the program Enlaces (‘Ties’). Enlaces is a pro- from 1940–1970 and extols the national and in- press materials: “This book provides an acces- gram focused on transforming the lives of ternational importance of their architecture and sible, evidence-based account of how teacher children and adolescents in at-risk situations urban works. Seen comprehensively, the projects noticing, the process of attending to, inter- through the practice of contemporary dance, embody the challenges that the architectural preting, and acting on events which occur strengthening their academic development, avant-garde faced to combine Cuban identity during engagement with learners, can be ex- and off ering psychosocial and family sup- and traditions with the tenets of international amined in contexts of language teacher educa- port. The participants develop abilities that modernism, in a country that was late to em- tion and highlights the importance of refl ec- allow them to improve their quality of life, brace modernity, increasingly under American tive practice for professional development.” grow as agents of change, and become re- infl uence, and on the verge of revolutionary sponsible citizens. If you would like to learn changes. This book in particular highlights a more or support the organization, go to fec. great deal of work from the Penn Architecture 2002 org.pa/en/enlaces/ or follow us on Instagram: professor and chair Mario Romañach, whose Sam Kressler C’02 has been named part- @espaciocreativopty and @programaenlac- drawings, projects, and photographs are in ner at the fi rm Skadden Arps in Tulsa, Okla- es. I look forward to hearing from fellow al- Penn’s Architecture Archives. The second book, homa, with a focus on maritime law. ums and friends who are working with Stables: High Design for Horse and Home, writ- dance/education or vulnerable youth. Con- ten with Oscar Riera Ojeda, showcases beauti- tact me at [email protected] or marlyn@attie. fully designed stables by contemporary archi- 2003 com or via my website, marlynattie.com/en.” tects and designers around the world.” David Pacifi co C’03, an assistant professor Michael F. Schein C’99 has written The of art history at the University of Wisconsin– Hype Handbook: 12 Indispensable Success Milwaukee and director of its Emile H. Mathis Secrets from the World’s Greatest Propagan- Gallery and UWM Art Collection, is coeditor INCREASE AFFECTION dists, Self-Promoters, Cult Leaders, Mischief of a new book, Ancient Households on the Created by Makers, and Bounty Breakers. Michael is the North Coast of Peru. From the publisher’s Winnifred Cutler, founder and president of MicroFame Media, press release: “[The book] provides insight Ph.D. in biology from U. Penn, post- a marketing agency that specializes in turn- into the organization of complex, urban, and doc Stanford. Co- ing consultants, entrepreneurs, and execu- state-level society in the region from a house- discovered human pheromones in tives into celebrities by using the hype con- hold perspective, using observations from 1986 cepts detailed in his book. diverse north coast households to generate Effective for 74% in two 8-week Jonathan Scheinberg C’99 writes, “I re- new understandings of broader social pro- studies and 68% in cently founded Outshine Properties—a real es- cesses in and beyond Andean prehistory.” a 3rd study. tate investment company focused on acquiring PROVEN EFFECTIVE IN 3 life science, lab, medical, and industrial assets DOUBLE-BLIND STUDIES across major markets in the US. I am very ex- INCREASES YOUR 2004 ATTRACTIVENESS cited to continue to acquire fi rst-class real estate Owusu Akoto C’04 was interviewed for an Vial of 1/6 oz. lasts 4-6 months assets in this new platform and hope to add one article on the New York Times’s website (“A tm Unscented Athena 10X For Men $99.50 or two near Penn’s campus in the near future!” look at the Covax program in Ghana, featuring Fragrance 10:13 tm For Women $98.50 Additives Cosmetics Free U.S. Shipping Jarad Schofer C’99 writes, “I am cur- refrigerated trucks and drone deliveries,” ♥ Gary (VA) “I love your product. I am married. rently walking across the US to raise money March 4). His company, FreezeLink, operates I put it in my cologne; there does seem to be a noticeable difference in my wife’s attitude. for cancer research. Cancer is a disease that temperature-controlled trucks that were used Friskiness I would say.” touches all of us in some way, and as an edu- to distribute COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana. ♥ Gwen (CT) 3 orders “Dr. Cutler, you have my cator I believe that funding research is the Read the article at nyti.ms/30s1fhb. deepest respect for what you have done for humanity with your research on best way we can hope for better treatments, pheromones. Its significance drugs, and cures. If any fellow Quakers would cannot be overstated.” like to follow the adventure or donate to my Not in stores 610-827-2200 2005 Athenainstitute.com cause, the information can be found on my Kent Lasnoski C’05 and Caitlin Lukens Athena Institute, 1211 Braefield Rd., Chester Spgs, PA 19425 PGZ Instagram account @jarad2112.” Lasnoski C’05 write, “We’ve recently authored

86 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 a book together, 30 Days with the Married return to Penn’s campus and continue to grow Saints, published by Pauline Books and Media. from the great band members that our alma 2014 It was published just a few days before we wel- mater enrolls each year.” Jasper Sanchez C’14 has published his comed our ninth child on February 18. Our debut novel, The (Un)Popular Vote (Harper- family resides in a small town in Wyoming, Collins). He writes, “This very queer political where all eight siblings love the new baby and 2008 satire would not exist if not for my experi- don’t yet care much about the book.” Olivier Adler W’08 and Erica Nacham- ences with the queer community I found at kin Adler W’10 write, “We welcomed our Penn and in its Gender, Sexuality, and Wom- Celebrate Your Virtual Reunion, May 14–16, 2021! daughter, Aviva Sandra Adler, into our fam- en’s Studies program.” ily in December. Her brother, Aryeh (two), 2006 was thrilled to meet ‘Baby Viva.’ We live in Capt. Thecly H. Scott GNu’06 has been San Francisco where Olivier works for Checkr 2015 named commanding offi cer of the US Navy and Erica for YouTube.” George Li W’15 and Pallavi Bakshi W’15 Medicine Readiness and Training Command Daniel Kiczek C’08 writes, “Patty Riady write, “We are excited to share our new con- in Guam. and I are proud to announce the birth of our sumer products venture with the Penn com- Jamila Willis C’06, a partner at the law fi rst child, Caleb Riady Kiczek, on January 18 munity. Rabble Media aims to redefi ne the at- fi rm DLA Piper, has been named cochair of in Pasadena, California. Patty is a senior man- home entertainment market through innovative the Consumer Goods and Retail subsector of ager in the Los Angeles nonprofi t audit prac- consumer products. Our fi rst product, a party the company’s Consumer Goods, Food and tice of Deloitte & Touche; and I am a director game called Rabble, was released in 2019, with Retail sector. at the strategy consulting fi rm EY-Parthenon.” a second edition launched March 2021. Unlike Joseph J. Lee LPS’08 has been hired as an other party games that rely on heavy drinking associate at the law fi rm White and Williams. and raunchy humor, Rabble is modern, colorful, 2007 He works in the commercial litigation, higher inclusive, gender-neutral, and mission-based. Marco A. Krcatovich II GEd’07 writes, education, and labor and employment groups. We partner with innovative retail concepts and “In 2019, I was elected as the national presi- boutique stores to elevate the brand’s position- dent of Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary ing. The newest version of the game is made Band Fraternity, at our Centennial Conven- 2010 completely with recycled paper and partners tion in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where our or- Erica Nachamkin Adler W’10 see Ol- with female guest illustrators. We hope mem- ganization was founded in 1919. I presided ivier Adler W’08. bers of the Penn community will help us spread over the Centennial celebration, followed the word!” Learn more at rabblegame.com. soon by the COVID-19 pandemic and social justice movements that forced our organiza- 2012 tion to retool the experience at our more than Dominika Jaworski Turkcan SPP’12 2017 200 campuses nationwide for a virtual envi- writes, “I’m a PennPAC volunteer and I work Anna Carello GrEd’17 has been named as- ronment where collegiate band activities have as a pro-bono consultant for Mothers’ Day sociate head of school for academics at Colle- been yet another thing relegated to Zoom. Movement. We are kicking off our 2021 Moth- giate School, an all-boys, K–12 school located The Black Lives Matter movement has helped ers’ Day campaign with DigDeep, a US based on the Upper West Side of New York City. our organization look through our history human rights organization that brings clean and confront our own failings at serving our running water to Americans, with a focus on entire membership and treating our brothers the Navajo Nation. Mothers’ Day Movement 2019 of color diff erently. On July 16, I will no longer grew out of a 2010 column in the New York Rephael Houston LPS’19 has been se- serve as national president, and in that time, Times by Nicholas Kristof, where he made the lected as the 2020–2021 RAND DHS Fellow. we will have adopted a standing Diversity, case for moving the apostrophe in Mother’s Each year, the Department of Homeland Se- Equity, and Inclusion Committee that our Day so it honors not just one mother but un- curity (DHS) and RAND Corporation select a own membership determined its purpose, derserved mothers everywhere. Since 2011, senior DHS analyst to work and study for up upgraded our systems and facilities, and in- the group has raised over $700,000 for wom- to a year at RAND, a nonprofi t global policy vested in new training and development for en’s health, education, infant and maternal think tank. Rephael works within the Cyber- our many volunteers and leaders nationwide mortality, clean water, and human traffi cking. security and Infrastructure Security Agency to better meet the challenges that we will face We will be featured in Ms. magazine in early of DHS as the agency’s CSAT IT program man- on the other side of the pandemic. I look for- May, with an article written by Elizabeth ager in the Offi ce of Chemical Security. ward to the day when our organization can Titus GEd’74 WG’82.”

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 87 ALUMNI Obituaries Notifications 1940 manufacturing plant; Feb. 4. At Penn, he was Please send notifications of deaths Jean Martin McCorkle CW’40, Toronto, a member of Alpha Chi Sigma fraternity. of alumni directly to: Alumni Records, University of Pennsylvania, Suite 300, Ontario, Canada, Dec. 1. Mary Garrett Brown OT’47, Hamilton, 2929 Walnut Street, Phila., PA 19104 VA, an occupational therapist; Jan. 23. EMAIL [email protected] 1941 Catherine Lilly Gray Ed’47, Batavia, OH, Newspaper obits are appreciated. Jacob S. “Jay” Siegel C’41 G’43, Bala a former tax preparer and supervisor at H&R Cynwyd, PA, a social scientist; Oct. 26, at 99. Block; Sept. 16. At Penn, she was a member At Penn, he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa of Chi Omega sorority and the choral society. Robert H. Stovall W’48, Sarasota, FL, a Honor Society. Hermine Wilson Kolsby CW’47 retired Wall Street investment analyst who GEd’74, Delray Beach, FL, a retired teacher appeared on fi nancial programs for TV and 1943 for gifted children in the Lower Merion (PA) radio and wrote columns for Forbes and Fi- Dr. Herbert Diamond C’43 M’47 GM’51, School District; Jan. 14. Her children are nancial World magazine; Dec. 3. He served Bryn Mawr, PA, a former Penn associate pro- Dana Kolsby Edenbaum CW’72, Robert A. in the US Army during World War II. At Penn, fessor of psychiatry; Jan. 31. He joined Penn’s Kolsby C’75, and Paul S. Kolsby C’84. he was a member of the Glee Club, the choral faculty in 1952 as an instructor in the psy- Kenneth R. Lewis ME’47, Atlanta, a retired society, the Army ROTC, and the heavyweight chiatry department of the School of Medi- mechanical engineer at Vishay Intertechnol- rowing team. cine. Ten years later, he became an associate ogy, where he developed the process to manu- in psychiatry at HUP. In 1969, he became an facture electronic components that were used 1949 assistant professor, and in 1975 an associate in the fi rst Mars probe launched by NASA; Dec. Paul E. Macht C’49, Devon, PA, retired professor. He retired in 1987 but remained 13. He served in the US Army during World War president of Sun International, an oil com- involved with Penn as an associate professor II. One granddaughter is Brynne Goncher C’97. pany; Jan. 7. He served in the US Army Air emeritus of psychiatry. His son is Dr. Steven Forces. At Penn, he was a member of Kappa D. Diamond M’84. 1948 Sigma fraternity. Robert F. Walbridge W’43, Decatur, IL, Leonard I. Abel C’48, Chevy Chase, MD, Thomas C. Sayer EE’49, Claymont, DE, former president of the Humane Society of De- a former partner in a construction company; a retired manager at General Electric; Jan. catur; Jan. 29, at 100. He served in the US Army. Jan. 8. He was a veteran of World War II. At 5. He served in the US Army Air Forces. At Penn, he was a member of Zeta Psi fraternity. Penn, he was a member of Phi Sigma Delta David M. Silverman EE’49, State Col- fraternity. His wife is Helen Shapiro Abel lege, PA, a retired engineer; Feb. 5. He served 1944 CW’51, who died Feb. 13 (see Class of 1951). in the US Army during World War II. Roslyn Silvers Denard CW’44, Skillman, His children include Jack W. Abel W’75 and NJ, retired general manager of the Princeton Joy S. Abel C’77. 1950 Packet, where she oversaw a group of 13 re- William J. Devlin GEd’48, Ambler, PA, Linda J. Nelson Ed’50, East Lansing, MI, gional newspapers; Dec. 31. retired fi rst deputy prothonotary of the Phil- a professor emeritus of family ecology at Mich- adelphia Court of Common Pleas; Jan. 9, at igan State University and former internation- 1946 99. He served in the US Marine Corps during al civil servant in Latin America; Jan. 1. Dr. Marvin H. Balistocky C’46 GM’54, World War II and the Korean War. Mary S. Rieser Ed’50 GEd’56, Wyomiss- Philadelphia, an ophthalmologist in Mont- John L. Gregory W’48, Erie, PA, former ing, PA, a retired director of staff development gomery County, PA; Dec. 11. He volunteered manager at a manufacturer of water solutions, in nursing at the Hospital of the University of his medical services at state prisons, hospital such as drains, faucets, and plumbing; Nov. Pennsylvania; Nov. 23. She served in the US clinics, and nursing homes. He served in the 19. He served in the US Navy during World Cadet Nurse Corps during World War II. US Army, as well as the US Navy Reserve and War II and the Korean War. At Penn, he was a Robert M. Sanow C’50, Rochester, NY, the US Coast Guard Reserve. member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. an executive recruiter; Nov. 26. He served in Jeanette Davidson Chestnut DH’46, Hat- Jessie Lois Veith Latimer CW’48, Abing- the US Army during the Korean War. At Penn, boro, PA, a retired dental hygienist; Dec. 31. ton, PA, a homemaker; Oct. 26. At Penn, she he was a member of Kappa Nu fraternity. Gustine Kanarek Matt CW’46, High- was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority. Lawrence Shprintz ChE’50, Havertown, land Park, NJ, a former social worker; Aug. Thomas R. McCullough ME’48, Warm- PA, a photographer and retired chemical en- 17. One son is Jonathan P. Matt C’71. inster, PA, a longtime employee at Unilever; gineer; Oct. 23. The Lawrence Shprintz Dec. 24. He later worked as a director at Best Award for Travel and the Lawrence Shprintz 1947 Foods Baking Group, makers of Arnold Bread. MFA Award are given annually to students Robert P. Bretherick C’47, West Palm He was a veteran of World War II. At Penn, he at Penn’s Weitzman School of Design. One Beach, FL, a retired manager at a chemical was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. grandson is Nathan E. Platnick C’16.

88 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Walter C. Sobers WG’50, Atlanta, GA, a Agency (a precursor to the NSA) during the choral society, the Pennguinnettes, and the retired fi scal coordinator for the State of Korean War. At Penn, he was a member of synchronized swimming team. Georgia; Jan. 5. He served in the US Army Beta Sigma Rho fraternity. One grandson is Hon. Morton I. Greenberg C’54, Prince- during World War II. At Penn, he was a mem- Matthew Jordan Storm C’94 WG’00. ton, NJ, a former judge on the US Court of Ap- ber of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Samuel “Mort” Zulick G’51, Hubertus, peals for the Third Circuit; Jan. 28. At Penn, he Josephine Woodward Zagieboylo WI, a vaccine researcher for Merck; Jan. 19. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. Ed’50, Walpole, MA, a retired occupational served in the US Navy during World War II. One granddaughter is Emily P. Blecker C’12. therapist; Feb. 17. Jon S. Millenson C’54, Niantic, CT, retired 1952 founder of a marketing research fi rm; Feb. 10. 1951 Judith Krantz Altman Ed’52, Midlo- Joseph S. Moloznik W’54 L’57, Philadel- Helen Shapiro Abel CW’51, Chevy Chase, thian, VA, Feb. 11. phia, a retired attorney who maintained a MD, an artist; Feb. 13. At Penn, she was a Patricia Ameisen Herdeg Ed’52, Cherry practice for more than 50 years; Jan. 8. A fi x- member of Sigma Delta Tau sorority. Her hus- Hill, NJ, June 8, 2018. At Penn, she was a ture in his West Philadelphia community, he band is Leonard I. Abel C’48, who died Jan. 8 member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority. Her established the Spruce Hill Community As- (see Class of 1948). Her children include Jack husband is Franklin David Herdeg W’52. Her sociation and was a founding member of the W. Abel W’75 and Joy S. Abel C’77. sister is Denise A. Sheldon CW’47, and her University Swim Club, which is believed to be Rev. Robert L. Adams C’51, Norwalk, IA, brother is Richard A. Ameisen Jr. W’58, who the fi rst private, integrated swim club in Phil- an ordained minister and retired astronomy died Sept. 6 (see Class of 1958). adelphia. He served in the US Army during teacher at the University of South Dakota; the Korean War. At Penn, he was a member of Dec. 18. He served in the US Air force during 1953 Alpha Chi Rho fraternity. His daughters are the Korean War. At Penn, he was a member Dr. C. Peter Chaconas D’53, Silver Beth A. M. Termini C’84 and Karen Moloznik of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Spring, MD, a retired oral surgeon; Feb. 13, Norton MTE’79 GMT’80 WG’81. Charlotte Stein Braunstein Ed’51, 2017. His wife is Jo-Ann Flynn Chaconas Haverford, PA, a retired law librarian and DH’51, who died Dec. 7 (see Class of 1951). 1955 professional pianist; Dec. 27. At Penn, she Robert J. Stewart W’53, York, PA, a law- Dr. Daniel M. Lundblad C’55, Bluff ton, was a member of Delta Phi Epsilon sorority, yer; Feb. 10. He served in the US Marine SC, a retired pathologist at St. Joseph’s Hos- WXPN, and the choral society. Her brother Corps. At Penn, he was a member of Phi pital; Nov. 11. He served in the US Army and is Burton K. Stein L’64. Delta Theta fraternity. the US Army Reserve. At Penn, he was a Jo-Ann Flynn Chaconas DH’51, Silver member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. Spring, MD, a retired dental hygienist; Dec. 1954 7. Her husband is Dr. C. Peter Chaconas D’53, Lida K. Barrett Gr’54, Knoxville, TN, a 1956 who died Feb. 13, 2017 (see Class of 1953). notable mathematician who retired as a pro- Suzanne Mann Cohen CW’56, Margate William B. Eagleson Jr. WG’51, Lafay- fessor of mathematics at West Point; Jan. 28. City, NJ, a former schoolteacher and advertis- ette Hill, PA, chairman emeritus of Mellon She served as the second female president of ing salesperson; Dec. 15. At Penn, she was a Bank; Feb. 5. He served in the US Navy dur- the Mathematical Association of America. member of Sigma Delta Tau sorority. ing World War II. Katherine Cutchins Billingham GEd’54, John R. Haines W’56, Downingtown, Dr. John W. Fague V’51, Shippensburg, Syracuse, NY, former offi ce manager of her PA, former president of CMS Associates; PA, a retired veterinarian; Nov. 23. He served husband’s dental practice; Jan. 30. Her hus- Feb. 7. At Penn, he was a member of Beta in the US Army during World War II. band is Dr. William A. Billingham D’54. Theta Pi fraternity, Friars, Sphinx Senior George B. Kauff man C’51, Fresno, CA, a William B. Boyd Gr’54, Mount Racine, Society, and the track team, where he won retired professor of chemistry at California WI, president emeritus of the Johnson Foun- four consecutive national championships State University; May 2, 2020. dation, a nonprofi t that facilitates meetings in the indoor sprint and was a three-time William R. Schmalstieg G’51 Gr’56, Lan- and dialogue among leaders and changemak- All American. A 1998 inductee of the Penn caster, PA, professor emeritus of Slavic and ers; Dec. 16. Athletics Hall of Fame, he was also a fi nalist Baltic linguistics and head of the department Aims C. “Joe” Coney Jr. L’54, Chagrin in the 1956 Olympic Trials. One son is John of Slavic languages at Penn State; Jan. 22. He Falls, OH, a retired attorney for Pittsburgh’s R. Haines G’88 Gr’09. served in the US Army during the Korean War. K&L Gates for more than 50 years; Jan. 9. Donald E. Hasenfus WEv’56, Woodbury, Matthew Storm W’51, Bristol, CT, a re- Dianne Hawk Dunn CW’54, Hanover, NJ, a longtime medical underwriter and tired attorney who maintained a practice for NH, a volunteer with many conservation and manager at the Penn Mutual Life Insurance more than 50 years; Jan. 2. He served as a equestrian charities; Nov. 30. At Penn, she Company; Dec. 11. He served in the US Army codebreaker for the Armed Forces Security was a member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority, the during the Korean War.

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 89 ALUMNI Obituaries

Harold G. Jacklin Jr. W’56, Gloucester, Penn, he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha Edith G. Gollub Gr’61, Eastchester, NY, MA, owner of an accounting fi rm and a pre- fraternity. His sisters are Denise Ameisen Shel- Jan. 1. cious metals electroplating company; Jan. 6. don CW’47 and Patricia Ameisen Herdeg Ed’52, Hon. Stewart J. Greenleaf C’61, At Penn, he was a member of Sigma Phi Ep- who died on June 8, 2018 (see Class of 1952). Huntingdon Valley, PA, a longtime Pennsyl- silon fraternity. Eileen Abrams Segal CW’58, Cherry vania state senator; Feb. 9. At Penn, he was Dr. Edward T. Mallinson V’56, Silver Hill, NJ, cofounder of PetPals, a nonprofi t a member of the basketball team. One son is Spring, MD, professor emeritus of veterinary that helps medically fragile and poor seniors Christopher E. Greenleaf C’03. medicine at the University of Maryland; Sept. keep their companion animals; Jan. 13. Hon. Jack K. Mandel L’61, Fullerton, CA, 17. At Penn, he was a member of the Army ROTC. Joseph A. Walton C’58, Richmond, VA, a a retired judge in the Orange County (CA) Herbert J. Sperger GEd’56, Jamison, PA, retired lieutenant colonel in the US Army, Superior Court; Dec. 24. He served in the US a retired middle school math teacher; June 6, where he served as a Transportation Corps, Air Force as a Judge Advocate General. 2019. He served in the US Navy during World Infantry, and Special Forces Offi cer in various Harry Scheuer GEE’61, Lexington, VA, War II. One son is Michael C. Sperger C’74. command positions and earned several deco- a retired electrical engineer specializing in Russell K. Tredinnick W’56, Harleysville, rations for his service; Dec. 8. He served in the radar control; Nov. 9. PA, a retired corporate controller at Triangle US Army during the Vietnam War. At Penn, Dr. Douglas B. Stalb D’61, Summerville, Publications, a media company that owned he was a member of the men’s lacrosse team. SC, a retired dentist; Feb. 4. He served in the the Philadelphia Inquirer; Sept. 30. He served US Navy Dental Corps. in the US Army during the Korean War. 1959 Dr. Donald R. Trilling CCC’56 Gr’69, Brother Andrew Bartley G’59, Wynd- 1962 Alexandria, VA, a retired executive at the US moor, PA, a retired director of public aff airs Ann M. Brislin GEd’62, Wilkes Barre, Department of Transportation, where he at La Salle University; May 12, 2019. PA, a retired head nurse for what is now worked on a number of policies for over 32 Arnold R. Beiles W’59, New York, a re- called the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center years; Oct. 22. He served in the US Army dur- tired CPA; Feb. 5. He later taught accounting in Plains Township, PA; Jan. 14. ing the Korean War, earning a Bronze Star. at the College of Staten Island. Terence Grieder Gr’62, Austin, TX, pro- Marilyn Meyer Wilde Ed’56, Shaker Beverly Ann Brogan HUP’59, Virginia fessor emeritus of art history at the Univer- Heights, OH, Dec. 20. At Penn, she was a Beach, VA, a retired operating room nurse; Feb. sity of Texas at Austin, Feb. 21, 2018. member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority and 8. Her husband is Dr. John C. Brogan C’57 M’61. Dr. Keith M. Hutchings D’62, Canan- the choral society. James David Power III WG’59, West- daigua, NY, a retired dentist; July 8. He lake Village, CA, retired founder of the mar- served in the US Army as a dentist. 1957 keting research fi rm J. D. Power; Jan. 23. He Paul K. Kelly C’62 WG’64, Westport, CT, F. Wallace Gordon W’57, Willow Street, served in the US Coast Guard. a retired executive at an investment banking PA, retired publisher of the Beaver County fi rm who also was on the board of advisors for Times; Jan. 8. At Penn, he was a member of 1960 Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences, a Univer- Theta Xi fraternity, the Penn Glee Club, and Michael J. Henry ASC’60, Lambertville, sity trustee emeritus, and the benefactor of Sphinx Senior Society. NJ, a retired lawyer; Jan. 5. Penn’s Kelly Writers House; March 4. In 1997, John D. Woodland Jr. W’57, Walnut Warren F. Link C’60, Knoxville, TN, April he became a University trustee and provided a Creek, CA, former president of a rubber com- 28, 2020. At Penn, he was a member of the $1.1 million gift to help establish the Kelly Writ- pany who later founded a business consul- Daily Pennsylvanian. ers House. In 2003, he endowed the Kelly Fam- tancy fi rm with his wife; Dec. 16. At Penn, he Wayne G. Sanborn WG’60, DeLand, FL, ily Gates outside Addams Hall. Among his was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, a retired city manager of DeLand; Feb. 4. other contributions, he also funded the Kelly ROTC, the Sphinx Senior Society, and the Writers House Fellows program, which brings football, lacrosse, and heavyweight rowing 1961 several eminent writers and authors to Penn, teams. He served in the US Air Force. One David G. Boling WG’61, Orange, TX, and the Kelly Family Professorship of English; brother is Thomas J. Woodland WG’65. owner of an insurance company; Jan. 19, he helped found the US China Future Leaders 2020. He served in the US Army. Program at the Graduate School of Education 1958 Richard H. Deitch MTE’61 GMT’67, to promote mutual understanding and respect Richard A. Ameisen Jr. W’58, Havertown, Worthington, OH, a materials scientist who between the two nations; he served as trea- PA, a former divisional merchandise manager specialized in crystal growth; Oct. 11. He de- surer of his class; and he was also active in of menswear for Strawbridge and Clothier; veloped a patented method of growing crys- Penn Athletics. In 2010, he was named an Sept. 6. He later became a real estate agent. He tals when he worked for GTE Labs. At Penn, emeritus trustee. He received the Penn Alumni served in the US Marine Corps Reserves. At he was a member of Penn Players. Award of Merit in 2012. As a student at Penn,

90 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. One from 1959 to 1960, and served on the faculty Dennis T. Kelly L’65 G’67, Philadelphia, daughter is Brooke Kelly C’01. as lecturer, assistant, and associate professor a retired attorney for the Defender Associa- Jack H. Nusbaum W’62, New York, a from 1962 to 1973. He left Penn to found the tion of Philadelphia, where he worked for 54 partner at the law fi rm Willkie Farr & Gal- Institute of Nautical Archaeology, which is years; Jan. 7. lagher LLP; Jan. 11. At Penn, he was a mem- devoted to bringing history to light through Stanley Mills GME’65, State College, PA, ber of Phi Sigma Delta fraternity. His chil- the scientifi c study of shipwrecks, and he a retired senior engineer involved in helicop- dren are Lisa Nusbaum C’85 and Gary David remained an adjunct professor at Penn. He ter design at Boeing; Feb. 4. He served in the Nusbaum W’88 WG’89. One grandchild is retired as professor emeritus of nautical ar- US Naval Air Reserve. Andrew M. Dickerman C’19. chaeology at Texas A&M. In 2001, he was Paul Thomas “Tom” Scull Jr. WG’65, Dr. Samuel V. Pellegrino GD’62, Mel- awarded the National Medal of Science by Hamilton, NY, a retired labor relations ex- bourne Beach, FL, a retired oral and maxil- former president George W. Bush. In 2010, ecutive at the National Gypsum Company in lofacial surgeon; Dec. 17. He served in the the Penn Museum awarded him its Lucy Charlotte, NC; Nov. 13. US Navy. Wharton Drexel Medal, honoring exception- Dr. Richard Duane West M’65 GM’72, al achievement in excavation or publication Virginia Beach, VA, a retired surgeon; July 1963 of archaeological work. He served in the US 12. He served in the US Navy. Elizabeth Marvin Cecil GEd’63, Lafay- Army during the Korean War. ette Hill, PA, Dec. 4. Hon. William R. Drescher C’64, Amherst, 1966 H. Corbin Day WG’63, Birmingham, AL, NH, a retired attorney and district court judge; Vincent P. Dole III C’66, Boynton Beach, a retired partner at Goldman Sachs; Jan. 10. Dec. 30. At Penn, he was a member of Phi Kap- Fl, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist; He was also a retired chairman at Jemison pa Sigma fraternity and the track team. Oct. 25. His son is Alexandre Dole G’13, who Investment. At Penn, he was a member of Psi Curtis C. Gunn Jr. WG’64, San Antonio, is married to Renee Kovick Dole WEv’03 G’10. Upsilon fraternity. founder of Gunn Automotive; Feb. 2. He served His sister is Susan Dole CW’68 GEd’69 SW’72. Thomas P. Foltz Jr. WG’63, Fort Smith, in the US Navy and the US Navy Reserve. Harry T. Hare G’66, Philadelphia, a re- AR, a retired insurance executive; Jan. 3. Theodore J. Kozloff C’64 G’64 L’67, Shel- tired partner at an investment fi rm; Dec. 5. Rosalind “Ricki” Hirsh Goodblatt don, SC, a lawyer; Feb. 14, 2020. At Penn, he He served in the US Navy. CW’63, White Plains, NY, a chemist who was a member of Phi Epsilon Pi fraternity. His Robin Maisel C’66, San Diego, a former also worked as a data processor for IBM; Jan. siblings include Philip H. Kozloff C’62, Dr. attorney; Sept. 17. 21. Her husband is Jonathan B. Goodblatt Louis Kozloff C’65 M’69, David M. Kozloff L’66, Joel H. Sachs L’66, White Plains, NY, an C’60 EAS’61. and Susan Kozloff Bilsky CW’75 GEd’75 WG’81. attorney and adjunct professor of law at Pace Herbert S. “Herb” Riband Jr. L’63, Fort John V. Murray L’64, Richmond, VA, a University; Jan. 24. His wife is Roslyn Carol Washington, PA, a retired senior partner at retired lawyer; Feb. 5. Sachs CW’65. what is now called Saul Ewing Arnstein & Dr. Ronald J. Schindler C’64 Gr’78, Albert M. Shields WG’66, Portland, OR, Lehr LLP, a Philadelphia law fi rm where he Jenkintown, PA, a professor of philosophy Jan. 6. specialized in trusts and estates; Jan. 9. His and political science at Arcadia University, grandchildren are Michelle Riband C’16 and Temple University, and Rutgers University– 1967 Daniel H. Riband C’14. Camden; Dec. 21. Dr. Laurence E. Carroll C’67 M’71 GM’77, Donald B. Stott WG’63, West Palm Beach, George D. Wolf Gr’64, New Cumberland, Lancaster, PA, a retired nephrologist and FL, a longtime Wall Street executive; Dec. 25. PA, emeritus dean and professor of American founding partner of a hypertension and kid- During his tenure, he was a director of the studies at Penn State University; Feb. 14. He ney care center; Jan. 18. He served in the US New York Futures Exchange and a governor served in the US Army during World War II. Navy. At Penn, he was a member of Penn and director of the New York Stock Exchange. Pipers and the Glee Club. His wife is Janet Arlene Kirschenbaum Zide G’63, Chi- 1965 Taylor Carroll Nu’69 GNu’77, and his sons are cago, a poet and professor of humanities and David D. Hagstrom L’65, Red Hook, NY, Andrew T. Carroll EAS’94 and Bryan T. women’s studies at City Colleges of Chicago; a retired partner at the Poughkeepsie, New Carroll C’96. Jan. 8. Her husband is Norman H. Zide Gr’60. York, law fi rm Van DeWater & Van DeWater Dr. F. Forrest Lang C’67, Johnson City, and a former town attorney to the Town of TN, a retired professor and director of med- 1964 Poughkeepsie; Dec. 20. ical education at East Tennessee State George F. Bass Gr’64, Bryan, TX, a for- Richard L. Kadish C’65, Rockville, MD, University; Dec. 20. At Penn, he was a mem- mer curator of the Penn Museum’s Mediter- founder of a real estate fi rm; July 9. At Penn, ber of the sprint football team. His sister is ranean section; March 2. He briefl y worked he was a member of the choral society and the Abigail Lang C’77, who is married to Timothy as a student assistant at the Penn Museum Army ROTC. One son is Andrew S. Kadish C’01. P. Wade C’76.

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 91 ALUMNI Obituaries

1968 prolifi c middle-distance runner for the cross who was instrumental in turning the Fair- David H. Fiske L’68, Rehoboth Beach, country and track teams. In 1968 he broke a mount Water Works into a top attraction and DE, a retired director of media relations at program record that had stood since the center of environmental education [“Rebirth the Federal Communications Commission; 1930s when he clocked a 4:06.4 mile. He went on the River,” Jan|Feb 2000]; Dec. 23. He Dec. 15. He served in the US Navy. on to complete 39 marathons. One grandson served in the US Army. Dr. Robert P. Gordon M’68, Chicago, a is Cameron H. Williams W’24. Steven A. Rothenberg W’74, Washing- psychiatrist; Jan. 10. ton, DC, a retired attorney for the Federal Olive Stonebreaker Holt GNu’68, Indi- 1970 Energy Regulatory Commission; Feb. 1. ana, PA, a professor of community health Barry Schwartz Gr’70, Athens, GA, pro- nursing at Indiana University of Pennsylva- fessor emeritus of sociology at the University 1975 nia; June 19. of Georgia; Jan. 6. He served in the US Army. Ilene C. McCaff rey W’75, Sarasota, FL, Dr. David K. M. Hsiao GrE’68, Moun- a CPA; Jan. 19. tain View, CA, professor emeritus of com- 1971 Sheldon S. Pavel GrEd’75, Elkins Park, puter science at the Naval Postgraduate David B. McGrail Gr’71, Hopewell, NJ, PA, a longtime principal of Philadelphia’s School; July 21. a retired teacher at Trenton State College; Central High School; Feb. 7. Richard B. Kelson C’68, New York, a re- Jan. 3. tired chairman’s counsel at ALCOA, an alu- William W. Reynolds Jr. GrEd’71, 1976 minum company; Feb. 13. At Penn, he was a Moorestown, NJ, retired founding director Dr. Allen Gaisin GM’76, Silver Spring, member of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. He of the Center for Management and Entrepre- MD, a dermatologist; July 21, 2019. served in the US Army Reserve. His wife is neurship at Rutgers University School of Ellen S. Kelson CW’68, and his children are Business; Jan. 4. He also served as mayor of 1977 Carolyn A. Kelson C’93, Melinda Kelson Haddonfi eld, NJ, from 1973 to 1977. Barbara Fine Bazilian CGS’77, Philadel- O’Connor C’96, and Adam F. Kelson C’98. Dr. A. Hunter Wilcox V’71, Lumberton, phia, a musician, artist, and fashion design- Julie Mackey Reich Gr’68, Philadelphia, NJ, a veterinarian and retired co-owner of er; Jan. 15. Her son is Eric M. Bazilian C’75, a retired dean of Moore College of Art; Dec. 29. Cherry Hill Animal Hospital; Jan. 5. and two grandchildren are Simon Bazilian C’18 and Maia Bazilian C’23. 1969 1972 Janis T. Johnson SW’77 GrS’85, East- Dr. C. Joseph DeSalvo GD’69, Bonita Dr. Edward P. Johnson D’72, Charlotte, ham, MA, a retired professor of sociology at Springs, FL, a retired oral and maxillofacial NC, a retired dentist; Jan. 26. He served in Immaculata College (now University); Jan. 25. surgeon; April 1, 2020. the US Navy during the Vietnam War. James M. Hughes Gr’69, Oakwood, OH, Susan A. Leidy GNu’72, New Freedom, 1978 professor emeritus of English at Wright State PA, a former director of the Greater Balti- Dr. Charles M. Achenbach D’78, Beth- University; Nov. 7. more Medical Center; Dec. 10. lehem, PA, a retired professor of anatomy and John G. Kuhn III Gr’69, Ocean City, NJ, Greg C. Mansfi eld GEE’72, Belen, NM, physiology at Northampton Community Col- a writer and professor emeritus of English March 26, 2020. lege; Nov. 17. One brother is L. Robert Achen- and theater at Rosemont College; Jan. 22. John P. Minneman WG’72, Peachtree bach Jr. SW’74. Christopher P. Monkhouse C’69, Bruns- City, GA, a longtime employee at Chase Man- Robert A. Brennan Jr. EE’78, Mercer- wick, ME, former chair of the European hattan Bank; Jan. 12. ville, NJ, an engineer for Johnson & Johnson; decorative arts department at the Art Insti- Dec. 20. At Penn, he was a member of Phi tute of Chicago; Jan. 12. 1973 Delta Theta fraternity. Jo Ann Morton Nu’69, Silver Spring, MD, Dr. Charles R. Fitz GM’73, Pittsburgh, a Dr. Jane A. Curtis M’78, New York, a a retired nurse for the US Navy; April 7, 2020. pediatric neuroradiologist and retired profes- pediatrician; Aug. 27, 2019. James M. Neeley L’69, a lawyer who spent sor of radiology at UPMC Children’s Hospital Albert M. Greenfi eld III W’78, Villa- several years working for USAID in Ukraine of Pittsburgh; Feb. 22, 2019. nova, PA, a real estate developer and corpo- and Kazakhstan; Nov. 10. He served in the US Helen K. Shanley SW’73, Lake Hi- rate bond trader; Feb. 7. He was instrumental Navy. His wife is Marcia P. Neeley G’78. awatha, NJ, a retired social worker for a nurs- in the development of Dilworth Park in Cen- Jerome D. “Jerry” Williams C’69, Bel- ing home; Jan. 9. ter City Philadelphia and was an early pro- leville, NJ, the former provost and executive moter of Chestnut Street as a pedestrian- vice chancellor of Rutgers University-New- 1974 friendly commercial zone. At Penn, he was a ark; Jan. 29. At Penn, he was a member of the Edward F. Grusheski G’74, Philadelphia, member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, and the Sphinx Senior Society, and a captain and a Philadelphia Water Department manager baseball and football teams. His wife is Wen-

92 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 School Abbreviations GEE master’s, Electrical Engineering HUP Nurse training (till 1978) dy Marcus Greenfi eld W’78, and one son is GEng master’s, Engineering and L Law Jason L. Greenfi eld C’04. Ar Architecture Applied Science LAr Landscape Architecture Robin Fisher Solis C’78, Trevose, PA, ASC Annenberg GEx master’s, Engineering Executive LPS Liberal and Professional Studies Jan. 21. Her mother is Eloyse Chosiad Fish- C College (bachelor’s) GFA master’s, Fine Arts M Medicine GGS master’s, College of General Studies ME Mechanical Engineering er CW’54, and one brother is Stephen P. CCC College Collateral Courses CE Civil Engineering GL master’s, Law MT Medical Technology Fisher C’81. CGS College of General Studies (till 2008) GLA master’s, Landscape Architecture MtE Metallurgical Engineering Robert E. Yantorno Gr’78, Englewood, Ch Chemistry GME master’s, Mechanical Engineering Mu Music FL, a professor of electrical engineering and ChE Chemical Engineering GM Medicine, post-degree NEd Certificate in Nursing investing at Temple University; Oct. 14. He CW College for Women (till 1975) GMt master’s, Metallurgical Engineering Nu Nursing (bachelor’s) served in the US Navy. D Dental Medicine GNu master’s, Nursing OT Occupational Therapy DH Dental Hygiene GPU master’s, Governmental PSW Pennsylvania School of Social Work 1980 EAS Engineering and Applied Administration PT Physical Therapy Lynne D. Dalla CGS’80, Klamath Falls, Science (bachelor’s) Gr doctorate SAMP School of Allied Medical Ed Education GrC doctorate, Civil Engineering Professions OR, Oct. 19, 2019. Her son is Christopher EE Electrical Engineering GrE doctorate, Electrical Engineering SPP Social Policy and Practice (master’s) John Dalla GEd’87. FA Fine Arts GrEd doctorate, Education SW Social Work (master’s) (till 2005) G master’s, Arts and Sciences GrL doctorate, Law V Veterinary Medicine 1981 GAr master’s, Architecture GrN doctorate, Nursing W Wharton (bachelor’s) Dr. Marc H. Zisselman C’81, Philadel- GCE master’s, Civil Engineering GRP master’s, Regional Planning WAM Wharton Advanced Management phia, a geriatric psychiatrist and professor GCh master’s, Chemical Engineering GrS doctorate, Social Work WEF Wharton Extension Finance at Albert Einstein Medical Center, Temple GCP master’s, City Planning GrW doctorate, Wharton WEv Wharton Evening School University, and Thomas Jeff erson University GD Dental, post-degree GV Veterinary, post-degree WG master’s, Wharton Hon Honorary WMP Wharton Management Program Hospital; Dec. 30. At Penn, he was a member GEd master’s, Education of the track and cross country teams. He re- mained an active distance runner and served as a longtime volunteer offi cial and chief 1984 1992 timer at the Penn Relays. His wife is Pamela Kevin L. Murphy C’84, Brentwood, TN, Gavin C. O’Connell C’92, Cockeysville, Mattoon Zisselman GNu’89. managing partner of an investment bank; MD, Jan. 17. Nov. 9. At Penn, he was a member of Phi 1982 Delta Theta fraternity and the football team. 1993 Rebecca Supplee Lundgren GNu’82, Paul Steven Thurk W’93, Minneapolis, Saint Cloud, FL, a retired clinical nurse spe- 1985 managing director at ARCH Venture Partners; cialist; Dec. 22. Charles H. James III WG’85, Downers Jan. 15. He also cofounded several start-ups, such Grove, IL, chairman and CEO of CH James as InnovaLight, which was acquired by DuPont. 1983 and Company, a wholesale foods distribution Michael Brown C’83, Las Vegas, an execu- company; Jan. 7. One son is Charles H. James 1996 tive at several corporations, including Nevada IV W’08. John A. Jordan G’96, Sewell, NJ, a for- State Bank and Caldwell Banker; Dec. 4. At Dr. Bridget Nassib GrD’85 CGS’07, New- mer accountant for Crozer Keystone Health Penn, he was a two-time All-Ivy League player town Square, PA, a retired teacher; Dec. 23. System; Dec. 24. on the basketball team, leading the Quakers to Timothy K. Ravey ChE’85, Essex Junc- John E. McGowan G’96, Camden, NJ, an three Ivy championships and a Big 5 title. He tion, VT, a retired executive at IBM; Oct. 22. actor; Nov. 18. He served in the US Navy dur- was also a member of the Sphinx Senior Society. Michael E. Seltzer C’85, Lakewood, NJ, ing the Vietnam War. His wife is Jacqueline Butcher Brown C’87. July 5. His siblings include Sharon Seltzer Adam L. Tepper W’96, Brooklyn, NY, Herbert J. Hopkins WG’83, Moore- Ross W’82 and Larry J. Seltzer C’83, who is chief strategy offi cer at a digital marketing stown, NJ, former CEO of a printer supply married to Sharon Seltzer Ross W’82. company; Sept. 16. company; June 2. Elizabeth “Debby” Entine Malissa 1988 1997 GEd’83, Huntingdon Valley, PA, a former Matthew M. Gutt W’88, Narberth, PA, Leon B. Glover Jr. GEd’97, Lancaster, PA, speech pathologist and teacher who later assistant general counsel for Exelon Business an educator and administrator who served in directed education courses on Jewish cul- Services; Feb. 10. At Penn, he was a member numerous capacities in the School District of ture and history; April 26, 2020. Her son is of Theta Xi fraternity and the heavyweight Lancaster (PA); Feb. 11. He was also the fi rst Samuel A. Malissa C’04. rowing team. Black principal in Lancaster County.

May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 93 ALUMNI Obituaries

1999 estate law at Cuddy & Feder, and taught in Philadelphia area and became a visiting Joanne C. Letwinch GEd’99, Middle- the African and African American studies scholar and consultant in Penn’s department town, DE, a retired elementary school teach- department at Fordham University. His work of physiology. er; Jan. 18. on exposing the racism that even upper-class Mary S. Rieser. See Class of 1950. Black people face made him widely admired. David Shakow, Merion Station, PA, pro- 2000 In 2014, he joined Penn Vet’s Board of Advi- fessor emeritus of law in Penn’s Carey Law Nelly S. Toll GrEd’00, Old Bridge, NJ, a sors, helping to bridge Penn Vet with the School; Jan. 16. He joined the Penn faculty in writer, artist, and teacher; Jan. 30. A Holo- community beyond campus. 1982 as associate professor, becoming full caust survivor, she published a memoir based Dr. Prabodh Kumar Gupta, Humble, TX, professor fi ve years later. His specialty was off of the diary she kept while hiding with a professor emeritus in Penn Medicine’s de- taxation, and among his accolades, he won a her mother during World War II. She also partment of pathology and laboratory med- University Research Foundation Award in served as an adjunct professor at Penn. icine; Dec. 23. He started his Penn career in 1999 for a paper he cowrote, titled “A Com- 1988 as a professor and director of cytopa- prehensive Wealth Tax.” He retired in 2000, 2001 thology and cytometry, and he stayed in the though he remained a lecturer at Penn until Juergen F. Habichler WG’01, Neuheim, department for over two decades. His leader- his death. Switzerland, Jan. 16. ship put the department among the top 10 Jonathan Steinberg, Philadelphia, pro- cytopathology departments in the country fessor emeritus of history in Penn’s School of 2002 on multiple occasions. He also established Arts and Sciences; March 4. In 2000, he came Charles M. Peterson III WMP’02, the Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) services at to Penn, where he was appointed the An- Erdenheim, PA, Nov. 15. the Hospital of the University of Pennsylva- nenberg Professor of Modern European His- nia. In 2005, Penn recognized him with the tory. He also held appointments in the Jewish 2004 Peter C. Nowell Award for outstanding teach- Studies Program and the College of Liberal Michael Masch G’04, Philadelphia, for- ing. He retired in 2013. and Professional Studies. He was the chair mer executive director of Penn’s Offi ce of Waheed Hussain, Toronto, ON, Canada, of the history department from 2001 to 2004. Budget and Management Analysis and later a former lecturer and assistant professor at He published several books on European his- a lecturer at the Fels Institute of Govern- Wharton who most recently served as associ- tory and the Holocaust, and his 2011 biogra- ment; Feb. 7. In 1996, he came to Penn as ate professor of philosophy at the University phy of Otto Von Bismarck was described by executive director of the University’s Offi ce of Toronto; Jan. 31. He joined Penn’s faculty Henry Kissinger as “the best study of its sub- of Budget and Management Analysis, serv- in 2004 as an instructor in Wharton’s depart- ject in the English language.” He retired from ing until 2003, when he became Pennsylva- ment of legal studies and business ethics, Penn in 2015 but continued to teach. He nia’s secretary of the budget. From 2004 to eventually rising to assistant professor. In served in the US military. 2006, he lectured at Penn’s Fels Institute of 2014, he became an associate professor of Nelly S. Toll. See Class of 2000. Government. He worked in Governor Ed philosophy at the University of Toronto. His Robert Yongue Turner, Haverford, PA, Rendell C’65 Hon’00’s administration until central research focus was political philoso- professor emeritus of English at Penn’s 2008, and subsequently worked as chief fi - phy, and he also made important contribu- School of Arts and Sciences; Jan. 16. In 1958, nancial offi cer of the School District of tions to business ethics. His work earned him he was hired as an instructor in the English Philadelphia; Manhattan College; and most several honors, and he was also a member of department. After several promotions, he recently, Howard University. the American Philosophical Association, the became a full professor in 1974. He also American Political Science Association, and taught courses in the College of General Stud- 2020 the Society for Business Ethics. ies (now the College of Liberal and Profes- Gregory A. Nesmith W’20, Philadelphia, Paul K. Kelly. See Class of 1962. sional Studies). During the 1960s, he taught a director of marketing at Campbell Soup Michael Masch. See Class of 2004. one of Penn’s earliest “television courses,” the Company; Jan. 28. Dr. Robert “Robin” L. Post, Haverford, precursor to remote learning. In 1963 he won PA, a former instructor and visiting scholar Penn’s Lindback Award for Distinguished in physiology at the School of Medicine; Jan. Teaching. He specialized in Renaissance Faculty & Staff 26, at 100. He joined Penn’s faculty in 1946 drama, with primary emphasis on Shake- George F. Bass. See Class of 1964. as an instructor in physiology. After two speare. His research earned him a Guggen- Dr. Herbert Diamond. See Class of 1943. years, he joined the faculty of Vanderbilt Uni- heim Fellowship in 1974, the same year that Lawrence Otis Graham, an author, activ- versity Medical School, where he served as a he wrote the book Shakespeare’s Apprentice- ist, and member of Penn Vet’s Board of Advi- professor of physiology until his retirement ship. He retired from Penn in 1996. sors; Feb. 19. He practiced corporate and real in 1991. In retirement, he returned to the

94 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 CLASSIFIEDS ARE YOU A SINGLE ARE YOU A SINGLE MAN (28–34) WOMAN (22–31)?

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May| Jun 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 95 Alexander, in the white dress she OLD PENN wore for her PhD graduation, 1921. The First of Many Firsts

lthough she descended from two distinguished Black families, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Ed1918 A G1919 Gr1921 L’27 Hon’74 still en- countered racism, sexism, hatred, and bigotry to get her Penn education. In a 1977 interview with oral historian Walter M. Phillips, she recalled her first year as an undergraduate in the School of Education: “Not one woman spoke to me in class or when I passed [them] on the walks to College Hall or the library. Can you imagine looking for classrooms and asking persons [along] the way, only to find the same unresponsive per- son you asked for directions seated in the classroom, which you entered late because you could not find your way?” “Such circumstances made a student either a dropout or a survivor so strong that she could not be overcome,” she said. By the end of her freshman year, Alexander finally made a friend in Mary Stewart, “the first thaw in the ice that Standard of Living Among One solicitor for the City of Philadelphia, covered my freshman year,” she said. Hundred Negro Migrant Families in among other accomplishments. The two were interested in the subject of Philadelphia, 1921.” In 1923, she married Raymond Pace economics, but none of the courses were But this “first” was not her last. Alexander W1920 [“Old Penn,” Sep|Oct open to women. Boldly, they decided to Alexander went on to become the first 2020]. Together, they managed a pri- sit in on a Wharton class. When the pro- Black woman to graduate from Penn vate law firm, until he became a judge. fessor spotted them, he immediately an- Law, in 1927. (Her father, Aaron Albert She then held an independent practice nounced that he did not teach women Mossell L1888, had been the first for over 15 years. and ordered the two to leave. But this African American to graduate from In November 1989, after a life of encounter only fueled Alexander’s deter- that institution, while her uncle, breaking down barriers, Alexander mination to study the subject. Nathan Mossell M1882, holds that dis- died of complications due to pneumo- One hundred years ago this June, tinction for the School of Medicine [“A nia and Alzheimer’s disease, at 91. Alexander became the first Black Principled Man,” Nov|Dec 2014].) She In recalling the obstacles she faced, woman in the US to get her PhD in was the first Black woman admitted to Alexander once noted, “I never looked for economics. She was also among the the Pennsylvania Bar, the first woman anybody to hold the door open for me. I nation’s first three Black women to get to serve as secretary of the National knew well that the only way I could get a doctorate in any subject. Bar Association, and the first Black that door open was to knock it down, be- Her dissertation was titled “The woman to be appointed assistant city cause I knocked all of them down. ” —NP

96 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE May| Jun 2021 Photograph courtesy University Archives

Seeking leaders who want to change the world.

John Conley Penn ’79 Harvard ’14

The Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative aims to unleash the potential of experienced leaders to help solve society’s most pressing challenges.

Learn more at advancedleadership.harvard.edu or 617-496-5479.

210106_ALI.indd2020.11.13_ALI_Ivy_Ad_Penn.indd 1 1 11/18/2011/13/20 3:423:10 PM