A New Road for Student Mental Health Nursing’S Year Homecoming at Home Spring Semester Plans DIGITAL+ IPAD

THE PENNSYLVANIA JAN|FEB21 GAZETTE

A New Road For Student Mental Health Nursing’s Year Homecoming at Home Spring Semester Plans DIGITAL+ IPAD

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THEPENNGAZETTE.COM/DIGIGAZ THE PENNSYLVANIA Features GAZETTE JAN|FEB21 Wellness Warriors In Nursing We Trust In response to a rash of suicides The past year has propelled in recent years, Penn students America’s most trusted profession 26 have fought to take charge of 36 into the spotlight, with the World their own mental health, creating new Health Organization’s designation of 2020 peer-to-peer counseling groups and as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife collaborating more closely with the followed by the unprecedented and administration on wellness initiatives. Is continuing challenges posed by COVID-19. it enough to combat the pandemic Penn Nursing alumni and faculty weigh in stresses, burnout, and social isolation on coping with the pandemic and on that afﬂ ict “the loneliest generation”? nursing’s essential—and expanding— By Dave Zeitlin place in the healthcare system. By JoAnn Greco

Heard at Homecoming Voices from a fall celebration (wait for it) … 42 like no other.

COVER Photo by Tommy Leonardi C’89

THEPENNGAZETTE.COM More Sports More Arts & Culture More Letters Latest News THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Departments VOL. 119, NO. 3

––––––––––– EDITOR John Prendergast C’80 3 From the Editor | Healers. SENIOR EDITOR Trey Popp

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave Zeitlin C’03 4 From College Hall | New year, renewed spirit of engagement.

ASSISTANT EDITOR Nicole Perry 6 Letters | Helping doctors, mourning pets, saving cities. ART DIRECTOR Catherine Gontarek PUBLISHER F. Hoopes Wampler GrEd’13 Views 215-898-7811 [email protected] ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR Linda Caiazzo 10 Alumni Voices | Storing up memories against loss. 215-898-6811 [email protected] 12 Elsewhere | Images from an “endlessly complex country.” ––––––––––– EDITORIAL OFFICES 14 Expert Opinion | Debate can improve education and save democracy. The Pennsylvania Gazette 3910 Chestnut Street Gazetteer Philadelphia, PA 19104-3111 17 Planning | Housing open (with precautions), classrooms still closed for spring. PHONE 215-898-5555 FAX 215-573-4812 EMAIL [email protected] 19 Public Education | Penn donates $100 million for Philadelphia schools. WEB thepenngazette.com 19 Forum | Wolf Humanities Center picks “Choice” as theme in virtual year. ––––––––––– ALUMNI RELATIONS 20 Buildings | Design approved for Vagelos energy laboratory. 215-898-7811

EMAIL [email protected] 21 Documentary Film | Giving voice to grief over gun violence. WEB www.alumni.upenn.edu 22 Appointments | Zeke Emanuel among Biden’s COVID-19 advisors. –––––––––––

UNIVERSITY SWITCHBOARD 23 University City | How campus food trucks are faring. 215-898-5000 24 Sports | Cancellations continue. ––––––––––– NATIONAL ADVERTISING Arts IVY LEAGUE MAGAZINE NETWORK Heather Wedlake

EMAIL [email protected] 47 Calendar PHONE 617-319-0995 48 Painting | How Jill Krutick W’84 makes—and markets—her art. WEB www.ivymags.com 50 Public Art | Simone Leigh’s Brick House installed at 34th and Walnut. CHANGE OF ADDRESS? Go to MyPenn, Penn’s Online Community, at mypenn.upenn.edu to access and update 51 Book Review | In the pandemic, pondering its impact. Apollo’s Arrow. your own information. Or contact Alumni Records, 52 Brieﬂ y Noted University of Pennsylvania, Suite 300, 2929 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-5099; [email protected]. upenn.edu; Phone: 215-898-8136; Fax: 215-573-5118. Alumni

THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE (ISSN 1520-4650) is published bimonthly in September, November, January, March, 53 Sawyer Brooks EAS’14 GEng’15 helped build the latest Mars rover. May, and July by Penn Alumni, E. Craig Sweeten Alumni 55 Mary Ewing-Mulligan CW’71 is a Master of Wine—and education. House, 3533 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6226. Periodicals postage paid at Philadelphia, PA, and addi- 57 Matthew Pohlson WG’11’s fundraising platform will Omaze you. tional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Pennsylvania Gazette, Alumni Records, Suite 300, 60 Notes 2929 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-5099.

PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE COMMITTEE: David S. Graff C'79 61 Events WG'84 (Chair); Miriam Arond C’77; Jean Chatzky C’86; Dr. Alan Filreis, Faculty; Eliot J. Kaplan C'78; Randall 70 Obituaries Lane C’90; Michael R. Levy W'68; James L. Miller W’97; Sameer Mithal WG’95; Steven L. Roth W'66; Robert E. Shepard C'83 G'83; Joel Siegel C’79; Ann Reese CW’74, President, Penn Alumni. 80 Old Penn | The University’s (formerly Big) Day.

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Printed by The Lane Press, Burlington, Vermont FROM THE EDITOR

ing bad and needing help is a should coincide with the big part of what these groups COVID-19 health crisis Talking and are about. played havoc with some of (In fact, in addition to grate- the planning to mark the oc- ful and impressed, I’m also a casion, but was grimly ap- little envious. Or not exactly propriate in emphasizing the Listening that—but although it’s been centrality of the profession. many years now, I can still Penn Nursing has an out- remember times of loneliness size impact in its ﬁ eld, rated ’m both impressed with Services (CAPS) offi ce; and a and dejection, the sense of the top nursing school inter- and grateful to the students campus-wide wellness initia- coming up short at some fun- nationally and securing the who participated in associ- tive was launched encompass- damental level compared to most in NIH grant funding Iate editor Dave Zeitlin C’03’s ing students, staff , and faculty. others at getting the most out for several years running. cover story for this issue, The biological and psycho- of college life, and never once JoAnn spoke with Dean “Wellness Warriors.” I’m logical factors aff ecting suicide considering sharing those Villarruel, former dean grateful for their openness and severe mental illness are thoughts with anyone else.) Claire Fagin Hon’94, and and honesty in talking here complex and in many ways It comes up in a few con- nursing graduates pursuing and in other forums about have an unpredictable rela- texts in frequent contributor a range of careers at Penn and their own struggles with the tionship to things like aca- JoAnn Greco’s article, “In elsewhere to assess how the perennial stresses of college life demic and social pressures, Nursing We Trust,” that no profession has been dealing and young adulthood and the worker in healthcare has a with the pandemic and what particular issues of navigat- closer relationship with pa- the future of nursing looks like. ing that stage in the midst of Having someone tients than do nurses, who We’re coming close to full an ongoing once-in-a-century spend more time with them circle in the round of annual health crisis. And I’m im- to talk to, and than anyone else. That’s been events aff ected by the novel pressed—and also a bit true since the early days of coronavirus. This year’s awed—by their thoughtful- knowing that nursing, often symbolized Homecoming Weekend was ness in articulating those others are (including in our illustration the latest ritual that had to challenges and their dedica- for the story) by the image of be rethought in light of it. tion to helping other students facing their own Florence Nightingale. But And while (again) there’s survive and thrive and share while that element—what nothing like being on Penn’s their own experiences with- challenges, has Nursing School Dean Antonia campus, the all-virtual out fear of any lingering stig- Villarruel GNu’82 calls the Homecoming@Home, ma around mental health. an enormous “heart” of nursing—continues spread over six days from As Dave’s story lays out, a value. to be an essential component, November 9 to 14, off ered a tragic series of suicides from the possibilities for the pro- wide-ranging showcase for 2013 to 2017—in which 14 Penn fession and the available ca- alumni joining in from students took their own lives— and the students in Dave’s reer paths open to nurses around the globe. In “Heard was the spark for an outpour- story are very clear on the have expanded in a variety of at Homecoming,” we’ve ing of student interest and fact that their eff orts are part ways beyond the bedside. pulled exchanges from just a involvement in peer-to-peer of a broad spectrum of ser- (There was also more to Flor- few of the panel discussions. counseling organizations, vices aimed to help students. ence Nightingale than a car- Complete versions of those, along with a revitalized and But having someone to talk to, ing presence, which the ar- and all the (20 or so!) presen- expanded administrative re- and knowing that others are ticle considers in passing.) tations off ered can be found sponse to mental health. New facing their own challenges— The initial impetus for this at the Alumni tab on Penn’s and existing student groups including plenty of people story was the WHO’s desig- home page. with a range of approaches who outwardly appear to be nation of 2020 as the Year of mobilized to serve a variety mastering the whole college the Nurse and Midwife. of audiences; hours and staff experience eff ortlessly—has Nightingale’s 200th birthday were added in the University’s an enormous value. And that was the motivating factor for Counseling and Psychological goal of acceptance about feel- that timing; that the year

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 3 FROM COLLEGE HALL A New Year of New Opportunities A turn of the calendar offers us the welcome hope and soulful inspiration to reconnect and reengage.

By Amy Gutmann

one particularly dark day, famed by husband-and-wife team Claes Olden- other in times of tragedy. It is, in a sense, University of California system burg and Coosje van Bruggen—is the the heart of Penn’s campus, manifesting president Clark Kerr quipped in place for children to play and people to love in its many dimensions. On exasperation that universities meet before getting lunch or grabbing This inner unscripted beat of Penn’s are merely “a series of individual entre- coff ee. Nearby, John Boyle’s 1899 bronze campus was very much with me in No- preneurs held together by a common sculpture of a seated Ben Franklin is vember, when I donned a mask and went grievance about parking.” My own expe- where overseas visitors stop for group to view the installation of the newest ad- riences of 16 years leading Penn puts the portraits, and Kite and Key Society cam- dition to the University’s public sculpture lie to that myth of the atomistic aca- pus tour leaders jump up on the lower collection. Brick House, a nearly three- demic community. I would call Penn pedestal to give starry-eyed high school ton, 16-foot-high bronze sculpture by anything but atomistic! Over and over students and their families the real in- contemporary American artist Simone at Penn, I have witnessed the power of side scoop about what is truly most spe- Leigh, now stands sentinel at the corner the possible: “Here is the opportunity— cial about Penn. Further up Locust Walk, of 34th and Walnut Streets, the gateway what can we make of it?” George Lundeen’s 1987 bronze Benjamin to College Green and the welcoming en- A small but meaningful example comes Franklin—that we all know simply as trance to so many of Penn’s visitors from our beautiful campus that so many “Ben on the Bench”—is the spot for post- [“Arts,” this issue]. For this we owe special have missed and dreamed of returning to graduation portraiture, preferably in full thanks to Penn alums Glenn Fuhrman during the long months of 2020. Periodi- academic regalia. While in the small, W’87 WG’88 and Amanda Fuhrman C’95, cally and very carefully over the years, the grassy triangle fronting Cohen Hall, who advocated for bringing it to our cam- University has added to the outdoor art Robert Indiana’s world-renowned LOVE pus. This sculpture needs to be experi- collection permanently displayed here. sculpture is where Penn graduates, new- enced fi rst-hand to be fully appreciated. Two advisory committees review pro- lyweds, and the newly engaged snap A stunning Black woman’s head atop a posed gifts, purchases, commissions, and selfi es, and the entire Penn community domed form that suggests a skirt or pos- public art at the University. New sculp- also gathers to fi nd solace in one an- sibly a building, Leigh’s sculpture brings tures are chosen and placed with the ut- most care, following a deliberate protocol in which experts assess where individual pieces best fi t and belong within the over- To effect positive change, all aesthetic of the campus. Their job— which they perform magnifi cently—is to resources count, but funding alone advise me on the right place and context for great art to reside. Once the sculpture is never sufficient. Real change resides on campus, the Penn community decides what to make of this new oppor- comes only when you add tunity, which so often they do through some unknowable but emphatically as- dedicated and visionary leadership. sured collective intelligence. No one person decides. Everyone does. We all know, for instance, that the But- ton—the iconic sculpture Split Button

4 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Dec 2021 to a central crossroad of our campus a sor Angela Duckworth Gr’06’s Grit Lab Admissions striking presence of strength, grace, and this spring, Penn proves that to eff ect beauty—along with an ineff able sense of positive change, resources count, but admissions.upenn.edu mystery, agency, and resilience. funding alone is never suffi cient. Real Brick House is the perfect symbol of change comes only when you add dedi- Penn’s academic Year of Civic Engage- cated and visionary leadership. Penn Admissions ment. We mark this year through exten- In this, Penn is fortunate to have the sive programming and activity meant to enormous depth of talent and willing remains a resource encourage us all to consider what com- advocacy of so many to call upon. Less for students and munity engagement is and how we can than two weeks after initiating the Proj- parents navigating foster it. The events of 2020, and in par- ects for Progress eff ort, we were delight- ticular the spontaneous power of civic ed to make the additional announcement the college search protest through the Black Lives Matter that our University chaplain, Charles L. process. movement, made clear the need for us “Chaz” Howard C’00, would assume the to redouble our collective eff orts to con- role of Penn’s fi rst Vice President for So- MORE INFORMATION: front issues of racial justice. cial Equity and Community [“Gazetteer,” admissions.upenn.edu/ Recognizing our community-wide chal- Sep|Oct 2020]. Since assuming this title lenge, Provost Wendell Pritchett Gr’97 August 1, Chaz has been hard at work parents-families and I announced in June the creation of organizing initiatives that promote com- Penn Projects for Progress, a set of col- munication, support collaboration, and INQUIRIES: laborative and innovative projects that foster research and innovative program- will be initiated and led by our students, ming within the Penn community. His [email protected] faculty, and staff to propel progress in our focus serves to deepen awareness and University, city, and society toward a help advance the University’s mission of more engaged and inclusive university fostering social equity, diversity, and in- trict in its history [“Gazetteer,” this is- community. We begin with an initial fund clusion while helping to overcome his- sue]. Penn will contribute $10 million of $2 million that may be augmented by torical and structural barriers to advanc- annually for the next 10 years to the raising additional resources. ing that vitally important mission. School District to help remediate envi- Penn Projects for Progress is one im- I was thinking about the positive civic ronmental hazards in the city’s school portant new civic engagement initiative impact of such changes and program- buildings. This major commitment to among many Penn has undertaken re- matic initiatives—past, present, and fu- our city seemed like the perfect christen- cently. Before the pandemic, Philadelphia ture—as I watched a mobile crane and ing—far better than any bottle of cham- suff ered a healthcare blow with the clo- skilled crew carefully hoist Brick House pagne—to launch Brick House on its sure of Hahnemann University Hospital. into place on her specially constructed future course in the life of Penn. When we learned that Mercy Hospital concrete platform. Signifi cantly, she looks How then will Simone Leigh’s mag- may soon follow, Penn Medicine led an not inward toward the Penn campus, but nifi cent sculpture come to be woven into area partnership in saving it, keeping outward to our neighbors and commu- the fabric of campus life? In the midst urgently-needed beds and frontline nity members in a vibrant and confi dent of a devastating pandemic, this new year healthcare heroes working at the mo- West Philadelphia. “We see you,” she says, of 2021 off ers us the welcome hope and ment Philadelphians need them most. “and we know we are one.” soulful inspiration to reconnect and re- Soon after, we celebrated Penn Dental’s A week later, I was thrilled to join engage. My fondest wish for us all is that new Care Center for Persons with Dis- Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, School this new decade marks the renaissance abilities, the only such resource in a re- Board President Joyce Wilkerson, and of our national spirit of connecting and gion where 16 percent of our local family, Superintendent of the School District of engaging across divides. May the pres- friends, and neighbors face barriers to Philadelphia William R. Hite Jr., in un- ence of Penn’s newest woman—this tow- good dental care due to a disability. veiling Penn’s $100 million pledge to the ering, magnifi cent woman who is Brick From millions of dollars in grants to School District of Philadelphia, an un- House—keep this foremost question in support local businesses in the pandem- precedented commitment to the city and all our minds: Here is the opportunity— ic to inviting Philadelphia high school its public schoolchildren and the largest what will we make of it? students to participate online in Profes- private contribution to the School Dis-

Jan| Dec 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 5 LETTERS We Welcome Doctors and data entry, Letters Please email us at [email protected]. Please note, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, animal love and loss, what Gazette offices are closed until further notice and we cannot retrieve postal mail at this time. Letters should refer to material published in the cities need—and don’t— magazine and may be edited for clarity, civility, to “reset,” march of time. and length.

Art Programs Won’t Rescue NOV|DEC20 for the fi rst half—and just kibitz for the Ailing Doctors THE PENNSYLVANIA remainder (the joy of my own practice). The article “The Museum Prescrip- When faced with the reality of a pa- tion” [Nov|Dec 2020] merits recognition GAZETTE tient’s lessening quality of life, we often that help is needed for the ailing medical collectively made that fateful decision. profession, but in fact it is analogous to Knowing that relationship—aware of the applying Band-Aids to stanch the blood many years the family had bonded with fl ow of a hemorrhaging patient. that loved one—and while in time there The stressors are well enumerated, but would be wonderful memories—now it is the electronic health record (EHR) was the appropriate time; that very dif- that deserves the most attention. fi cult choice to perform euthanasia was Psychiatrist Stephen Bergman (writing something we all knew to be painfully as Samuel Shem) in his recent book hard—but the right one. Albeit, my sad- Man’s 4th Best Hospital compares EHRs Healing Art ness lingered. On my last day of practice to “texting while driving.” Rightly so, he To Susan Weiss, Coronaviruses Aren’t Novel before entering retirement, I asked my Facing “the Day” for a Pet in the Pandemic also denounces the term physician Can Cities Come Back? receptionist one favor: please don’t burnout, which he states is rather physi- schedule a euthanasia. I need a lighter, cian abuse. more happy day to end my career. In the span of 15 minutes or so, major “Until we stop the I admire Brad Bates V’10 [“Lapping Up complaints, review of lab results, pre- a Final Act of Love,” Nov|Dec 2020]. He’s ventive measures, physical examination, clicking on the EHR, found a way to perform a necessary and responses to infomercials and Dr. function of our profession—in a gentle Google must be addressed. By the end things won’t improve.” and thoughtful manner—without add- of the day the doctor is totally drained. ing to his pain by establishing long re- He or she is like the lobster in the boil- lationships with the client. ing pot of water: trapped! Most often The Right Decision, But Painfully Hard Moe Lipson V’68, Sarasota, FL due to fi nancial pressures. “How could you put your own dog to They are too tired to go to art muse- sleep?” When that question was put to The Price We Pay for the Gift ums or to say we chose medicine to care me, my response was simply: if I of a Dog’s Love for people not to be data entry techni- couldn’t do it for mine, I wouldn’t be Even though Sammie was my cousin’s cians. We want to bond with our pa- able in good faith to do it for others … son’s dog, I never met her until the day tients and know we are really helping but it was never easy. she died. I was introduced to Sammie by our patients get or stay well. I had a solo small animal practice— Dave Zeitlin’s moving eulogy in “Lapping So until we stop the clicking on the through the years I got to know my clients Up a Final Act of Love.” EHR, things won’t improve and visual (and patients) quite well. There was one All of us who have ever loved and lost arts programs, although well inten- client who, whenever he called to schedule a dog can relate to the heart-wrenching tioned, will not rescue the ailing doctor an appointment, my staff knew to allot a decision that an old friend’s time has and his profession. half an hour rather than the normal 15 come. But veterinarian Brad Bates’s Mayer L. Horensten C’61, Tucson, AZ minutes. We would attend to “business” thoughts on how he deals with people on

6 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 their worst days and Zeitlin’s refl ections by the excellent doctors at Penn’s Ryan in the city. The economy would be stron- on “the day” should give comfort to any- Veterinary Hospital. Here’s what Dr. ger, the population would be healthier, one who has also faced that sad day. A Keiko Miyadera, the canine ophthal- and the crime rate would decline. dog’s life is cruelly short, but that is the mologist, wrote to me after treating Mer- Anita A. Summers, faculty price we pay for the gift of a dog’s love. cedes: “Mercedes is a very sweet little Mitchell Albert W’76, Palos Verdes Estates, CA Shih Tzu and it was a pleasure to work Impact of Emerging Transportation with her! Feel free to contact us with any Technology Must Be Considered In a Puddle of My Own Tears questions you may have. Take care!” I have been a professional transporta- When I opened up this issue, I had the Mercedes’ ashes are now on my man- tion planner for 40 years, and was ex- strange experience of fi nding a familiar tle along with those of my cats Candy cited to see the article “A Reset for Cit- face staring back at me. It wasn’t a class- and George and photos of my deceased ies?” My practice has been primarily in mate, but rather it was the face of Sam- relatives. They are all my family of metropolitan areas, and I know how mie, Dave Zeitlin’s late giant beagle mix, blessed memory. much urban planners from Penn and and the subject of his beautiful article. God bless the staff at the Gazette, Penn elsewhere have to off er. As we face an Having known Sammie for all of her 11 Vet, and Dave Zeitlin. It’s comforting to ever more uncertain future, the value years and having shared a long and close know there are many people who share of planning is very certain. friendship with her owners, I was able my love for our animal friends. An important issue that was not ad- to vividly “see” every detail of this story Bill Gagliardi CGS’90, Aston, PA dressed in the article is the role of emerg- as I was reading it—from the front win- ing transportation technology. Transpor- dow facing their very narrow street, to Quality Public Education tation planners have been considering the faces of their two inquisitive chil- Is Essential for Cities the implications of automated, connect- dren reacting to this diffi cult event. There is another major factor in the ed, and shared transport on our cities While I always fi nd Dave’s writing to be reset of major cities [“A Reset for Cities?” long before the COVID-19 pandemic oc- compelling and poignant (he sometimes Nov|Dec 2020] that needs to be added on curred. The impacts are not just on the even gets me to care about sports), this to the list outlined by writer JoAnn Gre- mobility of people and goods, but on particular article left me in a puddle of co: quality of public education. Education urban form, equity, and public health. my own tears. Thank you for sharing is one of the most important services cit- The pandemic has increased concerns this story with us, Dave; I’m sure it ies deliver, something clearly document- about using public transit, but also Uber, pulled at the heartstrings of many read- ed by Penn’s recent large gift to the Lyft, and every shared mode. Will those ers. Rest in peace, Sammie. School District of Philadelphia [“Gazet- services be more or less acceptable when Amy Cohen C’05, Bryn Mawr, PA teer,” this issue]. The total level of educa- they use AVs without a driver? tion funding involves all three levels of E-commerce was already growing, and Family of Blessed Memory government, thereby opening up the al- is now fueled by those who stay at home The Nov|Dec 2020 issue of the Penn- location of the funds to the political divi- and order restaurant meals for delivery, sylvania Gazette with Dave Zeitlin’s siveness that has swept the country. or do not want to shop in stores. Systems article “Lapping Up a Final Act of Love” A recent Brookings Institution study that replace delivery drivers with robots arrived at a very opportune moment for shows that the largest cities in the country that operate on the street (Nuro) and the me. On October 26, I had to have my have the lowest test scores. That leads af- sidewalk (Starship, Amazon, FedEx) are beloved Shih Tzu Mercedes euthanized fluent urban families to use private in use in pilot tests around the country. at home. Although the veterinarian, Dr. schools or to live elsewhere—thereby re- CVS and UPS have teamed on testing Katherine de Jong, was profi cient and ducing the urban tax revenues. Middle- drone delivery of pharmacy orders. sympathetic, it was still a disturbing mo- income families also settle elsewhere, Cities are witnessing ever more compe- ment for me. My Mercedes was 13-and- leaving low-income families to be the ones tition for the public right-of-way—streets, a-half years old, and a healthy dog until whose children attend public schools. curbs, and sidewalks—for ride-hailing she developed bladder cancer. Her con- It is up to all three levels of government pickups and drop-off s, delivery vehicles, dition declined very rapidly afterwards. to approve budget allocations that refl ect e-scooters and bikes, robots, and yes, pe- Reading the article, I relived all the sad the handicaps of a child coming from a destrians of varying abilities. City govern- emotions of my recent experience with low-income home. If those formulas re- ments, planners, business owners, and Mercedes. Her death was especially hard fl ected that, and if teacher unions were residents all need to be thinking about to take since she had been cured of a cooperative, more employees and resi- this aspect of a post-pandemic world. serious eye infection this past January dents who pay taxes would live and work Steven Gayle C’71, South New Berlin, NY

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 7 LETTERS

Same Old Liberal Tropes trends have turned sharply upward af- based upon the initial political reaction “A Reset for Cities?” goes a long way ter years of decline, steadily erasing the to the election results. toward reinforcing the stereotype of ur- hard-won gains that turned formerly Then I came to Dave Zeitlin’s article, ban planners as out-of-touch elitists, dangerous, crime-ridden cities into safe, describing Brad Bates (Dr. Brad) and his unaware and unconcerned about how desirable places to live, work, and play. experiences as a palliative care veterinar- their prescriptions might aff ect people If urban planners really want to save ian specializing in in-home euthanasia of in the real world. the cities, and if the Gazette wants to pets. This article restored a little bit of my Examples are numerous. encourage this endeavor, they need to hope for our country in these divisive The article touts turning hotels into ensure that the programs they tout times. At the core, we are human beings homeless shelters but ignores the impact won’t turn the cities back into unsafe and the same in important ways. As Zeit- that these—what might be euphemisti- places from which people fl ee. lin writes, quoting Dr. Brad on his interac- cally called “socially maladapted”— As a former resident of Philadelphia, tions with people dealing with the loss of homeless people have on the surrounding I eagerly want to see it, and other great a loved pet: “‘They grieve the same. They neighborhoods. Eliminating zoning for cities, not only survive but thrive. But live the same. The way they comfort their single-family housing is seen as a “wel- the people whose job it is to fi gure out loved ones is the same. The way they teach come corrective,” completely ignoring the how to save them need to do more than their kids is the same.’ … [I]t doesn’t mat- fact that such housing is an aspirational just regurgitate the same old liberal ter what politicians they like or what cable choice for millions of Americans. Over- tropes they’ve been dishing out for news channel they watch.” looking the needs of marginalized com- years, while expecting those who dislike As we work our way as a society through munities is (rightly) regarded as tone- their plans to just shut up and take it. our current diff erences, we need to keep deaf, but one supposed corrective is the Glenn Hoge W’88, Ellicott City, MD in mind our sameness as to our basic issuance of business grants that explic- humanity. And maybe we should all have itly exclude white business owners— Maybe We Should All Have Pets pets to help do this. As Dr. Brad observes: something that would be loudly (and As often happens, I again noticed the “There’s something to be said about correctly) condemned as racist if it were interesting ways in which contents of people who love animals—they tend to done against any other group. the Gazette relate to each other—from be compassionate.” Particularly vexing is the issue of mass “Letters” to “Views” to bylined articles. Jim Waters WG’71, Pearl River, NY transit, which unarguably serves a vital My copy of the Nov|Dec 2020 issue need but at the same time has been hem- propitiously arrived in my mailbox on Great Fun Then, Renewed Joy Now orrhaging ridership as people work from Election Day—the end point of a rancor- Thanks so much for “Let Them March” home and avoid situations in which they ous political campaign and the begin- [“Gazetteer,” Nov|Dec 2020], Dave Zeit- cannot maintain physical distancing. ning point of an unprecedented rejection lin’s retrospective celebrating the golden Now is truly the time for the planning of the results of the Election Day vote. anniversary of women marching with the experts to put their heads together and Both sides of this political/social divide Penn Band. As a cheerleader and mascot, fi gure out how to provide this essential in our country between two about-equal I remember well that the Penn Band service without breaking the bank. halves of our society were refl ected in members were by far the most engaged But focusing on the notion that crack- diff erent sections of the Gazette. (and wonderfully loud) fans for Quaker ing down on fare evasion is a “criminal- In the “Letters” section, I fi rst encoun- football. Even when the Penn team was ization of poverty” serves only to erode tered the schism in the starkly diff erent well behind its opponent’s score, the stal- any support that might have been responses to President Gutmann’s ar- wart band members like Lynn Leopold, gained from people who play by the ticle, “Science and Solidarity” [“From her sister Anne, and Peggy Schnarr still rules, pay for the services they use, and College Hall,” Sep|Oct 2020]. The letters rendered themselves hoarse with their expect others to do so as well—and who almost equally applauded and deplored encouraging shouts. The partnership would be loath to subsidize a service Gutmann’s point of view as to the rela- between our cheer squad and the band that they perceive as catering to free- tionship between science-based public was a source of great fun for me and— loading lawbreakers. health concerns and the political pres- even though one might consider this fond Lastly, and perhaps most egregiously, sures that arise in resistance to the re- recollection trivial, considering all of life’s the article notes, in approving tones, the sponses suggested by these concerns. challenges we’ve endured through the currently en vogue trend to “defund” These reactions echoed the societal succeeding half century—still, the article (reform, reallocate, etc.) urban police divisions clearly evident during the po- brought renewed joy to me. forces. No mention at all that crime litical campaign and clearly continuing Reeve Chudd W’73 C’73 WG’74, Los Angeles

8 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 VIEWS P.10 P.12 P.14 Alumni Voices Elsewhere Expert Opinion

Illustration by Martha Rich GFA’11 Jan | Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 9 VIEWS Alumni Voices

In Memoriae A name spoken is a life renewed. By Kara Daddario Bown

brought a new life into the world this year and it has me thinking a lot about death. Specifi cally, my own im- pending and undefi ned end. When you leave the hospital with a new Ibaby, parents who have gone before often trot out the cliché “they don’t send you home with a manual.” I would argue there are plenty of parenting manuals, judging by the baby book category on Amazon. The topics vary: some address baby hygiene and common colds; others advise on how to make your own organic baby food; and a great many might be classifi ed as “how to not land your kid in therapy for the next 30 years.” I can save everyone some money and time by distill- ing this latter category of omnivorous parenting advice into a Michael Pollan- esque mantra: Play. Not with digital things. Mostly outside. In my search for parenting wisdom, however, I have yet to fi nd the book that explains what to do when you are a parent who had cancer in your early 30s, your child is the mira- cle you were hoping for, and you fear a recurrence, or worse, leaving her behind. Perhaps death permeates my thoughts since I gave birth during a global pandemic. The ticker displaying coronavirus victims rises each day on CNN, heighten- ing my awareness of mortality. When the daily COVID death count became pre- While my impermanence has recently them. Their pictures rested on an up- dictable, the universe sent me an unfore- left me feeling upended, I fi nd some sol- right mahogany piano in my parents’ seen signal about the fl eeting nature of ace in my experiences with loss. Ancient den in the home where I was raised. life. Unexpectedly, my best friend’s father Egyptian pharaohs had their names From the piano bench, I memorized the died of a heart attack after spending a carved deeply into the stone of memo- faces of deceased loved ones more last- Sunday morning with his grandsons. His rial temples, so whenever their name ingly than the notes of Für Elise. My daughters wrote in his eulogy that they was read or spoken, their life was re- parents acted as seanchaí, sharing an grieve for the time their children will not newed. I think spoken memories have a oral history of my grandparents: stac- have with him. A succinct thought, similar reviving quality. My grandfathers cato stories that punctuated my child- which crystallizes my worst fear: being died before I was born, yet if we were to hood. My mom spoke of her father’s unknown to my child. meet on the other side, I would know green thumb and of the roses he pa-

10 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan | Feb 2021 Illustration by Melinda Beck tiently cultivated outside of their home proudly standing on Sansom Street. As labies at night. I read Where the Wild in the city. If I listen closely, I can hear she looks at the picture, I whisper mem- Things Are to her, though she may not the Irish music he played on the week- ories into her ear. I tell her about the time understand the words. We look at fl ow- ends while he drank a cup of tea. I see he tried to perfect a crème brûlée recipe ers outside of our home and I identify the two papers he read during breakfast for three years, using my sister and me the ivory crepe myrtles, the periwinkle every morning neatly stacked next to as eager taste testers. I let her know that hydrangeas, and the red shrub roses. I him, because “it is our duty to be well when she is older, I will teach her how to share these things with her, so she informed.” I know where he came from, sail like my dad taught me, so she can knows where she comes from, so she in Roscommon, Ireland. I know where identify the names of the lines, the tiller, knows who I am. I share with her the he is buried, in Philadelphia. I often the centerboard. When we walk on windy gifts of my parents, and their parents, smile at a story my mom told me, about days, I peer into the stroller and repeat and generations who came before them. how my grandfather would appear out- his mantra when the conditions are right I don’t know the hour when I will be side her school on rainy days, standing for sailing: “It’s a good day to be on the called home, which perpetuates a linger- near the entrance with galoshes in his water.” I don’t know when or how I will ing fear that it will always be too early. hand to walk her home. The loving ten- explain the illnesses that have torn My antidote is to remain steadfast, pres- derness of his gesture overshadows her through her lineage like wildfi re, creating ent, cultivating memories my daughter youthful embarrassment. both destruction and regrowth. can carry with her. I do this so one day Memories can also spur action, provid- My daughter sits upright in her bounc- she will speak my name and tell my sto- ing a blueprint for how to live. My dad’s ing chair in the kitchen and watches me ries, as if reading from hieroglyphics father died suddenly before my dad cook. I let her smell a carrot, an onion, imprinted on her heart. turned 12. It was a loss from which he a pickle, though she cannot eat them yet. never recovered and one that profound- She laughs hardest at the pickle. I hold Kara Daddario Bown C’08 is a freelance ly aff ected his life. My dad lived in the her tenderly while I sing her Irish lul- writer who lives outside of Philadelphia. present, always listening more intently than I could ever appreciate. He never conceded to the purchase of a burial plot, even after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. This wasn’t unbridled optimism but a choice to be fully alive in a moment. He shared with two daughters the pastimes of his father. We learned to tie fi shing knots and un- hook sea bass from tangled lines. We walked in the sorghum fi elds of central Pennsylvania, fl ushing pheasant. He cooked dinner each night, sometimes poring over family recipes, sometimes inventing something new. We learned what it meant to invite people to a table: to listen, to gather, to welcome. I decorate a mantle in my home with pictures—my husband’s family on a boat; my husband and me standing in a stalag- mite cave in Mexico; me with my parents on the day of my college graduation. Everyone is still living, except for my dad. My daughter studies his picture, encased in a red frame. He is wearing a blue-and- red-striped tie. It’s the one he wore to my poetry readings at Kelly Writers House and, on that graduation day, when he was

Jan | Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 11

Digigaz_OneThird.indd 4 12/3/20 6:34 PM VIEWS Elsewhere

American Window A song of the open road. By Ethan Pines

needed to get out. July 2020, one begrudged us our masks. Lots of Year of the Pandemic, house- ATVs, but even more cyclists. People were bound and restless, our baby welcoming. Americans like craft beer and We knowing only our living room, crispy Brussels sprouts across the politi- us about to turn 50, work slow, air trav- cal spectrum. Deadwood, SD, honors its el off limits … we needed a road trip. We If I wanted to generalize with light Jewish frontier history with placards sketched a route with another virus-free snark, I’d say we saw holstered pistols, around the city. This is an endlessly com- family, scrounged up an RV and em- Trump paraphernalia, and very little plex country. That’s what we really saw. barked on a 4,500-mile odyssey through mask-wearing. And it would be true. But I shot my latest project, American Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Da- it wouldn’t be the whole truth. In fact, Window, along the way. The images still kota, Utah, and back to California. what we saw belied the stereotypes: No don’t tell the whole truth, but I think they

12 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan | Feb 2021 Photography by Ethan Pines convey what it was like. When a bison crosses your path in Yellowstone, it’s like watching a slow-moving alien that might kill you. Rocky Mountain goats in Glacier loiter stoically as endless cars pass. Crazy Horse Memorial moved and awed us far mill. The goat and the Harley, each en- And bittersweet is how the country more than nearby Rushmore, which is croaching on the other’s territory. The feels to me now: ﬂ awed, yet I love her surprisingly small. grizzled store owner among his treasures. still. There’s majesty out there despite us. Beyond all that, to me the juxtapositions The prehistoric bison and his prehistoric feel bittersweet. The bison with asphalt. sauna, ignoring the tourists. Crazy Horse, Ethan Pines C’92 is a photographer whose The deer between satellite dish and saw- only a fraction complete after 72 years. work can be found at ethanpines.com.

Jan | Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 13 VIEWS Expert Opinion

forces debaters to appreciate that most issues are far more complicated than they appear on social media or cable TV. I know, having debated competitively in high school and at Penn 50 years ago, that learning how to debate can be a life- changing experience. It was the only thing that ended my stuttering, while greatly improving the research and reasoning skills that have benefi tted me throughout my career. But it did not occur tome until two and a half years ago—when I read a newspaper article about high school students from my home state of Kansas winning the national high school debate championship—that the lessons learned in debate could be used to improve the quality of education more broadly, with some important side benefi ts: reducing the political polarization that threatens to tear our society apart while enhancing important workplace skills that can lead to higher-paying job and career trajectories. Although it is not realistic to expect every student to become a competitive debater, everyone can learn at least how to speak clearly, logically, and with evidence in front of others, and do so with equal profi ciency on two or more sides of any topic. They can acquire these skills by learning debate techniques, not as an after-school activity, but as an in- classroom device in nearly all subjects in middle and high school. Point, Counterpoint This isn’t just a dream. It’s actually been happening in over a dozen middle How debate instruction can bolster public and high schools serving primarily mi- education and revive democracy. nority students in Boston and Chicago through the pioneering eff orts of former By Robert Litan debaters Mike Wasserman and his colleagues at the Boston Debate League (BDL) and Les Lynn in Chicago. Both there is one takeaway from the In real debates, the participants off er independently have been teaching and history of presidential debates reasoned positions, backed by evidence, mentoring teachers in “debate centered that is beyond dispute, it is this: in civil discussion, without name-calling, instruction” (DCI) for about a decade. these are not real debates, but a in speeches that last longer than 60 or 90 Here’s how it works. Typically, classes series of well-rehearsed sound seconds. Competitive debaters in high are broken up into small circles of six or Ifbites, a low standard that this election school and college not only learn how to eight people; asked by the teacher to year’s debacle did not come even close do this well, but to argue multiple sides consider a “claim” from literature, his- to meeting. of a topic in diff erent “rounds,” which tory, or science; and then charged with

14 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan | Feb 2021 Illustration by Rich Lillash Alumni in Business Advertise your business or marshalling evidence and reasoning, row persistent Black-white educational profession with us and reach drawn from assigned reading or else- performance gaps. 270,000 fellow alumni where, to support or refute the claim. There is also ample reason to think The teacher roams the room, listening that the benefi ts of DCI would extend ■ Must be a Penn graduate to each group. Eventually, everyone in past formal schooling. Knowing how to ■ All ads prepaid the class is required to participate oral- speak with confi dence, backed up by See the current ALUMNI IN BUSINESS ly in the discussion, and ideally to be evidence, is a skill that employers con- on page 65. For more information or to able to refute critiques. Name-calling sistently say is lacking in students com- place an ad, email Linda Caiazzo: and ad hominem attacks are verboten. ing out of high school and college. DCI [email protected] Students learn to speak respectfully, would directly address that problem. clearly, with evidence and reason. Debate training would also be valuable taught how to use the claim-evidence- I’ve seen how all this plays out in for future entrepreneurs, who must be reasoning paradigm in their classes schools in both cities. The classes buzz able to pitch their ideas to a variety of through one week of summer instruction, with excitement, students enjoy the give- audiences—investors, lenders, potential using funds already earmarked for profes- and-take, and even the most hesitant or employees, and customers. sional development. Once initial cohorts shy ones eventually come out of their Moreover, a citizenry trained in debate of teachers are trained, they can train oth- shells. Both BDL and Lynn have data techniques would be very diff erent from ers in their schools. If a school has a debate showing that both test scores and mea- the one we have now. Imagine a nation of coach, he or she, with modest additional sures of student engagement have risen voters who can see through campaign slo- compensation, can provide ongoing as- substantially since the adoption of DCI. gans and misinformation, and appreciate sistance to teachers throughout the school Of course, more rigorous evaluations the nuances of public policy challenges year, as can the teachers interacting with would be useful. A team led by Univer- because they have been trained to seek out each other in breaks during the school day, sity of Virginia education professor Beth facts and advance reasoned arguments in as I witnessed in both Boston and Chicago. Schueler is now conducting such a study defense of confl icting positions on mul- Our highly polarized democracy is in of the hundreds of students who have tiple subjects. A body politic trained like trouble. Our schools must do a better job passed through approximately a dozen this at a young age in turn would demand of educating students—especially disad- schools, assisted by the Boston Debate more of those seeking and holding elected vantaged minorities and students from League, over the past fi ve years. offi ce than the simple slogans or labels low-income families. And all students There are several reasons why more that show up relentlessly in political ads need a “want-to-learn” mindset, which formal statistical studies should confi rm (most of them negative) and on social me- they are much more likely to acquire if the “before-after” improvements in stu- dia. I believe our nation would be far less school were a lot more fun and engag- dent performance that the BDL and Lynn politically polarized, our politics would ing, so that they will want to continu- report. One reason is that learning by not be so mean-spirited, and our elected ously upgrade their skills to meet con- debating is a lot more fun for many stu- offi cials would be more inclined to com- stantly changing employer demands. dents than listening passively to lecturers. promise and get things done. Debate centered instruction can help Another reason is that people of any age School districts throughout the country meet each of these challenges. are more likely to understand and retain need not wait for all the evidence to come If you are the parent of a school-aged information that they must master and be in before experimenting with this simple child, you can advocate for DCI before able to communicate orally to other peo- but powerful instructional technique, your local school board or your state ple than by regurgitating it on a test. since enough is already evident. Even education offi cials. By doing so, you can Studies of competitive debaters in Bal- some basic college courses can benefi t give the next generation the skills they timore and Chicago show academic im- from the approach—with debates con- can use throughout their lives, for them- provement, even controlling for “self- ducted in breakouts of large lecture class- selves and to help save our democracy. selection” (the stronger inclination of es led by graduate teaching assistants. better students to engage in competitive To be sure, many teachers, school super- Robert Litan W’72 is a non-resident senior fel- debate). Moreover, because these studies intendents, and local school board mem- low at the Brookings Institution, a partner at concentrate on minority students, the bers are suff ering from “reform fatigue” the law fi rm of Korein Tillery, and the author same populations that are currently ben- and may be hesitant to adopt yet another of the new book, Resolved: Debate Can Revo- efi ting from DCI in Boston and Chicago, method of learning. But DCI instruction lutionize Education and Help Save our De- they suggest that broader exposure to is not hard for teachers to learn. Initially, mocracy (Brookings Press, 2020), from which debate in the classroom should help nar- teachers without debate experience can be this essay is adapted.

Jan | Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 15 SUPPORT THE GAZETTE

The voluntary contributions we receive from alumni are absolutely critical to the kind of work we do, and to the quality of the publication we can provide to readers. In recognition of a contribution of $100 or more, you’ll receive this Gazette-branded face mask referencing Franklin’s famous aphorism “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” But a donation of any amount will be deeply appreciated and will provide vital help. thepenngazette.com/support-the-gazette

Support_2020 full page Ben+Mask.indd 1 12/7/20 2:38 PM GAZETTEER P. 19 P. 2 1 P.23 P. 24 Hard Choices Grieving Gun Violence Still (Food) Truckin’ More Sports Cancelled

Inching Back to Normalcy While remote instruction and other COVID-19 restrictions will mostly remain in place, college housing will reopen for the spring semester.

Illustration by Chris Gash Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 17 GAZETTEER Planning

yler Kliem C’24 started classes, meanwhile, will re- All undergraduates except to do research college in the fall but main virtual, as they were in in a lab. And because has yet to truly feel like fall—with the possibility for will be required of eyesight problems, a college student. a “modest increase in in-per- to be tested for “doing classes from With on-campus hous- son instruction,” which will one place and just Ting closed for the fall semester be determined by the deans COVID-19 twice per staring at a screen all to all but a select few students and faculty of each school. week upon their day actually kind of to combat the COVID-19 pan- Kliem acknowledges that hurt my eyes a lot,” demic [“Gazetteer,” Sep|Oct Penn’s announcement was return to campus. she says, adding that 2020], Kliem remained home “obviously good news, and a it discouraged her with his parents in New Jer- lot of people are very excited” expected to participate in a from engaging with clubs sey. And as an introvert, he because freshmen in particu- quiet period for two weeks, and other social events held found it diffi cult to make new lar “really want to be on cam- limiting their contact to those over Zoom. friends or fi nd a structured pus.” But he still requested an in their immediate ‘pods’ and Ryan Collins W’22, who also routine. “I feel like being on exemption to Penn’s fi rst-year leaving their residence only lived in Philly last fall, agrees campus would really open me housing requirement and for essential reasons.” that it’s been hard to have a up to a lot more people,” he plans to remain home the rest Students will also be re- social life, which won’t neces- says. “Interaction right now is of his freshman year. “And my quired to adhere to the Stu- sarily change for students in not the greatest.” only reasoning, really, is the dent Campus Compact, which the spring given the rules As in the fall, the spring transmission of the virus,” he outlines several behavior ex- against large gatherings and semester will present a dif- says, citing the rising COVID pectations, including a man- other non-virtual forms of ferent and challenging kind infection rates that led Pritch- datory fl u shot. And all un- activity. He’d like to see Penn of college experience for ett and Carnaroli to send a dergraduates will be required fi nd a way to safely grant more Kliem and other undergradu- follow-up message to the Penn to be tested for COVID-19 access to gyms and libraries ates—though Penn is slowly community on November 18 twice per week upon their during the spring semester trying to inch its way back to announce that there would return to campus, while all (depending on the state of the toward normalcy. be no imminent change to the graduate and professional pandemic) just so students In late October, the Univer- spring semester plans while students engaged in research have another place to work, sity announced its plans for urging students to follow en- activities on campus or living exercise, and improve their the spring semester, which hanced safety guidelines. Now, in the area need to be tested mental health. He even craft- will begin on January 20 (one Kliem is worried about the once per week. Eight sites ed a letter to the administra- week later than originally disconnect that might arise across campus will adminis- tion about this, before decid- scheduled) and reopen on- between students living on ter these saliva-based tests. ing not to send it once the City campus housing to more stu- and off campus. “I think it will For students who lived in of Philadelphia temporarily dents, “subject to certain lim- be challenging to fi nd a place off -campus University City reclosed indoor dining, gyms, itations to enable proper so- for me, being that I will be housing in the fall, like and museums in mid-Novem- cial distancing.” In large part online [this] semester again.” Sukhmani Kaur C’22, the ber due to rising COVID cases. due to a partnership “with For the undergraduates who spring semester might not “Obviously, no one is ask- Penn Medicine to dramati- do move into dorms—and a look too much diff erent from ing for the normal come- cally expand our testing ca- limited number of graduate the fall, when the Student back,” Collins says. “But even pacity,” Penn President Amy students at Sansom Place Campus Compact, a symptom just getting those limited Gutmann, Provost Wendell East—they’ll have to get used check app, a contact tracing interactions where you see Pritchett Gr’97, Executive to a much diff erent daily rou- system, and testing sites were someone you haven’t seen in Vice President Craig Carn- tine and living arrangements. already in place, along with a a while on the stairs or by the aroli W’85, and Perelman According to the University’s mostly remote mode of in- bookshelf, those little jolts of School of Medicine Dean J. reopening guidelines, all stu- struction. And that’s the hard happiness from experiencing Larry Jameson wrote that dents will be in single bed- part. “I have felt overwhelmed those spontaneous interac- they were “confi dent that we rooms with shared bathrooms just being trapped in one tions have been proven to can support increased num- at no more than a 6:1 ratio. place,” says Kaur, a biology reduce depression.” bers of students returning to And “students returning to major who rarely ventured In their message to the Penn campus in January.” Most campus in January will be from her studio apartment, community, Gutmann and the

18 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Forum PUBLIC EDUCATION

Penn Gives $100 Million for City Schools Choice in the Time of COVID In November, the University announced a $100 million gift to the The Wolf Humanities Center School District of Philadelphia. The money—$10 million annually for 10 years—will go toward remediating environmental hazards rethinks decision-making. like asbestos and lead in public school buildings in the perennially cash-strapped district, which has an estimated $4.5 billion in unmet capital needs overall. “Nothing is more important than the health and welfare of our children, and few things are more crucial to a community than the safety and quality of its public schools,” Penn President Amy Gut- mann said in a statement on the gift, the largest private donation in the district’s history. “We are proud to be able to partner with our city and school district to signifi cantly improve the learning environment for Philadelphia’s schoolchildren in a way that will have a long-lasting impact on the health, safety, and wellbeing of our entire city.” Since 2018, 54 school buildings have had existing lead paint fully stabilized and 25 have been certifi ed as lead safe, while $23 million has been spent on asbestos-related projects. An additional program of safety and inspection measures was approved last fall, with $41 million allocated for asbestos testing and abatement and other remediation expenses in January 2020. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney commended the University for its “historic gift,” which he said would “go a long way in accelerating the district’s aggressive environmental remediation work”—and hoped would inspire other local institutions to offer their support as well. District Superintendent William Hite said the gift “will be a great support as we move forward to address the immediate environmental conditions in all of our schools,” allowing the district to focus on “creating 21st-century learning environments for all students.” This latest gift adds to the University’s longtime commitment to the Penn Alexander School in West Philadelphia (going back to its construction and totaling some $25 million over 15 years) and its partnership with the nearby Henry C. Lea Elementary, as well as some 500 educational activities operated by Penn affi liates serving schools throughout the district. a year of constricted The topic of “Choice” was other University leaders ac- diffi cult times like these, options, the Wolf Hu- itself chosen about two years knowledged that “campus life character really matters. The manities Center’s ago from a proposal by Sophia will not be as it was prior to grace and determination of 2020–21 Forum topic, Rosenfeld, Walter H. Annen- the pandemic.” But after fi rst the entire Penn community “Choice,” seems both berg Professor of History, who closing campus last March has been inspiring. Continu- aptIn and ironic. In deference to was named topic director. and twice backing away from ing to work together, we are COVID-19, the forum—which Rosenfeld, an intellectual and a more in-person semester last confi dent that the spring se- launched in October and runs cultural historian, is writing a fall, they pledged to make the mester will be a good and through March—is being pre- book on the relationship be- most of things this spring. productive one.” —DZ sented entirely virtually for the tween choice and modern “We recognize what a diffi rst time. As in the past, most conceptions of freedom. fi cult year this has been for Beatrice Forman C’22 contributed events are available to stream “So much of our life is orga- everyone,” they wrote. “At to this report. after their live premieres. nized around the idea, espe-

Art by Sara Varney courtesy WHC Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 19 GAZETTEER

BUILDINGS cially in the contemporary others on barely seaworthy Vagelos Laboratory United States, that choice is vessels. “Isolation has become at the root of freedom, that a new expression of inequal- to Rise on Walnut Street the more opportunities for ity,” Salecl said, with the choice and the more options wealthy retreating to country we have, the freer we will fi nd houses, while others, by choice ourselves as a result,” Rosen- or necessity, risk infection on feld says. The forum, she the frontlines of the crisis. notes, will “look at the ways In the case of medical care, in which choice structures Salecl outlined four ap- social, political, and cultural proaches to the problem of life—and also when choice allocating scarce resources isn’t important, when people such as ventilators: selection don’t have choices, and when by lottery, the principle of choice is not highly valued.” “fi rst come, fi rst served,” The program includes helping the most critically ill talks and performances, all patients fi rst, and a utilitar- free, as well as a pay-what- ian approach that attempts Penn Trustees approved the design for the Vagelos Laboratory for you-wish complementary to rank the relative value of Energy Science and Technology, a $173 million, 110-000 square- fi lm series, presented by the individual lives according to foot, seven-story building that will be built at 3200 Walnut Street. Penn Museum, on the idea age and other factors. Made possible through gifts totaling $70 million to the School of of cultural syncretism. When it comes to social Arts and Sciences from P. Roy Vagelos C’50 Hon’99 and his wife Inevitably, discussion of CO- choices, such as mask wear- Diana T. Vagelos [“Gazetteer,” May|Jun 2019], the facility will bring VID-19 has found its way into ing, she said, some people together researchers from across the University and include a the forum discussions—most are manifesting aggression, complement of collaborative spaces and offi ces with a new embracing denial, or, in- prominently in a November 18 landscaped courtyard linking it to Shoemaker Green. Construction is talk, “Choice in the Time of a creasingly, “abandoning ra- anticipated to begin in March 2022 and be completed by fall 2024. Pandemic,” by Renata Salecl, tional choice” altogether—a professor of psychology and development about which psychoanalysis of law at the “epidemiology says little.” ed by too many choices, peo- tives should be junked in fa- University of London. The forum began with an ple succumbed to “choice vor of a lottery system. The pandemic necessitates a October 14 talk by Sheena paralysis.” In general, she He outlined several “pathol- variety of choices and “pro- Iyengar W’92 C’92, “Rethink- said, “You have to be choosy ogies that should trouble us” duces divisions between those ing the Value of Individual about choosing. Don’t make within the status quo, includ- whose lives need to be saved Choice,” that also touched on every choice. You have to de- ing public ignorance, fi nancial and those who can be discard- the novel coronavirus. Iyen- cide which choices are worth barriers to participation, hur- ed,” Salecl said. Social and eco- gar, a business professor at your time. I will only make dles to registration and voting, nomic restrictions are shaping Columbia University and au- the choices that I think are gerrymandering, the capture “not only people’s attitudes thor of The Art of Choosing really, really important.” of representatives by industry toward the pathogen” but to- (2010), emphasized the role Also ripped from the head- interests, the emphasis on ward themselves and others. that culture plays in choice. lines was Alex Guerrero’s No- emotionally resonant issues Closing national borders, for While Americans value indi- vember 11 talk, “Lottocracy: A and short time horizons, the instance, entails “the fantasy vidual rights, she said, Asians New Kind of Democracy,” pre- exacerbation of in-group/out- that one can leave bad people tend to look toward collective viewing his forthcoming book group thinking, and overrep- out and keep good people welfare in making choices—a by the same name. Speaking resentation of a socioeconom- within the borders from be- perspective that has infl u- in the aftermath of the elec- ic elite with insuffi cient con- coming infected,” she said. enced the propensity to wear tion, Guerrero, a philosophy cern for the disempowered. Also misleading is the no- masks during a pandemic. professor at Rutgers Univer- His solution, relying on tion that we are all “in the Iyengar is probably best sity (who taught at Penn from precedents that extend from same boat”—given that “some known for a 2000 study that 2012 to 2016), argued that our ancient Athenian democracy people might be on yachts,” showed that, when confront- system of elected representa- to citizens’ assemblies in Can-

20 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Documentary Film

ada and elsewhere, would be “It made me depressed,” to concentrate decision-mak- When Boys Grieve McFarland tells the camera ing in several single-issue at one point. “Got to the legislative bodies, with repre- Exploring the emotional trauma point where I wanted to take sentatives chosen by lottery of losing friends to gun violence. my own life.” and generously compensated “I just wish we could have for their labors. another moment together,” “There’s a question about ineteen-year-old Elijah pushing it forward. Her disser- says a teen boy, remembering legitimacy,” he said, “and McFarland needs three tation at Penn focused on the his close friend who was maybe worries about how this hands to count all the subject, and in 2020 she pro- murdered. would actually work in prac- people he’s lost to gun duced two related short docu- A second short documen- tice,” particularly about how violence since middle mentary fi lms: Our Philadel- tary, which Gross directed and competent such representa- Nschool. He lists off the names phia and Club with No Name. produced, gathers three Phila- tives would be. The single- in a short documentary fi lm, “Sometimes I don’t think we delphia moms around a dining issue focus and a reliance on Our Philadelphia. A few are give enough credit to the role table. The women in Club with expert consultants would build relatives, but mostly they’re of friendship in young peo- No Name are still raw from the competencies, Guerrero said. Black teenage boys from West ple’s lives,” Gross says. “Losing trauma of losing their young “Random selection is going to Philly, like him, who were all a friend is a really big deal sons to gun violence—whose prevent the infl uence that powerful interests have through elections,” and would make it “hard to buy people off ,” he said. In addition, representatives chosen by lottery would be free to think long-term and would constitute “a more de- mographically representative sample” of the population. Among the upcoming talks this winter are “Freedom of Choice in Art and Literature” (January 27), spotlighting the sculpture and installation artist Risa Puno and the novelist Margaret Wilkerson Sexton; “The Ethical Algorithm and the Future of Choice” (Febru- ary 10), with Michael Kearns, National Center Professor of shot and killed in the past six developmentally, and I don’t deaths are featured in Our Management & Technology at years. The list has grown lon- think we even have language Philadelphia—but they’ve also Penn [“Moral Code,” Nov|Dec ger since fi lming ended. for what it means to be 19 and found ways to channel their 2020]; and “The Past and Fu- “How can you look forward need three hands to count the pain into purpose. ture of Reproductive Choice” to a lot of stuff when you got number of friends you’ve lost.” The fi lm makes it clear that (February 24), with Linda friends dying left and right?” Directed by McFarland and these bereaved moms are part Greenhouse, senior research he asks at one point in the fi lm. two of his former classmates, of a grim and growing “club” scholar at Yale Law School, Studying the grief that boys with Gross serving as produc- throughout the city. Philly’s and two other legal scholars. like McFarland suff er after er, Our Philadelphia centers homicide rate in 2020 was For a full listing of events, losing friends to neighbor- on students from an all-boys substantially higher than at visit wolfhumanities.upenn. hood gun violence has been charter school in West Philly any point since the early 1990s, edu/events/choice. limited, but Nora Gross Gr’20 talking openly about their and victims are skewing young- —Julia M. Klein has spent the last few years shock, sadness, fear, and pain. er. In August, the Philadelphia

Still from Our Philadelphia Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 21 GAZETTEER

APPOINTMENTS

Inquirer reported that nearly dercurrent around the Emanuel Joins Biden COVID-19 one in 10 Philly shooting vic- school. You’ll see it only if Advisory Board tims had been under age 18 in you look closely enough: on 2020, and almost all of those fresh tattoos of a friend’s While campaigning for president, Joe Biden Hon’13 emphasized children and teens were Black. name, on pieces of jewelry the need for a coordinated federal response to get control of the A few years into her dual that once belonged to that novel coronavirus—and promised to let science be his guide. One of PhD programs at Penn (edu- friend, on names of the lost his fi rst acts after being declared the winner of the 2020 election cation and sociology), Gross scrawled onto shoes. over President Donald J. Trump W’68 was to appoint a panel of began to wonder how these Gross also discovered the health experts to advise on how the Biden–Harris administration victims’ close friends were role that social media plays in should respond to COVID-19. processing their individual the peer grieving process. “Ins- Included among that group is Ezekiel Emanuel, Penn’s vice provost grief, how entire school com- tagram, and especially the for global initiatives and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and munities were aff ected, and temporary ‘stories’ posts, seem Health Policy. An oncologist and bioethicist, Emanuel served as an whether schools could pos- to create freedom,” she says. advisor on the Affordable Care Act and health policy during the sibly provide enough sup- “There are a lot of confessions port. “I found that there and emotional sharing: ‘I Obama–Biden administration and has chaired the Department of Bio- wasn’t a lot of scholarship, think I might be depressed. I ethics at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health since especially ethnographic think I might have PTSD. I’m 1997. He’s been widely sought as an expert voice at Penn and else- scholarship, around the way having a hard time now and where since the pandemic began, and in September was the lead that grief and loss of friends need support.’ It’s really diff er- author (with 17 other authorities) of an article in Science magazine to gun violence impacted ent from what other research that proposed an ethical framework for global vaccine distribution. young people in general and is suggesting about how teens When President-elect Biden was asked at an October town hall what in their schools,” she says. use social media.” he would do if he lost the election, he said he would go back to “being By 2016, she was spending While Our Philadelphia a professor at the University of Pennsylvania”—where since 2017 he most of her week inside a echoes a number of Gross’s had been the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor and school that had lost one of its research fi ndings, she realizes led the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. As students to gun violence over the value of these thoughts it turns out, he’ll have other things to do, but Emanuel’s governmental the summer. By the time she coming straight from teens duties won’t take him away from the Penn classroom. This spring he’ll fi nished her research there in themselves, on camera for be teaching a philosophy course on Benjamin Franklin—and the ethi- 2018, two more students had anyone to see. The fi lm— cal issues that the University founder confronted. been murdered—including a which was funded by various boy who had been participat- programs and departments at ing in Gross’s research study. Penn—was an offi cial selec- with a woman who helps the the fact that it existed—and She interviewed 65 students tion for the 2020 FirstGlance families of homicide victims, from the fact that [Annenberg during her two years embed- Philadelphia Film Festival and who is planning to use Our Dean John L. Jackson Jr.] was ded in that school, but also and is publicly available to Philadelphia as a training tool spearheading it—that Penn spent time simply observing. stream on YouTube. for others in her line of work. A would be welcoming of my “One big fi nding—which “It’s moving and powerful to local lobbyist also reached out interest in thinking about re- shouldn’t have to be a fi nding— see their faces and hear their about using the fi lm to “put a search beyond text.” is that these boys are really ex- voices,” says Gross, who’s cur- face to this gun violence crisis” Now a core fellow and visit- periencing all the complexities rently adapting her disserta- and push legislators and elect- ing assistant professor of soci- and nuances of grief, and it tion project into a book. “My ed offi cials into action. ology at Boston College, Gross lasts a long time,” she says. dissertation was 400 pages This arts-fused approach to says her goal for all of this Gross identifi ed three stag- long, and hopefully the book scholarship is exactly what work is to “give people who es of school-wide grieving: will be a little shorter. Very drew Gross to Penn for her work directly with Black teen- Easy-Hard, when the whole few people are going to read PhD work. CAMRA, Penn’s age boys more insight into the school unites after a loss; that in comparison to who Collective for Advancing Mul- layers of their emotional lives, Hard-Hard, when some are might be willing to watch a timodal Research Arts, “was in the hope that they don’t more ready to move on than 15-minute fi lm and how just in its infancy when I ac- rush past things when and if others; and Hidden-Hard, quickly the fi lm can travel.” cepted the off er in 2013,” she something happens.” when grief becomes an un- Gross has already spoken says, “but it was clear from —Molly Petrilla C’06

22 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 University City Dean and Deb Varvoutis have been operating Magic Carpet Foods since 1984. Due to pandemic losses, they recently turned to GoFundMe to stave off the popular food cart’s closure.

es that feed undergraduates in Middle Eastern cuisine for 36 Running on Empty fl ux. Freshmen no longer pour years. “That’s the nature of it. From GoFundMe to grit, how campus out of the Quad looking for We’re not alone, though. It’s breakfast on weekday morn- the whole country. It’s prob- food trucks are facing the pandemic. ings, and there aren’t any up- ably half of the world. … [Our perclassmen skipping class to losses] are not something you grab lunch with friends. Reli- can take personally because a chilly Thursday in day. Now, it’s a common sight. ant on diminished foot traffi c they’re not personal.” November during As Varvoutis hands over sev- for revenue, several food Magic Carpet is a relic of what used to be the en banana chocolate chip trucks, like 38th Street’s cult- pre-pandemic times. Its menu It’s lunch rush when cookies to a student buying in favorite Chinese food truck of vegetarian meatballs, warm Deb Varvoutis, co-owner of bulk for her housemates, she Yue Kee, are closing after de- pita sandwiches, and thick, famed University City food reminds the customer that cades of serving the hungry chewy cookies has been un- cart Magic Carpet Foods, an- her treats freeze well and that masses. And for those that changed since its 1984 open- nounces that she and her they’ll be back on January choose to stay in business, it’s ing. All of its off erings are pre- husband, Dean, will be clos- 20—“even if times are hard.” less about making a profi t and pared in a 2,500-square-foot ing up shop for the semester COVID-19 has certainly more about preserving tradi- commercial kitchen located weeks early. The line outside been hard for Penn’s food tion—and surviving. in South Philly, which has their cart, which is a peren- trucks. The city halted their “We’re losing between made navigating the pandem- nial presence next to the Stu- operations last March, and $10,000 and $13,000 a month ic especially hard. “We have art Weitzman School of De- they’ve faced an uphill battle just by being open,” says all the overhead of a restau- sign, is two people deep—a since being allowed to operate Varvoutis, whose Magic Carpet rant, but we only serve lunch once-strange occurrence for a again in late May. The pan- cart has been serving an fi ve days a week,” says team accustomed to serving demic has bled campus of stu- eclectic mix of vegetarian and Varvoutis, who had to trim 600 customers on any given dent life, leaving the business- vegan Greek, Mexican, and the business’s full-time staff

Photo by Candace diCarlo Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 23 GAZETTEER Sports

from eight to three and close Other trucks on campus have a second cart, typically lo- been hesitant to solicit dona- A Winter Without cated outside the Quad’s en- tions. Rachel Pran, the heir to trance, in order to limit costs. Bui’s Lunch Truck, has been Basketball Varvoutis estimates that serving bacon, egg, and cheese they’re seeing, at most, 50 cus- sandwiches (salt/pepper/ More Penn athletes see their tomers a day, a fraction of their ketchup) on 38th Street for 33 seasons and college careers come usual numbers. To put that in years alongside her parents. perspective: Varvoutis used to She misses the same things to a sad and premature end. lug 14 12-quart containers of Varvoutis does: her customers, salad to campus. Now she only the Alumni Weekend rush, takes two. The trucks used to looser purse strings. But, unlike go through 10 trays of steamed Magic Carpet, Pran has opted rice and veggies. Now, they’re to weather the pandemic the barely fi nishing three. old-school way, relying on foot Varvoutis says all of that in- traffi c alone to create revenue. fl uenced her decision to close “I have no other employees, for the season on November so it would be unfair to ask 20, about a month before their customers to make donations,” usual vacation. And while says Pran, who runs the truck Magic Carpet has received a herself with her parents occa- Paycheck Protection Program sionally helping out. “[My cus- loan that’s helped stave off tomers] supporting me all closure, they’ve had to turn to these years is enough. It really other means to keep the busi- is. But, you know, I don’t ex- ness afl oat—namely a Go- pect much. I just hope that FundMe hosted in partnership customers remain loyal.” with the University City Dis- While her food truck is only trict’s fundraising eff orts. doing a third of its usual Posted on October 4, the business, she says her cur- crowdfunding page has raised rent margins mirror those of nearly $20,000 of its $100,000 the summer months, which goal so far. More than 400 is sustainable—for now. “We donors have chipped in, many just stick it out,” Pran says. “A of them alumni who waxed dollar here and a dollar there ddie Scott C’21 can only mons C’21 and Mark Jack- nostalgic about the cart’s food is still everything to us.” laugh when he talks son W’21, who were named and camaraderie. “Magic Car- Ultimately, the pandemic has about being named a captains during a team pet was such a huge part of forced Penn’s food truck own- Penn men’s basketball meeting over Zoom for a my Penn experience,” writes ers to make a grim calculus captain for the 2020–21 season that will never hap- Jess Chen on the GoFundMe steeped in sunk cost: shut season.E “I’m really thankful to pen. Just a few days earlier, page, “I miss your cookies down in hopes of breaking be given that title,” the senior they’d sat through another every day still!” even, or dig themselves a deep- guard says, citing the great virtual meeting when it was Varvoutis is shocked and er hole in hopes of crawling out players who served as cap- announced that the Ivy humbled by the outpouring of whenever normal life resumes. tains before him. “But,” he League would cancel inter- support. “Most of our custom- For the owners of Magic adds with a bemused chuckle, collegiate competition for ers are repeat customers, so Carpet, however, the answer “it’s obviously a little weird the 2020–21 winter sports we get to know them. I really is simple: stay open. “I can’t given I can’t really embody season. For Penn, that love watching you guys come bear to think that Magic Carpet that role on the court.” means it’ll be a winter within as freshmen and grow up is gonna go by the wayside,” The honor was indeed bit- out basketball, wrestling, to get married, then come Varvoutis says. “Not after all this tersweet for Scott and fel- fencing, squash, swimming, back with your kids,” she says. work.” —Beatrice Forman C’22 low seniors Jarrod Sim- and gymnastics.

24 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Illustration by Stephen Schudlich In its mid-November an- And Scott, a 6-foot-6 swing- “Being the only league in nouncement, the Ivy League man who showed glimmers Council of Presidents also an- of scintillating athleticism as Division I not playing, and to nounced that fall sports, an underclassmen and was a which had previously been reliable starter for part of his see our peers playing, it’s been postponed, would not be junior season, was ready to moved to the spring semester, lead a team that he thought hard. But like everything else, ending any hope of a football was poised for a “very excit- game at Franklin Field until ing season.” we’re going to figure it out.” September at the earliest. And “I don’t want them to lose Penn’s spring sport athletes, everything their senior year,” who already had one season Donahue says. “They should Wherever he ends up next the Palestra (which has re- cut short last March, won’t be know they’re the captains of season, though, “I’ll always mained closed for the time allowed to compete through this program. And even be a part of the Penn family,” being). And he’s also been at least the end of February. though there are no games, I Scott says. “I wish them the watching his peers’ games on (The council will determine at think it’s important they most success—unless we see TV despite the pain of not a later date if it will be safe to know how much the team each other on the court.” being a part of it. “I love col- resume after that.) cares about and appreciates One of Scott’s biggest re- lege basketball,” Donahue For Penn men’s basketball their leadership.” grets is not being able to play says. “I’m trying to use this as head coach Steve Donahue, Donahue further lamented with Jelani Williams, whom a year that I can get better.” who had been hopeful the the “small window of college he knew well even before Penn women’s basketball Ivy League would fi nd a way basketball” players get, com- they both arrived together at head coach Mike McLaughlin to at least hold a conference pared to coaches like him. Penn in 2017. Williams, the has the same sympathy for slate of hoops games, the de- “For that to be taken away is most heralded recruit in his players, some of whom cision was understandable really hard,” he says, espe- their class, has missed three found out their college given the dangerous COV- cially since the 2019–20 straight seasons due to three careers were over on Zoom ID-19 trends. Yet “being the postseason was also can- separate ACL tears and now, and haven’t been able to only league in Division I not celled at the beginning of once fi nally healthy, a fourth even see their teammates in playing, and to see our peers the pandemic. season due to the pandemic. person. “I think what players playing, it’s been hard,” he But the solace is that the But because he’d already have missed the most is that admits. “But like everything student-athletes who lost a withdrawn from Penn for a interaction—being coached, else, we’re going to fi gure it season due to COVID-19 will semester, he’ll be able to being challenged, having a out and make the best of it not lose a season of Ivy make his (very) long-awaited schedule, being organized, and come out better for it.” League or NCAA eligibility debut for the Quakers next being high-fi ved after a good The fi rst step was making because of it. They can ei- season, before then poten- play, perhaps being yelled at sure to honor the team’s ther play for Penn during a tially playing at least one if they didn’t execute the three seniors, all of whom he fi fth year of undergraduate more year for another pro- right way,” he says. “That’s thinks could have played im- education—if they withdraw gram. “I can’t imagine any- been the biggest void.” portant roles had there been for a semester or slow down one else that has had this Another void he’s been a season. Jackson, the Ivy their coursework toward kind of college experience,” trying to address is how his League’s tallest player at graduation—or transfer to Donahue says. team can improve when a 7-foot-3, and Simmons, who another program where they Speaking in early handful of seniors will grad- backed up AJ Brodeur W’20 can use their extra year of December, the coach wasn’t uate without being able to for much of his fi rst three eligibility as a graduate stu- sure if other players might pass down lessons to a new years, would have fi lled a dent. All three men’s basket- choose to take a leave from batch of freshmen. “There’s void in the middle now that ball seniors plan to graduate Penn and then stay a fi fth nothing more powerful than Brodeur, the all-time leading from Penn in May, and Scott year. But he’s ready to keep young players coming in and scorer in program history and Simmons hope to con- moving the program forward looking up at experienced [“Sports,” May|Jun 2020], tinue their college basket- regardless of the uncertainty kids,” McLaughlin says. “For has graduated and is playing ball careers as graduate stu- around the roster, or his in- me, that’s what I’ve been professionally in Germany. dents elsewhere. ability to coach practices at consumed with.” —DZ

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 25 Wellness Warriors In response to a rash of suicides in recent years, Penn students have fought to take charge of their own mental health, creating new peer-to-peer counseling groups and collaborating more closely with the administration on wellness initiatives. Is it enough to combat the pandemic stresses, burnout, and social isolation that affl ict “the loneliest generation”?

By Dave Zeitlin

ianni Ghione C’21 stood on the cor- stopped at the fraternity house where ceal his feelings. “I could keep it hidden ner of 39th and Chestnut Streets, many of his Penn wrestling teammates and no one would really know,” he says, watching the cars whizz by. He was lived, locked himself in the basement “because no one knew me well enough to on his way to pick up Chinese food bathroom, and cried. think I was acting any diff erently.” on a drizzly February evening in Had Ghione looked, he might have G2018, a melancholy song from the musi- Ghione’s suicidal thoughts began dur- found several of his classmates dealing cian Eden piping through his headphones. ing his freshman year at Penn in the fall with their own struggles and depression. Would this be the day? of 2017. “The culture shock of being away A month into his freshman year, Hen- In his head, he devised a plan. He kept from home for the fi rst time and just feel- ry Platt C’21 had trouble getting out of his eyes trained on the road, the Division ing so distant from everything” were the bed, scrolling through smiling friends I athlete ready to spring into action. Sud- driving forces, along with the stress of on his Instagram feed and wondering denly, the music stopped. An old friend he shedding pounds and competing at a high why he couldn’t feel the same way. Phu- hadn’t talked to in years was calling. Feel- level for the wrestling team. Late at night ong Vu EAS’21, an international student ing like such a random encounter must in his dorm room, he remembers think- from Vietnam who was in the US for the have been some sort of omen, he aban- ing: Did I even care to be alive anymore? fi rst time, had diffi culty participating in doned the fl eeting thought of leaping into I love my friends and family, but did it seminars and fi nding her place on cam- oncoming traffic, and instead safely really matter anymore? What’s more, he pus socially. Jennifer Richards C’21 G’21 crossed the street to retrieve his dinner. determined the easiest and most comfort- was told by two new classmates that On the way back to the Quad, he able thing for him to do would be to con- they were contemplating suicide, the

26 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOMMY LEONARDI C’89 Gianni Ghione, a senior mental health leader and member of the Penn wrestling team, stands on the same corner from which he nearly took his own life three years ago. Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 27 fi rst of those disclosures coming during hiring of four new therapists and the Due to the pandemic, it’s been harder her third day of college. Similarly, Alli- extension of hours at Penn’s Counseling for Penn Benjamins to promote the group son Gelfarb Nu’21 saw several new & Psychological Services (CAPS). on Locust Walk and to remain as acces- friends struggling with anxiety and eat- Meanwhile, student groups sprang into sible in a virtual format. (And for Doft, ing disorders and was shocked by a stu- action—including CogWell, which Gel- leaving campus in March to return home dent suicide early in her fi rst semester. farb joined her sophomore year and now to New York City, then a COVID-19 epi- More than three years later, all of those serves as copresident. CogWell’s mission center, was a “really, really hard time” that students (as well as a handful of others is to “create a more supportive and caring led to her own anxiety and loneliness.) interviewed for this piece) have emerged network of students,” says Gelfarb, by But the group has had staying power and as campus leaders in Penn’s growing hosting training sessions in active listen- remains well known on campus since its mental health community, running stu- ing across “every pocket of campus”— founding in 2015 by Emily Derecktor C’16, dent-led groups like Penn Wellness (Rich- from religious groups to sports teams to who while at Penn did a research project ards), CogWell (Gelfarb), and Reach-A- sororities and fraternities, the latter of for CAPS that concluded that many stu- Peer Helpline (Phuong), as well as serving which was hit particularly hard by Moya’s dents who would have benefi ted from on the Student Wellness Advisory Group death. CogWell members try to make mental health services didn’t seek them. (Platt) and boosting the athletics depart- these sessions interactive (even now with “I thought maybe peers could be the an- ment’s mental health off erings (Ghione). everything on Zoom) with role playing swer to that issue,” she says. With the COVID-19 pandemic colliding activities that include what not to do At the time, Derecktor acknowledges that with academic burnout, Zoom fatigue, when listening to a friend—things like CAPS had a “terrible reputation” among seasonal depression, election anxiety, looking at your phone, looking down, or the student body, in part due to longer and existential dread over the state of cutting them off by saying something wait times to see a counselor that have the country and planet, it’s doubtful similar happened to you. “You don’t even since been addressed. But she still felt it there’s ever been a time when these re- have to be struggling with mental health,” was important to work with CAPS, be- sources have been needed more. Gelfarb says. “You just have to want to cause “we wanted to make sure we were improve your relationships in life.” viewed as a legitimate organization.” hen she was in high school, Al- What separates CogWell from other That meant the “Bens,” as the group’s lison Gelfarb was always the per- mental health groups, Gelfarb notes, is peer counselors are called, were trained son that her friends would come that they actively seek out cultural centers by CAPS psychologists and developed to with their problems. She be- and Greek houses, so “we may be reaching their own training manual. lieves that was because of a per- people that wouldn’t reach out them- “We really tried to build something sonalW tragedy in her own life: when she selves.” But each of the dozens of peer-to- with a really strong foundation, to last was in seventh grade, her mother passed peer mental health groups have their own well beyond the time that we left,” away due to a congenital heart defect. niches, and several have either been estab- Derecktor adds. “At a very minimum, “Going through that experience at a lished or expanded in recent years. what Penn Benjamins does is it trains a younger age has made me a very empa- One of Gelfarb’s friends and classmates, group of people how to be excellent lis- thetic person,” Gelfarb says, “and able to Eliana Doft C’21, joined Penn Benjamins, teners. At its maximum, it can really recognize that everyone is dealing with a student-run peer counseling organiza- make a diff erence in peers’ lives.” something, whether you can see it or not.” tion that holds private, one-on-one meet- That came into sharp focus almost im- ings in rooms in Van Pelt Library or he same year that Penn Benjamins mediately upon arriving at Penn, when Harnwell College House. Like other was founded, another student-led on August 31, 2017, she learned of the group members, Doft took a semester- group called Penn Wellness was suicide of a senior named Nicholas long training program (with an exam at launched to serve as an umbrella Moya. A former president of Sigma Al- the end) to learn listening skills. Then she organization for the University’s pha Mu fraternity and data analyst for would sit in a room during posted hours, Tgrowing mental health off erings. Found- the men’s basketball team, Moya was the waiting to see if anyone would stop by for ed by Ben Bolnick C’16 L’21—who had fourteenth Penn student to die by sui- a confi dential ear and a cup of coff ee (no previously created a wellness group at cide since February 2013—a staggering appointments or sign-ups necessary). Penn Hillel and would go on to serve as a number that prompted a campus-wide Most of the time no one did, but even student wellness communications coor- conversation about the crisis, the launch still, she says, “the skills I’ve learned have dinator in the offi ce of the vice provost of the University’s “Campaign for Well- been really helpful in my day-to-day con- for university life—Penn Wellness col- ness” programming initiative, and the versations with friends and family.” laborates with various student groups,

28 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Allison Gelfarb, who’d like to become a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, runs the group CogWell, which trains students in active listening. provides funding, and advertises events through its social media platforms and website (upennwellness.com), while serving as a liaison to the administration. According to Jennifer Richards, current chair of the seven-member Penn Wellness board, more than a dozen groups fall under the Penn Wellness umbrella, including CogWell, Penn Benjamins, Penn Art and Wellness, Penn Franklins (peer support for graduate students), Penn Initia- tive for Minority Mental Health, Penn Refl ect, Project HEAL (for students with eating disorders), Project LETS (for students with disabilities), SEAS Wellness, Wharton Wellness, Reach-A-Peer Helpline, Penn Undergraduate Health Coalition, the CAPS Student Advisory Board, and Penn’s chapter of Active Minds—a national organization founded almost 20 years ago by Alison Malmon C’03 [“Stay- ing Active,” Sep|Oct 2020]. Using money provided by a fund from the Class of 1978 (about $15,000 every year), Penn Wellness helps these groups put on events, and it also runs point on Wellness Week, which this year was held virtually from November 8 to 14 and included workshops on listening skills, several of her friends to keep up at a com- meditation, and nutrition, as well as a petitive Ivy League school—and not al- “Mental health does movie night, trivia games, a chess tour- ways knowing where to turn for help. not discriminate nament, and “Wellness Jeopardy.” What she now calls a “rough fi rst semes- “It’s been hard to get the same kind of ter” included “having to fi gure out by and anyone can be exposure we’ve gotten in the past,” says trial and error” how to talk to two new Richards, who, with campus closed, classmates who were contemplating sui- dealing with helped plan virtual Wellness Week from cide and also coping with the death of her her home in San Diego. “But I will say friend and classmate William Steinberg, something, no that I think more students have been who lost his life in a plane crash while interested in the issues of wellness than taking a trip to Costa Rica with his fam- matter what it looks we’ve seen in years past.” ily. That’s what caused her to get involved like on the outside.” Richards calls it “admirable” that Penn’s with Penn Wellness. student mental health leaders have been “When I was a freshman, it still felt hard at work to help other students when pretty stigmatized,” says Richards, echo- “they’re also going through the same ing a thought conveyed by some of her struggles.” Those struggles, from what classmates. “I feel like I’ve seen huge sional ones is important for a large and Richards and others have heard, include leaps in the last three years in not only diverse university like Penn, she adds. “I exhaustion due to the University’s cancel- how the administration but the student think they defi nitely serve diff erent but lation of Fall Break, social isolation and body is more accepting and open to talk- complementary purposes. You might not loneliness, and Zoom fatigue. But even ing about wellness and mental health. I always need to go to CAPS; that’s why before the global pandemic upended col- think it’s night and day.” And having peer- these groups exist. There’s clearly a ser- lege life, she saw how diffi cult it was for to-peer options in addition to profes- vice that they’re able to provide.”

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 29 arly in the spring semester of her has continued to evolve since Beren grad- norm. My eyes saw as if through a per- freshman year, Sophie Beren C’17 uated, with Derek Nhieu W’23, the 2023 manent veil. I had suicidal thoughts.” SPP’17 ran into a classmate she Class Board president, starting a pre- Platt notes that it was “very cathartic” knew while waiting in line during pandemic podcast about student life. to write that all down and he was “blown sorority rush. The two friends said Beren, too, has continued to push the away” by the positive feedback he re- helloE and shared a brief hug. Two days conversation forward. In late 2019 she ceived for the piece, which was repub- later, that friend posted a photo to Ins- launched a company called The Conver- lished in the Jewish Journal. “If I had any tagram of holiday lights at Rittenhouse sationalist, billed as the “go-to destina- part in helping someone feel more com- Square, left gifts for family members at tion to amplify Gen Z voices” through an fortable confi ding in someone else, or if the top of a Center City parking garage, app, a community forum, and weekly I made someone feel less alone because and then took a running leap off of it. digital panels on topics ranging from the they could relate to my experience, it was Madison Holleran’s suicide on January pandemic to new learning environments a job well done,” he says. It also may have 17, 2014, sent shockwaves through the to politics and racism. “Clearly, there’s no taken some people by surprise, consider- University community and beyond, gen- shortage of things to talk about,” Beren ing that, by his own admission, he had erating national attention and shining a says, touting a rising number of app sub- “lived a charmed life” growing up with a spotlight on how onerous the transition scribers and Instagram followers. loving and well-to-do artistic family in from high school to college can be for Beren has been thrilled to see openness Los Angeles. (His father, Marc Platt C’79 even students who appear to have it all. and honesty during these panel discus- is an award-winning fi lm and theater “There really is so much going on with sions, but she’s still worried about today’s producer [“Passion Plays,” May|Jun people behind the scenes, and you never college students, including her sister, 2006], and Henry sings in a group with know until you ask someone,” says Beren, Esther, who’s currently a sophomore at his brothers Jonah Platt C’08 and Tony who stayed up all night crying when she Penn. “Gen Z was already the loneliest award-winning actor Ben Platt.) Yet heard the news. “The issue with Gen Z in generation, and also the generation most those things seemed to amplify his un- particular is no one really knows how to likely to struggle and be vocal about their ease. “If everything was going so well and start those conversations. Rather than mental health issues,” Beren says. (Cigna I’ve been so fortunate to have what I actually having a breakthrough moment, conducted a nationwide survey of more have, then why am I still feeling like I or even just checking in with a friend, we than 20,000 people in 2018 revealing can’t get out of bed every day?” he says. let it go undealt with.” that Generation Z adults aged 18–22 are “I think in a weird way it made me feel Fueled by the tragedy—and by the sui- lonelier than older generations, and that more guilty, or just confused.” cide of another friend in high school— students had higher loneliness scores In the piece, Henry expressed envy of Beren started a group called TableTalk than retirees.) “I think online school is his parents Marc and Julie Beren Platt with a very simple premise: encouraging only going to create a further divide in C’79, who met their fi rst week of college dialogue between students, particularly feeling lonelier and lonelier. … My over- in the Quad [“Love Story,” May|Jun 2006] those who might never otherwise meet. all feeling is that everyone feels depleted and “didn’t have to worry about what ev- “It was born out of a lack of connection and disconnected.” eryone else was doing at all times” in a I felt on campus and feeling like every In an earlier iteration, The Conversa- world free of social media. When Henry single person was really fl ocking togeth- tionalist was a platform that featured arrived at Penn 42 years later, he was im- er with people who are like themselves,” articles on mental health—one of which mediately sucked into “a barrage of Face- she says. “I was still that energetic fresh- was written by Beren’s fi rst cousin, Hen- book events, Snapchat stories, and Insta- man introducing myself while on line at ry Platt. Now a senior at Penn, Platt de- gram videos,” trying to fi gure out where the dining hall, but I felt that no one tailed the severe clinical depression he the best parties were and wondering why wanted to keep meeting new people.” was diagnosed with a month into his the start of college—which had been “her- Beren didn’t specifi cally brand Table- freshman year. “I woke up each morning alded as such a superior experience”—ac- Talk as a mental health group, “but the with the weight of the world on my tually felt more fraught than fun. “I way we thrived,” she says, “is that we’re shoulders,” he wrote. “Getting out of bed opened my Instagram every single hour, inherently addressing mental health and and going to take a shower felt like I was just to see what I had missed and to check fostering space for human connection.” being tasked with completing an Iron- in on my likes,” he wrote. That space used to be in the middle of man. Responding to text messages or Open Platt’s Instagram today and you’ll Locust Walk, where group members phone calls was completely out of the fi nd a page with videos of him singing would plop down infl atable couches, off er question. Tears and breakdowns and to more than 10,000 followers. Even still, snacks, and invite candid discussion. It overwhelming sadness became my “I wish social media did not exist,” he

30 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Senior Henry Platt, a member of the Student Wellness Advisory Group, has written and spoken openly about his suicidal thoughts as a freshman. says, because it’s “not a true reﬂ ection of what people are experiencing.” He’s seen classmates project what’s known as “Penn Face,” a facade calculated to convey the impression that life is perfect and anything can be handled with ease— academically, socially, and otherwise. “It’s so crazy,” Platt says, “because 99 percent of people do not feel that and yet there’s still this stereotype that is what the Penn student is like.” As Platt has learned, through therapy and self-reﬂ ection, to recognize the downsides of placing so much weight on Instagram likes and treating college as the pinnacle of life, his own mental health has dramatically improved. He’s also been trying to help others break down the “barrier that ‘Penn Face’ presents,” with his cousin Sophie calling him “instrumental in the new wave of mental health on campus” that didn’t exist when she was an undergraduate.

hen Platt had trouble getting out of bed as a freshman, he wasn’t sure what to do or where to turn. After pointing out that the Uni- versity’s mental health resources “It’s the first time sory Group—or, as they like to call them- Wshould be more visible and accessible at selves, SWAG. Students who represent a lunch with other students at Penn Pres- I can remember various schools and groups—including ident Amy Gutmann’s house, he was put Platt, who reps performing artists—meet on the search committee for a new chief since coming to about once a month to discuss all sorts wellness offi cer—a job that Benoit Dubé of issues across campus. “It’s an ex- GM’01 landed in 2018 [“Taking Care,” Penn that everyone change of ideas,” Platt says, “and also Jan|Feb 2019]. An associate professor of just getting input that hopefully will clinical psychiatry at the Perelman School has had a common inform higher-level decision making.” of Medicine, Dubé has since been tasked shared experience.” Dubé was particularly moved by Penn’s with directing wellness initiatives across students at the beginning of the last the University and overseeing an inte- school year when they rose up in solidar- grated division of student wellness ser- ity after a shocking tragedy that could vices that includes CAPS, Penn Violence have easily brought them down to new Prevention, and the Offi ces of Alcohol lows. On September 9, 2019, Gregory and Other Drug Program Initiatives. He Having someone at the forefront of the Eells, the recently hired executive direc- also leads the Wellness at Penn initiative, University’s mental health eff orts “has tor of CAPS, took his own life. It was a which per its website (wellnessatpenn. made a huge diff erence,” Platt says, add- challenging and confusing time for the com), “off ers a wide range of opportuni- ing that Dubé is “such a soothing pres- University community as Penn was thrust ties to reﬂ ect and engage on issues of ence, always such a calming force.” And back into the national spotlight—but as wellness, stress, mental health, resilience, Dubé has made it a top priority to incor- Dubé told a group of parents during Fam- happiness, personal and academic goals, porate student feedback, forming a ily Weekend in 2019, “the death of a and the meaning of success.” group called the Student Wellness Advi- 52-year-old man should not be extrapo-

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 31 lated to this being a toxic place for als who were already more vulnerable or program, which was rolled out in October 20-year-olds. It was wonderful what has brittle to begin with were defi nitely im- of 2019. The brainchild of Eells, who had come out of it. Students rose to the occa- pacted by this added layer of the pandem- spearheaded a similar program at Cor- sion and showed tremendous maturity.” ic,” Dubé says. “But otherwise students nell, “Let’s Talk” brings drop-in clinical Among them was CogWell’s Allison didn’t seem to be crushed or paralyzed by access to the Greenfi eld Intercultural Gelfarb, who was supposed to meet with the pandemic. If anything, they showed us Center, the LGBT Center, the Graduate Eells the day after his death. “It shows how resourceful they were and how they Student Center, and other spaces where mental health does not discriminate and were able to rise to the occasion.” students study and socialize (when cam- anyone can be dealing with something, As the pandemic extended through the pus is, of course, open). “I cannot think of no matter what it looks like on the out- summer, fall, and winter, Dubé has wor- a better way to honor his memory,” Dubé side,” says Gelfarb, who’d like to become ried about the impact of isolation, stress, wrote at the time. a psychiatric nurse practitioner and has and the social connections that students Among other advances, CAPS has also done research on the mental health of have lost. For Platt, it’s come down to “re- expanded its group therapy off erings— nurses and those who care for others. adjusting a lot of my expectations” about which, similar to the student-led peer A week after Eells’s death, Gelfarb what his fi nal year of college would be counseling organizations, help students came up with the idea for students to like. But he’s “been really happy to see the make real connections through shared place sticky notes on the Love statue in greater Penn community—and particu- struggles. The groups and workshops— the center of campus, because “love is larly my senior class—come together and which include a graduate women’s sup- transcendent. Even through hard times, still try to salvage whatever elements of port group, a support space for grieving love is what brings people together.” the experience are salvageable,” he says. students, an international student em- About 100 notes were left, with mes- He’s been similarly pleased to see his powering group, and a support group for sages that included “It’s OK not to be classmates’ “willingness to be vulnerable” Black, Indigenous, and People of Color OK,” and “You are loved.” The event was because “struggling during this time is a (BIPOC) students—are led by a counselor, covered by local TV news stations and very human reaction” to a global pan- but it’s often the students who seize con- the Wall Street Journal. “It kind of uni- demic that’s caused so much grief, death, trol of the conversation. “There are defi - fi ed students in a way,” Gelfarb says. “I and loss. “It’s the fi rst time I can remem- nitely powerful moments when people think it opened up the conversation.” ber since coming to Penn that everyone are sharing things they’ve never shared Six months later, many of those same has had a common shared experience,” with anybody,” says Michele Downie, the students went on Spring Break and were Platt says. “When I was experiencing my group coordinator at CAPS. “They’re told not to return due to the COVID-19 own mental health struggles my fresh- about getting support but also giving sup- campus shutdown in March. But Dubé man year, I felt kind of alone in it. Right port.” Students might come into these has again been blown away by students now, everyone is experiencing the social groups fearful about opening up in front seeking out solidarity during a crisis and stresses and the impacts of the pandem- of strangers but leave with the “opportu- trying to pluck some good from a rubble ic—and everyone is united against it.” nity to stay connected indefi nitely,” says of dread. “The tragedy of Greg’s death Michal Saraf, the senior clinical director by suicide was, I think, a predictor of a guest column for the Daily at CAPS. “Almost every aspect of life is how resilient and resourceful students Pennsylvanian shortly after group-based,” she adds. “It’s a wonderful would be when COVID hit,” he says. Eells’s death, Dubé acknowledged way to work those issues out and also to Research out of Penn, USC, and Switzer- the “shock waves” caused by a mirror the kind of interactions we have land’s University of Lausanne, published “man who spent his professional on the outside.” in November in the scientifi c journal PLOS Incareer promoting resilience” taking his When the pandemic struck, CAPS was One, showed that nearly one-third of US own life—and acknowledged that the con- able to “pivot very eff ectively,” according adults reported some level of depression fusion might never subside. But after to Dubé, and continue to off er group ses- and anxiety in the pandemic’s early days. highlighting CogWell’s event and other sions, private appointments, and even Yet Dubé notes that a survey of Penn un- campus-wide conversations, he vowed to “Let’s Talk” in a virtual format. (They dergraduates revealed that “students’ personally oversee the transition at CAPS, maintained a small in-person presence level of distress after the pandemic was not which he noted had already improved its during the fall semester, and will likely nearly as high as we would have expected.” services with 24/7 phone access to clini- provide a virtual/in-person hybrid mod- More than 80 percent of the enrolled stu- cians, free appointments with wait times el this spring.) “There’s an artifi cial qual- dents surveyed reported that they hadn’t that generally average just a few days, and ity to using Zoom,” Dubé admits, though needed mental health services. “Individu- the implementation of the “Let’s Talk” he adds that what therapists “might

32 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Stephanie Hasford, a junior psychology major, helps provide CAPS with student perspectives as a chair of the CAPS Advisory Board. have lost with closeness” they’ve gained with students sometimes being more willing to share certain things because of their surroundings (a childhood bed- room, for instance, instead of an offi ce on Market Street). CAPS administrators have also continued to lean on the CAPS Student Advi- sory Board (CAPSAB), which advocates for student needs, solicits student input on CAPS policies and procedures, and helps market its services. CAPSAB cochair Stephanie Hasford C’22, who wants to be a psychologist, believes CAPS has done an excellent job promoting self-care to students during such unsettling times. Its website (caps.wellness.upenn.edu) provides guidance and tips on coping with COVID-19 (share your feelings; take breaks from social media; connect with others), election anxiety, and racial trauma—the latter of which was especially valuable to Has- ford, who is Black, during this summer’s protests for social justice. “Being at Penn, which is a predominantly white institution, sometimes you can feel your presence is ignored or not appreciated,” she says. “And then seeing all the things from the world, ready to discuss all the going on in the world, you still have to topics that tend to get swept under the “It’s always good suck it up and be a student. It’s always rug.” For Kodali, whose parents are from to have friends good to have friends and a community India, talking openly about mental you can stick with in these times.” health is not something she ever thought and a community One big issue in the fall was making she’d do. “At least in my family, it’s not sure students knew that they could still something we talk about,” she says. “And you can stick with utilize CAPS while scattered around the I think a lot of children of immigrants world. Suhita Kodali C’21, another especially have that same struggle.” in these times.” CAPSAB cochair, has been trying to un- Kodali dealt with that struggle early in derstand why CAPS saw less use in the the pandemic when she returned home ﬁ rst few months after the pandemic. to New Jersey in March. Her parents were And she’s concerned that colder weath- mostly worried about her safety from nthony Rostain GM’85 GM’87 is er and more time inside as the spring COVID-19 and her physical health. “I acutely aware of the new dynamic semester starts may exacerbate feelings don’t think they considered the mental that Kodali and other college stu- of loneliness, even for students who live health impact of me having to come dents faced after being whisked off campus with several housemates. home in the middle of my semester and away from their dorms and into She’s been trying to help. In addition having to stay home when I was supposed Atheir childhood homes. Rostain, emeritus to her role at CAPSAB, Kodali also co- to be in a diff erent city for the summer,” professor of psychiatry at Penn and the hosts a podcast called the Silent Lotus she says, adding that the suddenness of new chair of psychiatry at Cooper Uni- with classmate Suditi Rahematpura the 2020 spring semester being cancelled versity Health, previously explored the EAS’21, which is billed as “two young has had a lasting impact. “The lack of student-parent dynamic in his 2019 book South Asian women, a little worn out closure was very, very diffi cult.” The Stressed Years of Their Lives: Helping

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 33 Your Kid Survive and Thrive During were stuck at home and missing their ing him to miss the season and wonder: Their College Years, which Penn distrib- college friends. As an international stu- Who am I without wrestling? What am I uted to 1,200 families of incoming student from Vietnam, she hasn’t been able if not an athlete? One day at his friend’s dents in 2019. In a related workshop dur- to return home due to travel restrictions room in a fraternity house, he laid down ing Family Weekend that November, he and misses her family as intensely as on the fl oor and said, “Hey, I’m having a discussed how parents have become more when she fi rst arrived as a freshman in full-blown panic attack.” savvy to how the internet and social me- 2017, when she found it hard to fi t in and The panic attacks continued through dia aff ect their kids both positively and her mental health suff ered as a result. that winter. He barely ate. He couldn’t negatively. But then the pandemic came But then and now she’s leaned on the carry on a conversation. One day he went and “boom—immediately social interac- community at RAP-Line, which was es- to a mall with his girlfriend and forgot tion becomes totally digital and the only tablished in 1996 to provide peer sup- where he was or how he got there. By Feb- way you can do anything,” says Rostain, port, information, and referrals to any ruary of 2019, he decided to take a leave of who has encouraged his patients to take Penn student who wants to connect to a absence from Penn, returning to his home breaks from the screen and to try to cre- human to get something off their chest. in New Jersey and checking himself into ate a normal sleep-wake cycle because Even though the pandemic stalled the an Intensive Outpatient Program, where, “our brains are not designed to spend all group’s phone service, Phuong says that through fi ve-hour-a-day group therapy of our waking hours looking at a screen.” a RAP-Line student is generally able to sessions, he “learned so much about cop- But when it comes to advice about the respond to each texter within one or two ing mechanisms and mindfulness and pandemic itself, he knows that parents minutes. At fi rst, most of the texts were being more in the present moment.” “have to acknowledge that this is not about COVID-19 and adapting to virtual Back at Penn for his junior year, he man- something you can make go away for school, but students “don’t talk about aged to cope with another wrestling in- your kid,” and that they have to toe a fi ne that as much now,” Phuong says, adding jury (a broken ankle) and a global crisis line between rigid rules preventing them that, no matter the subject matter, the (COVID-19) with far more serenity than from socializing out of the house and an most important thing is to respond with he would have a year earlier. And he’s overly cheery outlook trying to assure open-ended questions. “We’re not al- been trying to help his fellow athletes get them that things will get better. lowed to give advice or be judgmental,” by, too. Along with administrators in the “A lot of COVID college kids are kind of she says. “The key is to remember to hear athletic department, he attended an Ivy feeling like they’re going through some- more about the person. Most of the time, League/Patriot League mental health thing that’s not only making life harder people just want someone to talk to.” summit before his junior year and came but that’s screwing up their future,” Ros- Just like CogWell, Penn Benjamins, and up with the hashtag #KeepYourHeadUP tain says. His mantra to his patients, other student groups, RAP-Line will some- for a video campaign featuring Penn some of whom are Penn students, is that times refer a student to CAPS (which also athletes pledging to break the stigma of “life is unpredictable, and this is going to provides RAP-Line volunteers with train- talking about mental health. And he be- be the best way to get used to unpredict- ing sessions). “There’s a distinction believes Penn Athletics is “moving in the ability.” And even though the nation’s tween peer support and professional sup- right direction” with the advent of health mental health situation has been trou- port but there’s room for both,” Saraf says. and wellness captains for each team. “I bling—one in four people aged 18 to 24 “For some people, the peer support is a think it’s awesome we have a more ap- seriously contemplated suicide in June, wonderful resource and what they need.” proachable route, when if you’re dealing according to research from the Centers Rostain agrees. “We’re not expecting with something that’s super heavy and for Disease Control and Prevention—Ros- students to be professionals,” he says. stressful you can reach out to someone tain has found reason for hope in a post- “What we are hoping that they can do is you’re in the thick of it training with ev- pandemic world. “The COVID college off er comfort and help people through ery day,” he says. students will have a bonding experience the worst of their loneliness, and then, One of Penn’s health and wellness cap- through all of this that will, in the long if necessary, getting them to some help.” tains is Abby Abramson C’21, a softball run, make them more understanding of player studying neuroscience who has disadvantaged people and people who hree years after nearly jumping into been trying to make sure teams have been live in circumstances that they don’t have traffi c, Gianni Ghione is doing much sticking together this past year—through as much control over.” better—but it’s been a winding and virtual game nights, journaling, medita- Phuong Vu, the head of Reach-A-Peer- frightening road to get there. As a tion, and more. She and other health and Helpline (RAP-Line), has had the oppo- sophomore in 2018–19, he dealt with wellness captains want to ensure that site problem as the Penn students who Ta shoulder injury and concussions, caus- athletes can talk through the pain of feel-

34 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Phuong Vu, an international student from Vietnam, has battled her own struggles and helped others at Reach-A-Peer Helpline throughout her time at Penn. ing like part of their identities have been stripped away with the cancellation of their seasons. “Athletes are taught from a young age that you need to push through and you need to be strong—and sometimes struggling with mental health doesn’t ﬁ t that image,” Abramson says. “That’s been one of our main concerns. There is no image of a perfect student athlete; there’s only humans.” It’s easy to see why college athletics presents a particular mental health concern. Over the past 15 years, four Penn varsity athletes have died by suicide— including Holleran, a member of the track team. Andrea Wieland, a psychologist hired in 2018 as an associate athletic director for athletic performance, recognizes the unique demands and pressure on Ivy League athletes, citing research that shows that at Penn and other colleges, athletes are less likely to seek out treatment than the rest of the student body because of the fear of being recognized or seen as weak. But she’s helped to spearhead eff orts to shed the stigma with increased programming on emotional wellness and resilience, and with a potential partnership with CAPS “I would say the biggest thing I’ve next fall so that a mental health screen- “The key is to learned is that things will only get bet- ing from a mental health specialist is remember to hear ter if you start to work on them,” says “part of the process of medically clearing Ghione, who got a tattoo on his left our student-athletes.” more about the wrist that reads Only If You Let It. “I For Ghione, many factors helped turn didn’t reach out to anyone when I was the tide—including the outpatient group person. Most of dealing with my depression and my therapy, support from his family, and call- suicidality. And it wouldn’t have gotten ing the CAPS 24/7 hotline on his hardest the time, people better if I didn’t start talking to people nights. And just like Henry Platt and sev- just want someone about it.” He understands that not ev- eral more of his classmates from across eryone has a supportive family that campus, he’s tried to be a mental health to talk to.” they can turn to, and he’s especially leader simply by being transparent and sympathetic to students who might be willing to talk to others. Shortly after he holed up in a room during the pandem- took his leave from Penn, he posted a long ic dealing with their depression on their screenshot on Twitter that detailed his own. But whether it’s a professional mental health journey with a far shorter teammates who’d take cathartic walks therapist or a peer group or simply a Tweet to go with it: “It’s okay to not be with him across the South Street Bridge friend or acquaintance, “there’s always okay! Don’t hesitate to reach out!!” just to watch dogs frolic at the dog park; someone you can talk to,” he says. “If In many ways, Ghione is paying it for- Matt Valenti C’07, a Penn associate ath- you don’t think there is someone, a lot ward because he knows his story might letic director and former star wrestler, of people will surprise you if you just have turned out diff erently if not for his who talked him down in the wake of his take that ﬁ rst step.” own circle at Penn—his coaches; his worst panic attack.

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 35 36 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 In Nursing We Trust The past year has propelled America’s most trusted profession into the spotlight, with the World Health Organization’s designation of 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife followed by the unprecedented and continuing challenges posed by COVID-19. Penn Nursing alumni and faculty weigh in on coping with the pandemic and on nursing’s essential—and expanding— place in the healthcare system.

By JoAnn Greco

any nurses say their vocation HIV/AIDS educator, encountered a nurse a few years in the clinical environment was set from childhood—as they who made an impact. “I was working for before deciding to move toward re- listened to an older sister or a residential program in Boston where the search, earning graduate and doctoral their mom, home from a long clients were HIV-positive and struggling degrees from Penn and working as a shift at the hospital, tiredly relay with drug and alcohol addictions and researcher at Penn Medicine’s Center for Ma small triumph, or watched a grandpar- mental illness,” she recalls. “One of them, Resuscitation Science since 2007, where ent or favorite uncle waste away and a quadriplegic who wound up dying, had she spearheaded eff orts to incorporate vowed, when they grew up, to help a visiting nurse who just blew away my augmented and virtual reality into train- someone else’s loved one get well, or at whole preconceived notions of nursing. ing bystanders to respond to emergen- least die more comfortably. She responded to his phone calls and re- cies. In 2019 Leary was named the ﬁ rst Marion Leary GNu’13 Gr’14 Gr’23 isn’t quests 24/7, or at least it seemed like that, director of innovation in the Offi ce of one of those nurses. and I remember him telling me that she Nursing Research at Penn Nursing, sup- “The only thing I knew about nursing was his guardian angel. She opened my porting the school’s priorities to “create, as a kid was what I saw on TV,” she says. eyes to what nursing is and could be. Her cultivate, and grow new strategic part- “Nurses standing patiently by, nurses autonomy, her knowledge, her experience, nerships, test new methods to improve taking orders …” her empathy were just incredible.” health and the outcomes of healthcare, It wasn’t until she was in her 20s that Leary enrolled in nursing school at and to prepare our students as the next Leary, who had trained as an EMT and Thomas Jeff erson University, then spent generation of nurse innovators.”

ILLUSTRATION BY MELINDA BECK Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 37 “Nurses create new One of her newest initiatives is Amplify roles for themselves about what nurses are dealing with dur- Nursing, a podcast that spotlights nurses ing the pandemic and warned against who are redefi ning the fi eld. Chinelo Ofo- all of the time. nursing staff reductions at hospitals in ma GNu’15, a traveling pediatric nurse the wake of expenses and losses related practitioner, was a guest on the program. They identify needs to COVID-19. “Nurses don’t abandon She has created an online platform, Nurse and figure out how patients,” they wrote. “We must ensure on Purpose, to question and dispel the that we do not abandon nurses.” media images—“the sexy nurse, the mute to meet them.” ” It’s happened before. nurse, the battle-ax nurse”—that perpetu- When the US entered World War I, ate stereotypes. Under its auspices, she nurses were sent overseas in droves, notes recently presented a virtual training ses- Julie Fairman Gr’92, the Nightingale Pro- sion on nursing tropes to journalists and fessor in Honor of Nursing Veterans at nurses in her home country of Nigeria. public spotlight, as they turned intensive Penn and a specialist in nursing history. “When I was a nursing student, people care units into makeshift COVID-19 “So when the 1918 fl u pandemic arrived, would always ask ‘You’re so smart, why wards, wrestled with a dearth of personal towns like Philadelphia were desperately don’t you want to be a doctor?’ I didn’t get protective equipment (PPE), and risked calling for nurses, not physicians,” she it. I was surrounded by so many sharp and their lives to deliver care. “What nurses says. (“If you would ask me the three proactive nurses,” says Ofoma, with a hint [have done] during the pandemic is just things Philadelphia most needs to con- of outrage. “Why aren’t we getting the staggering—and they really got a lot of quer the epidemic, I would tell you, ‘Nurs- voices we deserve? Nurses are earning attention for it,” says Claire Fagin, the es, more nurses, and yet more nurses,’” PhDs, they are serving in Congress.” long-serving former dean of the School of one local offi cial reportedly declared.) The fi eld’s diversifi cation is “incredi- Nursing (1977–1991) and interim Penn Once the war ended and the pandem- ble,” says Regina Cunningham Gr’03, president (1993–1994) for whom the nurs- ic abated, “nursing leaders naturally chief executive offi cer at the Hospital of ing education building is named. “We expected that the public would back the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) can’t let this moment pass,” she declares. them as they strove to improve the status and assistant dean for clinical practice Nurses make up nearly half of the of the profession and to right working at Penn Nursing. “Nurses are every- world’s healthcare workforce and they conditions,” Fairman adds. “But that where. They’re in communities, schools, “spend more time with patients than never really happened—people have churches. They work in research, in anyone else in healthcare,” points out short memories. It was a big battle for pharmaceuticals, in corporations. Nurs- the school’s current leader, Antonia M. nurses to make any headway, and those es create new roles for themselves all of Villarruel GNu’82, who has been the eff orts continue to this day.” the time. They identify needs and fi gure Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Penn One sticking point is the continuing re- out how to meet them.” Nursing since 2014. “Often, they are the quirement in some states that nurse prac- only provider in their area.” titioners (who along with nurse-midwives, A Big—and Continuing—Battle Villarruel remembers encountering one nurse anesthetists, and clinical nurse Americans may not have a complete such nurse on a research trip to Mexico. specialists, are considered advanced prac- picture of all that nurses actually do, but “She had created a needlepoint of the tice registered nurses) enter into collab- that hasn’t stopped them from ranking entire village, and was able to show me orative agreements with physicians before the profession as the most trusted in the how many kids each family had, who had they can diagnose, treat, or prescribe nation for nearly two decades running, diabetes—it was this whole record-keep- medications. Such limitations have often according to an annual Gallup poll. Last ing eff ort,” she says. “Nurses take on in- been relaxed during the pandemic, but so year the World Health Organization credible responsibilities like that all of far that’s just temporary. “These regula- (WHO) proclaimed 2020 as the Interna- the time and often they aren’t compen- tions are perplexing and unnecessary,” tional Year of the Nurse and Midwife, call- sated adequately for it. Even in the Unit- says Villarruel. “They can restrict nurses ing for increased investment in their edu- ed States, their salaries are stagnant after from practicing to their fullest.” cation, jobs, and leadership training. The a period of time, the work is demanding, declaration was timed to the 200th an- and burnout is common.” Empowering Education niversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth, In an opinion piece last September for Penn Nursing traces its origins to a but it was the arrival of the novel corona- the political news website The Hill, “As training program within HUP that began virus pandemic that pushed nurses, along Nursing Goes, So Goes Public Health,” in 1886. Eventually, a bachelor of science with other frontline workers, into the Villarruel and Fagin raised concerns degree in nursing (BSN) was off ered, fi rst

38 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Remote Possibilities enn Nursing has quickly adapted its COVID testing, for example, while several in the School of Education and then the teaching following the campus lock- nurse practitioner candidates volunteered Medical School, but it wasn’t until 1950 down last spring and during this for the Moderna vaccine trials. that a separate School of Nursing was year’s virtual fall semester. This in- Although some students are scheduled to established at Penn, followed in 1978 by P cluded not only remote classroom learn- be back on campus for the spring semester the introduction of the fi rst nursing doc- ing but virtual clinical experiences at the starting January 20 [“Gazetteer,” this issue], torate at an Ivy League university. (While graduate and undergraduate levels. a large part of clinical training will continue Penn Nursing remains the only Ivy to of- To allocate for missed clinical time to be done through remote and socially dis- fer a BSN, more than half of its student and due to quarantining, the school cre- tanced in-person simulations “due to space body is enrolled in graduate programs.) ated new virtual simulations and record- restrictions and ratios, unit availability, and The school has produced two MacAr- ed them, as well as converted more than competing schools for clinical placement,” thur Foundation “genius grant” winners: 20 existing simulations to an online plat- says Penn Nursing dean Antonia Villarruel. Ruth Watson Lubic HUP’55 Hon’85 in form. It also expanded the square foot- Psychiatric and community simulations 1993, for her pioneering advocacy of the age devoted to its simulation center into in particular lend themselves very well to American nurse-midwifery movement, unused classroom space to accommo- the remote platform, Villarruel adds. She and Sarah Hope Kagan, the Lucy Walker date social distancing regulations. Stu- also notes that telehealth training and vir- Honorary Term Professor of Geronto- dents were also able to take advantage tual reality offerings will increasingly make logical Nursing, who was honored for her of some unique learning opportunities their way into teaching during the upcom- research on older cancer patients 10 years presented by the circumstances: under- ing semester and likely fi nd a permanent later [“Sarah Kagan’s ‘Genius Idea,’” graduates participated in on-campus place in the curriculum. —JG Nov|Dec 2004]. For fi ve consecutive years, Penn has been named the world’s top nursing school by QS World University dents are demanding that as they try to part of healthcare’s future. A recipient of Rankings, an international ranking ser- work very hard to eff ect change,” she says. the 2018 President’s Engagement Prize vice; its master’s degree program is tied Villarruel, who grew up in a Mexican- [“Gazetteer,” Jul|Aug 2018], a University- for third place among nursing schools on American household, recognizes the con- wide competition that provides up to 2021’s US News & World Report list; and cern fi rsthand. During her own college $100,000 in funding and a $50,000 sti- it has received more research funding and graduate school years, she says, she pend for seniors to design and undertake ($11.3 million) from the National Insti- rarely ran into Latinx instructors or stu- impactful post-graduation projects, her tutes of Health than any other nursing dents. (Overall, the nursing workforce in path has led to a deeper involvement with school for three years running. the US is about three-quarters white.) at-risk populations. Hall says she has a “Penn Nursing is extremely empower- These days, underrepresented minorities “passion for working with communities ing of its students. It pushed us to reach account for 17 percent of Penn Nursing’s that are impoverished.” our greatest potential,” says Flannery Far- students. And while social justice and She used her grant money to return to rell Nu’15 GNu’19, a licensed midwife. “I health inequity fi gure in the nursing cur- an orphanage in Mexico where she had never really had an understanding of how riculum, Villarruel adds that Penn Nursing been volunteering since high school, with powerful nurses can be and how crucial is “committed to increasing its diversity.” a goal of reducing pediatric infections like they are to making our healthcare system A recent $2 million gift from Penn Pres- stomach bugs and upper respiratory ill- work until I came to the school.” The ex- ident Amy Gutmann and her husband ness. Her year-long project involved re- tensive contact nurses have with patients Michael Doyle will fund 10 “leadership pairs to the town’s sewage system and means that “we can have the honest con- scholars” annually among undergraduate building a new water fi ltration system for versations with them and fi nd out what and graduate nursing students, chosen the orphanage, as well as health education they really want,” she adds. “We are for diversity, fi rst-generation status, aca- components. “I think it made me a better trained to be their advocates.” demic achievement and leadership poten- nurse,” Hall says. “I’m more prepared for Farrell thinks the curriculum prepared tial, and interest in working with under- leadership roles. I’m more adaptable.” her as well as possible for the onslaught served urban and rural communities. After returning to the US, Hall joined of the pandemic (a mass casualty simula- the pediatric intensive care unit at Mon- tion covers some of the same ground, Beyond the Bedside tefi ore Medical Center in the Bronx. albeit on a smaller scale and shorter time Recent graduate Alaina Hall Nu’18 un- There she underwent a trial by fi re as the frame), but she says she would have liked derstands that working with minority borough’s largest hospital was bombard- more frank discussions on issues like populations, whether in urban centers or ed with COVID patients just a few anti-racism. “I think today’s nursing stu- rural villages, will become an increasing months after she came on board. “The

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 39 experience made me realize that being a itself—and opened new paths for nurses the needle on health equity, about the nurse goes beyond making sure patients to become leaders. importance of wellness among nurses are out of pain. It means working to build Regina Cunningham also hails from a themselves, and the lessons from COVID. a society that will protect people from healthcare family and began her nursing It’s got some strong recommendations on being wiped out by crisis,” says Hall, who career by pursuing an early interest in on- advancing the impact of the fi eld.” is currently pursuing an online master’s cology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Can- degree in humanitarian action, with an cer Center in New York. There she was Nursing While Male eye toward working for WHO or UNICEF. exposed to healthcare’s administrative side Across campus at Penn Presbyterian Hall says she was inspired by her and a desire to better understand the re- Medical Center, James Ballinghoff GrN’19, grandmother, a nurse who volunteered lationship between nurses’ working cir- the facility’s chief nursing offi cer and as- at free community clinics during her cumstances and patient outcomes, which sociate executive director, also spends his time off . Patti Brennan GNu’79, too, eventually led her to a PhD at Penn; lead- days advocating for nurses. Staffi ng—or started out with what she calls a “classic ership roles at the Abramson Cancer Cen- lack of it—was his top concern when CO- 1960s dream,” she says: “My mom was a ter; and positions as chief nursing execu- VID-19 hit. “We knew that if we got hit in nurse, so I was going to be a nurse.” tive for the Penn Health System and, cur- the same way [as New York], we wouldn’t But her early experiences with com- rently, as HUP’s chief executive. have nearly the number of nurses we puter simulations at Penn led to an in- “Most hospitals are run by people with needed in critical care,” he says. “We had terest in harnessing the power of data backgrounds in healthcare administra- to evaluate and develop new models of to support nurses in making the best tion or fi nance,” Cunningham says. “A care very quickly and do it on our feet be- choices for improved patient outcomes— long time ago, practitioners running hos- cause this was all relatively new and we ultimately leading to her appointment pitals were a lot more common—Night- weren’t sure how infectious it was and as the fi rst nurse to head the National ingale ran her hospitals. It gives you an how many patients we’d see admitted.” Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s incredible amount of credibility when Though he’s an administrator now, Ball- largest biomedical library. you understand the obstacles and pres- inghoff says he continues to miss bedside Nursing’s history of quantitative rea- sures that physicians and nurses face.” nursing. He originally came to the profes- soning actually starts with Florence As the pandemic’s fi rst wave hit last sion somewhat by chance, having held Nightingale, Brennan says. “Most of her spring, that trust and insight became various jobs in the service industry, advances came about because of her ob- paramount. Cunningham and her execu- waitering and working for Atlantic City servations and the data she mined,” she tive team knew they had to protect their casinos after high school. “I was always explains. “We attribute a nurse’s success staff even as the patient census climbed interested in science so when I met a to intuition, which is often true, but we every day and supply chain issues and male nurse, I was intrigued,” he says. “I are also skilled in watching, and smell- price gouging brought other problems. “I got to know more about the exciting op- ing, and touching—that’s all data.” wanted to do this work to infl uence the portunities and I took my fi rst class and Whether they choose to burrow into practice environment,” she says. “The de- I was hooked. I tell people all the time communities, or data, or something else, velopment of new policies and the deci- that it’s one of the best areas you can get nurses are increasingly thinking beyond sions on how resources are allocated are into. You fi nd your niche and you fi nd the bedside—and pursuing advanced de- huge and ultimately aff ect the patient.” your strength and you can do anything.” grees to get the preparation they need. Cunningham is part of an ad hoc com- Although nursing is one of the fastest- According to the website 2020nurseand- mittee of the National Academies of Sci- growing fi elds in the US—with more than midwife.org, established to mark WHO’s ences, Engineering, and Medicine that 175,000 annual job openings projected for Year of the Nurse and Midwife, as of 2019 will produce a report, The Future of Nurs- registered nurses through 2029, accord- the percentage of America’s approximate- ing 2020–2030, scheduled for release ing to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—not ly four million nurses who hold a BSN or early in 2021. An earlier report covering many men are hearing this message. Less higher was about 63 percent. Those de- the 2010–2020 decade called for the re- than 10 percent of nurses are men, which grees have brought opportunities for moval of regulatory obstacles and advo- initially came as a surprise to Marcus more nurses to specialize in specifi c areas cated for the granting of increased grad- Henderson Nu’17 GNu’20. “When I ap- of medicine like psychiatry or geriatrics; uate degrees. This time the focus will be plied to nursing school, I didn’t think move into entrepreneurial disciplines on the “roles that nurses can and should anything of it,” he says. “Then when I got such as nurse navigators and nurse prac- play in driving health outcomes in a pos- there, I saw that I was one of just eight titioners; and teach, research, and advo- itive way,” Cunningham says. “It talks men. I couldn’t help but notice the gender cate both for patients and the profession about the potential for nurses to move division. Some of my classmates were

40 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 even teasing that men couldn’t be nurtur- ployee experience was so robust, au- make sure I would always have a job,” ing. I was, like, ‘So I wasn’t nurturing tonomous, and fl exible. I thought, why she observes. “They would be absolutely when I wiped my great-grandmother does healthcare seem so behind? I want- amazed at just what kind of opportuni- when she soiled herself?’” ed to be part of that change, that sense ties await today’s nurses. There are so The fi rst in his family to go to college, of being on the cutting edge.” many paths which can be charted, but Henderson is another President’s Engage- Gray began exploring healthcare start- still it’s the basics of the experience—the ment Prize winner, awarded in 2017 for his ups that appealed to her desire to shake science, the empathy, the critical think- project with classmate Ian McCurry Nu’17 things up. When she stumbled on some- ing—that can prepare you for anything.” to work with a Philadelphia homeless shel- thing called Trusted Health, she thought ter on increasing access for its under- she’d found what she was looking for. “It “Heart” and “Head” served population [“Gazetteer,” May|Jun was basically still a concept [about creat- Despite promising vaccine news, the fall 2017]. He is also serving on the committee ing a job marketplace for nurses],” she surge in COVID-19 cases across the na- working on The Future of Nursing 2020– says. “But it looked like they were trying tion—which could worsen throughout the 2030 report, having been selected, like to build exactly what I had wanted as a winter—is a reminder that the pandemic Cunningham, in a national search. nurse.” She started pitching in and before is still very much with us. And nurses will “Decisions that impact the healthcare long the two founding partners invited make “extensive and expansive contribu- of people are put into place all of the her to join them as a founding clinician tions” to weathering this latest onslaught, time and nurses aren’t part of the discus- and the platform’s fi rst non-tech hire. both in “what we do and how we lead,” sion,” Henderson says. “And it’s not just Trusted Health’s timing has been ideal— says Villarruel. “People understand and about insurance, or Medicaid. I’m talk- on track to meet a predicted hiring boom know the ‘heart’ of nursing, but they don’t ing about how transportation works, designed to serve an aging population think about the ‘head,’ and what a power- how housing authorities work, how the with increased healthcare needs and a ful combination nurses have in both.” Department of Agriculture handles food concurrent surge in nurse retirements As hospitals—and healthcare work- access. Nurses can provide a vital per- (nearly half are already over 50). Now with ers—are once again being stretched near spective on how these policies aff ect the more than 200,000 nurses on its platform, the breaking point, there have been calls communities they serve.” the company specializes in travel, or con- for strikes over working conditions and Henderson anticipates he’ll ultimately tract, nursing. “Many nurses aren’t inter- inadequate PPE, and many messages pursue an academic career, along with ested in arriving on a fl oor and staying from health workers on social media possible government service. “I often joke,” there for the next 20 years,” Gray observes. imploring the public to wear masks and he says, sounding dead serious, “that I’d As COVID spiked around the nation, practice social distancing. like to be the fi rst nurse to become Secre- Trusted Health found itself well-posi- “The pandemic has brought to light the tary of Health and Human Services.” tioned to send hundreds of temporary true conditions in which our frontline nurses from hotspot to hotspot, along the workers are forced to engage—for the ben- Healthcare Startup way creating a newly specialized work- efi t of others,” says Villarruel. “That is what In contrast to the 90 percent of her force. “It’s been exciting for me to work strikes are about; it is not about nurses per Penn Nursing peers who opt to move on for a company that is itself a model of se, but about advocating for environments to a master’s degree program, Sarah how nurses can be utilized,” Gray says. that will keep people—healthcare provid- Gray Nu’13 was eager to enter the job “About 20 percent of our employees are ers, patients, families—safe.” market. Once she started looking RNs, and they’re on the tech team, in Villarruel would like to see public ex- around, though, she was “shocked at marketing, in compliance. I realize that pressions of gratitude translate into how diffi cult it was to fi gure out my op- nursing has a jam-packed curriculum, “meaningful investments in nursing edu- tions. It was all so overwhelming.” but I would challenge Penn Nursing and cation; to developing a true career trajec- After her husband received an off er to all nursing schools to fi nd a way to set tory into the profession; to integration of work in San Francisco and the couple their students up for careers that break nurses in policy decisions—whether at relocated, Gray settled into a career as a the boundary of the clinical setting. the institutional or global level.” pediatric nurse but discovered that “I When nurses take control of their careers, That’s “a big ask,” she admits. “But we was more drawn to the processes, the they can fi nd growth and challenges in have already made so many adjust- ineffi ciencies, the lack of resources,” she dozens of non-traditional ways.” ments—out of necessity—and we need says. “I had friends working for Face- Villarruel has watched the change to continue to move forward.” book and Apple and Google that were fi rsthand. “My parents channeled me surrounded by innovation and their em- into nursing because they wanted to JoAnn Greco writes frequently for the Gazette.

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 41 Heard at Homecoming

The Scholar Artists what I want to say. For those of us now Voices from a Since 2009, Homecoming has featured a who have tenured positions, I think we fall celebration special focus on arts and culture. Launch- do have an opportunity to “make it ing this year’s Arts at Homecoming, Kelly count.” We can go to the dean’s offi ce and (wait for it) … Family Professor of English and Writers say these [creative] endeavors should House Faculty Director Al Filreis moderat- count [toward tenure and career ad- like no other. ed a conversation among several Penn fac- vancement]. They deserve raises. We ulty members who combine scholarship should create more opportunities in the and teaching with work as creative art- university and in the academy, and so ists—which included this exchange among that’s on us. And I think that, you know, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History certainly one hopes that the national en- with everything else in this and novelist Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet; Ken dowments for the arts and the humani- pandemic year, Homecoming Lum, the Marilyn Jordan Taylor Presidential ties will be tripled in funding! But we also 2020 was diff erent. But what Professor and chair of ﬁ ne arts in the in our own small ways within our institu- it lacked in on-campus cama- Weitzman School of Design; and assistant tions have the power to make it matter, raderie, it made up for with a professor of English and poet Simone and I think we really have to do that. Asrich and varied slate of content online White, on the challenge of pursuing a cre- for alumni. ative career given its uncertain economic Billed as Homecoming@Home and return, compounded by the pandemic. “How can I have extending for six days from November 9 to 14 instead of being squeezed into the Kashani-Sabet: I actually wanted to enough—enough traditional jam-packed weekend, the all- answer this question, about how you can virtual celebration included upwards of ensure writing consistently enriches everything, right?— 20 panel discussions on topics including your life when the lack of career stabil- to do the things arts and culture, racial and social justice, ity can make it a drain. I wanted to say and the frontiers of medical research a few things about that very quickly: one that I need to do?” and patient care, as well as presenta- is, if you’re inclined to write, you can tions on Penn’s architectural heritage, never stop writing. If you’re inclined to virtual gallery hops, the University’s produce creatively, you can never stop Lum: Well, it’s true that we are living most unusual “gifts in kind,” and more. doing that because it’s suicide, you in a social justice moment. A lot of pun- There was even a football game, with a know? And I think that this moment dits have used that term. But it’s a mo- Saturday rebroadcast of a 2002 contest that we’re in right now—I don’t know ment that has long been in gestation, so between Penn and Harvard. (Spoiler about others, but for me it was crucial it’s not like a moment that just somehow alert: Penn won.) that I ﬁ nd quiet moments to think and appeared out of nowhere, and COVID-19 Here are excerpts from a few of the to write. I don’t even know if it was good, is only underlining the consequences of panels, which have been lightly edited or if it is good, or if anyone wants to read a social order that’s been long built on for conciseness and clarity. Full videos it, but it was my survival mode. racism, social injustice, and profound of all the presentations off ered can be But I don’t want to ignore the econom- inequity. So the coronavirus actually can found at www.alumni.upenn.edu. —JP ics of it, and this is the second part of be a catalyst, I think, for artists to reex-

42 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 ILLUSTRATION BY TRACY WALKER Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 43 amine the social environment and the institutions that govern that environment and, in fact, I think it behooves artists to think in that wider political sense, right? And I think also that the crisis of—the conﬂ uence of crises, of multiple crises, the monuments crisis and so on—has also made explicit the damage that human cultures have wrought on the world’s environmental footprint as well, so all of these things have kind of converged. I think it’s really important for us to ask the question: What is the global public good that we can off er through our work at this moment? And I think unless we can have some clarity to ourselves in terms of that purpose we will not be very eff ective artists. The Urgent Matter “The term gets watered White: I want to acknowledge the sort of Black Lives of dark underbelly of not doing the down as it becomes things that you need and want to do. … In this discussion sponsored by the Center Depression is a real thing, “drain” is real. for Africana Studies and the Black Alumni more and more popular Those are real experiences that people Society, moderator Margo Crawford, director have as they’re struggling to try and ﬁ g- of the Center and professor of English, be- and people use it ure out what they’re going to do with gan by asking panelists Mary Frances Berry, without understanding their lives. One of the things that I’ve the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of Ameri- tried to think about very seriously, as a can Social Thought and professor of history; what it means.” person who started their creative work Dorothy Roberts, the George A. Weiss Uni- late in life [after working as a lawyer], is versity Professor of Law and Sociology and that these areas of thinking can’t be the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Moss- ery, and we can talk more about some of separated from each other. How can I ell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights; and the ways in which structural racism is have enough—enough everything, Tukufu Zuberi, the Lazry Family Professor of perpetuated. But abolitionists—starting right?—to do the things that I need to Race Relations in the department of sociolo- from anti-slavery abolitionists to well- do? Where do I need to live, what do I gy, to weigh the promise and potential prob- known ones [today] like Angela Davis, need to be looking at, are there people lems around the “mainstreaming” of the Ruthie Gilmore, and others have been in my life who I need to make closer con- modern abolitionist movement during this creating a movement, a longstanding nections to? This isn’t just about work, year’s protests against police brutality and movement to dismantle completely these it’s also about relationships, it’s—you in support of racial justice and the 2020 punitive carceral institutions that have know, maybe you’re not the person who’s election campaign. been used to maintain Black people’s sub- going to get married, I don’t know. That ordination and a racial capitalist system is an economic activity too. And one of Roberts: The promise of it, I think, is in general, and to instead imagine a radi- the things that creative work can do is the idea of abolition—that the US is a cally diff erent society. And of course we to help us to start to think how I want white supremacist nation, still. Its institu- want more and more people to under- my whole life to look, so that I can think tions, like police and prisons and, I would stand the meaning of that and to join that about how I want the world to look. I add to that, family policing, its healthcare movement. I think it’s promising that just really hope that people think about system, its education system—every insti- more and more people are paying atten- art and art practice as ways of reimagin- tution in the United States—we can trace tion to abolitionism as a philosophy, as a ing what the world’s going to look like, back to slavery. And we can see ways in political strategy, as a vision. as you live in it longer and longer and which the US has continued to maintain I think the pitfall is that the term gets longer, and are you going to have the these structures of oppression throughout watered down as it becomes more and emotional resources to stay in it? the century even past the abolition of slav- more popular and people use it without

44 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Merit Awards

The following alumni were selected to understanding what it means. One ex- “We don’t demand receive the Alumni Award of Merit and the ample is the call to defund police, which Young Alumni Award and will be celebrated is an abolitionist idea—with shrinking the of politicians at Homecoming 2021 at the Alumni Award funding for police leading toward disman- of Merit Gala on November 5, 2021. tling policing as a way of dealing with anything when Alumni Award of Merit social problems and confl icts in human Judith Bollinger WG’81 needs. But many people use the term ei- we’re all talking Ghislain Gouraige C’80 ther to mean something that’s the mini- about going to mal shifting of resources away from polic- Michael Kowalski W’74 ing without that broader vision, or they vote for them.” Clemson Smith Muniz C’79 are just afraid of that term—so that politi- John Vosmek C’61 cians are afraid to use it. Biden, for ex- Young Alumni Award of Merit ample, had to make it clear, “I don’t be- the various iterations of our movement, I Ashley Zampini Ritter Nu’07 GNu’08 Gr’18 lieve in defunding the police!” because it think, is the way we need to understand becomes associated with scary radicalism. this. But I think we also need to be careful Zuberi: … The idea of ending enslave- that American democracy and American somebody who’s going to object, and it’s ment in the way that it was ended in the freedom are most fully articulated around not just white people and white suprema- United States, the way that it was ended this concept of abolition and that we need cists, it’s Black people who do so. everywhere in the world, comes as a result to recognize that—because the society is The other thing we don’t do is, we don’t of this abolitionist tradition. … If anybody founded against abolition, the society is demand of politicians anything when thinks they’re for freedom, then they founded in, grounded in, enslavement. So, we’re all talking about going to vote for would have to be for abolition—because you want to know how to get beyond that? them. All we talk about is, “We need to the other way puts you on a modern Con- You get into this abolitionist movement, vote, we need to vote,” and I tell my stu- federate side and that is a side against hu- which is attempting to destroy the con- dents that Fannie Lou Hamer and Rosa man existence and against the United tinuing existing elements of white su- Parks and all of those Black women that States of America, and against us having premacy, of the enslavement of freedom, I knew in the Civil Rights movement did a possibility for a future. So I think that the enslavement of democracy, the en- not fi ght for us to get the vote just so we there is a way that we need to understand slavement of the possibilities of equality. could “just vote, just vote.” They wanted that white supremacy is not good for any- Berry: After those two eloquent state- us to vote like Martin said at the Prayer body—it’s not good for white people, it’s ments, I don’t know what I have to say Pilgrimage in 1957, wanted us to vote so except to do my usual contrarian interjec- that we can get something—justice, vari- tion, which is to point out that the reason ous things we want—or that he said in the “We need to why we don’t have a policy implemented missed part of the March on Washington of abolitionism, in any term—just like we speech, that we came to “cash a check” to understand that don’t have a policy of reparations, we give us freedom and justice. So when don’t have a policy of the whole idea of people are always talking about voting, I white supremacy police reform with qualifi ed immunity, say, “Why don’t you demand something which is part of abolitionism—is because of these politicians and tell them you’re is not good for of Black people. Because many Black not gonna vote for them unless they do anybody.” people are afraid … and so whenever any- it?” Not one of them in the general elec- body mentions abolitionism or reform or tion—the two that were there, because we any of these things, they can always fi nd only have two parties, I guess—supported not good for Black people, it’s not good for some Black people to come out and say, reparations, police reform, or prison abo- colored people. White supremacy is not “Oh, that’s scary. I’d be scared if you did litionism, or any of the things we want, good. Maybe it got us to this point, but that. Oh please, don’t do that to the police. or any kind of targeted relief for Black getting us to this point is now destroying I love the police. I love them coming to my people, whether it’s economic, political, the earth and threatening human civiliza- house.” And so are reparations. They say, or otherwise—while they were happy to tion, much less threatening Black lives. So “I don’t need any reparations. Oh, I can support such relief for other people with- I think that this is a fundamental idea. It do everything myself.” And so every time out fear or favor. So Black people have to has long been in our tradition, and its we get any kind of major reform objec- get over being scared, or being, you know, rearticulation and galvanization around tives that we advocate … there’s always fearful of revolution, really.

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 45 “Sometimes we say Penn’s ImmunoRevolution: ally licensed that has now 15 years later these breakthroughs turned into a vaccine for coronavirus Rising Stars and when we never even imagined it? are 20-year overnight Next-Generation Therapies Weissman: Katie Kariko [then a Penn Fulfi lling what he called “my childhood faculty member and currently senior vice sensations.” dream one day to be a TV talk show host,” president at BioNTech, which is partner- Abramson Cancer Center Director Robert ing with Pfi zer on its vaccine] and I had Even before coronavirus, we were ready H. Vonderheide interviewed seven leading been studying the immunology of RNA to go with a bunch of diff erent vaccines. researchers and clinicians involved in for many years. RNA has always been Vonderheide: The material we’re talk- Penn’s standard-setting work in developing thought of as a great way to deliver pro- ing about here, RNA is diff erent than con- immunotherapies for a variety of cancers, teins, but the problem with it is that it’s ventional vaccine. This really would be the as well as diabetes and other diseases. He so infl ammatory that we often killed the fi rst time to use RNA in a commercially began with a “topic literally ripped from the mice—which doesn’t work well for a available vaccine. Is RNA hard to make, is headlines,” introducing Professor of Medi- therapeutic. So we studied the immunol- it hard to manufacture, is it expensive? cine Drew Weissman, codeveloper of the ogy and what we found is that by chang- Weissman: That’s probably what at- messenger RNA (mRNA) technology that ing one of the bases in the RNA, one of tracts pharmaceuticals the most. Making made possible the fi rst coronavirus vac- the components of the RNA, with slight vaccines is very labor intensive, very ex- cine, announced just days before by Pfi zer modifi cations we could get rid of that pensive. Making RNA is a two-step reac- as having an effi cacy of 90 percent. (Soon tion. It’s simple. It’s one tube to make the after, Moderna, which also licensed the RNA, one tube to put it in a lipid particle, Penn patent, announced that its mRNA “Even before and you’re done. The cost of RNA vac- vaccine was 94.5 percent effective, and coronavirus, we cines is much less than other vaccines. Pfi zer amended its results to 95 percent.) Vonderheide: And I guess that explains were ready to go why we were able to go from not even Vonderheide: Let’s just cut to the knowing the virus in January to mature chase. Drew, you’re a world expert on with a bunch of clinical trials here being reported in No- this. You’ve been working on coronavi- vember. It really is unprecedented speed. rus 24/7 since it became a problem a few different vaccines.” You know, it reminds me—sometimes we months ago. Your laboratory studies say these breakthroughs are 20-year over- were promising that this vaccine would immune-activation infl ammatory poten- night sensations. … What do you think work. Just from your point of view, is tial. And what was also surprising is that the next step from here is? What can we this what we’ve been waiting for? Is this when we did that, we increased the expect next in the news or scientifi cally? the news we were hoping for? amount of protein that that RNA pro- Weissman: I think we’re now con- Weissman: I think this is fantastic duced by upwards of a thousand-fold—so vinced that the Pfi zer vaccine works. The news. As a vaccinologist, I can’t remem- not only did we make the RNA safe, we next step is the Moderna vaccine. After ber ever seeing a respiratory virus vac- made it 1,000 times more potent. that, to me as a clinician, the most im- cine that had 90 percent effi cacy. We’re Vonderheide: It’s amazing. My under- portant next step is to get it out to the usually thinking about fl u—that’s 40 to standing is that RNA is ordinarily so in- people and to have people take the vac- 60 percent, and we’re happy with that. fl ammatory that you get this immune cine. Because it isn’t going to do much But this is unbelievable, that’s just in- response that’s not productive, but by good if people don’t want to take it. credible effi cacy, and I think it’s probably altering it you’re able to then use its prop- Vonderheide: And are you concerned going to be a wonderful vaccine. erties to actually start an immune re- about the safety of this formulation? Vonderheide: Well, we’re all hoping sponse, in this case against coronavirus, Weissman: No. The vaccine gives lo- and wishing it the best. Drew, every great and that’s incredibly clever. It means, cal side eff ects—people’s arms hurt— breakthrough has its moment when it was perhaps, Drew, that we can use this for a but other than that, there have been no created. I want you to take us back to your vaccine for many other indications be- bad side eff ects. I think it’s a complete- laboratory around 2005. You were working yond coronavirus, isn’t that right? ly safe vaccine. on the RNA molecule and how it’s rigged Weissman: We’ve got clinical trials Vonderheide: I share your confi - and how dendritic cells, a certain immune already set up and ready to start for gen- dence. RNA is not toxic and has never cell, responds to it. Can you tell us back ital herpes, infl uenza, HIV, Norovirus, C. been shown to be toxic, so another rea- then what you discovered that was eventu- diff ., and malaria, and others on the way. son to take advantage of it.

46 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 ARTS P.48 P.50 P. 51 P.52 Portfolio to Palette Brick House Pandemic Legacies Briefly Noted

In Sight: Seeing the People of the Holy Land Red Etchings: Soviet Book Illustrations from the Collection Kelly Writers House of Monroe Price writing.upenn.edu/wh/ The Midwest Experience: Calendar Temporarily closed, but visit the Ormandy in Minnesota website for links to virtual events, plus dozens more online Annenberg Center archived programs, PoemTalk annenbergcenter.org Penn Museum podcasts, and the PennSound Temporarily closed penn.museum/collections poetry collection. Temporarily closed, but collections Arthur Ross Gallery Penn Libraries are viewable online arthurrossgallery.org library.upenn.edu/collections/ Temporarily closed Slought online-exhibits slought.org ICA Remarkable Figures: Temporarily closed icaphila.org Women in the Art of Ashley Bryan

Somebody’s Knocking Temporarily closed The Jewish Home: Dwelling on World Café Live Ashley Bryan, linoleum block print Jan 13: Virtual curator-led tour of the Domestic, the Familial, and worldcafelive.com [ca. 1982] Milford Graves: A Mind-Body Deal the Lived-In Temporarily closed

Ashley Bryan Archive, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 47 A New Sunrise, ARTS Painting 2020, oil on canvas. Portrait of the Artist as a Former Financial Analyst Jill Krutick ﬁ nds her happy place.

ill Krutick W’84 was supposed to wrap up this autumn in Brussels. Following a later-in-life foray into the professional art world, she’d been on a roll through 2019 and Jinto early 2020, landing her fi rst solo museum show plus a dozen other exhibition opportunities. Another crop of shows was on the way, including more US museum exhibitions and a November art fair in Brussels. Then the pandemic swept in and cleared her entire calendar. Instead of packing up her abstract ex- pressionist paintings to introduce in Eu- rope, Krutick has been penned inside her Mamaroneck, New York, studio since March, making new work while trying to fi gure out how an artist can stay visible when museums and galleries are shut. That’s where her Wharton days and previous career are proving handy. Har- nessing what she learned during 23 years in the business world, Krutick is using all this unplanned downtime to reach art enthusiasts and collectors who, like her, are mostly stuck at home right now. “I have tried basically every way to en- It’s like watching a pastry chef frost a study a large canvas that she’s already gage with people and keep people inter- very large, very fl at cake. A soft cover of coated and carved. “I see a lot of vegeta- ested and wanting to view my work, buy Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning” accom- tion,” she says. “I see a lot of fairytale my work,” she said during a virtual pre- panies the clip, along with the caption, elements. It’s certainly a happy place.” sentation at Homecoming in November. “Molding paste is calming,” followed by She layers colorful paint over the tex- Since March, that’s included TikTok and a series of tags: #satisfyingpainting #fo- tured paste, swiping on ocean blues and Instagram videos of her painting process, ryoupage #processvideo #moldingpaste. soft reds and pale greens in the video. a new Etsy shop, a home art curation ser- Aside from supplying Zen footage, this Color is Krutick’s other passion. She vice, a virtual viewing room, a perpetu- process is how Krutick begins many of “collects” it everywhere she goes, relying ally updated website, and “storytime” her paintings. She’ll cover an entire can- on her strong visual memory to capture videos about each of her painting series. vas with textured acrylic molding paste, a stroll under fi ery autumn leaves or a In her most-viewed TikTok video, then sculpt in lines, swirls, and abstract boat ride on a foggy day. posted in June, Krutick’s gloved hand shapes. “As I’m creating it, I might see a In her abstract works, Krutick’s inspi- drags a palette knife across a white can- story coming out,” she says. In a video ration has swung from Batman to The vas, smoothing on white molding paste. on her website, Krutick steps back to Giving Tree to trout. (Her son is a fi shing

48 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Paintings courtesy Jill Krutick Ice Cube Night, 2013, oil on canvas (top); Crayon Forest, 2020, oil and acrylic on canvas (bottom).

captain in Miami and suggested that last one.) “Inspiration comes from a lot of diff erent places,” she says. “Sometimes they’re just fantasy worlds that I dream about,” as in her Shangri la series, which has hints of Monet. “There are so many diff erent ways that I get transported as I’m painting,” she adds, “which is why I call it taking a journey.” Krutick’s Ice Cube series draws inspiration from Mark Rothko’s color-fi eld paintings, but often incorporates harder edges and brasher contrasts. She explains on her website that “the Ice Cube shape”—two drippy rectangles separated by a thick band and placed inside a square—“has emerged as my artistic fi ngerprint.” “It’s a very unique series, which stands apart from all my other series,” she says. She’s made more than a hundred of them at this point, in various sizes and colors. “The actual image, while simple, is actually very complex when you take a closer look—in terms of the textures and the layers and the nuances that are on the canvas,” she says. “You can actually see so much in what appears to be a simple picture.” Like many artists, Krutick remembers falling in love with her craft as a kid. By her teen years, she was copying famous Monet and Van Gogh works in oil. But in college she studied fi nance and decision sciences at Wharton, followed by a 17-year career on Wall Street and then six years as a senior vice president at Warner Music Group. When Warner was taken private in 2011, she threw herself back into painting. Soon “all of that energy that I put into fi nance got directed into building an art practice,” she says. She spent four years taking classes at the Art Students League of New York, learning from her teachers as well as the other students. The more she painted, the more she wanted to paint. By 2017, she had her own studio/gallery. In early 2019, at age 56, she landed her fi rst museum show. “That was a milestone event for me,” she says, recalling the 5,000 square feet—six

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 49 ARTS

PUBLIC ART rooms in all—inside the Coral Springs Brick Museum of Art in Florida that were House fi lled with her work. Another museum show sprang from that one, then another and another, until Krutick had major momentum and a busy travel schedule heading into 2020. You know what happened next. But she’s managed to fi nd slivers of light in a dark year. “All I did was try to dream up new ways to reach people,” she says. “That was the silver lining: instead of just pressing ahead with the shows and preparing for those specifi c events, I took a blank sheet and started from scratch, thinking about how to create a virtual experience and share the art in new and diff erent ways.” The Etsy store, for one. Launched this past October, it places Krutick’s paintings on yoga pants, duvet covers, note cards, and cloth face masks, in addition A commanding and enigmatic new fi gure has taken up residence at the eastern to serving as an online shop for her entrance of College Green. Brick House, a 16-foot-tall bronze sculpture by Simone original paintings. “It’s a very tough Leigh, was installed near the corner of Walnut and 34th Streets in November. It is a market overall because people are in a gift from Glenn Fuhrman W’87 WG’88 and Amanda Fuhrman C’95. very bad way,” she says. “I believe it’s Leigh, a Brooklyn-based sculptor who had a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim important to continue to be in front of Museum in New York in 2019 and was recently chosen to represent the United States people and to show that you’re constant- at the 2022 Venice Biennale, characterizes her artistic process as a “formal creoliza- ly reinventing yourself.” tion” that melds female bodies with elements of the buildings where women labor. This With the Brussels show rescheduled monumental statue draws inspiration from the historical and contemporary African di- for February 2021, Krutick is also pre- aspora. The cowrie shells that adorn the braids on its subject symbolize wealth and paring to mount a solo exhibition at femininity, and also the African slave trade in which cowrie shells were used as curren- Virginia’s Longwood Center for the Vi- cy. The abstract, skirt-like base was inspired by Batammaliba architecture in Benin and sual Arts and an “Homage to Rothko” Togo and the teleuk dwellings of the Mousgoum people of Cameroon and Chad—as solo show at the Alex Galleries in Wash- ington, DC, both postponed from 2020, well as the restaurant Mammy’s Cupboard in Natchez, Mississippi. sometime this coming year. “Brick House is not a portrait,” says Leigh. “It brings disparate forms together in a “The fun of the story is that I didn’t way that collapses time.” have a specifi c plan to get to art later in Another casting of Brick House is on temporary exhibit on New York’s High Line life,” she says. “It’s something that just through next spring. When the Fuhrmans learned that Leigh, whose work fi rst cap- happened—an unplanned decision.” tured their attention in 2016, hoped that this particular piece might fi nd a home on “But there were always two parts of a college campus, they reached out to their alma mater about a year and a half ago. me,” she adds, “the artsy part and the “While I was a student at Penn studying art history, I gained a deep appreciation for business part. I knew that they had to the power and infl uence of artistic expression,” said Glenn, who serves on the board live together. Now in the art world, see- of the Institute of Contemporary Art at Penn, where he underwrote free admission with ing how important business is as part of a 2008 gift. “I feel—and Simone agrees—that our urban campus is the perfect loca- this whole equation—how you market tion for Brick House, where it can be seen by a large and diverse population.” yourself and diff erentiate yourself in the “Ms. Leigh’s sculpture brings a striking presence of strength, grace, and beauty— wacky world of art—it’s fascinating to along with an ineffable sense of mystery and resilience—to a central crossroad of me how it all comes together.” Penn’s campus,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann in a statement. —Molly Petrilla C’06

50 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Photo by Eric Sucar, University Communications Book Review

Chinese colleagues, the lab published a Aft er the Storm study that used mobile-phone data to track the spread of the novel coronavirus Nicholas Christakis speculates on the pandemic’s in China. Other studies are designed to investigate the virus’s impact in Copán, ultimate social impacts, and fi nds cause for optimism. Honduras, where the lab has a fi eld site, By Julia M. Klein and how mass gatherings have aff ected the virus’s dispersion in the US. In May, the lab released an app, Hunala, to help users proactively assess their infection of late 2020, with COVID-19 again risk. Christakis’s Twitter feed has become spiking across Europe and the an important source of information on United States, more illness, death, the evolving pandemic. As social isolation, and economic Christakis borrows his metaphorical devastation seemed inevitably to lie title from an account in The Iliad of ahead. Several promising vaccines, Apollo’s vengeance on the Greeks during along with better treatments and public- the Trojan War. The novel coronavirus health measures, may temper that grim constitutes “a threat … both wholly new forecast. But meanwhile anxiety and and deeply ancient,” he writes in his dismay registered as natural responses preface. We must confront it “in a mod- to our repeated missteps in both control- ern way while also relying on wisdom ling the pandemic and mitigating its from the past.” economic and social harms. That wisdom includes the history of Into this winter of our discontent the bubonic plague, smallpox, the 1918 strides the ebullient Nicholas A. Chris- fl u pandemic, polio, HIV/AIDS, SARS-1, takis G’92 Gr’95 GM’95 with a book that and other massive public health disas- points us both backward, to plagues ters. Plagues, Christakis reminds us, are past, and forward—with measured op- “an old, familiar enemy,” transforming timism—to a post-pandemic world. The Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact the social order, wrecking economies, most remarkable feature of Apollo’s Ar- of Coronavirus on the Way We Live and eliciting grief and terror—but also, row: The Profound and Enduring Im- By Nicholas Christakis he insists, “kindness, cooperation, sac- Little, Brown Spark, 384 pages, $29 pact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live rifi ce, and ingenuity.” is the blazing speed with which it was Along with a primer on the biology of written—in the midst of a rapidly un- be as well suited as anyone to contextu- coronaviruses, Christakis provides a me- folding event whose course and impacts alize the crisis and speculate on the ticulous account of how the novel coro- can’t yet be fully known. character of a post-COVID world. navirus spread, fi rst through the Chinese That, of course, is one of the challeng- Apollo’s Arrow draws on Christakis’s city of Wuhan and eventually to this es of the book, composed between March interdisciplinary expertise as a sociolo- country. Like most scientists, he rejects and August, a period when Americans gist, hospice physician, and epidemiolo- the notion that the virus could have been were not yet being diagnosed at the rate gist [“Good By Design,” May|Jun 2019]. engineered and malevolently unleashed of 175,000 or more cases per day. Chris- And it incorporates ideas on altruism, on the world. But he admits that much takis’s biggest miss, however, is under- social networks, and other prosocial be- about its origins remains mysterious. estimating the rapidity with which vac- havior outlined in two of his previous After the China discussion, however, cines would be ready for distribution. books, Blueprint: The Evolutionary this becomes a deliberately US-centric He predicts in the book that an eff ective Origins of a Good Society (2019) and narrative, with only minimal attention vaccine “might not arrive before we Connected: The Surprising Power of Our paid to the pandemic in Europe and achieve herd immunity” in 2022. Social Networks and How They Shape elsewhere. Christakis shares the gen- For now, though, Christakis—the Ster- Our Lives (2009). eral frustration of the public health com- ling Professor of Social and Natural Sci- Since COVID-19 fi rst triggered alarms munity at the bumbling US response, ence at Yale, where he also serves as last January, Christakis has focused his including the early testing debacle; the director of the Human Nature Lab—may laboratory’s work on the pandemic. With mixed messaging (notably over the util-

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 51 ARTS Briefl y Noted CLOUD HOPPER by Beth Kephart C’82 ity of masks); and the reliance on dispa- stroy.” Still, Christakis admits that even (Penny Candy Books, 2020, rate, delayed state and local measures he has at times succumbed to despair. $17.99.) Three misfi t best instead of a coherent national policy. He Finally, amid “colossal uncertainty” friends in a rural town watch laments that New York, though lauded about the future, he ventures into the as a girl in a homemade hot for its stringent lockdown, was tardy in prediction game. Whether or not vac- air balloon falls out of the enacting it, with catastrophic conse- cines become available, he suggests that sky. Where did she come from? Why won’t she quences in illnesses and deaths. Americans will be living in “an acutely talk? And what should they do? Illuminating the Christakis reviews the range of inter- changed world,” wearing masks and perils of undocumented immigration in America, ventions, pharmaceutical and non-phar- avoiding crowds, until 2022. That will this young adult novel by the prolifi c memoirist, maceutical, that have been (and might be followed, he says, by an “intermediate fi ction writer, and occasional Gazette contributor be) deployed to contain the virus. He also pandemic period,” lasting perhaps until explores themes of family, loss, and tragedy. emphasizes the indispensable role of 2024, as people recover from the trauma THE NATIONAL TRAILS public trust when it comes to implement- of the pandemic. Finally, by 2024, a SYSTEM: An Illustrated ing measures that are “inconvenient, un- “post-pandemic period” will usher in a History by Steve Elkinton natural, and often extremely costly.” “normal” but changed world. GLA’76 (Vertel Publishing, Much in these chapters will be familiar Many of those changes are unknow- 2020, $26.99.) Established to anyone who has obsessively followed able, he says. But he forecasts that certain by federal law in 1968, the coronavirus coverage. More novel is pandemic-induced adaptations—from National Trails System grew Christakis’s summary of factors account- greater self-reliance to the increased use from only two trails—the Appalachian and ing for the diff erential spread of the virus. of telemedicine and online technology Pacifi c Crest Scenic Trails—to 30 national sce- Drawing on social-network theory, he for work and education—are likely to nic and historic trails that, combined with auxil- notes that popular, well-connected peo- persist. The pandemic, for instance, has iary paths, create a network larger than the ple are more likely to become super- driven home “the pointlessness of much Interstate Highway System. Elkinton, who spreaders. He raises the interesting pos- in-person medical practice,” he writes. worked on the National Trails System for 25 sibility that the (still contested) number Overall, the pandemic’s economic and years, provides a chronological history, rich with of infected people needed to attain herd social aftershocks will be profound—and photographs and maps. immunity, through vaccination or other perhaps, on balance, positive, Christakis A PASSION FOR ISRAEL: means, may depend on just who those argues. Just as the Roaring Twenties fol- Adventures of a Sar-El people are. If popular people became im- lowed the 1918 fl u pandemic, he imag- Volunteer by Mark Werner mune, Christakis writes, “relatively more ines a post-COVID era of “technological, L’78 (Gefen Publishing, paths for the virus to spread through so- artistic, and even social innovations,” $29.95.) Werner, a US cor- ciety would be cut off .” That means, he bringing “not only a renewed sense of porate lawyer whose ardent says, that “vaccinating people with many purpose but a renewed sense of possibil- Zionism spurred him to vol- connections is more helpful than vacci- ity.” The religiosity and refl ectiveness unteer on Israeli military bases through the Sar- nating people with few connections.” characterizing the immediate and inter- El organization, recounts 14 years of drama, Christakis surveys the dysfunctional mediate pandemic periods may well quotidian labor, and solidarity with Israeli sol- reactions that often accompany pan- yield to “increased … risk-taking, intem- diers and civilians. THE CHEATING CELL: How demics. “The epidemics of emotions and perance, or joie de vivre,” boost urban Evolution Helps Us of misinformation intersect in worri- living and the appetite for social mixing, Understand and Treat some ways with the underlying epidem- transform art and literature, and per- Cancer by Athena Aktipis ic of the pathogen itself,” he writes. But haps even create the political will to G’04 Gr’08 (Princeton in the chapter “Banding Together,” he combat economic inequality. University Press, 2020, also touts the emergence of altruism For survivors of the current nightmare, $24.95.) Aktipis, a psychol- among healthcare workers and other in other words, Apollo’s Arrow off ers the ogy professor at Arizona State University, takes Americans, including a resurgence in promise of brighter days ahead. “Plagues readers back billions of years to explore the mutual aid, increased charitable giving, always end,” Christakis assures us. “And, evolution of cells. When unicellular forms volunteer childcare, and other eff orts. like plagues, hope is an enduring part of became multicellular organisms, cells learned “The imperative to be generous is hard- the human condition.” to cooperate—but rogue “cheating” cells also wired in us,” he writes, and “capacities arose, overusing resources and replicating out for altruism, cooperation, and teaching Julia M. Klein profi led Nicholas A. Christakis of control, giving rise to cancer. … are ones that the virus does not de- for the May|Jun 2019 issue of the Gazette. Visit thepenngazette.com for more Briefl y Noted.

52 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 ALUMNI P.55 P.57 P.60 P.70 Wine Master Winning for Charity Alumni Notes Obituaries

SKETCH FPO

Mission to Mars Meet one of the robotics engineers working on NASA’s Perseverance rover.

Photo courtesy NASA Jan|Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 53 ALUMNI Sawyer Brooks EAS’14 GEng’15

ine months before the Mars 2020 rover Perse- verance was scheduled to leave Earth, NASA robotics systems engi- Nneer Sawyer Brooks EAS’14 GEng’15 watched alongside some two dozen colleagues as the craft nearly botched its rehearsal of a crucial docking sequence the fi rst time it was placed in Martian conditions (minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit). A robotic arm was supposed to transfer soil samples from the ground to the rover. It had worked fi ne in Earth conditions, but now it moved alarmingly slowly. The te- lemetry scrolling across life, analyze them, and store es into a dock on the rover to Brooks’ computer screen was them in tubes on the Martian hand off a sample to the cach- “It’s still a little looking uncertain. surface for a future mission to ing system for processing. “It’s “It’s a critical test and I’m retrieve and return to Earth. an entirely new capability surreal to me getting really worried that Perseverance advances the that we haven’t had on any the docking is going to fail,” science of Curiosity, the rov- other missions,” he says. The that this project Brooks recalls. “I’m watching er that captured the world’s team has spent years testing this number that indicates attention in 2012 with its the system in thousands of I worked on is how close it is to success. It’s nail-biting landing on Mars. plausible scenarios it might just so slowly getting a little The new rover is slightly larg- encounter on Mars. Since Per- actually going bit closer and closer. Finally, er—at 10 feet long, 9 feet severance launched last July, to be operating just a few tries before it gives wide, 7 feet tall, and 2,314 the team has continued test- up and declares failure, that pounds—and powered by nu- ing using identical rovers at on Mars.” number slips under the margin clear, battery, and solar ener- JPL—a research facility, to be declared a success and gy. Its caching system is com- Brooks notes, that has “always docking fi nishes successfully.” prised of three robots—a fi ve- been on my radar.” Brooks grew up in Sandy, Since arriving at NASA’s Jet jointed, seven-foot arm carry- During his freshman and Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) ing a rotary drill; a carousel sophomore years of college, City. As a child of two civil in Pasadena, California, short- that moves drill bits and “I was following Curiosity re- engineers, he began tinker- ly after graduating from Penn, sample tubes to the drill and ally closely as it moved to- ing with robotics kits at an Brooks has primarily worked rover chassis; and a 1.6-foot- wards the launch and stayed early age, eventually found- on testing the sample caching long arm running sample up to watch the landing,” he ing his high school robotics system for Perseverance, tubes between storage, docu- says. “Once that fi nally hap- team, before heading to the which is slated to land in mentation stations, and the pened, around one or two California Institute of Tech- Mars’s Jezero Crater on Feb- bit carousel. Together they a.m., I was so incredibly ex- nology in 2010. But he ruary 18. The main focus of contain more than 3,000 cited just following it online. missed the context of a the mission—which will also parts that need to work with I thought it was so cool that broader education and com- test technologies for long- clocklike precision. there were engineers who got munity, and transferred to term goals of human explora- Brooks is part of the team to work on this one-of-a-kind Penn the following year, tion—is to drill for rock and that tests the docking pro- hardware, and it blows my lured by a rigorous engineer- soil samples that might con- cess—when the larger robotic mind that, just a few years ing program within a liberal tain evidence of past signs of arm twists around and press- later, I was able to join them.” arts environment.

54 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Rendering courtesy NASA Mary Ewing-Mulligan CW’71

“Humanities classes and years in a row and no one had just being in a more well- ever thought of it before,” he rounded environment at Penn says. “It showed a high level defi nitely helped me learn of conceptual understanding how to be a better communi- and creativity for a diff erent cator,” he says. Outside of way of doing it.” class, he participated in a proj- After taking the lab classes, ect to teach programming to Brooks had suggestions for Philadelphia public school improvements and volun- students. “That was one of the teered as a teaching assistant things that I was looking for at his senior year. “He was ab- Penn, the chance to see how solutely indispensable im- engineering works in a broad- proving on existing projects, er community.” inventing new ones, and Within engineering, Brooks even helped run the demo gravitated to more hands-on events,” says Kothmann, add- courses, such as mechatron- ing that Brooks has since re- ics, which had him designing, turned to Penn to help judge building, and programming senior engineering designs. diff erent types of robots, and “He’s a very generous person a senior design project build- eager to share ideas.” ing a solar-powered robotic That Penn engineering ca- boat for ocean exploration. maraderie has continued at (One of his classmates, Cristi- JPL with Sorice, who sat at an na Sorice EAS’14 GEng’14, is adjoining cubicle before the now also a robotic systems pandemic struck and still Grapevine Gospel engineer at JPL working on brainstorms potential side autonomy technology for fu- projects with Brooks. “He’s the The first American woman to earn ture missions to the moon most reliable person,” she says. and Mars.) Then there was a “Everyone at work thinks that, the title Master of Wine is still mechanical engineering lab, too. The overall opinion is, spreading her oenophilia. cotaught by Mark Yim [“Digi- ‘Can we clone him?’” tal Natives in Tomorrow’s It’s a trait that has served Classroom,” Nov|Dec 2007] him well within the team- or Mary Ewing-Mulligan tasting exams—Ewing-Mul- and Bruce Kothmann, in minded atmosphere at JPL, CW’71, pouring wine is a ligan is passionate about which students built models where Brooks is now gearing form of theater and helping more people feel to test theories they learned up for the rover’s touch down. drinking it is a “fascinat- good about wine. “I’d like about in class. “One of the “As soon as it lands, we need ing intellectual pursuit,” them to be more openmind- things I really liked about to be ready to hit the ground Fshe says. “It involves the fi elds ed, try new things, think for those labs is how much they running,” he says. “When the of biology, chemistry, market- themselves, not get stuck in relate to and continue to in- scientists decide on a sample, ing, history, art, religion, trav- a rut,” she says. Whether by form the work that I do to- our team is going to make el. Then, you cannot ignore writing columns, authoring day,” Brooks says. that happen. It’s still a little that alcohol is psychotropic books, or running her own Both Yim and Kothmann surreal to me that this project and makes us feel good.” wine school, Ewing-Mulli- were impressed with Brooks’ I worked on is actually going The fi rst American woman gan’s career has been de- dedicated and egoless ap- to be operating on Mars. It re- to earn the title Master of voted to that goal. Her ex- proach to problem solving. ally puts remote work into Wine—a designation be- pertise in and championship Kothmann recalls Brooks in- perspective. We’re working stowed by the UK-based In- of the industry has won her venting a test technique for a on something that’s 50 mil- stitute of Masters of Wine vats of awards, including a wind turbine project. “We lion miles away.” after candidates pass a se- recent nomination as Wine had done this lab several — Susan Karlin C’85 ries of theoretical and blind Enthusiast magazine’s Edu-

Illustration by Anna Heigh Jan|Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 55 ALUMNI

cator of the Year and a life- writers and industry folk. transition IWC to a vocational “Diff erent people love wine time achievement award “The people in the business school that off ers the courses for diff erent reasons—and for from the Wine & Spirit Edu- were so encouraging and necessary to prepare students many reasons,” Ewing-Mul- cation Trust. helpful,” Ewing-Mulligan for the MW exam. ligan says. “For me, perhaps It may be an all-consuming recalls. “They were always “I was the fi rst female in fi rst and foremost, I like to part of her life now, but grow- trying to explain to me how America to become a Master. think about the nature of how ing up in Bucks County, Penn- this wine was supposed to A year later, I was still the it works in my mouth.” An- sylvania, she “tried wine on taste and what was special only one. Then a third year other one of its appeals, she only a few special occasions, about that grape variety.” and so on,” she says. “Ten adds, is that “since we tend to like weddings.” Always more She later wound up as the years later, one of my stu- drink it with food, wine pro- bibliophile than oenophile, director of New York’s Inter- dents fi nally became the sec- motes more moderation than she was an English major at national Wine Center (IWC), ond female in America and, other alcoholic beverages.” which off ered tastings and man, that was one of the As the world of winemaking classes for wine collectors most gratifying moments in witnesses the consequences and enthusiasts. my entire career.” In total, of climate change—from “I guess I’m In the late 1980s, Ewing- more than a dozen of the Northern California’s cata- Mulligan began studying for school’s students (male and strophic fi res to the global just a teacher the prestigious Master of female) have gone on to join warming that has made it at heart. Wine (MW) exam. (Slightly the MW ranks. “I guess I’m possible for England to pro- more than 400 experts cur- just a teacher at heart,” duce some well-regarded Everything I’ve rently hold the title, which Ewing-Mulligan says. “Ev- sparklers—Ewing-Mulligan indicates wide and deep erything I’ve done has been emphasizes that “wine is a done has been knowledge of the art and inherently educational.” product of the earth that has business of wine; another 269 Her educational approach is been transformed by genera- inherently boast the title of Master Som- perhaps most evident in Wine tions of individuals and as a melier, which is conferred by Style: Using Your Senses to result it represents a sense of educational.” a diff erent organization and Explore and Enjoy Wine place.” Although that heritage focuses more on table service (2005), a book she wrote with means change can sometimes and food and wine pairings.) her husband Ed McCarthy, come slowly, she points out Penn while contributing to Since there wasn’t any formal who was also her coauthor on that “winemakers are work- the Daily Pennsylvanian, schooling in the US, Ewing- Wine for Dummies (1995), ing methodically toward their where she discovered that Mulligan attributes her edu- and which places emphasis best choices for a new future.” journalism wasn’t as good a cation to “all of those wine on what she believes really Meanwhile, Ewing-Mulli- fi t as she had hoped. But her tastings over the years.” She matters to wine drinkers: gan revels in the continued brief pursuit of newspapering needed fi ve attempts before taste. Rather than grouping exploration and sense of ad- would serve her well upon she passed, successfully acing wines primarily by varietal, venture. “I love to examine graduation, when she applied the theoretical section on her Wine Style approaches con- bottles, to look at their la- for a job at the Italian Trade second go-around but requir- temporary winemaking via bels,” she says. “If you give Commission in Philadelphia. ing another three stabs at the broad fl avor profi les (rich, me any excuse, I will try a “The offi ce was involved in wine tasting segment. oaky whites; fresh, spicy reds) new wine. If I’m at a restau- promoting Italian products That 1993 triumph “changed that sometimes cut across rant and the server says we and they needed a native Eng- everything for me,” she says. grape types. This acknowl- tasted this wine in our staff lish speaker,” she says. “The “It’s a certifi cation that you edges the modern reality that meeting and everyone was guy who wound up hiring me have tasting expertise, that many cult Napa Valley Caber- really excited about it, that’s was a former journalist and you have extraordinary knowl- nets, to take just one example, enough of a reason for me.” he loved the idea that I had edge about winemaking. … It’s often bear closer resemblance More than anything, wine considered that as a career.” a big shot in the arm—and it to high-end Brunellos or top- drinking should be fun not With “zero knowledge” of feels so good.” Among other tier Rhone Syrahs than to fraught, she adds. “You don’t Chianti and Soave, she things, the hard-won honor other Cabernets from, say, need to hit a home run with quickly picked up pointers emboldened Ewing-Mulligan northeastern Italy or the Bor- everything you taste.” while organizing tastings for to buy out her partner and deaux bargain bin. —JoAnn Greco

56 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Matthew Pohlson WG’11

Founded in 2012 by Pohlson Auctions for All and Cummins, Omaze raises money and awareness for This fun-loving, experience-seeking entrepreneur has charities by auctioning off experiences and items (and created a unique kind of charity fundraising platform. making money itself by taking a slice of what’s raised). Since it launched, the com- his mind, Matthew the former basketball super- As he and Cummins drove pany has raised more than Pohlson WG’11 want- star. “Magic was my childhood home emptyhanded and de- $130 million for 350 diff ered to win more than hero,” Pohlson says. “I proba- jected, they had an idea. Why ent charities, including UNI- anybody in the room. bly cared a lot more about him not create charity auctions CEF and Make-A-Wish Foun- One summer about than anybody in the room.” where everybody—no matter dation. People contribute be- aIn decade ago, he found himself Sadly, most of the other peo- their wealth—could partici- tween $10 to $100 to try to inside a luxury hotel in Bever- ple in that room had far more pate? The system would be win prizes such as touring ly Hills, California, for a Boys money than Pohlson—then a framed more like a lottery Dollywood with Dolly Par- & Girls Club of America event graduate student at Wharton with a lot of people entering a ton, shopping on Rodeo hosted by Magic Johnson. who only secured an invita- small amount, rather than the Drive with Julia Roberts, and There was an auction, and the tion to the beneﬁ t because a wealthiest giving a large sum. watching the Mars Rover prize was a chance to have close friend, Ryan Cummins, Just like that, Omaze landing with Bill Nye. In dinner and go to a game with brought him along. was born. 2019 one lucky winner took

Photo courtesy Matthew Pohlson Jan|Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 57 ALUMNI Early Stage Meet Neeraj Gupta C’04, an home a Lamborghini blessed mates who were starting com- py. “The Omaze model eff ec- emergency medicine physi- and signed by Pope Francis. panies that were “all about tively brings Hollywood to cian in Philadelphia, In the past few years, the giving back,” he says. “I think the masses, all in the whose new company, company has pivoted from it’s because we were just get- name of doing good,” Home Sonography, auctioning off experiences ting out of a fi nancial crisis, she says. helps pregnant with celebrities to material and people started thinking Pohlson’s had some women get ultra- prizes and trips. One recent about the world.” Once Pohl- fun along the way too. sounds from the prize was $100,000 to pay off son came up with his idea for Omaze once auctioned comfort of their own student debt. Another was a Omaze in his second year, he off a chance to ride a tank 2020 BMW i8 Ultimate So- too joined the entrepreneur- with Arnold Schwarzenegger homes. To read his story, phisto Edition. “Since we ship bandwagon, asking his and crush things—which visit thepenngazette.com/ changed the type of prizes, we professors if he could focus on Pohlson got to experience double-duty. have grown 500 percent in that in his classes. “They were himself during a fi lm to mar- the last 24 months,” Pohlson so accommodating,” he says. ket it. “We were there for Omaze has started focusing says. The company recently Still, the fi rst years of four hours,” he remembers. on new charities and nonprof- landed $30 million in Series B Omaze were tough. Pohlson “Arnold loves crushing its too. Leading up to the elec- funding toward its goal of struggled to raise money and things: cars, mini houses, tion, for example, it raised raising $1 billion for charities. secure prizes that excited DVDs of Million Dollar Baby, money for Rock the Vote by Growing up in Laguna large audiences. “Our fi rst ex- all diff erent things.” giving away a $100,000 cash Beach, California, Pohlson perience was to be a judge on Two years ago, Pohlson had prize that can be used to pay dreamed of becoming a celeb- Cupcake Wars,” he says of the a life-defi ning moment. After off debt, save a local restau- rity himself—fi rst in sports. In Food Network show. “Some surgery relieving a bowel ob- rant, or send a kid to college. fourth grade, he joined a star- people would love that—but struction, he says he fl atlined In the aftermath of George studded basketball team that not enough people.” for four-and-a-half minutes Floyd’s death, it highlighted featured four future NBA When he did secure an ex- before coming back to life. social justice nonprofi ts, in- players, hoping he might get citing experience—a day out “The doctor said to me, ‘The cluding the Black Votes Mat- to the NBA himself. “As a kid I with Breaking Bad star Bry- fact that we have you going ter Fund and Color of Change, was really good, but as I got an Cranston—he almost lost home with your full faculties, a civil rights advocacy organi- older I knew it wasn’t in the the opportunity to a competi- we have no explanation for zation. (Some causes have hit cards for me,” he says. “I am tor called Prizeo. But Pohlson this,’” he recalls. closer to home. A recent cam- only 5-foot-10 on a good day.” used his resourcefulness to With a renewed lease on a paign raised money for a mo- Then it was acting. After track down the actor at a life—and a lot of time to bile ECMO unit, the hard-to- graduating from Stanford party and begged him to stay think during recovery—he fi nd machine that helped save University, where he majored on board by promising him tackled the question that had Pohlson’s life.) in economics, he secured they would raise $200,000. been gnawing at him: how to Omaze now claims that it small roles in television With stakes so high, Omaze scale Omaze. Celebrity expe- can raise up to 40 times more shows like Scrubs and Ever- raised $300,000. riences were limited and dic- with its platform than an or- wood. But he pivoted to Stars then started fl ocking tated by their schedules and dinary action or charity gala screenwriting and then went to Omaze, and some nonprof- availability. But products— can—simply by appealing to on to produce a variety of me- it organizations—like People fancy cars, exotic vacations, everyday people who are dia projects. In 2007 he was Assisting the Homeless London penthouses—were in willing to pony up as little as one of the fi rst directors of (PATH)—began to believe in much greater supply. $10 if they get excited Live Earth, an event that had its vision too. In 2014, PATH “These things have exceed- enough by a unique prize. concerts in seven continents auctioned off an opportunity ed our best-case projections,” “To have a company that simultaneously to sound the to join actress Kristen Bell on Pohlson says. And the pivot starts from nothing and goes alarm on climate change. the red carpet at one of her just might have saved the on to make a social and fi - Not long after that, he de- movie premieres. Since then, company during the pan- nancial impact, it really is a cided to pivot again and go to they’ve raised $1.6 million demic. “If it was just celebri- dream come true,” Pohlson business school. Upon enter- through Omaze, according to ties, you can’t do those things says. “It’s a pretty amazing ing Wharton in 2009, he Tessa Madden Storms, PATH’s now. I don’t know if we feeling that this is working.” brushed up against class- senior director of philanthro- would have made it through.” —Alyson Krueger C’07

58 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 FOLLOW US ONLINE

THEPENNGAZETTE.COM @PENNGAZETTE ALUMNI Notes We Want to “Throughout the years, Hear from You EMAIL [email protected] Please include your school and year, along I’ve pursued a career as a with your address and a daytime telephone number. We include email addresses only when requested or obviously implied. professional concert whistler.” Please note, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gazette offices are closed until further notice —Steven L. Herbst C’67 and we cannot retrieve daily postal mail. Email is preferred. ALUMNI NOTE DEADLINES 7/15 for the Sep|Oct issue; 9/15 for Nov|Dec; 11/15 1958 for Jan|Feb; 1/15 for Mar|Apr; 3/15 for Charles Burnette Ar’58 GAr’63 Gr’69, Rothman W’60, Dan Saxon W’60, Sylvia May|Jun; and 5/15 for Jul|Aug. a retired professor of industrial design at the Neuwirth Wagner CW’60, and Stanley University of the Arts, has been honored with Zwirn W’60. The conviviality and remem- these countries should welcome it. I earned the establishment of a prize in his name. The brances made for a memorable event. For my political science PhD at Columbia Univer- Charles Hamilton Burnette Prize in Design those of the Class of 1960 for whom we do not sity and have taught international relations at will be given each year to a graduating prod- have email addresses, we missed you and want the graduate level. For many years I was also uct design major at the University of the Arts to hear from you. Please send your alumni vice president–Europe at Northrop Grum- to jumpstart their career and support their news either to the Pennsylvania Gazette or to man, an aerospace and defense fi rm, giving entrepreneurial drive. When he was at Penn, Hank at [email protected].” me practical knowledge of world politics. Charles was a research associate at the Insti- This book is the result of fi ve decades of tute for Environmental Studies, head man- Celebrate Your Reunion, May 14–17, 2021! studying NATO and US foreign policy. To see ager of Mask & Wig, president of Sigma Chi my trilogy of espionage novels based on my fraternity, and a member of Friars Senior 1961 work with the State Department and the CIA, Society and the Kite and Key Society. Wesley Truitt C’61 has published his eighth visit www.westruitt.com.” book, NATO Reconsidered: Is the Atlantic Alli- Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! ance Still in America’s Interest? He writes, “The book traces the evolution of the North Atlantic 1962 1960 Treaty Organization from its beginning in 1949 Robert L. Horst GEE’62 writes, “After a Roger Colley W’60 writes, “I’ve published to the present. It asks a fundamental question four-decade professional career and 1989 my third novel in a trilogy, Sopris, about ways rarely raised in Washington: After 71 years, is retirement from Armstrong World Industries, to resolve confl ict without resorting to vio- the Atlantic Alliance still in America’s best in- I discovered competitive running. My races lence. Quite pertinent to these times!” Visit terest? If America’s interest is better served by from age 70 to date include 5K, fi ve-mile, 10K, rogercolley.com for more information. freeing itself from NATO’s wide-open commit- and half-marathon (four) age-group runs. I Harriet Luskin Hornick CW’60 WG’73 ment to come to the aid of any Alliance mem- successfully completed my 497th race on my and Roger Winston W’60, copresidents of ber (there are 30 of them today) subjected to 90th birthday on June 5! My previous run- the Class of 1960, write, “We organized a Class an ‘armed attack’ by Russia, then the US should ning experience was in boot camp, during of 1960 Virtual Homecoming cocktail party on promote alternative security arrangements for service in the US Navy (1951–54), before my Zoom, led by Hugh ‘Hank’ Aberman C’60 its European partners and disengage from the academic studies at Penn State (B.S. 1958) G’62 on Saturday, November 14. Twenty class- Alliance. This is a realistic consideration given and Penn, and my engineering career.” mates attended and reconnected. Joining us Russia’s relative decline, making America’s in the festivities were Dr. Barton Blinder protectorate over Western Europe unneces- C’60 M’64 GM’68, Barry Borodkin W’60, sary, and given China’s rise in power threaten- 1964 Howard Cantor W’60, Carl Covitz W’60, ing America for global leadership. NATO di- Dr. Robert Allyn Goldman C’64 has pub- Dr. Chuck Driben C’60 V’65, Aileen Feller lutes America’s military power and distracts lished a new book, The Slammer: A Critique Fisher-Isaksen CW’60, Inez Friedman- its focus away from its major challenger in the of Prison Overpopulation, a Menacing Flaw Lipetz Ed’60, Adele Aron Greenspun 21st century—China, not Russia. The Washing- in American Culture. He writes, “It can be Ed’60, Bert Lazerow C’60, Paul Lichtman ton establishment with its vested interests will purchased on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, W’60, Murray Newman W’60, Ed Parma- disagree with this proposal, but average Amer- but preferably at any independent bookseller cek W’60, Jerry Riesenbach W’60, Bob icans who would be called upon to defend (keep them in business).”

60 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan | Feb 2021 Events METRO NEW JERSEY Department, are proud to cohost the Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! On January 21 at 7 p.m., the Penn Club 9th annual Penn Sundance Schmooze, 1965 of Metro New Jersey will host a virtual a gathering of celebrated filmmakers, Evelyn M. Cherpak G’65 is editor of the open board meeting and celebrate entertainment industry professionals, book South of the Border: Women Travelers to Ben’s Birthday Bash with a “How Quaker and friends of film. The event will take Latin America, which is available on Amazon. Are You” trivia challenge. Please also place online at 2 p.m. EST on Saturday, Judith Kantor Clark MT’65 G’67 has join us on February 13 for a virtual game January 30, during the 2021 Sundance received the Leadership Award from the night with ConnectRship. Visit www. Film Festival. This free, virtual event will Lebanon County (PA) Women’s Commission pennclubmetronj.com to learn more and feature a panel discussion with noted “for her lifetime of dedication to residents of register. For more information, contact alumni in the industry, moderated by the county.” Judith has served as the volun- club president Janet Pisansky C’91 at Penn Cinema Studies Professor Peter teer president of Beth Israel Synagogue, the [email protected]. Decherney, followed by a Zoom breakout volunteer president of Beth Israel Sisterhood, networking event. More details, includ- a member of the Lebanon City School Board, SOUTHWEST FLORIDA ing instructions to register for the event and a volunteer president of the Women’s Join the Penn Club of Southwest Florida as well as the names and bios of the Medical Auxiliary of Lebanon County. She for these upcoming events! On Sunday, panelists, will be released in December. currently works in outpatient services for January 16, we will have our annual For a recap of our 2020 event, visit: WellSpan Philhaven Hospital and instituted Ben’s Birthday Bash starting at 6 p.m., bit.ly/PennSundance. For updates on the Violent Domestic Off enders Program for and on Saturday, February 13, we will the 2021 Penn Sundance Schmooze, Lebanon County, among other achievements. have our annual Mystery Dinner Show follow the Penn Club of Utah website She is the mother of Deborah Clark Lorich at 6:30 p.m. For more information on (bit.ly/PennUtah) or the PennNYC web- C’90 and the mother-in-law of the late Dr. both events, and to register, please visit site (www.penn.nyc), or email Jesse R. Dean Lorich C’85 M’90 GM’95. Her twin www.alumni.upenn.edu/clubs or email Tendler EAS’03 W’03 at [email protected]. sister is Diane Kantor Shrager MT’65. club president Robert Klausner C’84 M’88 at [email protected]. VIRTUAL In light of ongoing global health concerns, 1967 SUNDANCE visit www.alumni.upenn.edu/clubs to find Eleanor Rodio Furlong Nu’67, a retired The Penn Clubs of Utah, Los Angeles, the latest information on Regional Club mental health clinician and educator, has writ- Westchester/Rockland Counties, events in your area. And be sure to check ten a cookbook, A Taste for All Seasons: A and PennNYC, in collaboration with out www.alumni.upenn.edu/govirtual for Blend of Italian and American Cuisines. From Penntertainment, Penn Film and Media an abundance of virtual events and digi- the press materials: “Arranged by seasons and tal resources available for alumni. emphasizing the importance of using fresh Pioneers, and the Penn Cinema Studies produce, the pages unveil a cornucopia of Ital- ian classics as well as some innovative ideas rehab facilities. I have no intention of ever Morning three times; CBS News Sunday that will whet the palate.” Find more informa- retiring, especially with the advent of being Morning, which did a feature story about my tion on its release at erodiof.com. able to work from home! As a lifelong singer, whistling; Voice of America—plus countless Steven L. Herbst C’67 writes, “In 2004, I enjoyed four years with the Penn Glee Club other TV and radio shows, as well as in news- at 58, I retired from a 34-year career as senior (where I started whistling in public after papers and magazines from coast to coast and vice president of a $900 million dollar adver- Bruce Montgomery turned that over to me); abroad. I’ve performed in Carnegie Hall, Town tising agency specializing in recruitment and I have been a member of the University Hall, the Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Cen- advertising and employee communications. Glee Club of New York City for 42 years. ter, and as far away as Osaka, Japan. My CD, In 2008, I decided I was too young to retire. Throughout the years, I’ve pursued a career Broadway and Beyond, has sold hundreds of I got my MSW from Fordham University in as a professional concert whistler [“Alumni copies. I’ve also done TV commercials for Ve- 2010, plus CASAC-2 (Credentialed Alcoholism Profi les,” Nov|Dec 2001]. I am an internation- rizon DSL (with James Earl Jones), Eight and Substance Abuse Counselor) credentials, al grand champion, the fi rst ever named In- O’Clock Coff ee, and more; and I’ve participated and became a psychotherapist. Most of my ternational Whistling Entertainer of the Year in two Guinness World Record cabaret shows. career has been involved with substance three years in a row, and I was named to the I am featured in a documentary fi lm, Pucker abuse treatment. I am currently working re- Whistlers’ Hall of Fame (along with Bing Up: The Fine Art of Whistling, which can be motely as an LMSW providing telehealth Crosby). I’ve appeared on the Today Show viewed for free on YouTube. Check out my web- psychotherapy to patients in nursing and twice; Good Morning America; CBS This site, SteveTheWhistler.com, to learn more.”

Jan | Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 61 ALUMNI Notes

in 1796. Although technically retired, I remain start GCA Consulting, which helps companies 1968 active as a historian and have just completed venture south with the advent of NAFTA. Lionel M. Schooler C’68, a partner prac- a comprehensive study, Imagining Ireland’s Then, in 1996, I opened a Hispanic division, ticing management and employment law, as Pasts, that will be published by Oxford Univer- Focus Latino, which focuses on consumer re- well as trial and appellate litigation, at Jack- sity Press in 2021. I was scheduled to give a talk search among the US Latino population. Most son Walker in Houston, has been selected for to the graduate students in Penn’s history de- of our work is in the areas of communications inclusion in the 2020 Super Lawyers list and partment on April 1, 2020, where my topic (positioning, concept development, and ad- the 2021 Best Lawyers in America list. would have been how my four years from 1967 vertising testing), branding, and consumer to 1971 spent at Penn as a graduate student behavior. I’m still doing research and playing shaped my outlook on life and on scholarship. tennis, and I continue to jog, which I took soon 1969 Sadly, I had to withdraw from this nostalgic up after leaving Penn. In August, three other Laura J. Colker CW’69 is coauthor of return because of the ban on trans-Atlantic classmates—John Cherry C’75, Dan Maze Trauma and Young Children: Teaching Strat- travel due to the spread of COVID-19 in Europe W’75, Walter Enick W’75—and I got to- egies to Support and Empower. She is presi- and in the US. As I take stock of the current gether in Austin at the Barton Creek Country dent of the Washington, DC-based L. J. Colk- situation, it saddens me to think that I may Club for a weekend of golf, great dinners, and er & Associates and an author, lecturer, and never again see the US, Philadelphia, or Penn.” drinks. All four of us had not been together trainer in early childhood education. since graduation in 1975!” Dr. Eli G. Goodman C’69 is the author of Heidi Bogin Oshin CW’75, Neil Fried- The Adventures of Abe: The $5 Dollar Bill. He 1972 man C’75, and Bill Weiner W’76 have found- writes, “It tells the story of a $5 bill who recalls Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster ed ChaiFlicks, a subscription streaming service his most memorable adventures over a 20-year C’72 retired in August 2019 as dean and pro- dedicated to Jewish and Israeli entertainment. career and the important wisdoms he learned fessor emeritus of moral theology at Holy Trin- Find more information at www.chaifl icks.com. along the way. ... This is a substantial book. ity Seminary, a Russian Orthodox institution Suitable for both kids and adults. Lots of mate- of higher learning in Jordanville, New York. Celebrate Your Reunion, May 14–17, 2021! rial and dozens of fantastic illustrations [by He is senior coeditor of the book Healing Hu- Angela Martinez, Eva Vikman, and Brenda manity: Confronting Our Moral Crisis. He 1976 Beck Fisher].” Eli also authored an illustrated writes, “I teach undergraduate courses in re- Dr. Robert M. Fleisher GD’76 has pub- children’s book titled The White Horse in 2014. ligious studies part-time at George Mason lished eight books, including The American Visit eligoodmanmd.com for more information. University back home in Virginia, where I’m Strangler, which launched in July. He writes, delighted to devote ‘full-time’ attention to my “I’m pleased to announce that my previous Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! family and grandchildren, at last.” novel, The Divine Affl iction, received the 2020 Bronze eLit Award in the mystery/sus- 1970 pense/thriller category. Mike Garrett, Ste- Ann Kent Cowen CW ‘70, on behalf of the 1974 phen King’s fi rst editor, had this to say, ‘I Class of 1970 Reunion Committee, writes, Geoff rey Greif SW’74, a professor at the enjoyed your story, which rarely happens “Please join the new Class of 1970 Facebook University of Maryland School of Social Work, when I edit.’ You can read more about my group! This group is exclusive to the Class of has published his 15th book, In-Law Relation- writing at www.novelsmithbooks.com.” 1970. To join, search for ‘Penn Class of 1970 50th ships: Mothers, Daughters, Fathers, and Sons, Avrom Jacobs SW’76 WMP’81, writes, Reunion’ on Facebook or visit bit.ly/Penn1970.” written with Michael E. Woolley. In 2020, “I’m delighted to report the August birth of Geoff rey was inducted into the American my fourth grandchild (and fi rst granddaugh- Celebrate Your Reunion, May 14–17, 2021! Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. ter), Rafi Eden, to my son, Gilad, and his lovely wife, Dr. Jamie Jacobs of Newton Cen- 1971 Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! ter, Massachusetts. Rafi joins her two-year-old Nicholas Canny Gr’71 writes, “I am now brother, Liev Max, and, in Israel, cousins Elior living in retirement in Ireland, having com- 1975 and Amitai, sons of Kayla Jacobs and Chaim pleted a stint from 2011 to 2017 on the Scien- Guy C. Antonioli W’75 writes, “After 20 Kutnicki. Rafi ’s birth coincided with my 70th tifi c Council of the European Research Coun- years in international marketing and advertis- birthday—age being but mind over matter; if cil. In March 2020 I was awarded a Cunning- ing with Cyanamid, 3M Company, and the you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter—so I got ham Medal by the Royal Irish Academy for Interpublic Group of Agencies, and of living in quite a present! Additionally, NormaTec, the excellence in research. This makes me the 45th Mexico City, San Antonio, Miami, and Bogotá, medical/sports device fi rm that I cofounded recipient since the medal was fi rst endowed Colombia, I settled in Austin, Texas, in 1994 to with my late wife, Dr. Laura Furst Jacobs

62 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan | Feb 2021 ChE’77 EE’77 GEng’78 Gr’82, was recently Vermont, and France, despite quarantining in health through a virtual, in-home experience. sold to Hyperice, the sports recovery and tech- South Florida. More books to come, with no Connected to a clinician over a telehealth por- nology company—so in all, a wonderful, whirl- authorial retirement in the future.” For more tal, XR Health patients use VR technology to wind year. I hope everyone stays safe!” information, visit www.mahubooks.com. self-manage their care needs as often as they Michael P. Malloy L’76 writes, “West would like, all without the need for medica- Academic published the 2020 update to my Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! tion. Leveraging technology originated for use casebook Contemporary Payment Systems. by Israeli army fi ghter pilots, XR Health has The update includes discussion of Australia’s 1980 set up virtual clinics in the US in Massachu- misspelled banknotes, the latest ‘faithless Lisa R. Jacobs W’80 was awarded the W. setts, Illinois, California, and Florida, with employee’ case—Lesser v. TD Bank—and a Edward Sell Business Lawyer Award from plans to expand to Texas and Michigan in footnote reference to composer Irving Ber- the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) at a early 2021. Learn more at www.xr.health.” lin’s analysis of the signature requirement virtual event in November. According to the Scott Eagle W’81 writes, “After over 35 years applicable to checks and drafts.” release, the award “honors the contributions of being in the pharma/CPG and Silicon Valley Bill Weiner W’76 see Heidi Bogin Os- to the practice of business law at the highest high-tech world and building/selling compa- hin CW’75. level, either through the practice of law or nies, I decided to do one more start-up blending through teaching. Recipients must have con- all of my experiences. So this January, I am tributed to the statutory development of launching the fi rst US line of CBD wellness 1977 business law in Pennsylvania and to the PBA therapies for sleep and stress issues based on Rick Meyer W’77 was inducted into the by working in leadership roles in the Busi- condition, age, gender, and lifestyle. Never 2020 USTA Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame last ness Law Section.” imagined that my Wharton background would year. During his 10-year professional playing Jan Levine C’80, a partner at the law fi rm lead me to cannabis—Mom is so proud! Am also career on the ATP Tour, he amassed wins over Troutman Pepper, has been named to the Phil- enjoying the California life and would love to a dozen players ranked in the Top 10 in the adelphia Business Journal’s 2020 Best of the hear from Penn friends at [email protected].” world, and he competed in several Grand Bar list of Philadelphia’s top lawyers. She rep- Slam tournaments, reaching the Round of 16 resents clients in antitrust, unfair competition, at the 1983 Australian Open and losing to privacy/data breach, and class action cases. 1982 eventual champion John McEnroe in four Helene Panzarino C’82 writes, “I’ve been sets at the 1980 US Open. As a student at Celebrate Your Reunion, May 14–17, 2021! in London for a long time and realized that Penn, he played No. 1 singles and doubles and it’s been a while since I shared any updates. won the Eastern College Athletic Conference 1981 I’m a lecturer on fi nancial technology, or fi n- in singles and doubles. Dale Borenstein Bell MT’81 and Leslie tech, for Oxford and UCL masters’ programs, B. Posnock C’81, copresidents of the Class of as well as executive education at Imperial 1981, write, “Greetings, Class of 1981! We know College London and the London Institute of 1978 you want to keep up with what’s happening Banking and Finance. It’s not where this CAS Clare Sapienza-Eck OT’78 has been ap- on campus and with our classmates, so please grad expected to land, but fi ntech—corporate pointed chief strategy offi cer of Inspira take a quick minute and send us your current innovation is my superpower. In the same Health, a nonprofi t healthcare organization email address (to [email protected] or vein, I have a new book out, published in that comprises three hospitals, a cancer cen- [email protected]). That will November, Reinventing Banking and Fi- ter, several multispecialty health centers, and allow us to update you on Penn happenings nance: Frameworks to Navigate Global Fin- a total of more than 150 access points. as well as our upcoming 40th Reunion (May tech Innovation. I’m also working as chief 2021), which we’ve started planning. We do ecosystem offi cer with Vacuum Labs/Tribal this by way of our monthly newsletter. And FS covering the US, and I’m particularly in- 1979 please join our Facebook Page for the most up terested in hearing the views of community Neil S. Plakcy C’79 writes, “The recent to date information, photos, interactive pro- bankers and corporates with large SMB cus- publication of The Most Expensive Spice, 11th grams, and event schedules: bit.ly/2IITgGZ.” tomer bases as regards digital transforma- in my bodyguard adventure series, marks my Mike Bellissimo C’81 writes, “In October, tion. So if anyone would like to share over a 50th published novel. Short stories, novellas, I joined Boston-based telehealth company XR digital coff ee, please reach out via LinkedIn.” and edited anthologies for various publishers Health as their fi rst chief operating offi cer. XR Craig Sidell C’82 has published his debut add to that total. The wonder of the imagina- Health delivers FDA-approved therapeutics children’s picture book, The Life and Times tion and the internet have allowed me to write to support physical therapy, occupational of Fuzzy Wuzzy. From the book’s press ma- stories set in Pennsylvania, Florida, Hawaii, therapy, pain management, and behavioral terials: “This book teaches children the im-

Jan | Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 63 ALUMNI Notes

portance of being kind and loving and that at the Perelman School of Medicine, and I are World Trademark Review magazine as one of it’s not what you look like that is important. excited to announce the publication of In the the top 1,000 trademark attorneys in the A great life begins with love for everyone and Land of the Penguins (Erskine Press, 2020). world, by Super Lawyers magazine as a 2020 everything around you.” Thus, after 120 years, the Belgian Antarctic Super Lawyer (Metro NYC); and I also became explorer Georges Lecointe has once again a member of the National Black Lawyers Top been freed from the Antarctic ice pack with 100. In addition, I prevailed in defending 1983 this fi rst translation into English of his ac- against an appeal in Mourabit v. Klein, et. al, Steven R. Jacobs C’83, a partner practic- count of the voyage of the ship Belgica in Case No. 19-2142 cv (Second Circuit June 8, ing corporate and M&A law at Jackson Walk- 1898. Lecointe recounts with humor the joys, 2020) on preemption grounds under the Copy- er, has been selected for inclusion in the 2020 trials, and tribulations of the very fi rst over- right Act. Oddly enough, I was forced to argue Chambers USA Guide and the 2021 Best Law- wintering in the Antarctic.” that appeal telephonically from my home dur- yers in America list. Marc Tayer WG’85 writes, “In September, ing the lockdown in New York.” Dr. Stan Savinese C’83 has been named I was elected president of the North Coast Jim Rotherham W’86, a partner at the medical director of Penn Medicine Hospice. Repertory Theatre Board of Directors (San accounting fi rm Baker Tilly US, LLP in San He is an associate professor of clinical med- Diego). What is the connection between my Diego, has been appointed to the Small Busi- icine at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, former career as a technology executive/en- ness Advisory Committee (SBAC) of the Finan- and a palliative medicine consultant at the trepreneur and this retirement/volunteer cial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. career in the arts? Not much, except perhaps SBAC serves as a standing resource for the that some of my blood, sweat, and tears in the FASB to provide focused input and feedback digital TV revolution paved the way for from a small public company perspective, and 1984 streaming video over the Internet, and now to assist the FASB and its staff on matters for Jeff rey L. Pollock C’84, an attorney prac- with COVID-19, our live theatre is shut down, which the FASB may seek guidance. ticing in Pittsburgh since 1987, was appointed so we are producing shows for streaming. Our to serve as a member of the board of directors current production, Necessary Sacrifi ces, is for Neighborhood Legal Services (NLS). He the story of Abe Lincoln’s historic meetings 1987 writes, “The board sets the policy under which with Frederick Douglass during the Civil War. David Brigham G’87 Gr’92 has been ap- NLS operates. Its members include represen- Next up is Same Time Next Year, for which pointed CEO of the Historical Society of tatives of client and community organizations Ellen Burstyn won a Tony Award back when Pennsylvania. Previously, he served as presi- who help identify the legal needs of low-in- we were high school and college kids. Other dent and CEO of the Pennsylvania Academy come individuals and families; attorneys who than that, all is good after surviving a pretty of Fine Arts. understand how those needs can be met un- bad COVID case in March and April.” der the law; and representatives of county bar Larry Weitzman W’85 writes, “My fi rst associations who foster the important role of novel, Ghost Rendition, came out in Novem- 1988 pro bono attorneys. I also practice mediation ber. It’s a fun take on a spy novel, where the Nancy Davis Kho W’88 writes, “My pod- and was one of three cocreators of CLASP, the protagonist is a neurotic, divorced, suburban cast Midlife Mixtape–‘for the years between Collaborative Law Association of Southwest- dad. So it’s part thriller and part dramedy. being hip and breaking one’–has won an Iris ern Pennsylvania. I previously served as the And no, it doesn’t come from personal expe- Award from media company Mom2.0 and been chair of the Allegheny County Bar Associa- rience ... mostly. The majority of my work is named the 2020 Podcast of the Year. The show, tion’s Center for Volunteer Legal Resources documentary, so it was a pleasure to be able available on all podcast platforms, features and, during parts of the last fi ve decades, have to make stuff up!” interviews with Gen Xers and icons of Gen X been regularly contributing pro bono legal about what they actually like about being in services, primarily in the area of family law.” Celebrate Your Reunion, May 14–17, 2021! the middle phase of life, what advice they’d give their younger selves, and that uber-important Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! 1986 question: What was your fi rst concert?” Ralph H. Cathcart C’86 writes, “I would Larry Satcowitz C’88 was elected to the 1985 like to say hello and wish the best to all of my Vermont State House of Representatives in Cynthia Goldfine Kaiser C’85 G’87 fellow classmates around the globe coping November. writes, “After working for a number of years with the COVID-19 pandemic. I am pleased to Dr. John Whyte C’88, chief medical offi cer on the translation of Au Pays des Manchots share that despite many challenges, this year at WebMD, has been named to Medical, Mar- by Georges Lecointe, my father, Howard I was recognized by Managing Intellectual keting, and Media’s 2020 Health Infl uencer 50 Goldfi ne, professor emeritus of microbiology Property magazine as an IP Star 2020, by list. The list can be viewed at bit.ly/3mM8865.

64 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan | Feb 2021 ALUMNI IN BUSINESS A guide for Gazette readers seeking to reach How to Stop Customer Turnover, Improve Re- thethe bbubusinesssiiness serservicesviices off PPenneennn grggraduates.radaduauattees.s 1989 tention and Get Lucrative, Long-Term Loyalty Dr. Christine Dingivan EAS’89 has been hit No. 1 on the Amazon Bestseller list in April. named president and CEO of Emmes, a contract It was also named one of the Top 50 Sales research organization based in Rockville, Mary- Books of 2020 by Top Sales World, which was land, that supports clinical trials and produces a delightful and unexpected surprise. At Penn, research on human health and diseases. I’m currently a tri-chair of Momentum 2020 Lisa Niver C’89, a travel journalist and (which will be held in 2021), the amazing founder of We Said Go Travel, has written a women’s conference that will be coming your series of articles for Thrive Global, including way. Otherwise, life in Indianapolis is also a “Escape into Fiction this Fall” (October 25). delightful and unexpected surprise.” It begins, “Due to COVID-19, I have now been Dr. Manisha Singal C’91 has written The in Los Angeles 230 days. I used to travel CBD Skincare Solution: The Power of Cannabi- nearly half of every month. Since I have not diol for Healthy Skin. She is chief medical offi - been able to move about, I have been escap- cer at BridgePoint Hospital in Washington, DC. ing into the locations in some of my favorite fi ction books.” See the article and her recommendations at bit.ly/3kmixUj. 1994 Daniel Naegele GFA’94 Gr’96 has written Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! Who Shot Le Corbusier? The Architect of the Century and His Photographers. Daniel writes, 1990 “The book is concerned with the great archi- Tim Ito C’90 is coauthor of The BS Diction- tect’s use of photography and his working ary: Uncovering the Origins and True Mean- relationship with numerous photographers. ings of Business Speak. He writes, “It’s a humor- Much of the groundwork for it was done at For advertising information, email Linda Caiazzo ous take on corporate business speak—includ- the Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris in 1993 at [email protected] or call 215-898-6811. ing 300 defi nitional entries, original research when I was researching my Penn dissertation.” on the word origins, and what the word really novel in July. These are such complex and trou- means when it’s used in a business context.” Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! bling times, and Joy: A Modern Fable is simply Deborah Clark Lorich C’90 see Judith written, accessible, and so very uplifting. It is Kantor Clark MT’65 G’67. 1995 a book about kindness and community. Addi- Tina Polsky C’90 writes, “I am very ex- Dr. Aly Cohen C’95, a rheumatologist and tionally, my daughter designed and hand-drew cited to announce that I have been elected as environmental health specialist, has written a the cover. I just love that. She’s 15.” a Florida State Senator. I have served as a new book, Non-Toxic: Guide to Living Healthy Florida State Representative since 2018. I in a Chemical World, coauthored with Dr. Fred- Celebrate Your Reunion, May 14–17, 2021! have been living in Boca Raton, Florida, since erick vom Saal. She writes, “Environmental 2005 with my husband Jeff and our two chil- health is an incredibly relevant and important 1996 dren. I also practice as a mediator since I topic ... especially now with COVID, given the Scott Savitz GEng’96 Gr’99 has pub- ‘retired’ as an attorney.” Tina invites alumni infl ammatory response to environmental lished a new book of historical fi ction, titled contact at [email protected]. chemicals, links to comorbid conditions, and The Fall of the Republic. He writes, “Though the heightened response to coronavirus infec- the book recounts historical events from an- Celebrate Your Reunion, May 14–17, 2021! tion with comorbid conditions.” In December cient Rome, many of the issues that it ad- 2019, Aly gave a TEDx Talk titled “How to Pro- dresses (such as inequality, corruption, the 1991 tect Your Kids from Toxic Chemicals,” which treatment of outsiders, and a republic in Ali Shapiro Cudby C’91 WG’97 writes, can be viewed at bit.ly/2TmWTEA. Find out danger) have contemporary relevance.” “After working on my newest book for almost more on her website thesmarthuman.com. Alexander Trivas C’96 GEd’97 writes, “I’ve two years, coronavirus completely upended Alisha Berger Gorder C’95 writes, “While launched a health and wellness card game my plans for launch. All the speaking and I haven’t had much to share with the Penn com- company, called the Food Monsters, for families launch events ... POOF! Gone. Nonetheless, munity all these long years, I fi nally did some- to learn about the hidden and often dangerous the launch was an amazing success, and I’m thing sort of cool. After many years of working ingredients lurking in their food and drinks.” thrilled to share that Keep Your Customers: as a reporter and editor, I published my fi rst Learn more at thefoodmonsters.com.

Jan | Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 65 Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! Miriam Joff e-Bloch C’00, Arshad Hasan 1997 C’03, Adam Lubow C’03, Nina Swanson Samantha Rajaram G’97 has written a 2000 Marshall C’04 SPP’06, and Reshma Meh- new novel, The Company Daughters: A Heart- Charles “Chaz” Howard C’00, Penn’s chap- ta C’02 all celebrated as we do during a pan- Wrenching Colonial Love Story. The book lain and new vice president for social equity and demic—via a group chat with a lot of gifs. reached the Amazon bestseller list in the community [see “Gazetteer,” Sep|Oct 2020], has Lincoln Ellis C’03 reached out to celebrate categories of LGBT literary fi ction and liter- published The Bottom: A Theopoetic of the as well (Lincoln hates group chats!). During ary saga, and it was the No. 1 historical fi ction Streets, a novel that fuses poetry and theology the campaign cycle, she got to work with Mor- novel for one week in November. Samantha to explore the concept of homelessness. gan Finkelstein C’13 on a special messaging writes, “My book traces an actual Dutch project featuring bright lights and big, big policy in the 17th century that sent young Celebrate Your Reunion, May 14–17, 2021! banners. Most of all we’re excited to see Joe Dutch women to Batavia (modern day Ja- Biden Hon’13 get sworn in alongside his chil- karta, Indonesia) to marry Dutch settlers 2001 dren and grandchildren, some of whom are there. In my novel, two of these women fall Monica Popescu G’01 Gr’05, a professor Penn alumni and Penn students. It’s a bright in love while en route to the colony. After I of African literature at McGill University, has day for the Penn community to see the best of received my master’s degree in English at written At Penpoint: African Literatures, Post- us represented in leadership centered on em- Penn, I became a lawyer and practiced law colonial Studies, and the Cold War. According pathy and based in the ethos of laws without for 10 years. I’ve since become a professor at to the press materials, the book “traces the morals are useless. This means that on Day Chabot College in Hayward, California.” development of African literature during the One over 650 children will have a team work- second half of the 20th century, showing how ing hard to reunite them with their families, the United States and the Soviet Union’s eff orts the Muslim ban will be ended, and we’ll be 1999 to further their geopolitical and ideological able to truly work on building back better. And Meredith Lahl Foxx Nu’99 GNu’02 has goals infl uenced literary practices and knowl- we’ll cancel all student loans.” been named executive chief nursing offi cer of edge production on the African continent.” Chenxi Jiao EAS’04 has joined the law the Cleveland Clinic’s Stanley Shalom Zielony Rikki L. Tanenbaum C’01 has been fi rm Blank Rome as an associate in the con- Institute for Nursing Excellence. In this role, named chief operating offi cer of the San sumer fi nance group. She works out of the she oversees the practice and education of more Manuel Band of Mission Indians, a federally New York offi ce. than 28,000 nurse caregivers, including ad- recognized American Indian tribe located vanced practice registered nurses, nurse lead- near the city of Highland, California. She Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! ers, registered nurses, and nursing support staff . joined San Manuel in 2018 as chief marketing Dr. Maggie Hymowitz C’99, a New York- offi cer of San Manuel Casino. In her new role, 2005 based ophthalmologist, released her fi rst chil- Rikki will be responsible for overseeing ac- Shanti Grumbine GFA’05 has been award- dren’s book, titled Operation Achoo!, coauthored tivities related to the planning and imple- ed a 2020 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in with her father, Dr. Samuel Hymowitz. Maggie mentation of the tribe’s strategic, cultural, the category of Printmaking/Drawing/Book writes, “This book takes children on an adven- and economic development objectives. Arts, which includes an unrestricted grant ture—with fi ve germs who are on a mission to award of $7,000. Shanti writes, “This has in- get a little boy sick—all while teaching the im- stantly changed my life in these hard times.” portance of hand-washing. The story includes 2003 a captivating song to keep children entertained Jamila M. Brinson C’03, a partner prac- Celebrate Your Reunion, May 14–17, 2021! while washing their hands, as well as medical ticing management and employment law, as terminology throughout to intrigue the young well as trial and appellate litigation, at Jack- 2006 scientist.” It is available in hardcover and pa- son Walker, has been named to the 2020 Ris- Melody Kramer C’06 writes, “I signed up perback on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com. ing Stars list from Super Lawyers. to donate bone marrow while a student at Ella Woger Nieves C’99 is chief operating Penn, and recently matched! I donated my offi cer of InvestPR, a nonprofi t organization bone marrow to an anonymous recipient, and created by law, which is tasked with attracting 2004 it was one of the greatest experiences of my new businesses and capital investment to Puer- Melissa Byrne CGS’04 writes, “So many life. I’m now trying to sign up 1,000 people to Rico. Ella recently moved back to the island Penn alumni were thrilled to participate in for the Be the Match registry. You can register to take on this role after leading the consulting defeating Donald Trump W’68 in his reelec- using my link here: join.bethematch.org/ practice at the Collage Group, a market and tion campaign for president. Friends including melody—please email me with any questions strategy consulting fi rm in Washington, DC. Sue Casey CGS’07, Matt Grove CGS’03, you have at [email protected].”

66 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan | Feb 2021 for purchase (e-book and print) on Amazon. book delivers “a new approach to the vast 2009 Visit cvines.org for more information.” nuclear infrastructure and the apocalypses Katerina Semida Manoff C’09 W’09 is it produces, focusing on Black, queer, Indig- founder of ENGin, a peer-to-peer English lan- enous, and Asian American literatures.” guage program. Launched in early 2020, it has 2013 recently enrolled 1,500 participants. The pro- Nicole “Nicki” Blumenfeld EAS’13 and gram pairs English-speaking volunteers with Richard “Ricky” Katz W’11 write, “We 2017 English learners abroad for weekly online prac- were married on August 23 in Westport, Con- Kevin Park W’17 writes, “I’m excited to tice. Learn more at www.enginprogram.org. necticut. Hurrah hurrah!” share that I have joined the board of PennPAC, Jarad A. Mason C’09 G’09 see Ivy Cheung a pro bono alumni consulting fi rm dedicated Mason C’10. to assisting nonprofi ts propel their mission 2014 forward and connecting Penn grads across the Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! Ernest Owens C’14 has been named edi- country. I’m looking forward to seeing all that tor at large for Philadelphia magazine. Previ- we’ll achieve over the coming years!” 2010 ously, he was a writer at large for the maga- Ivy Cheung Mason C’10 and Jarad A. zine, covering the city’s political and com- Mason C’09 G’09 write, “We are overjoyed munity aff airs. In 2019, he was named to the 2019 to announce the birth of our daughter, Ella 2020 Forbes “30 Under 30” list. Ernest is the Ari M. Gordon Gr’19 is director of US Mus- Marie Mason, on June 3 in Boston.” Ivy is a fi rst Black journalist to serve as editor at lim–Jewish relations for the American Jewish postdoctoral fellow at Mass General Brigham large in the magazine’s 112-year history. Committee. In October, he was a featured in the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disor- Arazi Pinhas C’14 writes, “I earned a PhD speaker at a webinar presented by the Ministry ders and a teaching fellow at Harvard Uni- in astrophysics as a Gates Cambridge Scholar of Religious Aff airs of the Republic of Indone- versity; and Jarad is an assistant professor at the University of Cambridge in 2019. In- sia, titled “Understanding the Abrahamic Fam- of chemistry at Harvard University. formed by both the mysteries of the Universe ily Through Qibla Studies.” Ari writes, “For the and an intense spiritual experience while at fi rst time, the Ministry hosted a program featur- Celebrate Your Reunion, May 14–17, 2021! Cambridge, I’ve written a new book on Bhak- ing a Jewish speaker discussing the relationship ti Yoga, spirituality, and mysticism. Wisdom between the Abrahamic faiths. I used the topic 2011 of a Mystic: Spiritual Wisdom from a Kundal- of prayer direction in early Islam and religions Richard “Ricky” Katz W’11 see Nicole ini Awakening tells the intimate tale of heart- of late antiquity (the focus of my dissertation “Nicki” Blumenfeld EAS’13. breaks and hardships that ultimately led to at Penn) as a way to address diff erence and my spiritual awakening. The book extends an bridge-building between religions. This was not invitation to look inward, to the depths of a standalone lecture, but part of an eff ort to 2012 consciousness, as a way to connect with the increase exposure and openness to other faith Janay Sylvester C’12 has published the richness of our own being. It reminds us that communities in the Muslim-majority country. second edition of Climbing Vines: A Collection the wisdom we seek is hidden in plain sight The Ministry has felt that exclusionary and of Short Stories. She writes, “Climbing Vines and that spirituality can—and should—be ideologies have, of late, taken root in some seg- features 19 narratives from Black alumnae and informed by our most mundane experiences. ments of Indonesia and run counter to their undergraduate women about their undergrad- Valentina Bravo, senior book editor, called proud legacy of pluralism and coexistence.” uate experiences at the University. The book Wisdom of a Mystic ‘a creation born of love spans many topics, including sisterhood, self- and devotion, two things the world desper- Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! love, the importance of diversity in the class- ately needs more of.’ To learn more, visit www. room, mental health and wellness, healing mysticwisdom.press.” 2020 from sexual assault, and more. The collection Kwesi Vincent GEd’20, a teacher at the is meant for all audiences; however the hope Celebrate Your Reunion, May 21–23, 2021! Workshop School in Philadelphia, was cho- is that through reading these stories and in- sen by the Knowles Teacher Initiative as a spired dialogue among students, faculty, staff , 2015 member of its 2020 Cohort of Teaching Fel- parents, and community members, the infor- Jessica Hurley Gr’15, assistant professor lows. This year, 34 promising high school mative piece will guide and positively infl uence of English at George Mason University, has mathematics and science teachers who are Black undergraduate women as they navigate written a new book, Infrastructures of Apoc- just beginning their careers were awarded their fi rst years at Penn, or at other predomi- alypse American Literature and the Nuclear Knowles Teaching Fellowships. nantly white institutions. The book is available Complex. According to the press release, the

Jan | Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 67

CONNECT. EXPERIENCE. CELEBRATE.

For a full listing of clubs and contacts, please go to: www.alumni.upenn.edu/clubs For questions, please call: (215) 898-7811 or email: [email protected] ALUMNI Obituaries

1940 1945 Lawrence M. Newman W’46, Somers, Martha Beard HUP’40, Annville, PA, H. Leon Bradlow Ch’45, Seminole, NY, an entrepreneur in several industries a retired school nurse; Sept. 10, at 100. FL, a biomedical researcher at the Rock- including real estate and dairy; July 15. He J. Richard Petersen W’40, Santa Ana, efeller Institute who specialized in cancer served in the US Army during World War II. CA, retired founder of a payroll servicing and hormone-related research; Oct. 20. His wife is Sydel Schwartz Newman CW’52. business; April 14, at 101. He served in the His wife is Hattie Gottlieb Bradlow CW’45, Jean Dailey Palmquist CW’46, Voor- US Army during World War II. At Penn, he and his son is Alec M. Bradlow C’79. hees, NJ, a former research scientist at the Fox was a member of Acacia fraternity. William G. Hjerpe ME’45, North Attle- Chase Cancer Center; Dec. 21, 2018. At Penn, Sidney L. Posel C’40 L’50, New York, a boro, MA, a mechanical engineer at C&K she was a member of Kappa Delta sorority. retired law professor at Rutgers University; Incorporated; Aug. 9. He later became man- Dorothy Ginsburg Rosenbaum March 8, at 99. He served in the US Army Air ager of the company’s Canadian subsidiary, CW’46, Dayton, OH, a former senior sci- Corps during World War II as a meteorologist. based in Montreal. He served in the US entist at Merck; Feb. 14, 2019. At Penn, she Navy during World War II and the Korean was a member of the choral society. One War. At Penn, he was a member of Phi Kap- brother is Jack M. Ginsburg C’49. 1943 pa Sigma fraternity, the ROTC, and the row- G. Ross French W’43, Lutherville, MD, ing team. One granddaughter is Katherine a sales executive for a wire products com- Hjerpe Manuel C’01 G’01 GEd’05. 1947 pany; Oct. 7, at 99. He served in the US Catherine “Kaki” Hurley SantaMa- Herbert J. Brenner W’47, Fort Myers, Army during World War II and was award- ria Marshall CW’45, Philadelphia, for- FL, a retired executive of M. Brenner & ed a Purple Heart. At Penn, he was a mem- mer assistant managing director of the Sons; Sept. 5. He served in the US Air Force ber of Delta Psi fraternity, Sphinx Senior Annenberg Center, founder of what is now during World War II. At Penn, he was a Society, and the soccer team. known as the Philadelphia Children’s Fes- member of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. One Robert T. Goodman W’43, Jupiter, FL, tival, and a Penn lecturer in theatre arts; son is Arthur D. Brenner C’83. Two grand- May 10, 2019. His daughter is Ann Dee Aug. 29. She started at Penn in 1975 as the children are Lianna A. Brenner C’13 and Goodman Rome CW’69. assistant managing director/artistic advi- Isaac R. Brenner C’20. Daniel B. Green W’43, Conshohocken, sor of performing arts. When she joined John H. Henzel Ed’47 GEd’47, Essex PA, former chairman and CEO of Firstrust the staff at the Annenberg Center, she was Junction, VT, a former vocal teacher and co- Bank; Aug. 26. He helped turn a small fam- primarily responsible for programming, owner and cook of a bed and breakfast; Sept. ily-run bank founded by his father in 1934 as well as overseeing student performing 19. He served in the US Army during World into a leading bank in the Philadelphia re- arts at Penn. In 1982, she took on a second- War II and received a Purple Heart. At Penn, gion with $4.5 billion in assets and a lend- ary role as a lecturer in the theatre arts he was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fra- ing portfolio that includes commercial real program, then in the English department. ternity and the lightweight rowing team. estate. At Penn, he was a member of Alpha She also lectured in the College of General Lee Longenecker CW’47, Longview, Epsilon Pi fraternity. One son is Richard J. Studies. In 1985, she founded the Philadel- TX, Sept. 21. At Penn, she was a member Green L’77 WG’78, who succeeded him as phia Children’s Festival at the Annenberg of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. the bank’s chair and CEO. Center. She left the Annenberg Center in Sydney Meshkov C’47 Gr’54, Washing- 1989 and continued to teach theater arts ton, DC, a theoretical physicist who worked until 1995. In 2011, she won the Penn Cre- at what is now known as the National Insti- 1944 ative Spirit Award for the festival and her tute of Standards and Technology and sev- Dr. Seymour E. Harris C’44, Baltimore, career in theater arts. As a student at Penn, eral universities; Aug. 31. At Penn, he was a a retired physician; Aug. 31. He served as a she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gam- member of Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. ﬂ ight surgeon in the US Air Force. ma sorority and Penn Players. One daugh- Malcolm R. Kallman C’44, Henrico, ter is Elizabeth A. Distefano CGS’84; two VA, retired owner of a children’s clothing sons are Matthew Marshall CGS’88 and 1948 store; Oct. 19. He served in the US Army Stephen Marshall C’90; and her sister is Marie Calabrese Pietrafesa DH’48, during World War II. Elena S. Brazer CW’57. Beverly Hills, CA, a retired dental hygien- Dr. Thomas Watkins Jr. D’44, Dana ist; Sept. 1. Her son is Dr. Charles A. Pi- Point, CA, a retired dentist; Oct. 4, 2019. etrafesa M’78. He served in the US Navy during World 1946 Vincent J. Salandria C’48 L’51, Phila- War II and was the ﬁ rst African American Wilma L. Fischer HUP’46, Mechan- delphia, a retired attorney specializing in dentist in that military branch. icsburg, PA, a retired nurse; Oct. 9. labor law and civil rights issues; Aug. 23.

70 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 He authored the book False Mystery: Es- At Penn, he was a member of Phi Delta says on the Assassination of JFK (1999). Theta fraternity. Notifications William B. Corson ChE’51, Lakewood, Please send notifications of deaths NJ, a retired computer programmer; Dec. of alumni directly to: Alumni Records, 1949 27, 2018. At Penn, he was a member of University of Pennsylvania, Suite 300, William D. Lawson III WG’49, Gasto- Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and the 2929 Walnut Street, Phila., PA 19104 nia, NC, a retired executive at a cotton trad- Glee Club. EMAIL [email protected] ing company now known as Cargill Cotton; Rebecca Ashton Goss CW’51, Vail, CO, Newspaper obits are appreciated. Oct. 18. He served in the US Army’s Graves May 19. Registration Service during World War II. Peter R. Gyllenhaal EE’51 GEE’55, Marysol de Seabra Scott CW’49, Sil- Huntingdon Valley, PA, a retired engineer ver Spring, MD, a retired translator for the at General Electric who worked on mili- 1952 US Department of State’s Offi ce of Lan- tary contracts; Sept. 27. He served in the Alan L. Aufzien W’52, New York, a guage Services; April 10. She translated US Navy during World War II. At Penn, he retired real estate executive and former and interpreted in Spanish, Portuguese, was a member of Alpha Chi Rho fraternity. chairman of the board of the NBA’s New and French. Leon C. Holt Jr. L’51, Bethlehem, PA, a Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets; June 21. In retired executive at Air Products and Chem- 2019, he and his family set up the Aufzien icals Incorporated; Sept. 13. He served in Family Center for the Prevention and 1950 the US Navy during World War II. Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease at Tel Herman A. Bode Jr. C’50, Street, MD, Harold D. Langley G’51 Gr’60, Arling- Aviv University. At Penn, he was a member Aug. 13. At Penn, he was a member of the ton, VA, a retired associate curator of naval of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity and WXPN. golf team. history at the Smithsonian Institution; July One daughter is Meredith Aufzien Bauer Catherine R. Naulty Clauss HUP’50, 29. He was also an adjunct professor at the C’83, and one son is Jonathan M. Aufzien Westover, MD, retired manager of Penn’s Catholic University of America. He served WG’96. Two grandchildren are Andrew M. Student Health Services; Sept. 4. in the US Army during World War II, earn- Bauer C’11 and Jacob H. Aufzien EAS’22. Rev. C. William “Bill” Hassler C’50, ing the Army Meritorious Service Medal John H. Blumberg W’52, Highland Powell, WY, a Presbyterian pastor; April 9. and the Asiatic-Paciﬁ c Campaign Medal. Park, IL, a former manager of his family’s He served in the US Navy. At Penn, he was Karin Rademacher Loewy CW’51, furniture and real estate businesses; Oct. 12. a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity, Fri- Philadelphia, a violin repairer; Sept. 10. He is a veteran of the Korean War. At Penn, ars Senior Society, and the football team. Dr. C. Parker Long M’51, Green Valley, he was a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity John Heller C’50, New Orleans, Sept. AZ, a family physician; Oct. 6. He served in and the lacrosse and squash teams. 5. At Penn, he was a member of Zeta Beta the US Marine Corps during World War II. Lt. Col. Bernell A. “Bernie” Dowse Tau fraternity and Penn Players. Samuel L. Rosenfeld W’51, New York, EE’52, Placerville, CA, a former insurance Edwin L. Hollowood WG’50, Waynes- an art appraiser and private art dealer; agent; Aug. 28. He served in the US Air burg, PA, a retired regional credit man- Sept. 27. At Penn, he was a member of Phi Force for 22 years. ager for Westinghouse Electric; Aug. 28. Sigma Delta fraternity, the Glee Club, and Constance Prowell Haswell HUP’52, He served in the US Army Air Forces dur- the swimming team. His daughter is Mar- Haddonﬁ eld, NJ, a retired pediatric nurse; ing World War II. jorie R. Sanua C’78 GEd’79 Gr’86, and his Sept. 10. Virginia Litto Klevan Ed’50 GEd’51, son is Michael Rosenfeld C’84. Ruth Bram Joseph CW’52, Philadel- La Crosse, WI, a retired employee at the Frank C. Sheppard C’51, Bryn Mawr, phia, a retired educator and businessper- New York State Department of Education; PA, a sales representative for Aluminum son; Nov. 10. Her sons are Bruce Joseph Sept. 24. Specialties and other housewares and toy C’76 W’76, Warren Joseph C’78, and Larry Ethel Sachs Stevens CW’50, Portland, companies; Sept. 1. At Penn, he was a Joseph W’79. OR, a retired realtor; Aug. 18. At Penn, she member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He M. Barry Meyer W’52, Abington, PA, was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority. served in the US Army Air Corps. former government relations staff member Marlyn F. Smith C’51 L’54, Bryn for the Aluminum Association; May 18. Athyn, PA, a lawyer; April 2. At Penn, he One daughter is Rebecca A. Meyer C’83. 1951 was a member of Theta Chi fraternity and Priscilla Van Horn Walker HUP’52, John K. Boyce Jr. WG’51, Amarillo, the basketball team. San Diego, CA, a retired nurse; Sept. 21. TX, a retired insurance agent; Sept. 15. He Joseph J. Soldo WG’51, Englewood, Horace E. “Ike” Williams C’52, White- served in the US Army Corps of Engineers. NJ, Feb. 26. haven, PA, a retired underwriter at Aetna

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 71 ALUMNI Obituaries

Life and Casualty Insurance; Oct. 6. He George E. Cruser Sr. WG’54, New ganizations, including as a member of the served in the US Army. At Penn, he was a Hope, PA, retired chief fi nancial offi cer of Pennsylvania Gazette’s advisory board. She member of Kappa Alpha Society fraternity. Westvaco Corporation, a pulp and paper was one of the longest-serving members of company now known as WestRock; Oct. 12. the Board of Overseers of the Herbert D. He served in the US Army during the Korean Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, 1953 War. One son is George E. Cruser WG’89. and she created and subsidized several fel- Ronald J. Dobey W’53, Columbia, MO, Gary W. Hartquist W’54, The Vil- lowships at the Katz Center. As a student a retired sales representative for IBM; Aug. lages, FL, a retired insurance agent; Sept. she was a member of the Daily Pennsylva- 21. At Penn, he was a member of Kappa 29. At Penn, he was a member of Alpha Tau nian and Phi Beta Kappa honor society. One Alpha Society fraternity. Omega fraternity, the Air Force ROTC, and daughter is Louise A. Strauss C’82. Dr. Henry L. Dragun C’53, Severna the soccer team. Donald M. Williams ChE’54, Pitts- Park, MD, a retired chemist and chemistry Dr. Dwight J. Hotchkiss Jr. M’54, burgh, a retired DuPont employee in the professor at Anne Arundel Community Salem, SC, a retired oncologist; Aug. 30. technical polymer marketing department College; May 14. He served in the US Army. One brother is and a former Wilco Sales employee in- Rev. William W. J. Ennis C’53, Al- Rev. Robert V. Hotchkiss C’53 G’73. volved in technical industrial electronic lentown, PA, a retired Lutheran pastor; Joan McCarte Lynch CW’54, Green- instrument sales; July 18. He also held a Sept. 19. He served in the US Naval Re- ville, DE, retired owner of a stencil com- patent for an aqueous semi-gloss paint. He serve. At Penn, he was a member of Sigma pany; Nov. 2. Previously, she was a mathe- served in the US Navy as a hospital corps- Alpha Epsilon fraternity, the orchestra, matician who worked on the UNIVAC, one man research statistician. One daughter and the heavyweight rowing team. of the fi rst computers. At Penn, she was a is Cynthia W. Schoeppner C’83, who is Maralyn Habby Fowler Ed’53, Valri- member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority. married to Mark G. Schoeppner W’83. Two co, FL, Oct. 2. At Penn, she was a member Michael J. Piarulli L’54, Cherry Hill, grandsons are Kyle G. Schoeppner C’15 and of Alpha Xi Delta sorority. NJ, a retired attorney specializing in civil Troy W. Schoeppner W’16. Dr. Paul M. Ratner D’53, Poughkeepsie, litigation and business law and a local NY, a retired dentist; Sept. 21. He was one politician in Camden, NJ; Aug. 21. of the fi rst dentists to provide dental im- Dr. Vincent J. Smith D’54, New Britain, 1955 plants in Poughkeepsie. He served in the CT, a retired dentist; Aug. 31. He served in Frank D. Dreizler ChE’55, Malvern, US Coast Guard during World War II. the US Army during World War II. PA, a retired executive at Gulf Oil; Sept. 23. Rev. James A. Trimble Jr. C’53, Phil- George S. Stewart III L’54, Philadel- At Penn, he was a member of Theta Chi adelphia, former rector of Christ Church phia, a retired attorney; July 30. He was fraternity. in Old City; Sept. 6. One sister is Ann cited by the Philadelphia Bar Association Paul E. Gorka FA’55, Philadelphia, an art Trimble Winner CW’57. upon his retirement “in recognition of 50 teacher; Oct. 12. He served in the US Army Roland M. Wright C’53, Brookhaven, years of distinguished service” and he re- during the Korean War. At Penn, he was a PA, retired copyeditor, designer, and au- ceived an award from the Philadelphia City member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. One thor of a weekly column at the News Jour- Council for his decades of work for the blind. daughter is Barbara C. Gorka G’87 Gr’93. nal in Wilmington, DE; Sept. 16. He served Ione Apfelbaum Strauss CW’54, Malcolm C. Henry Gr’55, Harpswell, in the US Army. At Penn, he was a member Haverford, PA, a former Penn trustee; Oct. ME, a retired researcher at Natick Labs of the Daily Pennsylvanian. 1. She received Penn’s Alumni Award of who helped develop Kevlar helmets, Arctic Merit in 1971 and became a University trust- gear, and chemical protective clothing; ee the following year. She was the fi rst fe- Sept. 28. He served in the US Navy during 1954 male president of Penn Alumni (then known World War II. Dr. Richard M. Barry M’54, Arden, as the General Alumni Society) and the fi rst Stephen A. Wasser W’55, Lauderhill, NC, a retired physician; Sept. 18. He served woman ever to head a major private univer- FL, retired executive at Golub Corporation, in the US Navy during World War II. sity’s alumni society. She was one of the a supermarket operator that owns Price John Bertman W’54 L’57, Hammon- inaugural members of the Board of Over- Chopper; Sept. 7. At Penn, he was a mem- ton, NJ, an attorney and former municipal seers of the Penn School of Arts and Sci- ber of WXPN. court judge; Sept. 28. At Penn, he was a ences, from 1982 to 1988. She was also a member of Tau Delta Phi fraternity. trustee of Penn Press from 2002 to 2005, Marilyn Joan Schrom Bloss HUP’54, and she was an early member of the Trust- 1956 Gainesville, FL, a former nurse and co- ees’ Council of Penn Women. She held Robert C. Butler WG’56, Essex Fells, owner of a gas station; Sept. 7. countless other volunteer roles in Penn or- NJ, retired chief fi nancial offi cer for Cel-

72 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 gene, a pharmaceutical company; Sept. 20. 1958 brokerage; Sept. 21. At Penn, he was a He served in the US Army. One son is John Samuel M. Cameron C’58 Gr’63, Hat- member of Zeta Psi fraternity. His brother H. Butler WG’89. boro, PA, a professor emeritus of psychol- is Victor C. Mather II C’61, and his son is Samuel H. Campbell III W’56, Look- ogy and a clinical psychologist at Arcadia Charles E. Mather IV WG’86. out Mountain, TN, president and chairman University; Sept. 5. At Penn, he was a mem- Mary E. Vason Sharp DH’59, Jackson- of his family’s business, Chattanooga Bak- ber of the fencing team. ville, FL, Oct. 10. ery; Oct. 8. At Penn, he was a member of Rose Specca Cochran Nu’58, South- Joseph Wakeley Jr. EE’59, State Col- Friars Senior Society and Sigma Alpha ampton, PA, a former nurse; March 2. lege, PA, a retired research associate with Epsilon fraternity. Dr. Raymond D. Fogelson G’58 the Penn State Applied Research Labora- Jonas M. L. Cohen W’56, Baltimore, Gr’62, Chicago, professor emeritus of an- tory; Aug. 27. His research supported the retired president of an insurance agency; thropology at the University of Chicago; US Navy’s underwater and torpedo pro- Oct. 2. At Penn, he was a member of Alpha Jan. 20, 2020. grams. At Penn, he was a member of Beta Epsilon Pi fraternity. One son is Mark S. Dr. Richard H. Phillips D’58, Wyn- Theta Pi fraternity, Friars Senior Society, Cohen C’84. antskill, NY, a retired dentist; Sept. 27. He and the swimming team. James J. Heff ernan W’56, Blue Bell, served in the US Air Force during the Ko- PA, a retired attorney; Sept. 3. He served rean War. in the US Navy. At Penn, he was a member Stuart E. “Trudy” Reider W’58, Green- 1960 of Kappa Sigma fraternity. wich, CT, former liaison offi cer with the Hon. Alan M. Black W’60, Allentown, Kinnaird S. McQuade W’56, Cincin- Greenwich Japanese School; Aug. 25. At PA, retired president judge of the Lehigh nati, retired owner of an audio and visual Penn, he was a member of the Daily Penn- County Court of Common Pleas (PA); Sept. equipment rental company; Feb. 29. At sylvanian. 21. At Penn, he was a member of Tau Delta Penn, he was a member of Beta Theta Pi Hugh Van Deventer III WG’58, Sun Phi fraternity, Friars Senior Society, and fraternity. Valley, ID, a former manager at Hahne- the wrestling team. One brother is Ronald Bernard M. Zindler W’56, Columbus, mann University; Sept. 11. K. Black C’64. His children are Martin J. OH, Oct. 2. He worked in the retail cloth- Dr. Beecher H. Watson Sr. V’58, Black W’85 and Sara Ann Black C’86. ing business. At Penn, he was a member of Church Road, VA, a veterinarian; Sept. 30. Jennie-Marie Scott DeMartinis Nu’60 Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. His son is Dr. Beecher H. Watson Jr. V’82. GNu’65, Jeff ersonville, PA, a former nurse who later worked as an insurance claims processor; Oct. 4. At Penn, she was a member 1957 1959 of Alpha Chi Omega sorority. John L. Bidwell C’57, Lansdale, PA, a Katharine Violet Sziklai Alexander E. David Harrison L’60, Washington, retired dentist; Oct. 11. At Penn, he was a L’59, Los Altos Hills, CA, a retired attor- DC, a former lawyer; Oct. 10. He served in member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity. ney; Nov. 21, 2019. the US Army. One grandson is Eli J. Har- Gregory E. Brodginski W’57, Ridge- William C. Cohen Jr. W’59, Wichita, rison C’24. ﬁ eld, CT, a retired IBM executive and for- KS, retired CEO of IMA Financial Group, Sophie P. Homsey CW’60, Venice, FL, mer teacher; Aug. 23. an insurance brokerage; April 1. At Penn, a retired librarian at the Delaware Muse- Dr. Kenneth M. Given C’57, Lansdale, he was a member of Phi Epsilon Pi frater- um of Natural History; June 24, 2019. PA, a retired regulatory aff airs executive nity and the swimming team. John G. Kavanagh W’60, Middletown, at the pharmaceutical company Bristol Barbara Graul Gillen HUP’59, Allen- RI, Aug. 28. He worked in the insurance Myers Squibb; Oct. 6. At Penn, he was a town, PA, April 11, 2019. and investment industries. At Penn, he was member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Dr. Peter P. Ravin Jr. GD’59, Dallas, a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity. Dr. Francis P. Judge C’57, Ann Arbor, PA, a retired dentist and oral surgeon; Sept. Ward L. Reed Jr. WG’60, Saint Johns- MI, a retired neurologist and founder of 25. He served in the US Navy as a dental bury, VT, a retired partner at a management Ann Arbor Neurology; April 3. At Penn, he offi cer, and later in the US Naval Reserves. consultancy; Oct. 11. Later, he became co- was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Elizabeth Rismiller HUP’59, Pottsville, owner of a restaurant in Quincy, MA. One fraternity. PA, a former nursing supervisor in obstet- daughter is Elizabeth A. Reed C’86 G’87. Carol Nisnick Puschett Ed’57, El Paso, rics and gynecology at the Hospital of the Sandra Saxe-Solomon CW’60, TX, a mortgage specialist; Aug. 1. At Penn, University of Pennsylvania; Sept. 3. At Penn, Swampscott, MA, Aug. 10. She was an ac- she was a member of Phi Sigma Sigma so- she was a member of the basketball team. tive fundraiser in her community. Her rority, WXPN, and Penn Players. One son Charles E. Mather III L’59, Philadel- husband is Marshall Z. Solomon WG’54, is Dr. Mitchell Ivan Puschett M’92. phia, retired president of an insurance and one brother is Howard Rich C’59.

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 73 ALUMNI Obituaries

Dr. Larry A. Schmuck V’60, New Prov- 6. He served in the US Army as a dentist. Sept. 27. At Penn, he was a member of Phi idence, PA, a retired veterinarian; Oct. 22. At Penn, he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa Sigma fraternity. Dr. David A. Sommer M’60, Coral Kappa fraternity and the fencing team. Dr. Malcolm H. Rourk Jr. M’63, Dur- Gables, FL, a retired gastroenterologist; Mendel I. Trachtman Gr’61, Bronx, ham, NC, a retired physician and clinical Sept. 12. He served in the US Army. NY, July 9. One son is Dr. Howard Tracht- professor at Duke University, where he Hon. Thomas T. Trettis Jr. L’60, Na- man M’78, and one granddaughter is Han- completed his career as the director of the ples, FL, a former judge in the Collier nah Littman C’13. pediatric residency program; Sept. 4. He County Court (FL); Oct. 13. He was also a George A. VerWys GEE’61, Vestal, NY, served as a captain in the US Air Force. His special agent for the FBI. He served in the a retired IBM employee in the federal sys- wife is Jane Davis Rourk OT’60. US Marine Corps. tems division; July 25. Ronald T. Shefman W’63, Houston, John M. Whalley GLA’60, Longridge, July 4, 2018. At Penn, he was a member of UK, a retired landscape architect; June 11. Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. 1962 Blair C. Shick L’63, Newton, MA, a re- Dr. George F. Becker D’62, Blue Point, tired attorney and assistant director of the 1961 NY, a retired dentist; Aug. 20. National Consumer Law Center at Boston Dr. Nick J. Bartis D’61, Greensboro, NC, Geoff rey A. Collens GLA’62, London, College Law School; Aug. 26. a retired dentist; September 24. He served a retired landscape architect; April 10. Dr. Harvey M. Zalesin GD’63, Bir- in the US Army during the Korean War. Robert A. Harger GEE’62, Shrews- mingham, MI, a retired dentist and oral Dr. MarJeanne “Mimi” Collins Blas- bury, MA, retired technical director of a surgeon; July 6. At Penn, he was a member co M’61 GM’66 CGS’07, Lower Merion, missile program at Raytheon, a defense of the Daily Pennsylvanian. PA, associate professor emeritus of pedi- contractor; Sept. 9. He served in the US atrics at Penn; Oct. 8. In 1969 she became Air Force during the Korean War. an instructor in pediatrics, and seven years Charles Kindleberger III C’62, Saint 1964 later she became an assistant professor of Louis, a retired city planner; Aug. 22. At George R. Johnson C’64, Hilton Head pediatrics at the Perelman School of Med- Penn, he was a member of Delta Psi frater- Island, SC, an executive at a ﬁ nancial icine. In 1973, she advocated for the cre- nity, Friars Senior Society, Kite and Key printing company; Oct. 4. At Penn, he was ation of an inpatient adolescent medicine Society, and the soccer team. a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon frater- unit at CHOP and went on to serve as the Sheldon W. Liebman W’62 Gr’72, La nity and the Navy/Marine ROTC. inaugural director of that unit. In 1979, she Grange Park, IL, retired chair of the hu- Dr. E. Barry Topham C’64 M’68, Hol- became an assistant professor at CHOP as manities department at Wilbur Wright laday, UT, a dermatologist; Sept. 21. well. In 1980, she became the assistant College; Sept. 15. At Penn, he was a mem- director of Penn’s Student Health Services ber of Phi Sigma Delta fraternity. and was promoted to director ﬁ ve years Dr. Robert L. Piscatelli INT’62, Wood- 1965 later. She served as both the director of bury, CT, former chief of medicine at a hos- George G. Breed L’65, Sebastopol, CA, Student Health Services and as a clinician- pital and dean of the medical school at the a retired lawyer for the mortgage insur- educator at Penn’s School of Medicine and University of Connecticut; Sept. 12. He ance company PMI; Sept. 13. at CHOP until her retirement in 2000. Her served as a medical offi cer in the US Navy W. Hayne Hipp WG’65, Greenville, SC, husband is Dr. Luis Blasco GM’74 CGS’07. for 10 years. an insurance executive, philanthropist, Eldon du Pont Homsey GAr’61, Wilm- Dix C. Shevalier Jr. GAr’62, Nantuck- and Greenville civic leader; Aug. 27. ington, DE, an architect; May 11. et, MA, an architect; Oct. 3. Bernard J. Laurenzi Gr’65, Middle- John A. Lutts Gr’61, Quincy, MA, a Rudolph J. Wimberger GEE’62, Ni- town, NY, professor emeritus of chemistry faculty member at the University of Mas- antic, CT, a retired electrical engineer; at the University at Albany; Sept. 7. sachusetts Boston; Sept. 21. March 25. He served in the US Army Air James A. Spendiff W’65, Lewistown, Dr. Melvyn C. Rothman C’61, Phoenix, Corps during World War II. PA, retired steel company executive; Sept. 6. a retired physician practicing hematology Dr. Herbert Y. Wong GM’62, Hono- He served in the US Army. At Penn, he was and pathology; Oct. 6. At Penn, he was a lulu, a retired family physician; May 15. a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. member of the fencing team. One son is James Rothman W’86. His brother is Dr. Stephen S. Rothman C’56 D’61 Gr’64. 1963 1966 Dr. Louis A. Tobia Jr. C’61 D’63, Ken- Edward L. Meehan Jr. W’63, Fal- Charles D. Beshore WEv’66, New Hol- nett Square, PA, a retired dentist; October mouth, ME, a retired insurance agent; land, PA, an accountant for the steel mill

74 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Lukens Steel; Sept. 20. He served in the US Cynthia R. Youtzy Nu’67, Rosyln, PA, Simeon J. Crowther Gr’70, Seal Beach, Army during the Korean War. a retired lieutenant colonel in the US Air CA, a professor emeritus of economics and Albert B. Ikeda GME’66, Audubon, Force; Nov. 19, 2019. former dean of the School of Social and PA, a retired engineer at General Electric Behavioral Sciences at California State and Lockheed-Martin; June 26. During University, Long Beach; Nov. 14, 2019. One World War II, he was held in an intern- 1968 son is John Charles Crowther C’93 Gr’01. ment camp. He served in the US Army dur- Carol Marshall Paumgarten CW’68, David B. Ford WG’70, Greenwich, CT, ing the Korean War. Oyster Bay, NY, cofounder and artistic a retired partner at Goldman Sachs; Sept. Dr. Arthur H. Jacobs D’66, Naples, director of the dance studio Steps on 20. At Penn, he was a member of Sigma Phi FL, a retired dentist; June 20. He was also Broadway; Sept. 24. At Penn, she was a Epsilon fraternity. a mentor and coach for high school stu- member of Kappa Kappa Gamma soror- Edna H. Fred SW’70, Jacksonville, FL, dents. He served in the US Air Force. ity. Her husband is Nicholas B. Paumgar- retired director of operations for the Penn- Jerry R. Richards GEE’66, Naples, FL, ten C’67. One son is Alexander M. sylvania State Department of Public Wel- a former senior engineer at Lockheed Mar- Paumgarten C’94. fare; Sept. 13. tin; Oct. 11. Robert J. Newhouse III WG’70, Vero Dr. Judson D. Todd GV’66, Kansas 1969 Beach, FL, a retired senior executive at City, KS, former chairman and CEO of Syn- Sandra Bonilla Bailey CW’69, Huma- Marsh and McLennan, an insurance bro- tro Corporation, a biotechnology company cao, Puerto Rico, a former obstetric nurse ker; July 21. specializing in animal health; Sept. 10. He who later owned an arts and crafts store; William Michael Ostrowski ME’70, served in the US Air Force. Sept. 8. Exeter, PA, a mechanical engineer; Aug. Roger C. Bird Gr’69, Blue Bell, PA, a 27. At Penn, he was a member of Phi Delta retired business and economics professor Theta fraternity and the football team. 1967 at what is now known as the American Karl F. G. “Ric” Du Puy GAr’67, Wash- College of Financial Services; Sept. 5. ington, DC, an architect and professor Mary E. Edwards GrS’69, Philadel- 1971 emeritus of architecture at the University phia, a US government employee; April 26. Dr. Eugene R. Gaddis G’71 Gr’79, West of Maryland; Aug. 21. Previously, he Dr. Ann Hanahoe Hines M’69, Dan- Hartford, CT, a retired archivist at the Wad- worked as an urban designer for the City bury, CT, a retired pediatrician; Sept. 7. She sworth Atheneum art museum; Aug. 1. of New York. founded the Cyril and Mary Hanahoe Me- Richard A. Lindenmuth WG’71, Ra- Franklin C. Farrow Jr. GrE’67, Paoli, morial Children’s Clinic in 1974 and served leigh, NC, a corporate turnaround execu- PA, an electrical engineer; Sept. 23. as its executive director. Her husband is tive; Aug. 31. At Penn, he was a member of Edwin C. Hamblet Gr’67, Plattsburgh, Dr. Paul S. Hines Gr’69. the squash team. NY, a retired professor of French at SUNY David E. Kuendig Sr. C’69, Daytona Plattsburgh; Sept. 13. He was also a teach- Beach, FL, a former manager at Cer- ing fellow at Penn during his graduate tainTeed Rooﬁ ng, a construction product 1972 school years. He served in the US Army as supply company; Sept. 22. His wife is Mary Dr. Paul C. Fiehler C’72, Freeport, PA, a translator. Bridgman Kuendig CW’69, and one son is a pulmonologist; Oct. 6. At Penn, he was a Kyunja Paik Park G’67, Villanova, PA, John A. Kuendig C’05. member of Pi Lambda Phi fraternity and Dec. 1, 2019. Her husband is Dr. Kun I. Park Dr. Edward Levinson GEE’69 the wrestling team. GEE’68 GrE’72, and one daughter is Dr. GrE’71, Metuchen, NJ, a software engi- Barry J. Kay G’72, Waterloo, Ontario, Meyeon Park M’06. neer; June 24. Canada, Dec. 13, 2019. Madeleine O. Robinson G’67, Cum- Robert W. Shirley Jr. WG’69, Char- Douglas M. Kincaid WG’72, Fort berland, RI, a teacher, artist, and writer; lotte, NC, June 7. Worth, TX, a retired real estate investment Aug. 23. Throughout her 38-year career, executive; Aug. 26. she taught middle school through college. Jorge L. Pardo EE’72, Casselberry, FL, Dr. Donald C. Steckel M’67, Lewis- 1970 a retired engineer at Duke Energy, a util- burg, PA, a retired physician; Aug. 28. He Guy T. Castagliola C’70, Brandon, ity company; Sept. 30. served in the US Army Corps of Engineers FL, an auditor for the Veterans Admin- William Tortu C’72, Redondo Beach, during the Vietnam War. istration; July 19. He served in the US CA, a retired lawyer; June 9. At Penn, he Dr. Bension Varon Gr’67, Alexandria, Army. At Penn, he was a member of the was a member of the Philomathean Society VA, June 1. Glee Club. and the Sphinx Senior Society.

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 75 ALUMNI Obituaries

1973 1976 retail business; Oct. 13. Her husband is Dr. Leonard P. Bogorad GCP’73, Bethes- Kirkpatrick W. Frederick C’76, Mem- Hal D. Fruchtman D’79. da, MD, managing director of a real estate phis, TN, an offi ce manager and book- Rocco Gigante Jr. GrEd’81, Runne- consultancy; Aug. 26. His wife is Cynthia keeper of an architecture fi rm; Sept. 20. mede, NJ, a retired administrator at the Schneider Bogorad CW’74. Irving P. McPhail GrEd’76, Raleigh, NC, School District of Philadelphia; Oct. 7. He Dr. Alan S. Crandall GM’73, Salt Lake president of St. Augustine University; Oct. 15. served in the US Air Force during the Ko- City, an ophthalmologist; Oct. 2. rean War. Samuel A. Hood Jr. C’73, Wake Forest, NC, July 18. 1977 William H. Proctor WG’73, Pikesville, Maj. John F. Duignan WG’77, Hum- 1982 MD, a retired attorney and business pro- melstown, PA, a retired Pennsylvania State Deborah G. Lord G’82, Moorestown, fessor at Morgan State University; Oct. 13. Trooper; Sept. 1. During his 36-year polic- NJ, a retired grade-school teacher; Sept. 12. He served in the US Army and later spent ing career, he was director of training and 20 years in the US Army Reserve. director of evaluations and standards. He Dr. Bruce D. Shoicket D’73, Boston, served in the US Navy. 1983 a retired periodontist; Feb. 10. He also David C. Franceski Jr. C’77 G’77 L’80, Hugh K. Rogers GrEd’83, Kingsport, taught dentistry at Tufts University. His Berwyn, PA, a partner in the law fi rm TN, a grant writer and educator who wife is Rachel Brandes Shoicket DH’73. Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, where taught manufacturing engineering at a One sister is Judi Shoicket Robbins he served in the securities litigation and number of universities; Oct. 11. He served CW’73. enforcement department; July 11. At Penn, in the US Army for 20 years and was a he was a member of Kite and Key and Phi veteran of the Vietnam War. 1974 Beta Kappa honor society. 1984 John F. “Jump” Dautrich C’74, Paoli, 1978 Dr. John K. Erban III GM’84, Wake- PA, retired manager of an insurance com- Reba S. Mangham SW’78, Barnesville, fi eld, MA, a clinician, researcher, and pany; Sept. 21. At Penn, he was a member GA, a retired social worker; March 4, 2019, teacher at Tufts University, where he of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity and the at 100. She served in the US Women’s Army served as chief of the hematology/oncol- track and swimming teams. One sister is Corps during World War II. ogy division; Sept. 2. His brother is Dr. Susan D. Lastowski GEd’79. Dr. Thomas D. Thomson V’78, Boun- Stephen B. Erban M’84 GM’87 GM’88. Robert E. Kane SW’74, Bowdoinham, tiful, UT, a former senior research scientist ME, a school therapist for teens; Aug. 28. at Lilly Research Laboratories; July 20. 1987 Dr. Gregory N. Prah C’87, West Ches- 1975 1980 terfi eld, NH, a physician who ran the de- Bruce A. Biermann W’75, Federal Dianne Hodgetts (Bladon) W’80, partment of anesthesiology at Brattleboro Way, WA, an executive fi nance manager at Boston, a senior director for Dell Tech- Memorial Hospital; Sept. 3. At Penn, he Microsoft; Sept. 30. At Penn, he was a nologies; Aug. 23. At Penn, she was a mem- was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity. member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. ber of Penn Players, Quadramics, and the C. Suzanne Buechner L’75, Newtown Sphinx Senior Society. Square, PA, an attorney specializing in es- Leslie E. Skillman-Hull GNu’80, Cha- 1989 tates and probate; Sept. 22. tham, NJ, a nurse and artist; Feb. 29. She also David B. Aureden C’89, Skaneateles, Carol Riggins James WG’75, West- worked as a professor of women’s health at NY, Oct. 17. At Penn, he was a member of port, CT, a retired executive at PNC Advi- the Universities of Rochester and Colorado. Kappa Sigma fraternity and the heavy- sors; Sept. 16. Her brother is Dr. Edward Rosanne H. Wyleczuk WG’80, Sara- weight rowing team. P. Riggins Jr. C’74 D’76. toga, CA, June 3. Jeffrey T. Winston GAr’75 GLA’76, Denver, founder of a landscape architec- 1990 ture and urban planning fi rm; July 23. 1981 Ronald S. Rosenberg WG’90, Basking His wife is Gretchen Lutz Winston Cynthia Carchman Fruchtman Ridge, NJ, former head of alternative in- CW’70. DH’81, Langhorne, PA, owner of an online vestments at Merrill Lynch; Sept. 19. At

76 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 School Abbreviations GEE master’s, Electrical Engineering HUP Nurse training (till 1978) Penn, he was a member of the Wharton GEng master’s, Engineering and L Law Follies. One daughter is Carly Paige Rosen- Ar Architecture Applied Science LAr Landscape Architecture berg WG’21. ASC Annenberg GEx master’s, Engineering Executive LPS Liberal and Professional Studies C College (bachelor’s) GFA master’s, Fine Arts M Medicine CCC College Collateral Courses GGS master’s, College of General Studies ME Mechanical Engineering 1995 CE Civil Engineering GL master’s, Law MT Medical Technology CGS College of General Studies (till 2008) GLA master’s, Landscape Architecture MtE Metallurgical Engineering Jeff erson R. Cartano EE’95 EAS’95, Ch Chemistry GME master’s, Mechanical Engineering Mu Music Livingston, NJ, a professor of physics and ChE Chemical Engineering GM Medicine, post-degree NEd Certificate in Nursing engineering at County College of Morris; CW College for Women (till 1975) GMt master’s, Metallurgical Engineering Nu Nursing (bachelor’s) Aug. 24. D Dental Medicine GNu master’s, Nursing OT Occupational Therapy DH Dental Hygiene GPU master’s, Governmental PSW Pennsylvania School of Social Work EAS Engineering and Applied Administration PT Physical Therapy 1997 Science (bachelor’s) Gr doctorate SAMP School of Allied Medical Erin Korengold Markowitz C’97, Po- Ed Education GrC doctorate, Civil Engineering Professions GrE doctorate, Electrical Engineering SPP Social Policy and Practice (master’s) tomac, MD, Sept. 4. Her father is Dr. EE Electrical Engineering FA Fine Arts GrEd doctorate, Education SW Social Work (master’s) (till 2005) George M. Korengold C’68, and one broth- G master’s, Arts and Sciences GrL doctorate, Law V Veterinary Medicine er is Adam S. Korengold C’94. GAr master’s, Architecture GrN doctorate, Nursing W Wharton (bachelor’s) GCE master’s, Civil Engineering GRP master’s, Regional Planning WAM Wharton Advanced Management GCh master’s, Chemical Engineering GrS doctorate, Social Work WEF Wharton Extension Finance 1998 GCP master’s, City Planning GrW doctorate, Wharton WEv Wharton Evening School Joy Butts Bomba WEv’98, Moosic, PA, GD Dental, post-degree GV Veterinary, post-degree WG master’s, Wharton a marketing professional in the publishing GEd master’s, Education Hon Honorary WMP Wharton Management Program industry; Sept. 19. Randolph Betts Smith WG’98, Phila- delphia, a former newspaper reporter who Penn; Sept. 25. She began teaching at Penn Beyond Confl ict Innovation Lab; Sept. 30. went on to a career as a marketing execu- in 2004 as a research/teaching fellow at He joined the Annenberg School in 2015, tive; Aug. 21. the Annenberg School (while also a PhD fi rst as a visiting scholar and then as a re- student) and became a lecturer in 2013. search associate and lecturer. He estab- She taught the undergraduate communica- lished the Peace and Confl ict Neuroscience 2006 tion internship seminar annually from Lab, which has a tagline that neatly sum- Rebecca Folkerts SPP’06, Billings, MT, 2014 through 2020. She also taught policy marized his professional mission: “Putting Aug. 20. communications in the master of science science to work for peace” [“Gazetteer,” David “Nicholas” Somich WG’06, in social policy program as a lecturer at Mar|Apr 2018]. In addition to studying San Diego, a fi nancial analyst for Verition SP2, from 2012 to 2019. In 2018, she be- empathy, his research was concerned with Fund Management; Oct. 23, 2019. came the internship coordinator for the metaperceptions, which concern how Annenberg School. She also oversaw the someone believes their enemy sees them— Annenberg in Washington program and beliefs that are often harsher than reality. 2012 taught at other nearby universities, includ- The lab also studied dehumanization, the Sarah G. Pitts L’12, New York, a Brook- ing Saint Joseph’s, Temple, and Rutgers. degree to which people view outgroups as lyn assistant district attorney known for Her daughter is Olivia C. Haas C’12. less than fully human—a strong predictor her advocacy and pro bono work; Sept. 7. of violence against them. He was also the While at Penn, she was the associate editor lead scientist for Beyond Confl ict, a global of the Journal of International Law and a Faculty & Staff nonprofi t focused on reducing confl ict and member of the Homeless Advocacy Project. Dr. MarJeanne “Mimi” Collins Blas- promoting reconciliation. co. See Class of 1961. Catherine R. Naulty Clauss. See Class Emile Bruneau, Philadelphia, a re- of 1950. 2013 search associate and lecturer at the An- Dr. Maria Delivoria-Papadopoulos, Susan D. Haas Gr’13, a lecturer in the nenberg School for Communication, direc- Landsdowne, PA, professor emeritus of Annenberg School for Communication and tor of Annenberg’s Peace and Confl ict pediatrics at the Perelman School of Med- the School of Social Policy and Practice at Neuroscience Lab, and lead scientist at the icine, former director of newborn services

Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 77 ALUMNI Obituaries

at HUP, and a pioneer in neonatal and Penn’s Lindback Award, and the annual lecturer of radiology in 1993. In 1996, he pediatric medicine; Sept. 11. She joined the Renee C. Fox Lecture in Medicine was es- became an associate professor and clini- faculty at Penn in 1967 as an instructor in tablished in her honor. She held 11 honor- cian-educator in radiology. Five years pediatrics. She became an assistant profes- ary degrees, and in 1995, the Belgian Gov- later, he became chairman of the depart- sor in physiology and pediatrics a few ernment named her Chevalier of the Order ment of medical imaging at Penn Presby- years later, moving up to associate profes- of Leopold II. terian Medical Center, a position he held sor and then, in 1976, full professor of pe- Susan D. Haas. See Class of 2013. until 2018. In 2002, he also became an as- diatrics, physiology, and obstetrics-gyne- Edwin C. Hamblet. See Class of 1967. sociate professor of radiology at Penn Pres- cology. She also served as the director of Robert Marshak, Philadelphia, dean byterian. He received many accolades, newborn services and the intensive care emeritus of the School of Veterinary Med- including the Perelman School of Medi- nursery at HUP from 1974 to 1996. She was icine; Oct. 20. He was recruited to be in- cine’s Special Dean’s Award, in 2015. He associate dean for International Medical terim chair of Penn Vet’s department of retired in 2019. In 2020, Penn’s depart- Programs, and she was also an associate medicine in 1956. Five years later, he was ment of radiology created the Harvey physician at CHOP. She retired in 1996. appointed a professor of medicine. During Nisenbaum Award for Medical Imaging She is perhaps best known for performing the 1960s, he researched bovine leukemia, Research at Penn Presbyterian. It will be the world’s fi rst successful ventilation and his work culminated in the establish- given for the fi rst time in 2021. He served treatment for premature infants in North ment of the Bovine Leukemia Research in the US Navy. America. She received continuous funding Center, sponsored by the National Cancer Noah S. Prywes, Rockville, MD, pro- from the National Institutes of Health for Institute, at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center fessor emeritus of computer and informa- decades for her research, as well as numer- in 1965. He was named the ninth dean of tion science in Penn’s School of Engineer- ous awards, including the American Acad- Penn Vet in 1973, and he oversaw the con- ing and Applied Science; Sept. 21. In 1958, emy of Pediatrics Lifetime Achievement struction of Penn Vet’s small animal hos- he was hired as an associate professor at Award, Penn’s Lindback Award for Distin- pital, as well as the enhancements and Penn’s Moore School of Electrical Engi- guished Teaching, and the Leonard Ber- additions to Widener Hospital at New neering. Ten years later, he became a full wick Memorial Teaching Award from the Bolton Center and the building of the C. professor in the School’s relatively new Perelman School of Medicine. Mahlon Kline Center for Orthopedics and department of computer science. He re- Renée C. Fox Hon’11, Philadelphia, the Rehabilitation. In 1983, he led the fi ve- mained a professor of computer science Annenberg Professor Emerita of the Social year, $41.5 million campaign that acceler- at Penn for almost three decades, during Sciences, senior fellow emerita of the Cen- ated Penn Vet’s breakthroughs in cancer which the department moved to Penn’s ter for Bioethics, and professor emerita of research, reproductive physiology, and School of Engineering and Applied Sci- sociology; Sept. 23. She joined the sociol- pathobiology. Among other curricular in- ence. A pioneer in early computer tech- ogy department at Penn as a full professor novations, he introduced a core-elective nology, he created Multi-List, one of the in 1969 and served as the chair of the de- curriculum and launched the pioneering fi rst relational database management partment from 1972 to 1978. Ultimately, Program of Aquatic Animal Medicine and systems. Around the same time, he ad- she held joint secondary appointments in Center for Interactions of Animals and vanced and commercialized timesharing, the Perelman School of Medicine’s depart- Society. He served as dean until he retired the predecessor to today’s cloud comput- ments of psychiatry and medicine, in in 1987. In recognition of his contributions ing. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was at the Wharton, and in the School of Nursing. As to the School, Vernon W. Hill II W’67 and forefront of automatic programming, a medical sociologist, her teaching and his wife, Shirley Hill, established the Rob- nonprocedural specifi cation systems, and research involved fi rsthand, participant ert Marshak-Vernon Hill Scholarship Fund reverse engineering, and the application observation-based studies in the United for VMD-MBA Training at Penn Vet and of these technologies to parallel and dis- States, Europe, Africa, and China. Her Wharton in 2016. tributed computing. In the early 2000s, books examined topics including attitude Catherine “Kaki” Hurley SantaMa- he developed innovative speech technol- formation among medical students, train- ria Marshall. See Class of 1945. ogy for use in telephony. He retired in ing for uncertainty, organ transplants, and Dr. Harvey Nisenbaum, Wynnewood, 1996. His sons are Menahem M. Prywes bioethics. Her latest essay collection, Ex- PA, professor emeritus of radiology at the C’76 Gr’81, Daniel I. Prywes C’77 L’80, and plorations of a Mind-Traveling Sociologist Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Ron M. Prywes C’79. (2019), was published when she was 91 and chair of medical imaging at Penn Pres- Ione Apfelbaum Strauss. See Class of [“Gazetteer,” May|Jun 2020]. She received byterian Medical Center; Oct. 8. He joined 1954. numerous teaching awards, including Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine as a

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Jan| Feb 2021 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE 79 OLD PENN

Celebrating President Theodore Roosevelt (1905). In 1909, President-elect William How- ard Taft graced the stage, giving a speech on “The Relation of the Learned Profes- Another Founder sions to Political Government.” Washing- ton’s ascent to the presidency, Taft said, January 17, the University rec- and a speech by the provost. The was due not to his profession or training ognizes the birthday of its schedule expanded in 1895 to include but to his “high character as a man.” founder, Benjamin Franklin. an orator of the day, and the event This photo was taken at the evening’s On But more than a century ago, moved to the Academy of Music. As alumni dinner, held in Weightman Penn used to celebrate the birth of an- the years went on, a student parade Hall. Some of the 800 guests can be other Founding Father. was added as well as the conferring of seen sitting at various class tables, George Washington’s birthday, honorary degrees. (Penn had con- while the guests of honor, including February 22, had been a University ferred an honorary law degree upon Taft, are at the back. holiday since at least 1826, before pe- Washington himself in 1783.) During the Great Depression, the ex- tering out in the 1930s. University Day attracted a host of dig- pense of University Day became hard- Originally observed in a chapel, and niﬁ ed orators, including President Wil- er to justify, and the whole celebration then in the library, the event usually liam McKinley (1898), Brooklyn Mayor eventually dissolved amid a growing included an orchestral performance, a Seth Low (1899), Chinese Ambassador sense that if any Founding Father reading of Washington’s Farewell Wu Ting Fang (1900), Pennsylvania Gov- should have his own day at the Univer- Address, a song from the Glee Club, ernor Samuel Pennypacker (1904), and sity, it should be Franklin. —NP

80 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE Jan| Feb 2021 Photo courtesy University Archives

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