FALL 2020 1 The Ledger ACADEMICS
BACK TO SCHOOL, SAFELY It was a fall term for the history books, as Drexel welcomed 2,350 first-year students to virtual classrooms. Below, we’ve assembled stats on who they are and what their fall term was like. Meanwhile, a portion of medical students and graduate students, including the Kline School of Law students photographed here, returned to in-person classes in lecture halls with safe spacing and masks. Starting in January, all undergraduates will have the option of return- ing to single-occupancy dormitories, and additional classes will be offered in person or hybrid for students who require access to labs and studios.
Average high school GPA, up from 3.76 in 2019 3.81 and 3.71 in 2018. 14.3 Percentage of underrepresented students of color. 6.9Percentage of international students. Top countries are India, Vietnam, Nigeria, China, THREE HUNDRED Pakistan and Kazakhstan. Number of virtual programs attended by new undergraduates. 1290 Average median SAT score, same as last year and up 10 points from 2018. TWO HUNDRED 39.4Percentage who hail from Philadelphia, versus only 13 Number of grad students percent in 2018. facilitating remote courses.
Number who are first-generation college students.
2BEN Drexel WONG Magazine 1 in 4 FALL 2020 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS twitter.com/drexeluniv facebook.com/drexeluniv UP FRONT instagram.com/drexeluniv youtube.com/drexeluniv
FEATURES THE VIEW FROM MAIN
In September, we embarked on an academic year un- like any in our history — amid the global pandemic, a clarion call for racial justice and as our country en- 30 22 gaged in a divisive political season. It was a moment Social Justice for all of us at Drexel to innovate, support one anoth- ‘I Knew We Syllabus er, and strive to be the best version of ourselves as Were on individuals and as a University community. It’s time to understand the Edge Despite the disappointment over not being able to what matters in of Radical welcome to campus the nearly 2,400 members of the people’s lives. Change’ incoming class of 2020, our necessary pivot to remote When the learning, the enactment of sweeping health and safe- pandemic up- ty measures, the smooth resumption of research by ended in-person faculty and graduate students, and the launch of life- classes, Drexel saving scientific inquiry around COVID-19 all show professors tore Drexel at its best. up their course At the same time, we know we must build a bet- designs and 34 ter University by creating a truly anti-racist culture learned things A Philosophy at Drexel. The cornerstone of our efforts is Drexel’s about teaching of West Anti-Racism Task Force, actively engaged in examin- that will outlast Philadelphia’s ing all aspects of Drexel to craft recommendations for the crisis. Future how we can be better. We’ve also established a new Two major projects Center for Black Culture, which will serve as a hub of underway in West Phila- information, activity and community. delphia cap a decade of Our efforts to enliven campus and community construction on campus, — including the Pennoni Honors College move to where Drexel is building a Bentley Hall — have reached beyond the classroom district of innovation and and lab. The Powel Elementary / Science Leadership inclusion. Virtually all of Academy Middle School at 36th and Warren streets is this development yields moving toward a spring opening, while an academic income and assets for the tower is being built next door for the College of Nurs- University. None of it cost ing and Health Professions and College of Medicine. Drexel a dime. Meanwhile, there’s burgeoning activity in Schuylkill Yards, with Brandywine Realty Trust planning two research and commercial buildings by Drexel Square. Work continues on a 10-year strategic plan that will enhance the University’s leadership in experien- DEPARTMENTS tial learning and external partnerships as a model for higher education at a time of profound change and 1 Ledger 4 Editor’s 6 Crosswalk 42 Cross Roads 56 Crossword disruption for all colleges and universities. And we A numerical and Letter Post-protest cleanup in West Philadelphia. 17 Faces Elizabeth Malsin MD ’11 Dragons on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Solving this puzzle will are acting globally to tackle climate change through illustrated tour warns that she’s seeing more young be easy if you’ve spent our new Environmental Collaboratory, anchored by of Drexel. 9 Quoted Faculty experts weigh in on a patients with serious COVID-19 lung 44 Alumni Board of Governors time during the pandem- the Academy of Natural Sciences, the College of Engi- summer of solidarity and outrage. damage. A note from the chair and introductions to five ic catching up on your neering, and the College of Arts and Sciences. new elected directors. reading. As we all look forward to a time when the pan- 10 Show & Tell Dahrah Muhammad ’20 18 Faces Malik Rose BS ’96, HD ’09 demic will be behind us, I wish you continued good and the inspiration behind her autism talks about what it’s like inside the 46 Help for Canceled Co-ops health and I want to assure you, our devoted alumni, support company, Musa’s World. NBA’s bubble. Hundreds of alumni volunteered this that Drexel will emerge from this challenging period summer to connect with students strengthened and enriched in countless ways. 13 Research Unhealthy water...restaurant whose co-ops were impacted by troubles...business ethics...screen time... 20 Time & Place the virus. Sincerely, creativity...toxic chemicals. A team of Dragons projected a giant scrolling Twitter feed onto the façade 47 Class Notes 14 Faces Executive Director Harris Stein- of Nesbitt Hall to create a public space Keep up with fellow alumni careers, berg explains why we need the Lindy Institute. for socially distant discourse. weddings, families and traditions. John Fry / President
48 Friends We’ll Miss
FALL 2020 3 UP FRONT
EDITOR’S LETTER
aboard “famine ships” and settled Kling Dorm.” MAGAZINE in the coal regions of Northeastern For its first two years, I served Drexel Magazine Goes Digital Blue Calm Pennsylvania. My father, at age 27, as a resident assistant at Calhoun EDITORIAL STAFF was a third-generation coal miner Hall and was honored to speak at EDITOR At press time, it is the 5thof November, and the world is midway The cover of the latest issue is when he entered the U.S. Army in its dedication ceremony in October Sonja Sherwood between the ghouls of Halloween and the blessings of Thanks- beautiful! The selected format 1918 and sailed to Europe aboard a 1972. It’s been over 50 years since I STAFF CONTRIBUTORS giving. Summer gleams in the rearview mirror and winter lays and presentation fully reflects the troop ship. began my Drexel experience. I had Beth Ann Downey heavy on the road ahead. We’re poised in the bell-curved hollow massive incompleteness of the The Centers for Disease Control applied to Drexel Institute of Tech- Alissa Falcone between the first coronavirus peak and a second surge that will LETTERS current situation. and Prevention believes the pan- nology, but in 1970, I was among Britt Faulstick once again test our hearts and the readiness of our hospitals. I was especially pleased to see demic first started at Camp Funston the first class to enroll under its Lara Geragi I can only hope that by the time this edition reaches readers the choice of monochrome — just in Fort Riley, Kansas, in April 1918 new name, Drexel University. It Niki Gianakaris the election ballots are counted (maybe more than once), the law- Soul Music the Philadelphia Teacher Residen- before I entered Drexel, in ’61, and was spread to Europe by our also was the last year for Drexel Annie Korp suits settled, and a clear choice ratified — and that we are not still cy program? Amazing. Philly’s Chief of Police and soon-to- troops. The CDC estimates fatalities football. The annual tuition was Greg Richter Emily Storz hovering between two directions for the country. Just finished reading the Summer As a third-generation alumna, be-Mayor Frank Rizzo intentionally in the United States were 675,000, around $1,400. There were just two But one can’t be too sure. I tuned into the news today to see 2020 edition. It presented the married to an alumnus, and maybe changed the colors of the flashing and at least 50 million worldwide. dormitories, Kelly Hall for men and DESIGN a crowd of Philadelphians lifting signs outside the Pennsylvania hope and promise of a great uni- raising two future Dragons, I could lights on the Police Department’s My father returned by troop ship Van Rensselaer for women. Though Pentagram versity, starting with the article not be more proud of Drexel. Thank cars from red to blue, recognizing after Armistice and was discharged I grew up in the Philly suburbs in Convention Center demanding that their votes be counted, while ADMINISTRATION across the country in Maricopa County, Arizona, a crowd in red that showed adaptability at the you for some bright news during a that red lights evoke feelings of fear December 1918. The only time I saw Broomall, I moved in and lived on PRESIDENT MAGA hats were making the same demand. It seems Americans start of the pandemic; Drexel sup- difficult summer. Good work! and opposition, and that blue lights him cry was when he described to campus at this “commuter” school. John Fry are all asking for the same things, even as our actions conjure porting Harold Naidoff ’53 falsely would have a more calming effect me fellow soldiers dying of the flu. Drexel and Kelly Hall provided disparate outcomes. What a year for the history books! accused of being disloyal; former AMY KUSEN on those stopped by police. This More U.S. soldiers died from the flu me the opportunity to meet and SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS Eagles player Jon Dorenbos; the BA history ’09 was a safety measure for the Police than on the battlefield in France. befriend so many people [who With that preamble, I want to announce that a change is com- Lori Doyle ing to Drexel Magazine. The print edition will be suspended for a campus Spider-Man; 19 stories Aston, Pennsylvania Department, back in the late ’50s or My father’s seven sisters and became] lifelong friends. We while — a first for the magazine, as far as I’m aware. of Dragons helping others during early ’60s. It worked, well enough five brothers survived the pan- have played football (at Belmont Drexel Magazine, Vol. 30, Edition 2 Like other universities that locked down last spring, Drexel suf- COVID-19; David Shulkin, MD, for police departments across the demic, including one brother who Plateau, at Burke Lake Park in Drexel Magazine is published fered a significant decline in revenues from tuition, housing and working to serve veterans; Nigeri- country to adopt the idea. I decry was wounded by poison gas on the Virginia and recently at the Outer two times in print and once online each year by the Office of University dining fees. Although some aspects of campus life have revived, an immigrant and Drexel faculty the loss of his image overlooking battlefield in France. Banks in North Carolina) every Commendation Communications, 3141 Chestnut St., there are new costs associated with health safety and COVID test- member Rita Adeniran making a South Philadelphia! My father died at age 61. At the year on the weekend before Suite 309 Philadelphia, PA 19104. ing, and it will be a while before the University regains fiscal balance. difference around diversity and Just a short note to compliment I really look forward to receiving time I was 15. I am now 83. Thanksgiving. Brothers, friends, In the meantime, we will continue to publish news about our inclusion, and others. Drexel Magazine on its “excellent the issues! There have been many, children and even grandchildren CHANGE OF ADDRESS alumni, faculty, research and campus life digitally throughout the “Dance like no one is watching,” look” (and of course, content). many changes since I helped dedi- RAY CARDEN have participated in this fall Drexel University Records, year at drexelmagazine.org and in a new e-newsletter format you wrote Assistant Clinical Profess- From the front cover, through cate the Drexel Activities Center (the MBA ’67 classic. Yes, we’re grayer, older, Gifts and Stewardship will receive in the new year. sor Dawn Morningstar. Well, this the various articles, to the back DAC) at 32nd and Chestnut streets! Orlando, Florida slower and not as tough as before 3141 Chestnut St., Room 310 Philadelphia, PA 19104 Please take a moment, therefore, to update your email address issue provided the music for my cover, the magazine is very but we wouldn’t miss it, as our Tel: 215.895.1694 on record with the University. You can do so at alumni.drexel. soul to dance with song and music appealing, colorful, easy to read, LARRY SCHEAR families have come to realize. Fax: 215.895.4966 edu/updatemyinfo, by emailing [email protected], or by provided by great Drexel students, classy format, and it speaks well BS electrical engineering ’74 2020 marks the 50th year for Email: [email protected] calling Drexel University Records at 215.895.1694. After this fall faculty and alumni. Thank you. for Drexel University. Indian Shores, Florida Remembering Tech Football and the pandemic edition, your email address will be the only way to receive news I attended Drexel Institute of presents a new challenge. How do OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS Peck Alumni Center about alumni career changes, friends who have passed away, and ANTHONY STANOWSKI Technology as a business student you call plays on Zoom? How do Calhoun Hall 3141 Chestnut St. the stories that keep you abreast of how Drexel is changing. MS business administration ’89 from 1956–1960. My goodness, the you go to the bar after the game? Philadelphia, PA 19104 And it is changing, as are so many things. Lower Gwynedd, Pennsylvania Drexel campus was so different Pandemics While skimming through the But we’re Drexel graduates; we’ll Tel. 215.895.ALUM (2586) then. The newest building at that Summer 2020 edition, I recognized figure it out. Toll-free: 1.888.DU.GRADS (384.7237) Thank you for reading. time was the science building Past the picture of the now-renovated Fax: 215.895.2095 (since replaced) and I remember and renamed Bentley Hall, which ROBERT (BOB) BYCER Email: [email protected] Proud Alumna the cornerstone as “1957.” I lived in My father’s grandparents arrived was “known to older alumni by its BS business administration ’75 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR a fraternity house on Powelton Ave- from Ireland in 1849 and 1852 previous names Calhoun Hall or Landenberg, Pennsylvania [email protected] Sonja Sherwood / Editor I always enjoy reading Drexel nue, and ... was privileged to have a 215.571.4104 Magazine, but the latest issue has column in the Drexel Triangle. made me so proud to be a Dragon. It is easy to criticize when Correction: A story about Bentley Hall ADVERTISING The 19 Dragons helping others something is wrong, but it is on page 11 of the summer 2020 edition Stephanie Zola literally brought me to tears (count very important and rewarding to contained information that was out of 215.895.1540 me as No. 20 as I sew and donate express praise and commendation date. The story should have said that masks). I didn’t know anything when the job is done very well. Pennoni Honors College relocated about [former Secretary of the to the building in April. Pennoni now Department of Veterans Affairs] RICHARD NICOLL occupies a new, two-story glass and ABOUT THE COVER David Shulkin, MD, but I just put BS business administration ’60 stone addition of about 10,800 square Illustrated by Diana Ejaita. his book on my reading list. And Boca Raton, Florida feet at Bentley Hall.
4 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 5 CROSS WALK
COMMUNITY Recovery and Resilience in West Philadelphia
When shops in West Philadelphia were damaged on May 31 GRIFFIN JESSICA BY PHOTOTS in the aftermath of citywide social justice protests, Drexel professional staff jumped in to help. By Alissa Falcone
While walking her dog early on June 1, Una Massenburg spotted de- bris and merchandise scattered near the City Avenue Shopping Center in the Overbrook section of West Philadelphia, where stores had been damaged the day before following a weekend of protests against police killings and systemic racism. As she walked, she also saw people with brooms and garbage bags cleaning — and when she got home, she knew what she was going to do next. Massenburg, who is Drexel’s director of Travel & P-Card, met up with a fellow Procurement Services colleague, Strategic Sourcing Specialist Community Charlene Rice, and they worked for four hours to remove shattered glass members clean and trashed goods outside of impacted businesses. up broken That same morning, other Drexel faculty and professional staff from glass on June the Office of University and Community Partnerships were offering their 1 outside a services to businesses along the 52nd Street corridor near Market Street, McDonald’s where on May 31 the scene was filled with tear gas and property damage. and other Less than two weeks later, Massenburg and Rice were joined by two more businesses colleagues from Procurement Services — Director of Supplier Inclusion on 52nd Allen Riddick and Director of Disbursements and Surplus Services Bo Street in West Solomon — at an event hosted by the Urban League of Philadelphia to Philadelphia. help clean up the area around 52nd and Market streets. The 52nd Street corridor is a busy commercial avenue in a predomi-
6 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 7
CROSSWALK BRIEFS Keep up with current news about Drexel at drexel.edu/now. Quoted Faculty experts weigh in on a summer of solidarity and outrage.
Protesters and police faced off at 52nd and Chestnut streets in West Philadelphia on May 31, 2020.
COMMUNITY ROBERT J. KANE, College of Arts and Sciences, nantly Black neighborhood located west of Drexel’s campus. It is home to contributed $5,000 to the Lancaster Avenue 21st Century Business As- on police GEORGE FLOYD’S a mix of small, often minority-owned businesses as well as chains such as sociation’s fund to support businesses near or on Lancaster Avenue (from recruitment. Foot Locker and McDonald’s, and it has been a locus of efforts to beau- 34th to 44th streets) and Market Street (from 34th to 38th streets). DEATH IS, IN PART, A RESULT OF A tify and revitalize street life. On May 31, it was one of the city’s streets “This is an opportunity for us to show we mean it when we say, hit by conflict in a series of ongoing demonstrations, rallies and marches ‘We stand with you in solidarity,’” says Muhammad. “It means we re- in protest of the May 25 death of George Floyd while in police custo- cruit volunteers to help folks rebuild after disaster. We give money FUNDAMENTAL FLAW dy in Minneapolis. In Philadelphia as in other cities, civic action related to help small businesses rebuild. We share our time, talent and trea- to Floyd’s death has been a complicated mix of sometimes-peaceful and sure, and we’re doing all of these things to make sure that we work as IN AMERICAN POLICING — sometimes-confrontational actions by disparate members of the public a neighbor, as a partner and as an anchor institution to rebuild the and by police as the movement has grown into an international societal communities we collectively value.” ONE THAT IS SO INGRAINED AS TO BE VIRTUALLY INVISIBLE. reckoning aimed at redressing systemic racial inequities. In addition to providing external support, the University has also been KEVIN M. EBONY WHITE, For individual shopkeepers, the movement has had collateral conse- working over the years to build its internal institutional investment in MOSEBY, College of quences, with locally owned businesses experiencing vandalism, looting civic engagement — that means buying local, hiring local and building College of BLACK MEN Nursing Arts and & Health or street closures on top of losses caused by the pandemic. In late October, local not just at Drexel, but also with Drexel partners and vendors. Sciences, on Professions. anger erupted in the city again, with damages on the same street, follow- In 2018, Associate Vice President of Accounts Payable & Procure- supporting SEE THEMSELVES IN ing the shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. by police in West Philadelphia. ment Services Julie Jones was brought in to better align Drexel’s communities. CRIME “I just felt like I had to help where help was needed,” Massenburg purchasing practices with a “buy local” mentality, both through direct GEORGE FLOYD. says. “Your heart goes out to the people who have been here for the com- purchasing and by offering local businesses mentorship and connec- IS NOT RANDOM. munity. These are livelihoods that were impacted by people who don’t tions to other opportunities. IT’S DUE TO THE LACK OF BLACK MOTHERS realize how their actions impact the whole sum.” When spending tightened due to the coronavirus, her team became Community cleanups are just one of the ways Massenburg and even more strategic about what to buy and who to buy it from. In June, SEE THEIR SONS IN her colleagues demonstrate solidarity with the community, and Pro- Procurement Services accelerated the University’s payment terms to EDUCATION, curement Services is just one Drexel unit helping West Philadelphia businesses in need of immediate payment for their services. And Drex- businesses weather recent events. Over the years, the University has el Surplus strategically aligned with the Enterprise Center, the People’s THE LACK OF JOBS. TAMIR RICE. built community engagement into its volunteerism, academics, part- Emergency Center and other local nonprofits to donate Drexel’s gently RACHEL E. nerships, strategic plans, social gatherings — fostering opportunities to used office equipment to businesses. WITH ALL THE HORRIFYING AND SHAMEFUL LÓPEZ, Kline meet up and connect with the neighbors adjacent to its campus. “With the most recent events within West Philadelphia, it’s been a School of Law, “We didn’t just suddenly jump into action these last few weeks,” says complete acceleration in regards to the care, intent and even financial who shot the Jennifer Britton, director for communications and special projects in commitment as people are really beginning to open up to change,” VIDEOS CIRCULATING NOW, viral video of newlyweds the Office of University and Community Partnerships. “This is a set of says Procurement Services’ Riddick, who oversees the University’s joining a June 6 business supports and relationships that we’ve been building and culti- Supplier Inclusion Initiative to develop partnerships and arrange- I AM GLAD MINE IS ONE OF protest rally in vating for almost 10 years.” ments with diverse businesses. Philadelphia. Drexel was already working with some local businesses that were “We’re also reaching out to some of the larger suppliers that we work suffering from stay-at-home closures or diminished sales as a result with to say, ‘Hey, how can you help out or what can you contribute to of the pandemic. Those efforts include building websites, supporting West Philadelphia? Our community is important to us and needs to be LOVE & HUMANITY! business plans, and assisting with marketing and branding. important to you, too,’” explains Riddick. SHARRELLE More recently, Director of Workforce and Economic Inclusion At the start of the pandemic, he started a monthly call with peers at BARBER, SO MUCH NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED Dornsife Soneyet Muhammad in the Office of University and Community Part- more than a dozen colleges and universities to discuss how universities School nerships helped Kline School of Law volunteers staff an insurance can help their local diverse businesses recover. He sponsors similar dis- of Public THAT CAN ONLY BE ADDRESSED BY THE pop-up clinic for business owners filing property claims. cussions with other large Philadelphia institutions who are members of Health, “The damage done to several commercial corridors we represent is se- Philadelphia Anchors for Growth and Equity initiative, of which Drexel on racial disparities vere and many of our businesses are on the edge of closing permanently,” is a founding member. in health POWER STRUCTURES says Jabari Jones ’16, founder of local business association West Phila- “We understand that all of our work alone isn’t enough to play a part care. delphia Corridor Collaborative. “In these challenging times, I am thrilled in economic impact and economic equality, so we’re working togeth- THAT CREATED INEQUITY IN THE FIRST PLACE. that Drexel has made this commitment to boost support for local busi- er with other institutions to find and help navigate relationships with nesses and continues to support us in efforts to rebuild quickly.” those businesses,” Riddick says. “A large part of what I do is really about In June, the Office of University and Community Partnerships also connecting good people together.”
8 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 9 CROSSWALK BRIEFS Show & Tell CO-OP Drexel is collecting computers to refurbish for the community. DAHRAH MUHAMMAD Paul Shattuck, co-author BA ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION ’20 of the Autism Institute’s “Indicators Report.” In a typical year, more than 92 percent of Drexel’s undergraduates THE TAKEAWAY As part of my research, I heard participate in the Drexel Co-op program — our signature model of the stories of so many people ACCESS HEALTH education that balances classroom theory with job experience. What does a and have felt the frustration of Drexel co-op look like? In this regular feature, we ask Dahrah Muhammad, their situations. That was a big who completed her entrepreneurship co-op in the spring–summer cycle of thing to learn because it tells Digital Access 2019, to show us. — By Beth Ann Downey you that you don’t just have a Autism service/product that people During COVID need, it inspires you to help solve the issues that exist. Nearly 15,000 Philadelphia stu- and THE INSPIRATION dents do not own a computer and In 2012, my brother Musa was some 21,500 do not have internet diagnosed with autism. In honor access, according to Census data. Financial Over half of children with autism 30 percent live in very low-income Dahrah’s brother, of him, I founded Musa’s World, That’s why Drexel’s Expressive live in low-income households (below households (below 100 percent Musa Muhammad which will be an online platform and Creative Interaction Tech- 200 percent of the poverty level). of the poverty level). that automates and digitizes nologies (ExCITe) Center joined a Hardship transition portfolios to expedite network of citywide organizations to the start of care. I call my brother Musa’s World help ensure all Philadelphians have American families with children on “my sunshine” because he is an T-shirt access to the devices and band- the autism spectrum face higher absolute light in all of our lives. width they need to learn and work levels of poverty, material hardship When he was first diagnosed, it remotely during the pandemic. and medical expenses compared shook us. We didn’t hear him speak With grants of $30,000 from a to households of children with for a while. I couldn’t really hold Philadelphia Digital Literacy Alli- other special health care needs, him or communicate with him the ance initiative, Drexel will be one of according to a May report released way I had with my sisters and that three partners to provide support by the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute. hurt. But the first time we heard for access to low-cost internet “I have talked with countless Roughly 15 percent had difficulty Almost one-third had to reduce work that boy sing, before he had spoken options, wireless device connec- families of children with autism affording food for the family. to care for their child with autism. a sentence to us, I knew that I tivity, and computer equipment for over the past 20 years who are wanted to help other families feel people in need. struggling with the dual challenge what I felt. The ExCITe Center’s partners in of parenting a child with special this effort include the Community needs and covering the basic Learning Center and SEAMAAC. needs of the entire family,” says THE CO-OP At Drexel, the funding enables Paul Shattuck, formerly the direc- For my entrepreneurship the Information Technology de- tor of the Autism Institute’s Life co-op I conducted research to partment and the ExCITe Center Course Outcomes Program and make sure that Musa’s World to collect and refurbish used co-author of the report. was filling the needs of both computers to be distributed to About one in five families Nearly half reported families and autism service community members through had problems paying for their difficulty paying for basics organizations. I had six months partner organizations with Drexel’s child’s health care. like food or housing. to conduct the research I Promise Neighborhood program. PAUL SHATTUCK SAYS: needed, to build a small team, In addition, experts from the and to begin building out a ExCITe Center are available for product to pilot test. Having technological support and training. “Our hope for this Indicators Report that time, the mentorship, and It also funds community part- the like-minded individuals ners to assist residents via phone is that it will raise awareness and surrounding me was a and text message with gener- great gift. The $15,000 of al computing support, School $$$ spark discussion about the ways in entrepreneurship co-op District of Philadelphia laptops More than two-thirds of low-income funding I received from the and software, and additional households of children with Charles D. Close School of resources such as kindergarten which families are struggling and ASD reported that someone in their Entrepreneurship was also registration and online learning family received governmental very helpful. FUSCO JEFF and enrichment. need our collective societal support.” cash assistance.
10 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 11 CROSSWALK BRIEFS For more about Drexel’s research enterprise, see EXEL Magazine at exelmagazine.org.
PUBLIC HEALTH
Jason S. BUGS IN THE WATER Schupbach April showers bring May flowers, but they may also mean more gastrointestinal illness — such as diarrhea or vomiting — GLOBAL ACADEMICS for the city’s inhabitants. Dornsife School of Public Health researchers studied a three- At the Moka Wildlife year period from 2015–2017 and found an Station (right), Drexel Westphal’s increased rate of acute gastrointestinal delegates met with PHILADELPHIA Bioko program staff New Dean illnesses in the spring, starting one week and local grade school after a heavy rainfall and persisting for 28 students. Jason S. Schupbach was named the days. At its peak, the number of daily cases new dean of the Antoinette Westphal was more than double the average number College of Media Arts & Design, starting Sept. 1. seen during dry spells. Researchers Schupach is an advocate for speculate that heavy precipitation brings reimagining urban civic spaces pathogens into stormwater runoff and local through placemaking, arts and water supplies. design. He comes to Drexel from Arizona State University, where he was director of The Design School. PHOTOS BY DAVID MONTGOMERY AND SCOTT COOPER SCOTT AND MONTGOMERY DAVID BY PHOTOS At ASU, he led an ambitious “Re- The Drexel delegation hiked Design.School” initiative to make to the Bioko program’s the school more collaborative, BUSINESS hospitality con- to engage tion, the study haviors later in and “right- startup called taminated the research site on a beach relevant and equitable. tracted by an in unethical found. childhood. Con- brain” thinkers. Secret Chord drinking water where marine turtles’ nesting Previously, he was director of estimated 19.8 behavior when trastingly, daily Researchers Laboratories; of millions grounds are being monitored. Design and Creative Placemaking million between they believe it PUBLIC HEALTH playtime with studied the and John Kou- across the Programs for the National Endow- mid-February will benefit their a parent was brain activity of nios, professor United States ment for the Arts, where he oversaw and the end organization, associated with jazz guitarists of psychology and have been all design and creative placemaking of April — a according to a 9 percent fewer during improvi- in the College detected in the grantmaking and partnerships, Real-Time staggering 60 recent study autism-dis- sation, and their of Arts and bloodstream including Our Town and Design Art Decline percent decline. co-authored A B C order-like findings suggest Sciences. of as much as Works grants, the Mayor’s Institute Here’s more One-third of this by Christian J. symptoms. that creativity 98 percent of on City Design, the Citizens’ Institute reason to tip decline was due Resick, asso- Screen Time is a “right- ENGINEERING the population. on Rural Design, and the NEA’s your waiter, to businesses ciate professor and the ARTS & SCIENCES brain ability” Christopher federal agency collaborations. housekeeper shutting down, of manage- Spectrum when a person Sales, an asso- The new Westphal leader has or clerk. André and employees ment in the Bad news for deals with an ciate professor Drexel Goes to Equatorial Guinea written extensively on the role of Kurmann, asso- in continuing LeBow College parents forced unfamiliar sit- of environmen- arts and design in making commu- ciate professor businesses also of Business. to resort to uation but that tal engineer- In February, President John Fry and a group of Drex- Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, to discuss biodi- nities better, and his writing has in the School saw a 10-per- Employees who letting toddlers creativity draws ing, is part of el leaders visited the Republic of Equatorial Guinea versity conservation. been featured in the Aspen Insti- of Economics cent reduction identify strongly watch more on well-learned, a team from in support of the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Pro- The Bioko program officially started in 1998 and tute’s “Best Ideas of the Day” series. in the LeB- in their hours. with their television. Re- left-hemisphere What a Blast the College of gram (BBPP), a long-standing academic and research has been operated by Drexel since 2007. Drexel Schupbach succeeds Allen ow College organization searchers from routines when Researchers Engineering partnership between Drexel and the Universidad Na- undergraduate and graduate students, as well as vol- Sabinson, Drexel’s longest-serv- of Business; BUSINESS show decreased the College of a person is from Drexel and the C. & J. cional de Guinea Ecuatorial (UNGE) that promotes unteers, are involved in all of the research activities ing dean, who stepped down from Etienne Lalé moral sensitivity Medicine and The Brain on experienced at University Nyheim Plas- conservation efforts and environmental research on at BBPP sites. “I was blown away by what the Bioko the position after nearly 15 years. of the Univer- to the broader the Dornsife Jazz the task. The have found a ma Institute School of Public the country’s Bioko Island. program has done, because not only are they doing Under Sabinson’s leadership, the sité du Québec implications A new brain-im- study was led way to destroy exploring how a Health found Drexel’s partnership with UNGE represents the world-class scholarship, but at the same time they’re college added eight new undergrad- à Montréal; of unethical aging study out by doctoral stubbornly blast of charged that screen world’s only international study-abroad program in engaging with the local community and bringing our uate programs, four new master’s and Lien Ta, a behaviors, of Drexel’s Cre- graduate David resilient toxic gas, called Drexel doctoral while those who time for 1-year- ativity Research Equatorial Guinea. cultures together,” says Executive Vice Provost for programs, launched its first doctoral Rosen, who is compounds, cold plasma, student, ana- Employee don’t identify old children Lab sheds light The Drexel delegation participated in several Research & Innovation Aleister Saunders, who was program, grew its enrollment by co-founder and ominously can be used to lyzed national Loyalty and as strongly are was associated on how creativ- events and toured research sites operated by the Bio- a member of the delegation. “This isn’t just about nearly 25 percent and faculty posi- chief opera- dubbed “forever eliminate these real-time data Ethics more likely to with 4 percent ity functions ko program. In the capital of Malabo, Fry also met collecting knowledge for knowledge’s sake, but to im- tions by nearly 43 percent, and more tions officer of chemicals,” chemicals from and found that Employees are consider com- greater display in “left-brain” than doubled funding and support. a music tech that have con- water. with the president of Equatorial Guinea, President prove the world.” employment in more likely peting informa- of autistic be-
12 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 13 Support the Lindy Institute at Send letters to the editor to [email protected]. drexel.edu/lindyinstitute/give. Executive Director Harris Steinberg Faces URBAN PLANNING
THE LINDY INSTITUTE RISES Institute’s mission of putting urban The institute is also home to planning at the service of the the Nowak Metro Finance Lab, Michel Barsoum TO URBAN CHALLENGES broad community. an entity launched in 2018 that is and Yury Gogotsi The institute also plays a role working with a national network The Lindy Institute’s mission to forge prosperous, in educating future urban prob- of urban finance experts to craft a equitable and sustainable solutions to the challenges faced lem solvers through an innovative road map for Black- and brown- INNOVATION REPUTATION two-year master’s degree program owned small business recovery by cities and their residents has never been more relevant. launched in 2017 in partnership with across the country and in Phila- — Alissa Falcone the Department of Architecture, De- delphia. The lab is led by eminent sign and Urbanism in the Westphal public policy expert Bruce Katz, Philly’s First The Lindy Institute for Urban has made a name for itself in the College of Media Arts & Design. who served as the inaugural Cen- Innovation is commemorating its realms of Philadelphia real estate, The Masters of Science in Urban tennial Scholar at the Brookings first five years against a tumul- creative placemaking, metropoli- Strategy is the first of its kind in the Institution. Katz brings expertise Age-Friendly tuous backdrop of social unrest, tan finance and civic visioning. Its country to combine fields such as on innovation districts, Opportuni- economic freefall and a global network and influence extends as sociology, public health, history, eco- ty Zone finance and how cities and health crisis that has forced cities far as Chile, Demark and Israel nomics, design and engineering with metropolitan regions can harness University from coast to coast to confront and as close at hand as Lancaster a community-centered approach. local assets to build infrastruc- long-standing inequalities. Such Avenue and the Benjamin Franklin “This hands-on, solutions-orient- ture, create community wealth The number of Americans ages 65 and older is pro- realities make the institute’s mis- Parkway in Philadelphia. ed approach prepares students and rethink governance. jected to nearly double by 2060, and Drexel intends to sion of helping cities plan a future Over the past year, the institute to assess complex urban issues With much work remaining to be a place where they can explore their intellectual that benefitsall citizens more has taken the lead in imagining a more comprehensively than their be done and cities under increasing interests and benefit from public health research timely and urgent than ever. community-informed design for counterparts at other schools,” says pressure to solve problems both focused on their generation. The Lindy Institute is a Univer- the former Philadelphia Energy Program Director Andrew Zitcer. old and new, the Lindy Institute is Drexel was recently named by the AFU Global sity-wide applied think tank that Solutions refinery site on the Lower Graduates from the program’s raising an endowment to build a Network the first Age-Friendly University in Phila- advises urban policy decision makers Schuylkill. The institute’s recently first two classes have gone on jobs physical space on campus as a base delphia, and is only one of two in Pennsylvania. The in Philadelphia and elsewhere by har- released plan, “Visioning the Future at places such as the Manufacturing from which to expand its network network, created by Dublin City University and cham- nessing thought leaders and citizen of the Philadelphia Energy Solu- and Industrial Innovation Council of and infrastructure. pioned by the Gerontological Society of America, stakeholders to imagine innovative, tions Refinery Complex,” calls for the City of New York and Philadel- “COVID-19 and the ensuing promotes the participation, inclusion, education and inclusive solutions. “In a real sense, constructing new green and open phia’s Commerce Department. economic collapse, coupled with wellness of older adults in higher education. Drexel the Lindy Institute is the conscience spaces on the 1,400-acre former The Lindy Institute also contin- the long-overdue cry to end sys- joins more than 60 institutions worldwide recognized that ensures that Drexel achieves its industrial site, connecting it to ues to bring in expertise from all temic racism in America, gives the for their commitment to meeting the needs and aspi- vision as a trusted community partner public transit and to the Schuylkill different fields, backgrounds and institute its marching orders for Top: College rations of all generations. and impactful urban research univer- River Trail, and creating street grids levels of leadership through its the next five years,” says Harris of Engineering In keeping with the age-friendly designation, sity,” says President John Fry. to integrate it with nearby neigh- fellows and fellowships. Its Urban Steinberg, executive director of the researchers Drexel Named Drexel will seek new ways to engage older adults Since its inception, the insti- borhoods. The plan’s emphasis Innovation Fellowship program, Lindy Institute and distinguished Michel Barsoum and the organizations that serve them; ensure that tute has become a bully pulpit on community health, sustainable created in 2017, connects emerging teaching professor in Westphal and Yury Gogotsi current and future generations of students and fac- College. “As we begin to think on urbanism for the University development and family-sustaining Philadelphia leaders in areas such were named Most Innovative ulty adopt an intergenerational lens throughout their locally, nationally and globally. It as the public health response to the about how the city and region can careers; and increase aging-related research that jobs is the embodiment of the Lindy among the most opioid crisis, the impact of trauma emerge stronger from the events is informed by older adults, local communities and highly cited Drexel is the country’s most innovative mid-sized research university, on Black youth and new models of of 2020, our focus will be on racial other stakeholders. researchers according to a report released in June by the George W. Bush Institute neighborhood economic devel- reconciliation, public health and The College of Nursing and Health Professions is globally in and Opus Faveo Innovation Development. opment with Drexel’s intellectual economic recovery and social and also helping to develop evidence-based clinical and 2019. Bottom: The organizations evaluated U.S. research institutions based on public resources, networks and mentoring. environmental resilience.” data about their productivity in research, teaching, commercialization social programs for older adults through its AgeWell Researchers and entrepreneurship. Drexel achieved the highest “innovation impact Collaboratory, which aims to disrupt the traditional inside Drexel’s productivity” score of its size category, ahead of the University of New health care system’s approach toward caring for LEFT: A proposal for the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery site. newest research Mexico, Princeton University and Carnegie Mellon University. older adults. ABOVE: Lindy Institute Executive Director Harris Steinberg is a prominent lab, the Center Drexel demonstrated outstanding performance “in terms of produc- architect and urban planner who came to Drexel in late 2014 from the for Functional University of Pennsylvania, where he founded PennPraxis — the applied tivity in converting research inputs to innovation impact outputs” and Fabrics, spent ‘As more of us live longer and in research arm of Penn’s School of Design. “Harris is known for thinking about scored far higher than any member of the largest university group, ac- the spring urban planning as participatory and engaging in this sort of larger civic cording to the report. many cases better lives, we have the listening, rather than a bunch of architects just doing plans,” says Senior Vice creating high- The rankings are the first of their kind to be produced by the two organi- Provost of University and Community Partnerships Lucy Kerman. “I think filtering masks opportunity to reimagine what aging zations. The Institute is an offshoot of the George W. Bush Center located it says a lot about what urban planning needs to look like if it’s going to be for health care on the campus of Southern Methodist University, and Opus Faveo is an means in this country and globally.’ really responsive to the many voices that exist.” In December 2020, Steinberg workers. will receive the John Frederick Harbeson Award from AIA Philadelphia in innovation consulting firm whose university clients include the University LAURA N. GITLIN, dean of the College of Nursing and Health recognition of his lifetime contribution to the city’s built environment. of Texas in Dallas, Texas Tech University and the University of Michigan. Professions and the College’s AgeWell Collaboratory.
FALL 2020 15 CROSSWALK BRIEFS Elizabeth Malsin Faces MEDICINE
In SIM-PHL, you play the role of city manager, tasked with building a neighborhood of ELIZABETH MALSIN happy residents. MD ’11
As the attending physician of record in charge of caring for the pandemic’s TECHNOLOGY CAMPUS first double-lung transplant recipient, Elizabeth Malsin has seen firsthand the damage COVID-19 can wreak even on A Facelift patients in their prime. — Jen A. Miller for Main Main Building is Drexel’s finest “...some architectural treasure and the premiere building on an ever- expanding campus — and at almost 129 years old, it’s one that people in needs special TLC. Which is why Drexel launched a $9.8 million renovation project in the their 30s we spring to restore the roof and the immense skylight over Great Court. It takes a The work has remained on schedule team of ICU throughout the campus lockdown can’t even get physicians, despite pandemic work stoppages. specialists, “For days, she was the sickest Northwestern Memorial The first phase of this project nurses and person in our COVID ICU and Hospital does about 40 to 50 lung was to replace the roof and other rotating possibly the entire hospital,” transplants a year, and Malsin well enough care providers skylight to counteract moisture Malsin recalls. normally sees about half of these to care for infiltration and other problems seriously ill At first, caring for Ramirez patients, she says. that arise in antique buildings. patients with meant just keeping her alive As of the end of August, the How Would You Run the City? While this sounds simple, it was to survive a COVID-19, says while a ventilator and extracor- hospital had done three addi- a big undertaking. The large size Malsin. poreal membrane oxygenation tional COVID-19 double-lung You’re the city manager, and a real estate de- struggle, gentrification and other forces that shape of the roof meant that a tempo- (ECMO) machine took over for transplants. veloper offers to build a supermarket in your urban neighborhoods. rary structure needed to be built transplant.” her lungs and heart while her By then, Chicago’s summer neighborhood. It would improve food access and In the game, players face complicated decisions over top of the skylight in order body fought the virus. surge had abated, and Malsin create jobs, but it would also mean less space for af- about zoning, housing, and the preservation of open for the existing one to be taken “COVID caused irreversible says the number of patients in fordable housing. What do you do? spaces and historical sites. They will try to work for apart and replaced. damage and scarring in her their COVID Intensive Care Unit This is one of the game scenarios players will face the good of the community while contending with Main Building’s elevator was The patient was fit, active and only 28 when she lungs, and her lungs weren’t was back into the single digits. in Simulated Interactive Management of the City challenges — all drawn from real-life incident re- also taken offline over the summer contracted COVID-19. But the disease conspired getting any better,” Malsin says. Now, as in other parts of the of Philadelphia (SIM-PHL), a new SimCity-style ports in Philadelphia’s database — such as contested to receive shaft work while campus inside of her with a pre-existing autoimmune “They were very stiff. If you look country, the unit is seeing younger game created by designers from the Westphal Col- zoning, natural disasters and political pressure. was closed, but it was brought back condition, and soon Mayra Ramirez was struggling at them after they were explant- patients, who maybe thought that lege of Media Arts & Design with support from the “These are all difficult decisions and they all online in mid-September in time for to live. On April 26, she ended up at Northwestern ed, they were like swiss cheese.” they didn’t need to worry, says John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Open have serious ramifications for citizens,” says project the start of the new academic year. Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where on June 5 she In time, Ramirez cleared the Malsin, who is 35. She says that Data initiative. leader Frank Lee, who is director of Drexel’s Entre- With the roof and skylight proj- became the first known COVID-19 patient in the virus, and her team was able to although dramatic complications The game is set in the city’s Mantua neighbor- preneurial Game Studio. “If by playing this game ect almost complete, crews will United States to receive a double-lung transplant. get her well enough to be con- are relatively rare among younger hood, an area adjacent to Drexel’s campus that is people gain a better understanding of the real effect move on to plaster repairs inside The job of getting Ramirez well enough to survive sidered to be a good candidate patients, she’s seen “people in their part of a national initiative to support and restore of policies, they can become even more effective ad- the building around the Great the transplant belonged to Elizabeth Malsin, MD, a for transplant. Malsin worked 30s that we can’t even get well marginalized communities. vocates for their communities.” Court. Following that, a safety net 2011 Drexel College of Medicine graduate who special- with the transplant team to get enough to survive a transplant.” The city-simulator game uses public data, made Lee is working with Gossamer Games, an that has been suspended under izes in pulmonary and critical care at Northwestern her ready for the surgery, and It’s more likely though, she available by the City of Philadelphia at Atlas. award-winning Philadelphia game design compa- the skylight for nearly two years Memorial. From the time Ramirez arrived in the hos- coordinated after care. Seven- warns, that young people will pass Phila.Gov, to inform residents about the impact that ny run by alumni of Drexel’s Entrepreneurial Game can be removed, and this campus pital’s COVID Intensive Care Unit until her transplant, ty-two days later on July 8, with the virus on and hurt the people real estate development can have on rental rates, Studio, to release SIM-PHL for Android and iOS crown jewel will once again shine Malsin was one of three rotating physicians who took her breathing restored, Ramirez they love. “Think about people food distribution, crime, population flight, political devices in 2021. in all its glory. turns as “quarterback” on her case. was able to go home. other than yourself,” she says.
16 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 17 See a full roster of donations at Drexel.edu/24
ATHLETICS
RAISED DONORS 2 LIFE INSIDE THE ‘NBA BUBBLE’ Rose did more than make it. Although he was never a star, he $885,864 4,035 Malik Rose just spent three months at Disney World with the NBA, and hey, played in the league for 13 seasons, The tracking that’s not terrible. — Mike Unger winning two titles with the San will include DNA Antonio Spurs (including in 2003, samples from blood when he averaged a career-high MEDICINE 10.4 points per game), coached by and nasal swab the legendary Gregg Popovich. samples during Virtual Day “When I won championships, it’s medical care. hard to describe those moments,” of Giving a he says. “For me it’s just realizing that you’re the best in the world Big Success and this is what all that work was for. This is what running in the heat Undeterred by the pandemic that or swimming or lifting when you’re forced the University’s day of tired was for. Coach Popovich is a giving to go completely online this great, great man. He cares a lot spring, Dragons came together in about his players and people in impressive numbers on June 24 general. The thing I took away most to support student success at from him was preparation. He’s Researchers will the University. probably the most prepared guy in Altogether, Drexel’s “24 Hours Beginning in the also get samples during the game. That goes for on and off of Impact” event raised $885,864 the court. I’m always trying to learn first 36 hours of patients’ patients’ follow-up from 4,035 Dragons throughout something new. Maybe that’s why time in the hospital, appointments every the day’s events, which included I took this job on the league side. researchers will track three months, for up themed, virtual scavenger hunts, Just being prepared for anything if videos and social media. and when I get a chance.” study participants in the to a year, to assess their This year, Institutional Ad- Since his playing days, Rose has hospitals for up to recovery and level of vancement encouraged donations served as a television analyst for 28 days. 1 3 immunity, if any. to the Student Emergency Fund Philadelphia 76’ers games, worked and Operation Graduation, two in the front offices of two NBA funds that provide emergency teams, and was general manager aid to students experiencing Three weeks into his new job with to leave until the NBA crowned a their first-ever NCAA Tournament of a minor league franchise. When unexpected financial crisis. In the National Basketball Associa- champion in October. win when he scored 21 points the opportunity arose to work in the midst of COVID-19, the funds tion, Malik Rose found himself in “It’s about 40 square miles,” and grabbed 15 rebounds in an the league office, he leapt at it. helped students get home during the middle of a bubble. Not just Rose said of the Wide World of upset of Memphis. He graduated “Primarily we’re a liaison to the Why Do Some COVID the spring campus closure, gain any bubble —The Bubble. Sports complex, which is serviced in 1996 with a dual concentration teams,” he says of roles he and his access to virtual learning resourc- The NBA was the first major by hotels with full amenities for in computer information systems fellow vice president of basketball es, and address other unexpected American professional league that the players. “The food’s pretty and in teacher preparation and operations, David Booth, play. “As situations that could have jeopar- opted to isolate everyone — play- good. There’s plenty to do for the was selected in the second round former players we understand Patients Fare Better? dized their education. ers, coaches, referees and a select players, and they’re the most of the NBA draft. (He later received what they’re going through. We’re “The call to action was truly to few support staff and reporters — important part. Fishing, bowling, a Drexel honorary doctorate and basically the NBA’s eyes and ears Drexel’s College of Medicine and Tower Health are All this information, researchers say, may help in help drive student success, and in order to protect its season from movies, golf. I’m missing my family completed a master’s of science in — their connection to the teams. among 10 leading medical institutions nationwide improving care for COVID-19 patients. Dragons really stepped up,” says coronavirus outbreaks. like crazy. Thank god for FaceTime sports management.) We try to get ahead of problems and to embark on a study funded by the National Insti- “We look forward to harnessing our expertise in Ivy Lane, executive director of The Twenty-two teams entered and Zoom. That’s probably the “Getting drafted was great issues. We also have input on ev- tutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and infectious diseases to garner critically important Drexel Fund. ESPN’s Wide World of Sports hardest part for me, being away especially during that time be- erything that goes on in the NBA as Infectious Diseases intended to answer the many insights into why some patients fare better than Though the day looked different, complex at Disney World in Orlan- from [my wife, Tiffany, and two cause Philly had tons of guys in far as referees, analytics, strategy, baffling questions about COVID-19. others against this devastating disease,” says princi- one thing was consistent: Donors do. For three months, the teams children] here in the bubble.” the NBA,” says Rose, a member NBA International, all the events. The “ImmunoPhenotyping Assessment in a pal investigator Charles B. Cairns, MD, the Walter affiliated with the Drexel Athlet- would play their full schedule in The NBA’s experiment saved of Drexel’s Janet E. and Barry C. It’s a pretty heavy lift, but I enjoy it COVID-19 Cohort” study, or IMPACC, will study H. and Leonore Annenberg Dean of the College of ics Department once again made the complex’s three empty arenas the season and kept basketball Burkholder Athletics Hall of Fame. because it deals with basketball. approximately 2,000 patients nationwide who are Medicine and senior vice president for medical af- up the majority of the individual and agree to strict rules and virus alive, which has always been im- “Rasheed Wallace, Cuttino Mobley, “I’ve been around the game of undergoing treatment for COVID-19 in a hospital. fairs. “As the work could not be more urgent and the gifts, with Drexel’s wrestling team testing. Rose, who started his job portant to for Rose, who attended the list goes on and on. I was never basketball since I was 8 and it’s Drexel and Tower researchers are tracking adult stakes could not be higher, I’m gratified knowing securing the most total gifts for as vice president of basketball high school in Philadelphia and on their level in high school but provided a tremendous life for my COVID-19 patients at Tower Health facilities. The my Drexel research colleagues and exceptional care the fifth year in a row, followed by operations on June 22, entered the stayed home to go to Drexel. As I was able to make it to the NBA family and me,” he says. “I haven’t research will compare severity of the disease with team partners at Tower Health may help turn the men’s soccer, club ice hockey and complex on July 12 and didn’t plan a senior he led the Dragons to along with them.” worked a day in my life, thank God.” amounts of the virus detected. tide against COVID-19.” women’s lacrosse.
18 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 19 CROSSWALK TIME AND PLACE
COMMUNITY 2 JEFF FUSCO JEFF
1 3 8.12.20 THE PROFESSOR THE ALUMNUS Professor of Digital Media Game art and production CIVIL DIALOG Frank Lee is known for graduate Tom Sharpe ’16 lighting up building ran the Twitter feed during fronts with interactive art the installation. Sharpe is Social distancing has sharply curtailed our ability to installations. In 2013, he the founder of Gossamer speak together, yet rarely have there been so many programmed the exterior Games, a Philadelphia urgent social issues to discuss. LED lighting array of the 3 game studio startup he Police reform, sexism, racism, COVID-19… these 29-story Cira Centre to run began while a student charged topics are all on the table right now. And for a gigantic arcade game in Lee’s Entrepreneurial four evenings in August, they were also on the wall. of Pong, and in 2014 he Game Studio. A number of did it again with the game other Entrepreneurial Game From Aug. 12–15, a team of Dragons turned the 1 side of a 7-story academic building on Drexel’s Uni- Tetris. Most recently, he Studio alumni and students versity City campus into a giant scrolling Twitter used the building to share from Westphal College feed for community discourse. new games created by local also helped to execute the The interactive art installation, called Civil Dia- middle-school students. He project, including Utkarsh log, was produced by a team of students and alumni is director of Drexel’s Entre- Dwivedi, Kate Wagner, A.J. led by Digital Media Professor Frank Lee, who took preneurial Game Studio, a Easterday, Sarah Roach, inspiration from a similar project called Social Graf- startup incubator for game Anna Panczner, Isabella fiti created by Westphal College of Media Arts & studios that he founded in Haro-Uchimura and the Design students. From their @Civil_Dialog Twitter 2013 to seed a Philadelphia students of DIGM 591 from account, the team moderated and selected respons- gaming economy. winter 2020. es to be projected onto the façade of Drexel’s Nesbitt Hall. The project sought to create a public space 2 that would allow a form of civil discourse for people THE anywhere in the world. PROJECTION “We really wanted this to be a chance for peo- The animated Twitter ple to express thoughts and feelings that have been feed was projected in weighing on them during the pandemic,” says Lee. high definition above “It’s important that we all keep talking about these University City on the side issues in a civil fashion. In many ways this conver- of Nesbit Hall at 33rd and sation has already been happening, so this event is Market streets, home to just one way to remind us that we are all in this the Dornsife School of together and we need to do our best to listen to and Public Health. “We want support one another.” this to be a space where Both the Twitter thread and building display residents and viewers can were live streamed on Twitch and Twitter Periscope. develop empathetic views Topics for the conversation were seeded by stu- and become co-creators of dents from Drexel’s Pennoni Honors College. public space — both virtual The project was supported by the John S. and and on Drexel’s campus,” James L. Knight Foundation. — By Britt Faulstick says Lee.
20 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 21 IT’S TIME TO UNDERSTAND WHAT JUSTICE
MATTERS IN PEOPLE’S LIVES. SYLLABUS
WRITTEN BY SONJA SHERWOOD • ILLUSTRATIONS BY DIANA EJAITA
When George Floyd died under the knee of a white police officer achieve these goals. Our commitment will be to change Drexel, deeply on a Minneapolis street this past May, the world collectively recoiled and fundamentally, together.” in horror. His final eight minutes and 45 seconds of life, captured on Initial changes have been both symbolic — recognizing Juneteenth cellphone video, exposed only the latest in a litany of high-profile deaths as a University holiday and naming Oct. 12 Indigenous Peoples’ Day — of Black citizens that had spawned the Black Lives Matter movement and concrete, such as establishing a Center for Black Culture in the Rush a half dozen years earlier. This summer, it became a truly mass Building and launching an assessment of Drexel’s Police Department. movement, with huge multi-racial demonstrations in cities around the To advance scholarly work on racial inequity, the University awarded 22 world and even in many smaller American towns unaccustomed to such faculty members with grants from a $100,000 Rapid Response Racial activism. Protesters chanted the names. There were calls to change how Equity Project Award fund. communities are policed. In some U.S. cities, overwhelmingly peaceful Drexel also convened an Anti-Racism Task Force of more than 100 marches were followed by violent confrontations. students, faculty, staff and alumni in 11 subcommittees whose mission But the movement also energized a much broader reckoning with the is to listen: to collect questions, comments and concerns from all enduring injustice wrought by the nation’s fraught racial history and Dragons. The group is developing specific action steps to breathe life growing economic inequality. And for so many institutions in American into the University’s anti-racism pledges. Their recommendations will society, it raised challenging questions. What does it mean to be “anti- be shared in University’s 2020-2030 Strategic Plan, being finalized this racist”? Does “colorblindness” represent equality, or does it devalue year, and will influence Drexel actions and priorities for years to come. difference? And how can an increasingly diverse country, despite the Throughout the University, meanwhile, syllabi and lecturers are genuine progress that’s been made, finally address the systemic racial answering the need for explanation and representation. In the spirit of inequality that has been further revealed in the deeply disproportionate this as a teachable moment, Drexel Magazine asked faculty members impact the pandemic has had on communities of color? who are conducting relevant scholarship to suggest one work from At Drexel, these questions consumed administrators, faculty and their area of expertise that illustrates the issues compelling calls for an students throughout the summer and fall, ushering in a season of end to systemic racism. Among them are professors of all races doing introspection that President John Fry called “long overdue.” scholarship in justice reform, data bias, health disparities, identity and “We are not just going to talk,” said President Fry during a June 5 workplace discrimination, among related fields. They drew from their virtual Town Hall on race. “We are going to develop both short- and course material, their research or their personal readings to help us long-term goals and then take tangible and substantive actions to understand the moment and, hopefully, to grow from it.
22 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 23 of slavery that still see the bodies of Black people as One cannot discuss the current state of Black wealth and Black Edward Kim less worthy of health care and support. home- and business-ownership in the United States without under- In the second piece, “Remember, No One Is Coming standing Coates’ painful recitation of history. The COVID-19 crisis has Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science • to Save Us,” Roxane Gay, currently a visiting professor precipitated a massive recession among small businesses that is unlike College of Computing and Informatics at Yale University, takes up related themes, highlight- anything our nation has experienced prior. ing the ways that a vaccine for COVID-19 will staunch At the same time, the civil unrest following George Floyd’s death has Kim conducts research in computer vision, sparse coding and artificial the effects of one of the epidemics currently taking exposed our deep racial disparities on income, health and wealth, par- intelligence. His current work examines racial and gender bias in the the lives of Black Americans, but will offer no suture ticularly around business ownership and capital access. Data already algorithms that underlay artificial intelligence and machine learning. for racism. As the current pandemic shows and Gay shows that businesses owned by people of color have been the hardest forces us to acknowledge, racism causes death: at the hit during the pandemic, given their typical concentration in vulnerable Cathy O’Neil. “WEAPONS OF MATH DESTRUCTION,” hands of the police and the state, as a result of medi- sectors, their low capital reserves and their lack of access to capital in Crown Publishing Group, 6 September 2016. cal catastrophe, because of poverty. Black lives do not, general and to federally designed relief products in particular. Gay forces us to witness, matter. Despite the hashtags Coates’ essay is an inspiration and provocation to the work of the We all have a certain worldview that makes sense of the world around Sharrona and rallies and marches, they do not yet matter. The Nowak Metro Finance Lab, which works with partners across the us. A worldview can be thought of as thousands of models in our heads, longing to return to normal is no longing for those for country to assess the impact of economic contraction on minori- that take what we know, tell us what to expect and guide our decisions. As whom normal is also death. ty-owned small businesses and encourage relief efforts. computer scientists, we can formalize these models into an algorithm and Pearl These pieces are not just beautifully written, care- distribute these models at scale. However, what happens when the math- fully researched and narratively impactful. They are ematical models we create are racist, biased or flawed? This is the premise Associate Teaching Professor, Department of not just compelling, and personal and profound. They of “Weapons of Math Destruction” by mathematician Cathy O’Neil. Health Administration • College of Nursing are the mirror that we need to the past, and the fram- At an individual level, racism is a human predictive model that is and Health Professions ing we need of the present, if we are to create a future Jordan Hyatt built upon faulty, incomplete and generalized data. It is reinforced by in which Black lives matter to everyone. confirmation bias and spurious correlations. An historian and theorist of the body and face, Pearl Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology and Justice Studies • Mathematical models, meanwhile, are often marketed as fair researches how we perceive people based on their fac- College of Arts and Sciences and objective. After all, algorithms do not “see” race and are not es. Other areas of interest include critical race, gender prejudiced. They base their decisions upon big data patterns and and disability studies; media studies, science and Hyatt’s research in corrections and reentry focuses on the evaluation correlations that arise from statistics. This is in part true; however, as performance; freak shows through history; and the of criminal justice policies and interventions. His goals are to help uncovered within the book, algorithms that are opaque and deployed ethics of images. develop actionable, evidence-based public policies that improve hu- at scale can create serious damage. manity, reintegration and public safety for agencies, justice-involved For example, most people agree that it is not OK to use race when Sabrina Strings. “IT’S NOT OBESITY. IT’S individuals and communities. distributing bank loans. But is it OK to use ZIP codes? Should the SLAVERY. WE KNOW WHY COVID-19 IS history of human behavior in a patch of geography determine what KILLING SO MANY BLACK PEOPLE,” The Sarah Esther Lageson. “DIGITAL PUNISHMENT: PRIVACY, kind of loan rate you get? In other words, the algorithm is asking the New York Times, 25 May 2020. STIGMA, AND THE HARMS OF DATA-DRIVEN CRIMINAL question, “How have people like you behaved in the past?” rather than JUSTICE,” Oxford University Press, 24 June 2020. “How have you behaved in the past?” Roxane Gay. “REMEMBER, NO ONE IS COM- It’s important for all of us to be aware that mathematical models ING TO SAVE US. EVENTUALLY DOCTORS The criminal justice system has become increasingly reliant on elec- learned from big data codify the past. These models often include WILL FIND A CORONAVIRUS VACCINE, BUT tronic resources in its day-to-day operation. Understanding this simplifications and generalizations that do not reflect the complexities BLACK PEOPLE WILL CONTINUE TO WAIT landscape is essential for addressing the ongoing harms and stigmati- of real life. We need to be aware of what the model seeks to optimize, FOR A CURE FOR RACISM,” The New York Bruce Katz zation of our current system. be careful of broad categorization, and when possible, explicitly pro- Times, 30 May 2020. In her new book, “Digital Punishment: Privacy, Stigma, and the gram moral values and ethical decision-making into the mathematical Co-Founder and Director, Nowak Metro Finance Lab • Harms of Data-Driven Criminal Justice,” Rutgers sociologist Sarah objectives. In the end, we need to remember that the error or outliers In the spirit of this moment, I turn to my own sylla- Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation Esther Lageson convincingly outlines just how pervasive — and po- in our dataset are not just data points or mathematical symbols, but bi in health care ethics. The very first two readings I tentially harmful — these datasets can become when they are posted rather reflect human injustice, prejudice practices and casualties. assign purposefully center the voices of Black wom- Katz is the director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab online and made available to the general public. The core of the mod- en scholars to reflect upon the particular ways that within Drexel’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation, ern criminal justice system is the billions of records that are created as racism, history and lack of privilege intersect to dis- which seeks to equitably advance cities and train the the system functions. Most are well-protected, and access is limited, proportionately affect Black people in the United next generation of urban leaders. Currently, the lab is but many are not. These include electronic law enforcement blotters, States. These are absolutely ethical and public health developing a scorecard of minority-owned businesses to listing out the names of everyone who has been arrested by the police, issues that are vital to name, acknowledge and iden- troubleshoot economic recovery. inmate lookups provided by correctional agencies and publicly avail- tify as part of the struggle against structural violence, able criminal dockets hosted by local court systems. discrimination and racism, and to honor the pain, Ta-Nehisi Coates. “THE CASE FOR While this has arguably increased both transparency and efficiency, rage and terror that Black people are experiencing at REPARATIONS,” The Atlantic, June 2014. Lageson argues that these datasets also magnify the collateral conse- this moment in history. quences and the stigma of a conviction, especially for minority and These pieces are two New York Times op-eds that “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates is impoverished individuals. Criminal court data, for example, are often powerfully place the current epidemic and its devas- one of the most powerful indictments of the struc- purchased in bulk by for-profit companies, combined with other in- tating effects on Black Americans in particular in a tural racism that has permeated the U.S. land, formation like credit histories, and then sold as unofficial background historical, cultural and sociological context. housing and financial sectors since the founding checks for employment and housing. Mugshots and jail booking pho- In “It’s Not Obesity, It’s Slavery,” University of Cal- of the republic. tos are posted on other websites, even when the individual is found ifornia–Irvine sociologist Sabrina Strings challenges Coates’ essay shows in excruciating detail how a not guilty, and may remain public unless a fee is paid. the easy and wrong narrative that Black people are toxic mix of government policies, predatory practic- Through these channels, criminal justice datasets are coopted and dying more because of obesity — it’s simply not true. es and parasitic capital have not only suppressed the monetized by weakly regulated for-profit companies, Lageson claims, Strings then carefully shows how health disparities, growth of Black wealth in the United States but have and individuals are revictimized. These online records are often just a access and life expectancies among Black Americans also extracted income and assets from families living Google search away, shadowing individuals for the rest of their lives, can be traced to the continuing and ongoing legacies in segregated neighborhoods. even when their convictions are decades old.
24 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 25 RECOMMENDED READING: DREXEL’S ALUMNI WITH QUESTIONS OR DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY CONCERNS FOR DREXEL’S ANTI- COMPILED “THE PHILADELPHIA RACISM TASK FORCE CAN EMAIL RACIAL JUSTICE SYLLABUS,” TO [email protected]. EXPLORE OUR CITY’S FIGHT FOR EQUALITY THROUGH HISTORY, AVAILABLE AT BIT.LY/35TAZ6Q.
Digital Punishment clearly describes a modern When I first watched this season many years ago, it broke my heart. Pandora’s Box — after all, the internet never forgets I have heard many people discuss “The Wire” through the lens of “pov- — while also providing important new insight into erty porn,” where privileged audiences consume hardship as spectacle the intersection between our networked society — but the stark difference between the way addiction within the Black and a criminal justice system that still operates un- community is criminalized while opioid addiction in the predominant- der assumptions about privacy, security and harm ly white population has received empathy and support is unmistakable. that are more appropriate for an analog world. This viewing is especially important for a Drexel alumna, faculty mem- ber, parent and Philadelphia resident like me. As a student, I took part in the University-wide course that plopped Drexel freshmen into underfund- ed public schools to teach financial literacy. I now understand that the icky feeling I had while teaching third graders about financial responsibility Brea M. was an aversion to participating in a savior-esque initiative promoting the idea that disenfranchised people can bootstrap themselves out of purpose- ful marginalization by saving part of their wages. I view that season of “The Heidelberg Wire” and its commentary on inequitable school funding through the eyes of a parent looking at the grossly inequitable public-school system in Phil- Associate Professor and Program Director, Enter- adelphia. I look at how property and its relative value is discussed during tainment & Arts Management • Westphal College of that season from the vantage point of being a Drexel faculty member who Media Arts & Design is eligible to take advantage of Drexel’s home purchase assistance program, but is unable to use it due to a lack of intergenerational wealth, a reality “THE WIRE.” Written and produced by David Simon, for most Black families. And I look at how the University’s development HBO, 2002–2008. influences gentrification in surrounding neighborhoods that has pushed out long-time residents and inflated home prices. In the field of arts management, helping artists tell With exhausted skepticism, I view the plight of the boys depicted compelling stories is the most meaningful part of in that season through the eyes of a city resident who is watching the our work. We believe that the arts can reflect and space where Drexel is, in partnership with the school system, erecting change the world. a building to house Samuel Powel Elementary and Science Leadership To that end, I would encourage everyone to watch Academy Middle schools. At a moment when members of both the Uni- season four of David Simon’s crime drama “The Wire,” versity of Pennsylvania and Drexel communities are banding together to which ran on HBO in 2006. Over its five seasons on ask the nonprofit institutions to voluntarily surrender their property tax television, the show created an in-depth portrayal of exception, this is a particularly timely watch. the narcotics trade in Baltimore that examines the issue from the vantage points of drug dealers, law en- forcement and those suffering from drug addiction, using that specific context to highlight racial inequi- ties and critique capitalism. If you are able to see all of the characters as human and deserving of the kind of grace usually reserved for white middle- and upper-class individuals, then seeing the devastating intersection of race and socioeconomic status, specifically for the Black poor, can illuminate concrete examples of the issues discussed by Black scholars throughout the history of the United States. The fourth season in particular deals with the education system through the eyes of young Black boys in a purposefully underfunded middle school housed in a low-income area. (Note the focus on boys only; I would argue that sexism prevents any meaningful storytelling from a Black girl’s perspec- tive, and that we can see that silencing echoed in public policy such as the Obama Foundation’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance.)
26 Drexel Magazine care coverage. Whether this was a consequence of segregationist policies In all, the producers make a compelling case that als and of populations over time. In her telling of “The Gardener’s Tale,” from the middle of the 19th century or the systematic dismantling of civ- injustices will proliferate across generations if we for instance, a gardener sows red flowers in a bed fortified with fertile il rights for minority communities, it is clear that racial disparity has a don’t solve problems in juvenile justice and policy soil and sows pink flower seeds in rocky soil. Season after season, the large effect on the health of these groups. In turn, this leads to reduced responses continue to prioritize punishment over red flowers flourish and grow tall, while the pink flowers do poorly. The economic success: Without good health, can workers continue to work? treatment for the most vulnerable youth in society. flowers’ divergent outcomes seem natural but are actually structural. Without sustainable jobs, do workers have access to good health care? I teach these allegories to students in the Dornsife School of Public Yong’s articles and earlier work by Vann Newkirk in The Atlantic Health to empower them to take action to reduce racism as a primary provide a very good explanation for the causes and consequences of a strategy for achieving health equity and social change. system that marginalizes communities of color. Amy If we don’t transform our systems of government, education and health care into equitable and anti-racist systems, these inequities will persist. Carroll- Ramesh Kathleen Powell Scott Postdoctoral Fellow in Criminology and Justice Studies, Department of Raghupathi Criminology and Justice Studies • College of Arts & Sciences Associate Professor, Community Health and Prevention • Dornsife School of Public Health Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Powell’s research broadly assesses the collateral consequences of involve- Anatomy • College of Medicine ment with the justice system, with a focus on health and inequality over the Carroll-Scott’s research focuses on understanding life course. She is currently studying racial differences in the link between and addressing urban health inequities and un- Raghupathi’s work in the College of Medicine centers school suspensions and arrests. derlying social inequities. This research consists of on examining the effects of traumatic brain injuries. rigorous social epidemiological and mixed meth- He is studying, in collaboration with Drs. Andrea “RAISED IN THE SYSTEM.” Produced by VICE News. HBO, 6 April 2018. ods studies applied to the lived experience of urban Wiechowski and Giacomo Vivanti of the A.J. Drexel neighborhoods and schools, driven by communi- Autism Institute, whether racial disparity contributes I often screen the VICE News documentary “Raised in the System” in ty-based participatory approaches. to delayed diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders in my courses because it poignantly and powerfully explores the challenges children with brain injury. faced by Black youth in the justice system and the failure of institutional Camara P. Jones. “ALLEGORIES ON RACE AND responses to meet their needs. RACISM.” TEDxEmory, July 10, 2014. Ed Yong, “HOW THE PANDEMIC DEFEATED The 50-minute documentary, which aired in 2018 in the sixth season AMERICA” The Atlantic. September 2020. of HBO’s weekly televised news magazine “VICE News,” uses firsthand ac- Camara P. Jones. “LEVELS OF RACISM: A counts of persons actively or previously incarcerated. It uniquely elevates THEORETIC FRAMEWORK AND A Vann R. Newkirk II. “AMERICA’S HEALTH their voices with scenes and interviews that illustrate the root challenges GARDENER’S TALE.” American Journal of Public SHERRI MANSON SEGREGATION PROBLEM,” The Atlantic. they faced leading up to their involvement in the juvenile system, such as Health. August 2000, pg. 1212–1215. Critical Conversations Program 18 May 2016. under-resourced schools, traumatic personal histories or parents who are Administrator and absent, sometimes due to incarceration. Assistant to the Vann R. Newkirk II. “THE FIGHT FOR HEALTH Further, “Raised in the System” considers how juvenile courts’ re- in Urban Education Associate Deans CARE IS REALLY ALL ABOUT CIVIL sponses to delinquent behavior are often more closely aligned with goals RIGHTS,” The Atlantic. 27 June 2017. of retribution than foundational rehabilitative principles of juvenile jus- School of Education • Submitted by co-chairs Kristine Lewis Grant DEANNA HILL tice. While some scenes provide hope by exploring programs rooted in and Sherri Manson, and committee members Ayana Allen-Handy Associate Clinical While most of us are aware of the death toll and eco- social support and mentorship, viewers see that many other court-ad- and Deanna Hill Professor nomic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, less ministered sanctions fail to prioritize treatment as a way to improve attention has been paid to the pandemic’s disparate these youths’ lives and to prevent future crime. Since 2012, Critical Conversations in Urban Education (CCUE) has been KRISTINE racial impact, which has been particularly adverse a vehicle for action and critical dialogue on issues important to the educa- LEWIS GRANT for Black, indigenous and other minority communi- tion of youth in urban settings, preparing urban educators and developing Clinical Professor ties. On these topics, I turn to writers in The Atlantic, university-community partnerships. In February 2018, CCUE hosted a particularly science writer Ed Yong. Both online and screening and panel discussion on “Teach Us All.” AYANA on Twitter, Yong makes a strong case for how the As a public health researcher and healthy-equity ad- ALLEN-HANDY ineptitude of the public health system and the misin- vocate, I work closely with Philadelphia community “TEACH US ALL.” Directed by Sonia Lowman. Netflix, 2017. Assistant formation engine on social media together pushed the organizations and leaders in neighborhoods experi- Professor country to the depths of illness and death. encing poor social, economic and health outcomes to “Teach Us All” is a groundbreaking documentary that honors the “Little In the September issue of The Atlantic, he provides document and understand the root causes. My desire Rock Nine” — the nine Black students who desegregated the all-white high a backgrounder on the situation that describes how is to co-create and advocate for new public health pro- school in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. The documentary takes a critical and why a particle smaller than an average human grams or policies that will lead to community health look at educational inequities that continue to plague the United States cell brought the world’s most powerful country to improvements. However, these efforts are doomed to more than six decades later. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay, whose company its knees economically and medically. He extensively failure unless they are able to address the systems of distributed the film, told “CBS News” in 2017, “It’s not true that education details why the United States was hammered by the oppression that created these severe and persistent is equal in this country, because there’s still very intense segregation hap- pandemic — from the inequities of the health care racial inequities in the first place. pening in all kinds of forms all over this country.” system to the inadequacies of the infrastructure of To illustrate this, I turn to Camara P. Jones, a DuVernay likens the film to her own 2016 documentary “13th” about hospitals and buildings. preeminent physician and researcher in the field of racial inequities in mass incarceration, and says of Lowman, “What I loved The part of his essay that particularly caught my public health. In her TEDx talk called “Allegories on about her film and what she did is — I think it spoke to my film, ‘13th,’ in attention was when he delved into the reasons why al- Race and Racism” and in an article in the American a way — in that we’re trying to deconstruct the truths that are supposed to most 50 percent of minorities and 30 percent of Black Journal of Public Health, Jones shares allegories to be evident, are actually falsehoods, are actually kind of veils pulled over an Americans do not have adequate (read: any) health illustrate how racism impacts the health of individu- ugliness that America hasn’t dealt with.”
28 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 29 “I KNEW WE WERE
ON THE EDGE OF
RADICAL CHANGE”
WHEN THE PANDEMIC UPENDED IN- PERSON CLASSES IN THE SPRING, THESE DREXEL PROFESSORS TORE UP THEIR COURSE DESIGNS — AND LEARNED THINGS ABOUT TEACH- ING THAT WILL OUTLAST THE LOCKDOWNS. BY ERIN PETERSON
In early March, students in Nomi Eve’s Story Med- icine course presented their final class project — a half-hour live skit they write and perform for children hospitalized with serious illnesses — inside the lobby of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The perfor- mance was their last of the term, a culmination of the course’s mission to connect college coursework to the real-world needs of the community. It was supposed to be a joyful event, but Eve, an assistant teaching professor and director of the creative writing MFA in the College of Arts and Sci- ences, couldn’t help but feel anxious and sad. The uncertainty of what was to come weighed heavily on everyone’s minds. “I felt like we were watching fid- dlers play on the Titanic,” she says.
This is a duotone version of “By a Single Thread (2020),” which was created from pushpins, acrylic, thread and mixed media on canvas by art history student Lara Bros ’21 for Nancy Epstein’s Arts for Community Health and Wellness course. Bros says, “I live alone in Philly, so this piece became a visual map for me of my community during a time of intense isolation. I wanted to show that despite our concepts of time and distance being warped, our connections to each other have remained strong. We’re more focused on each other in different ways, which I think speaks to the resilience of people, especially when we band together to protect each other. This is what will bring us through the pandemic together. We are all connected, even if we don’t know each other, and that is crucial to remember.” The unmodified version can be seen on page 2.
30 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 31 Hunte-Brown can easily imagine using a mix of in-person and work came to be. Here are the influences. Here’s the iconography.’ For virtual labs in the future to make the most of students’ time and ac- me, what’s so fascinating about studying objects, especially everyday Westphal College of Media Arts & Design students were asked celerate their learning. objects, is that they were used by people who had real connections to to get creative with what they could find at home to create, or them [and that gets into] why we save some things and why we don’t recreate, props. Here, entertainment and arts management student save other things.” Lyndsey Connolly and architecture major Aaron Forsman model the DRAWING MEANING FROM A MOMENT Meanwhile, in the College of Engineering, LD Betz Professor of “Ghostbusters”-style proton packs they made for a theatre production Nancy Epstein had been waiting years for this moment. The Dornsife Environmental Engineering Charles Haas went beyond revamping an course taught by Mandell Theater Technical Director Chris Totora. School of Public Health professor had spent countless hours developing existing course; he quickly developed a new course called Coronavirus the Arts for Community Health and Wellness course. and Engineering. He covered topics including the properties of a virus The date for the course’s big launch? Spring quarter 2020. and factors that influence viral survival. He and students talked about FUNDAMENTALS, NOT FORMAT, MATTER She had mapped out a plan that required methodical research on arts how masks and indoor ventilation work. Had the course run longer, he One of the perks of Assistant Teaching Profes- and community health. But in a matter of days in March, “community muses, he would have tackled an increasingly urgent issue: the compli- sor Emil Polyak’s Spatial Data Capture course in health” took on an entirely new, urgent meaning. As the impact of the cated logistics associated with scaling up for vaccine production. pre-pandemic times was access to equipment that virus accelerated, her entire course began to feel wrong for the moment. It wasn’t the first time that Haas, whose research specialization is is used for movie special effects and other types of She slashed the syllabus that she had painstakingly developed and microbiological risk assessment, has seen the timelessly valuable engi- animation. In the Westphal College of Media Arts & came up with a new plan that was fluid and personal. She created a neering curriculum made relevant by a sudden biological health crisis. Design, students in the Department of Digital Media two-pronged project for students to explore the emerging universe of In 2001, he taught a course about anthrax when a scare bubbled up have the chance to use the most advanced software pandemic arts through weekly portfolios and journal entries. The art after the September 11 terrorist attacks. HOMEMADE GHOSTBUSTER PACKS and even a special “magic lab” with motion-capture was evolving in real time, and she gave her students permission to take For Haas, these spontaneous courses are perfect for demonstrating cameras and technology. a front-row seat. the relevance of engineering’s foundational principles in address- When everyone went home, Polyak knew he’d She and her students worked together to create the course. Students ing up-to-the minute challenges. “We try to give students good basic It wasn’t just that Eve worried about the final days of class for her have to reinvent the class on the fly. Fortunately, he was able to turn helped frame the assignments — in which they collect and analyze an knowledge,” he says. “Once you’ve got that, you should be applying that current students. It was also that she couldn’t envision what spring to tech that most students carry in their pockets: their smartphones. item of music, theater, photography, poetry or some other visual work knowledge to emerging problems as they come along.” quarter — let alone all the remote classes to follow — might look like Using the technology embedded in their devices — accelerometers, gy- created by artists across the world to help people cope with the pan- for a course that for all of its four years in production had thrived ex- roscopes, magnetometers — students could connect to a virtual being. demic — and chose how to curate their end-of-term portfolios. “That clusively on the electricity and serendipity of in-person entertainment. For example, students could create animated faces whose eyes roll up sense of participation drove a deeper learning experience, because they As she mulled her options, she felt pessimistic. “My first thought and down when the phone moves up and down. “Suddenly, they were were part of it,” she says. was, ‘Let’s just cancel this, it doesn’t make sense,’” she recalls. doing puppetry,” Polyak says. It opened her eyes to the importance of encouraging students to But then, she began thinking bigger. She didn’t need to tweak her The quick adaptation was successful on its own. But even more than identify public health issues that hold personal currency for them — a course around the edges. She decided to overhaul it. that, it helped remind Polyak to stay focused on the true foundational pandemic, systemic racism — and build portfolios that illuminate those What if instead of the vibrant but unstructured interaction with skills of the discipline. “New techniques and hardware can come out two issues. “I want the courses I teach to create opportunities for students to hospitalized children that students had had in previous courses, Eve or three times a year,” he observes. “Students always need to be learning learn things that they’ll use in the future,” she says. “It’s not just about set up Zoom interviews with the children so students could ask them new things. What they need [from the class] is to learn the fundamen- getting through the course. It’s about adding meaning to it.” about their personal struggles? What if instead of relying solely on lo- tals: What are you trying to capture? What is the data about?” Art took on a different meaning for Westphal College Assistant Pro- cal experts, she reached out to former students, parents and children’s When students know that they will always have to dig beyond the tech- fessor Joseph Larnerd, too. book authors around the world? What if instead of leaning on live per- nology to ask these root questions, they can excel no matter how much In a typical year, students in his History of Modern Design course formance, students translated their work to online platforms including the software and hardware change. Their skills will never be obsolete. spend a lot of time in the storerooms of The Drexel Collection. The This Japanese haiku was created by School of Biomedical Engineering, Science & YouTube and TikTok, where they can give the gift of soothing entertain- Meshagae Hunte-Brown (PhD ’06), a teaching professor in the De- unique 130-year-old collection holds materials, crafts and furniture Health Systems biomedical engineering student Nhat Duong as part of an assignment ment to any child living with chronic disease anywhere in the world? partment of Biology, also found herself refocusing her syllabus and amassed by Drexel’s first president — not for display, but for the hands- for a Pennoni Honors College course called “Happiness” taught by Athletic Director Within days, the larger world of possibilities for the course opened lab courses when the pandemic hit. She trimmed back a syllabus that on study of how objects are made. and Carl R. Pacifico Professor of Neuropsychology Eric Zillmer. up to her, and she drafted a syllabus that included the elements she’d had ballooned, while encouraging students to spend more time in The collection was a big reason Larnerd was excited about teaching dreamed up over the two-week break. “I knew we were on the edge of Labster, a virtual lab. at Drexel, he says. “We can explore how Federal and Empire furniture radical change,” she says. While she is quick to point out that a virtual lab has its drawbacks — influenced how their historic users moved and presented themselves ITERATIONS TOWARD NEW INVENTIONS Her class for spring quarter looked entirely different — but it was no online frog dissection will give students the visceral sense of a scalpel by actually sitting in period chairs produced in these styles,” he says. Despite successes with remote teaching, faculty members say everyone is also, she admits with some surprise, better in many ways. “When we slicing through skin — it did offer unique advantages. For example, stu- “There’s an immediate connection there that gets students jazzed and eager to return to the classroom — there is simply a spark from in-per- could be at the hospital, I didn’t have to think outside of that environ- dents could easily repeat experiments without worrying about running eager to learn more about material culture. I was bummed out that stu- son learning that can’t yet be replicated online. But within pandemic ment or outside the box,” Eve says. “All of the things that we started out of time during a two-hour lab slot or wasting expensive reagents. “If dents weren’t going to have that kind of access in the spring.” restraints, many found themselves thinking bigger than they ever could doing [because of the virus] were things we should have been working you’re running a protocol in a true lab experience and you make a mis- But if the Drexel Collection teaches anything, it’s that you don’t need have imagined. on all along. And they’re also things that we should carry with us into take 50 minutes in? You’re pretty much toast,” Hunte-Brown says. “In masterpieces to grasp how design historians use objects to examine the Dana Kemery, who has worked with countless professors as the di- the post-pandemic world.” a lab simulation, you can repeat the experiment over and over again.” past. “Instead, I thought, let’s lean into the histories and emotional lives rector of innovative course design and technological infusion, says that Certainly, circumstance has forced of our own objects,” Larnerd recalls. Drexel faculty members across the board responded to these difficult professors’ hands, but across many He asked students to think deeply about an object within their home months with exceptional creativity and flexibility. “[This time] is chang- courses and every college, instructors Students in Assistant Professor Joseph Larnerd’s History of Modern Design — ordinary, practical items with no particular artistic pedigree but ing people’s preconceptions of what education is and what people can haven’t just stepped up to meet this course created a museum-worthy interpretative label for an object from their strong personal value. do,” she says. “It’s opened people’s eyes to the possibilities.” challenge. Many have used this time home, for a digital exhibit that explores the emotional life of everyday objects Out of the project came “ The Museum of Where We Are,” an online When faculty adapted to the disruption — expanding their audience, as a chance to experiment with the un- called “The Museum of Where We Are.” Jessica Summers wrote this label exhibit of everyday objects thoughtfully labeled by student curators. tapping distant experts, or applying unexpected tools to fundamental familiar and reimagine their teaching. for her mother’s apricot grove mug: “…These faded tea lines illustrate years In one label, a handmade cookie jar given to the author by an ex– concepts — they became learners in how to make their teaching better, And while faculty uniformly say they’d of my mother’s long days at work and our nightly conversations around the best-friend triggers recollections of connection and loss. A gold-chain and the lessons will outlast this crisis. “Now that they’ve had these expe- never willingly give up the dynamism kitchen table. They remember times when my mother did not finish a cup necklace passed down through a family evokes rumination on slavery, riences, they won’t go back to the way it was before,” Kemery predicts. of in-person learning, the lessons of of tea, instances when her routine was altered, and occasions when she left cornrow braids and the sacredness of heirlooms. In another, a student Eve knows it’s possible, because she experienced it already with Story remote teaching are reverberating in the cup in the sink for too long. These lines represent many things, but most awakens to how her yoga mat carried her during the pandemic. Medicine. “[This moment] will make us better and stronger in the fu- ways that will make many Drexel class- importantly, they represent the connection between a mother and daughter “In my own work I focus on working-class material culture,” says ture,” she says. es more engaging and relevant when that has lasted for over 20 years. Our connection may change, but I take solace Larnerd. “But so much of how I was introduced to art and in survey normality returns. in the fact that, like these faded lines, it will endure the test of time.” classes was about: ‘This is the master work. This is how the master- With additional reporting by Sonja Sherwood.
32 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 33 JEFF FUSCO JEFF
A PHILOSOPHY OF WEST PHILADELPHIA’S FUTURE
Two major construction projects underway this year in West Philadelphia cap a decade of building that has brought over a million square feet of new housing, retail and offices to campus, where Drexel is laying the foundation for a district of innovation and inclusion. Virtually all of it yields income and assets for Drexel. None cost the University a dime.
BY LINI S. KADABA
Here, at 30th and Market streets, a grassy new city park has opened adjacent to Amtrak’s bustling 30th Street Station. Graceful, 30-foot dawn redwoods in huge concrete planters ring the 1.3 acres, and at its center, a striking elliptical hillock rises, its lawn crisscrossed with gran- ite pathways and bordered by café tables with yellow umbrellas. This is Drexel Square. Before, this space was an asphalt parking lot alongside an unadorned office building. Its transformation is the preamble to a swath of development that will ring the square with land- scaped streets and modern high rises to house a new life sciences and tech innovation district that will change West Philadelphia. On this sweltering July afternoon, a suited President John Fry with a snug blue tie lingers in a spot of shade. As he savors this first fruit of a master plan 10 years in the making, Fry unspools a far-reaching vi- sion, one that’s research-centric, but also civically engaged, for what’s to come here and beyond — all built on what he calls “really sweet deals.” “We get to curate what we need,” Fry says, “but use other people’s financial capital to achieve our goals.” For instance, Drexel needed a childcare center. It needed more beds for its swelling student population. It needed accommodations for visitors and parents. Drexel didn’t have the financial depth for such projects, but it snared all three and then some through public-private partnerships with in- dependent developers: a childcare facility inside Radnor Property Group’s Vue32, a hotel with Hospitality 3’s The Study at University City, and student housing with American Campus Communities’ Chestnut Square, University Crossings and Summit. Most include street-level re- tail, restaurants and services. Put simply, third-party developers erect, at their own expense, build- ings on Drexel-owned land, for which Drexel collects ground rents as well as options to occupy space on favorable terms for classrooms, labs and faculty offices. At the end of the leases, which range from 50 to 99 years, ownership of the buildings reverts to Drexel.
34 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 35 aries, including finding new ways to make the campus GROWTH THROUGH INNOVATION For Spark CEO and co-founder Jeff Marrazzo, the company’s expan- physically more inviting to neighbors.” At the time of Drexel’s founding in 1891, this area sion in the Bulletin Building offered an opportunity beyond the bottom
JEFF FUSCO JEFF Drexel Square is one of those ways, but it’s just was a grimy, chaotic industrial hub filled with fac- line: Create a bio-tech ecosystem that supports jobs of the future in West the beginning of something vastly larger. The $14.3 BY THE tories, ironworks and slaughterhouses. Anthony J. Philadelphia. “I personally wanted to make a bit of statement,” he says. million makeover is phase one of Schuylkill Yards, NUMBERS Drexel chose to build his school close to the workers He calls the national dialogue around social justice an inflection a massive $3.5 billion district of purposefully de- who roamed this region, to provide them with access point. “We can accelerate a lot of that work,” he says. “This foundational signed mixed-use buildings and streetscapes that and advancement, regardless of race, sex or creed. decision, where we located, set us up to be able to have that impact. Philadelphia-based developer Brandywine Realty “That was not an accident,” says Fry. “He Now, we have to do it more consciously, more aggressively and with Trust will construct across 14 acres of Drexel land $1.3M thought deeply about that.” more directed programming.” over the next 20 years. Ground lease Nonetheless, for most of the 20th century He’s on board with Fry’s vision, which includes developing a train- With palpable excitement, Fry explains why the income con- Drexel has fallen short of the founder’s dream. ing program for community residents to prepare them for Spark’s park is a point of pride. “The single most valuable tributed to the Forty-five percent of residents in the 19104 ZIP hiring needs in research, of course, but also in manufacturing, fi- piece of real estate in Schuylkill Yards is this — the University’s code, which includes Drexel and Penn, live below nance, human relations, communications and strategy. The company square,” he says. “Any sensible person would have put operations from the poverty line — more than double the Phila- already participates in the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Phila- up a 50-story building right here. Inclusion is sym- development delphia metro area’s rate, the Census finds. In his delphia’s Future Ready program that brings middle school students bolized by the fact we didn’t. We put a park.” of CHESTNUT first Convocation speech in 2010, Fry imagined to Spark for an immersive day exploring gene therapy career options. The square is the first thing one sees when ar- SQUARE, THE how A.J. Drexel would feel if he strolled through And Marrazzo looks forward to the “natural connections” with Drexel riving in Philadelphia from an Amtrak train, and STUDY, THE parts of West Philadelphia today. faculty that come with being a block away, as well as continued hires it serves as a gateway to the campus and to the SUMMIT and “I think he would have felt, ‘Boy, my institution of co-op students and new graduates. future Schuylkill Yards district. It will put out a VUE32. could have done a lot more but didn’t,’” Fry says. “I Around the corner, at 3101 Market Street, is another marker of Drex- welcome mat to the larger community with yoga tried to call the community on that.” el’s growing innovation district: The Center for Functional Fabrics, led classes, art exhibits, concerts and more, forming Once Drexel chose Brandywine as its projects by fashion designer turned tech innovator Geneviève Dion, professor of an epicenter for social engagement (well, post master developer, Brandywine introduced a $16.4 design in the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design. President The University has always taken the long view with its land acquisition COVID-19 at least). It also acts as a bold state- million neighborhood engagement initiative as In fall 2019, state and federal government officials celebrated the John Fry, on the and is now capitalizing on past investments. Third-party developments ment piece — a sign of Fry’s commitment to the $80M part of Schuylkill Yards. The program is consid- opening of the Pennsylvania Fabric Discovery Center inside Dion’s new uCity Square monetize the land, resulting in cash and appreciated assets that diversi- civic health of the larger community that he has Value of land ered the largest of its kind in Philadelphia, and lab, surrounded by advanced machinery for prototyping tomorrow’s site where a fy Drexel’s endowment portfolio and enhance its balance sheet. Current embraced from his first days at Drexel. assets converted addresses community needs including small, local textile inventions: a 3D body scanner, an ultrasonic sewing machine, Drexel partner annual ground leases with American Campus Communities, Radnor “We wanted to make the point that because it’s to cash in Drex- and minority business development; job creation; and textile testing machines. is constructing Property Group and Hospitality 3 generate $1.3 million annually to sup- the most valuable space,” he says, “it should be here el’s endowment affordable housing; capacity building; and edu- Funded by the Department of Defense and the Commonwealth, the a new building port University operations. Over the full term of these long-term leases for the public.” through the first cational support. One highlight: About 50 new venture aims to restore Pennsylvania’s standing as an American textile to house two the University is projected to receive over $60 million. With Drexel Square complete, Brandywine is phase of the minority apprentices are either working in the manufacturing hotspot. overcrowded Best of all, the projects free up Drexel to focus its own expenditures turning toward JFK Boulevard, on the square’s development of construction trades or on the way to those liv- “By marrying design to technology, Professor Dion has the means to public schools on academic investments: classrooms, laboratories and endowed chairs. north side, where two modern high-rises will fill SCHUYLKILL ing-wage jobs, according to Sweeney. rebuild Pennsylvania’s textile manufacturing industry, this time with an that serve 800 “If you do it well, public-private partnerships are a win-win for the what is currently a sea of asphalt. The structures will YARDS. “The objective was to create a true neighbor- unassailable competitive advantage,” says Richard A. Greenawalt ’66, chair K-8 students in developer, the University and the end users within the University — house nearly 1 million square feet of apartments, hood, not a collection of buildings, and to have of Drexel’s Board of Trustees. “I’m proud that her discoveries will seed new West Philly. and the community benefits,” says Donald E. Moore, who was Drexel’s offices, labs and shops. JFK’s faceless lanes will be one of the driving predicates of that neighbor- industries, and that Drexel had the imagination to back her years ago.” vice president for real estate and facilities from 2018 to October 2020. made over into a tree-lined, pedestrian-friendly hood be how we tap into the innovation economy,” “It’s not just the place,” Dion says. “Schuylkill Yards is a philosophy thoroughfare finally worthy of the name “boulevard.” Sweeney says. about what can be the future.” CIVIC ANCHOR Undeterred by the pandemic, Brandywine is also ac- $26M As part of the Drexel Square renovation, Bran- Over his long career, Fry has always had an urban planner’s eye. As chief celerating development of a nearby parcel at 32nd Approximate dywine undertook a $43 million rehab of the 1954 ‘CRADLE TO CAREER’ operating officer at the University of Pennsylvania, his pioneering use of and Market streets, to enhance “flow” between the increase in the George Howe-designed modernist Bulletin Build- Meanwhile, six blocks to the west, rising like a twin bookend to public-private partnerships at the Ivy unleashed a wave of revitalization towers and Drexel’s campus. value of the Uni- ing (acquired by Drexel in the ’90s) on the square’s Schuylkill Yards, is the $1 billion uCity Square development. in West Philadelphia. Fry continued that charge as president of Franklin “The biggest challenge in the university space is versity’s asset western flank. Now refaced with contemporary The construction site at 36th and Warren streets will house a $40 & Marshall College, where he brought together partners for the $75 mil- how to allocate resources,” says Jerry Sweeney, pres- balance sheet glass and 10,000 square feet of street-level retail, million building for two public schools serving 800 students in grades lion Northwest Gateway reclamation project — one of the largest in the ident and CEO of Brandywine. “We’ve found that as a result of the it is occupied by Spark Therapeutics, a gene- K-8. It is being developed by Baltimore-based Wexford Science & Tech- history of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. universities that think broadly create the most value acquisition of therapy biotech with a path-breaking treatment nology, another of Drexel’s third-party partners. Drexel staff spent six “It’s a way to secure the future,” says Harris Steinberg, executive di- over the shortest period of time at the most optimal the former Uni- for an inherited retinal disorder. Last year, Swit- years raising funds to pay for the project — an investment of manpower rector of the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation, a Drexel think tank. return level.” Schuylkill Yards, by way of Brandywine’s versity City High zerland’s Roche Holding acquired Spark for $4.3 that ensured the construction of a new school for the neighborhood at “John took the lessons he learned from his Penn days and walked pur- upfront, long-term ground lease, has monetized $80 School site at billion, a stunning return. no direct cost to Drexel. posefully into the role of being a civic leader, an anchor institution. He million of land assets held in Drexel’s endowment, UCITY SQUARE The startup was founded as a result of tech- Here is where Fry envisions a route for West Philadelphia residents brought it to Drexel with vision.” which totaled $811.3 million at the end of fiscal 2020. (though some nology and know-how accumulated at Children’s and their children to enter the innovation hub Drexel is building at From the get-go, Fry understood the power of unlocking Drexel’s “You begin with simple geography,” Fry says of parcels were Hospital of Philadelphia. It has grown to 500 em- Schuylkill Yards. prime location to expand campus life without draining Drexel’s financial his vision. since sold to ployees and plans to hire 100 more this year in As Fry walks past the uCity Square construction site, where the resources, in a way that also creates jobs and resources for the low-in- University City, sprawling on the west bank of Wexford as spite of the pandemic. two-story frame of the school is underway, an excavator beeps and come neighborhoods to Drexel’s north. the Schuylkill River, is the true “center of the city,” part of the Fry sees Spark’s success as emblematic of how hums over a gravel patch. “John Fry was one of the very first to realize that universities had an he and others contend, given its proximity to the development Drexel land development can unite academic “Take a look all around you,” Fry says. “This is going to be amazing.” obligation to tear down the walls and barriers that separate them from train station and cutting-edge “eds and meds” insti- agreement). researchers, student co-ops and local workers In 2014, Drexel University City Development, a joint venture be- their communities and become a true partner in the community devel- tutions. Add in smart real estate buys by Drexel over around an innovation economy. tween the University and Wexford, purchased a 14-acre site from the opment of their neighborhoods,” says Richard Florida, an urban studies the years, including in 2011 the parking lot that is “Innovation is symbolized by Spark,” Fry says, School District of Philadelphia that held the former University City theorist at the University of Toronto. now Drexel Square, and “it didn’t take a genius to looking toward the downtown skyline reflected High School, thereby expanding the uCity Square footprint that Wex- Last year, while a Philadelphia Fellow with the Lindy Institute for figure out that what we need to do is begin to think in the Bulletin Buildings’ façade of windows. ford already was developing along Market Street. Urban Innovation, Florida noted that Drexel — with its Universi- about those big parcels and how we begin to stimu- “It is a company with incredible potential for The complex deal was no sure-fire proposition. Drexel’s hope to ty-wide diversity policies for local hiring, procurement and construction late meaningful, mixed-use, neighborhood-friendly growth and development to change the econo- build a facility to accommodate the overcrowded Samuel Powel Ele- contracts — has moved the needle by “rethinking its institutional bound- development,” Fry says. my of Philadelphia.” mentary School and the new Science Leadership Academy Middle
36 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 37 School, or SLA-MS, required a careful piecing together of public, pri- core missions of talent and research development and the Summit Tower, Drexel guaranteed Powelton Vil- vate and foundation dollars to pay for construction once the land was industry partnership.” Besides collaboration with start- lage residents that it would require all sophomores, acquired, in itself a feat. The School District of Philadelphia will oper- ups, he expects joint programs with the schools and in addition to freshmen, to live on campus — a step ate the schools and lease the facility from Drexel for a nominal fee. with nursing and medicine. administrators hope will assuage the kind of town- “It took five or six years to have a creative mechanism to pull it off,” says Likewise, Laura N. Gitlin, dean of the College and-gown frictions that boiled over in the ’70s. Moore of the financing. “It took thinking outside of the box. It was one of of Nursing and Health Professions, anticipates that “For years and years, we without ill intention grew the more robust discussions I had with the Board of Trustees over a deal.” the college’s move from Center City to uCity in 2022 and developed and grew and developed,” Fry says, Drexel’s persistence paid off. Here, after all, was a chance to cre- will expand simulation labs, where nursing students “and it created dynamics within the neighborhood ate transformational change through what Lucy Kerman, senior practice disaster scenarios in reenactments with lo- that were very negative.” As the university evolved vice provost for university and community partnerships, calls a “cra- cally hired actors. “We need more space to expand,” from a commuter school to a residential one, its stu- dle-to-career” ecosystem. she says, “and also to provide better and higher state- dent population increased from 3,500 students two “We are a University that sees ourselves as deeply engaged in the life of-the-science laboratories.” decades ago to 25,000 today, he says. Many of those of our city and focused on solutions,” she says. “If we educate local chil- Drexel is commencing this forward-looking trans- students spill into nearby communities, leading to a dren in a location that is in the heart of the innovation economy, these formation of West Philadelphia with eyes wide open market for skinny apartment buildings in the middle children will be exposed to jobs of the future.” to past errors, when public-private partnerships dis- of residential blocks, which in turn depresses home- The dream is that a child born into poverty nearby could achieve placed communities in the name of “urban renewal.” owner occupancy rates. prosperity in a generation with a degree and a well-paying job. Drexel In the ’50s, federal housing legislation made it at- “That’s on Drexel,” he says, “because we never also partners with training groups such as the West Philadelphia Skills tractive for cities to use eminent domain to acquire constructed enough beds to meet our enrollment. Initiative to help unemployed adults get jobs on its campus, and its land for redevelopment. Around the country, pri- We’re trying to reverse some of those trends. We popular Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships provides an vate universities in need of expansion space worked have worked to reset our relationship.” array of resources to West Philadelphia residents. with city agencies to demolish aging neighborhoods As Steinberg of the Lindy Institute puts it: “It’s not “We’re in this in a wrap-around way,” Kerman says, “to ensure inclu- around their campuses. Section 112 of the Housing just real estate deals. It’s not just opening a Starbucks sion of local residents.” Act of 1949 subsidized these clearances with feder- on every corner. There’s a coherent and evolving strate- Once again, Drexel’s success has depended on its partner. In Wexford, it al money and permitted liberal interpretations of gic narrative that is really about the greater good and pez, an associate professor of law at Drexel and director of the Andy and Construction The future found common ground. Executive vice president Joe Reagan says the uCi- what constitutes “blight.” At Vanderbilt University, Drexel’s role in that…. It’s part of our moral imperative.” Gwen Stern Community Lawyering Clinic at the center. “[Mantua and on the Pow- home of Samuel ty Square development not only advances the economic development of for example, Nashville condemned a middle-class Community leaders and residents are watching Powelton] were here first. They really saw the university as the biggest el/SLA-MS Powel Elemen- West Philadelphia but also Wexford’s community-oriented focus through neighborhood of largely white professionals and re- Drexel’s actions closely, skeptical about gentrifica- threat to their existence.” At one early community meeting, Lopez re- public school tary and the the collaboration with Drexel on Powel and SLA-MS. tirees despite the vast majority of homes being in tion and the changing skyline. calls a resident saying, “The dragon is coming to get us.” building Science Leader- “To me it was the perfect alignment,” he says. acceptable condition. “I think it’s wait and see,” says Stephen Sebelski, Initiatives such as the legal clinic have helped “cut through a lot of paused ship Academy Like Schuylkill Yards, this section of campus will meld life sciences, In Philadelphia, the city condemned large sec- president of the Powelton Village Civic Association. that,” she says, “and build a lot of trust. People see us as an ally.” during the Middle School tech, education and entrepreneurship. On a parcel next to Powel and SLA- tions of West Philadelphia, including Black Bottom, “Schuylkill Yards and uCity Square are in such early Angelys Torres, a 24-year-old third-year law student from Chicago, lockdowns is being built MS, Wexford is building a multi-story academic tower that will house a neighborhood that stretched from 32nd Street to stages.” While he expresses hope that the forthcom- has worked with a team at Dornsife on several cases seeking expunge- but the proj- on on Drex- the College of Nursing and Health Professions and parts of the College of 40th Street and from University Avenue to Lancast- ing school and other commercial development ment and pardons. “A lot of people just need to be heard and giving them ect is now el-owned land Medicine, which are currently renting space in other parts of the city. The er Avenue. Eminent domain spelled the end for a benefit his neighborhood, he says such projects are an opportunity to share whatever grievance they may have and providing expected to that the Un- University City Science Center incubator is a neighbor. And last year, Drex- community of predominantly working-class African “always going to be a negotiation, and it’s always go- some type of solution makes all the difference,” she says of appreciative be complete viersity leases el’s College of Computing & Informatics moved into 3675 Market Street, Americans, renters and small businesses. ing to be trying to work together to do more.” clinic clients. “It’s taught me a lot of compassion and empathy.” Torres in time for to the School a Wexford-owned building across from the uCity site, uniting for the first In its place, a consortium of “eds and meds” insti- Gwen Morris, secretary of the Mantua Civic As- plans to pursue public interest law as a result of the experience. spring 2021 District of Phil- time its faculty under one roof in state-of-the-art facilities. tutions led by the University of Pennsylvania erected sociation, also called on Drexel to find more ways “to Ultimately, Drexel’s task is to forge relationships, often one person at occupancy. adelphia for a “The exciting key factor is location,” says Dean and Isaac L. Auerbach the University City Science Center, superblocks for open its arms to the community,” to invite residents a time. That’s how Kerman spends a lot of her day. Ditto for Brian Keech, nominal fee. Professor Yi Deng. “That creates a very conducive ecosystem to drive our Penn dorms, and parking lots. One parcel was al- onto its campus and to get community groups in- senior vice president for government and community relations. located to Drexel, which later built dormitories volved earlier in development plans. “I have spent a career building up trust and confidence with the com- abutting the residences of Powelton Village. Fry says he understands the distrust, especially munity,” says Keech, who came to Drexel in 1998 and regularly meets “If you go to any parking lot in this part of town among long timers who have heard the promises and with the Powelton Village Civic Association. “This is hard work, and it and you tear it up,” Kerman says, “you’ll see bricks; seen them broken. “Ties to the community are com- takes a lot of time, energy and money to do it. But we believe in it.” you’ll see the bones of these neighborhoods.” plicated,” he says. “It always will be. I understand Drexel looks for similar commitment from its developer partners. Conflict spawned during that era influences that people who live in the neighborhood might be When the Radnor Property Group was building Vue32, it changed the relationships between West Philadelphia institu- saying, ‘When is this going to happen?’ It takes a initial location because residents voiced concerns that the high-rise tions and its neighbors to this day, and Drexel is while; all of this takes a while.” blocked sunlight for a community garden. In return, residents sup- determined that in future development, the com- In fact, Fry has a 50-year timeline for the trans- ported a taller structure. munity be involved. formation he envisions. “We’ve just done the first Wexford also met regularly with civic associations, and based on com- This is why Drexel insists that hiring and pro- fifth,” he says. “There’s a long road ahead.” munity input, shifted the future school building from facing Lancaster curing contracts for these projects include the local In the meantime, hints of the future abound Avenue to Warren and 36th streets, where the design fit the streetscape economy. With a sensitivity to the history of the site, in one pocket. Look no further than the Dornsife better. “It wasn’t ideal from our planning perspective,” Reagan allows. Drexel and its partners are committed to returning Center, “the embodiment of what an engaged uni- “But OK, we did it. We want to be part of the community.” some of the old street grid — 37th, Cuthbert, Warren versity can do,” Kerman says. The center opened in And so the give and take goes on. streets — to the development plans. And even when the Mantua neighborhood in 2014 offering health Looking ahead, on a much longer horizon, Fry is eyeing the air rights financing seemed like an impossible hurdle, Drex- checks, creative writing workshops, youth dance over the Amtrak railyard. A study Drexel commissioned concludes a el steadfastly pursued the means to build a public programs, computer labs, legal clinics and more potential 16-million plus square feet for the having, in the mold of Man- school on the site, as a replacement for the Universi- — all programs developed with Drexel faculty in re- hattan’s Hudson Yards. ty City High School that closed in 2013. sponse to expressed community interests, she says. It would be one more investment, not only in Drexel’s future, but in Drexel’s ongoing conversations and regular en- At the same time, students get real-world experience West Philadelphia’s future. gagement with the Powelton Village Civic Association and the chance to give back to West Philadelphia. “The work is never done,” he says. “It’s fair to say the promise is there, and local homeowners is why, in gaining approvals for “It’s the responsible thing to do,” says Rachel Lo- the need is there, and what we need to do is work at it.”
38 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 39 1 2 3 BALLINGER
4 5 6
1 UCITY Despite a temporary slowdown at the start of the pandemic, and the College of Medicine will be co-relocated from other locations 164 apartments. Adjacent to it is the Summer12 market-rate townho- 775,000 square feet of offices. Later phases of the Schuylkill Yards mas- construction has resumed at the uCity Square site. Wexford Science & in the city. Wexford began construction on the Academic Tower in July, mes (including one owned by Drexel for visiting VIPs). The project was ter plan will eventually build out a total of 14 acres throughout Drexel’s Technology is building, at its own cost, new K-8 classrooms at 36th and and aims for initial occupancy by academic year 2022–23. named Deal of the Year in 2017 by the Philadelphia Business Journal. campus over a period of 20 years. Filbert streets. When complete, the 87,000-square-foot, two-story build- ing will house students currently attending the Samuel Powel Elemen- 2 CHESTNUT SQUARE Drexel’s first third-party partnership was in 4 THE STUDY Several years ago, Fry invited Hospitality 3 to duplicate 6 THE SUMMIT In 2015, American Campus Communities financed and tary School and the Science Leadership Academy Middle School, with 2012, with Austin, Texas-based American Campus Communities (ACC). its sophisticated but comfortable The Study at Yale, where he happened built the Summit, a gleaming, eco-friendly apartment building with expected occupancy in spring 2021. Drexel will own the building and ACC spent $100 million to transform Chestnut Street between 32nd and to stay while in New Haven. Opened in 2016 at a price tag of about $50 street-level retail that rises 25 floors above the corner of 34th Street lease it long-term to the School District of Philadelphia, which will oper- 33rd streets into a lively block that boasts 361,200 square feet of mixed- million, The Study at University City at 33rd and Chestnut streets pro- and Lancaster Avenue. Its 1,315 beds fulfill Drexel’s need to house ate and maintain the facility. Drexel secured private and public funding used student housing (860 beds) and retail space. ACC developed the vides 212 rooms, 7,000 square feet of banquet and meeting space and a students on campus where they will be less likely to disrupt nearby for the project, including generous contributions from the Lenfest Foun- space and manages it, while providing annual ground-rent payments to 105-seat restaurant and bar — a welcome abode for visitors to campus. residential neighborhoods. Econsult estimated that its construction had dation, PECO, real estate investment trust Ventas, as well as New Market Drexel under a 70-year ground lease. a one-time economic impact to the city of about $240 million, including Tax Credits, the School District of Philadelphia, and Redevelopment 5 JFK TOWERS This year, Brandywine Realty Trust will begin construc- 850 jobs. As ACC was building Chestnut Square and the Summit, Drexel Assistance Capital Program funding from the Commonwealth of Penn- 3 VUE32 The $72 million, 16-story Vue32 tower was built at 3201 Race tion on two towers flanking Drexel Square. The tower at 3025 John F. was able to focus on academic buildings: Drexel opened the URBN sylvania. The uCity Square parcel will also house a 450,000-square-foot Street by Wayne, Pennsylvania-based Radnor Property Group in 2017. It Kennedy Blvd. will have 200,000 square feet of offices and 326 apart- Center and Gerri C. LeBow Hall, renovated Stratton and Nesbitt halls and Academic Tower where the College of Nursing and Health Professions houses a large daycare, sorely needed by Drexel working parents, and ment units. The other, at 3001 John F. Kennedy Blvd., will comprise modernized several other core facilities.
40 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 41
“Every day, someone tells me, ‘Thank you for doing what you do!’ CROSS ROADS During this pandemic, this sense of community has been vital.” — SARA BONANINI
working, and we spread this infor- Sara Bonanini ’20 had swabs to start testing, cases mation among each other through Big Horn County, Montana really started to rise.” WhatsApp messaging groups and Across the country, on the Crow Recalling those early days Mitra blog posts. On YouTube, doctors in Indian Reservation near Billings, continues, “It felt like the ground different cities would post videos of Montana, Sara Bonanini was was falling out from under us. We their ideas; we would try them and watching the pandemic unfold on didn’t have the tests or the treat- vice versa. These makeshift com- the news. Bonanini, who is supervi- ments we needed. We didn’t have munities emerged and this sharing sory clinical nurse of the Emergency nurses and six contract nurses. As Around the country, COVID-19 enough PPE [personal protective and making use of new ideas was Department at Northern Cheyenne supervisor, I fill in when needed, has disproportionately affected equipment], so we were reusing all happening in real time. I had Hospital, felt like she had a pretty even in ordinary times. Now working Native Americans, who have been one mask for the week. Then all of never seen that before.” good handle on the situation. “I with other units is even more cru- three-and-a-half times more likely a sudden, it was like every other It’s difficult for Mitra to take remember telling our service unit cial. We had to prepare in case our than non-Hispanic Caucasians to problem disappeared — no heart stock of all that he’s experienced. here that we need to make sure we little eight-bed ER got overwhelmed. test positive. Says Bonanini, “One Avir Mitra ’15 attacks, no strokes, no appen- “This pandemic has changed me,” have enough staff and plenty of PPE We cross-trained nurses from other of the factors here is that there are New York City dicitis. The ER was overrun with he reflects. “It’s still changing me, because COVID-19 is eventually departments to come over to the ER numerous multi-generational fami- COVID-19 cases.” and I’m trying to figure that out.” going to make its way here.” if needed. There was also one week lies living together. Once one person Mitra and others in the emergen- Over time, Mitra and his col- He says he knows a couple of Despite Montana’s low case when people in other departments tests positive, it’s not unusual for Healthcare cy room (ER) at Mount Sinai Beth leagues learned a lot about the things for certain: “I always took rates throughout the spring, the were out sick, so I was acting direc- the rest of the family to become Israel Hospital in New York City virus and developed new protocols. my job seriously, but now I feel that Crow Reservation announced tor of nursing and acting inpatient positive. Native Americans are also were probably unknowingly seeing Says Mitra, “By early May, in some sense of seriousness in a much stay-at-home orders right away. supervisor on top of my regular ER known to have numerous under- patients with COVID-19 back in ways I felt like we knew what we more profound way. And now more Says Bonanini, “Tribal workers supervisor duties.” lying conditions and, therefore are February, and perhaps even as were dealing with, we had process- than ever, I realize the importance were posted at entrances to the Throughout the pandemic, adapt- experiencing higher rates of serious Heroes early as January, but the virus es in place, and all that helped my of systems. Being a good doctor is reservation to limit unnecessary ability has been important. “For us, complications with coronavirus.” Reflections from a doctor and a nurse — one in wasn’t then top of mind. Mitra, colleagues and I better cope with important, of course, but we also travel in and out.” a new service that has come out of Bonanini adds, “As a Native New York City, one in a tiny county in Mon- who is assistant professor at the the situation.” need healthcare systems that work “We made certain adjustments the pandemic is telehealth,” says American myself, a member of the tana — on the frontlines. By Louisa Wilson Icahn School of Medicine and Collaborations kicked into high well so we can respond quickly and early on,” continues Bonanini. “We Bonanini. “It’s a more convenient Blackfeet Nation, I’m really proud to clerkship site director for Emer- gear. “We started to figure out deliver good care.” limited open access to the hospi- way for people to access their pri- be taking care of the Native-Ameri- There have been ups and downs in the nine months since the gency Medicine at Mount Sinai tools and tricks that seemed to be Mitra wasn’t surprised to see tal, so not everyone can just walk mary care provider, especially here can population.” COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in earnest, yet with Beth Israel, remembers vividly the another surge in the fall, but this through. We’re having people wait where it’s such a rural environment “I try to remain positive,” says every fluctuation of the virus’ trendline, healthcare professionals first positive test he ran. “It felt like the time everyone is prepared. “We have in their cars and call into the ER, and patients may live an hour away.” Bonanini. “I focus on the knowl- around the nation have stood firm, serving their communities “It really shook me, and the the facilities we need,” he says. “I’m screening them and making sure In early August, Big Horn County, edge that I’m taking care of my with dedication and determination. pandemic started to feel very ground was not so worried about running out of they have masks before entering. where the Crow Reservation is community. In rural communities Avir Mitra, MD ’15, and Sara Bonanini, MSN ’20, are two real,” says Mitra. “We had already ventilators. In fact, we’ve figured out We also bought some small sheds located, experienced a surge in like this one, we all come togeth- such healthcare heroes working on the frontlines of the pan- been seeing patients in the emer- falling out from that putting everyone on a venti- for outside the ER in case we need- COVID-19 cases and had the highest er to help each other through demic in very different environments. Mitra is an emergency gency room who had traveled to lator isn’t the answer, and we’ve ed triage areas, and once COVID-19 number of cases per capita in tough times. Family, friends and medicine doctor in New York City, the country’s first COVID-19 high-risk countries. I remember under us. The ER discovered better ways of treating started hitting this area, we started Montana. Bonanini feels the effects neighbors are there for me and my hotspot, and Bonanini is an emergency department nurse on thinking their symptoms had to patients. We understand the disease using them as testing sites.” of that. She says, “I have my ups and colleagues when we need support the Crow Indian Reservation south of Billings, Montana. be related to COVID-19, but we was overrun with a lot better.” Just as in New York City, collab- downs. There are times when I go and encouragement. Every day, Throughout the pandemic, and as it continues to unfold, didn’t yet have a test. I remember Concludes Mitra, “I feel proud oration has been key at the small home and really feel the stress and someone tells me ‘Thank you for these recent Drexel graduates have proven that collaboration, thinking that COVID-19 might be COVID-19 cases.” of how New York has managed hospital in Northern Cheyenne. Says pain of it all. We’ve had some deaths doing what you do!’ During this adaptability and strong commitment to community can make everywhere and we just didn’t this pandemic. Everyone is work- Bonanini, “Our ER has eight beds, related to COVID-19, and it’s some- pandemic, this sense of communi- meaningful differences in trying times. know it. And then after we finally — AVIR MITRA ing together.” and we have only four permanent thing that we’re all dealing with.” ty has been vital.”
42 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 43 CROSS ROADS CLASS NOTES Amish Dasai
The Alumni Board of Governors welcomes Dear Drexel Alumni,
five new members of elected directors this Earlier this year, we all abruptly transitioned to re- mote work, life and learning. Our alumni engagement Catching Up with fall. We asked them to share their reasons efforts were no exception. Still, I am proud of how our organization — and the Dragon community around for joining the Board of Governors and one the world — came together to support each other. Despite the unexpected spring and summer surprising detail about themselves. we’ve had, here are some highlights from the year’s Your Board of Governors accomplishments:
• Connected alumni and co-op students in a series of “Dragons at Work” events to celebrate the 100th In a year like Anniversary of Co-op. no other, the • Broke records for the 46th Alumni Turkey Project, raising more than $70,000 to provide holiday meals Alumni Board to 2,000 Philadelphia families. of Governors • Hosted more than 100 alumni career services, lifelong learning, social and student engagement has carried programs online throughout the spring and summer. • Achieved our initial fundraising goal for the Alumni on with Impact Scholarship and celebrated the graduation of VALERISSA BAKER KRISTIN DUDLEY ORCEL KOUNGA DANIELLE SCHROEDER PATRICIA MCKELVEY our first recipient. forging BS biological science ’15 BS fashion design ’06 BS engineering ’17 BS/MS civil engineering ’17 DIETER RN nursing (Hahnemann) ’75, AS • Heard from more than 750 alumni who “Answered lasting WHY I JOINED WHY I JOINED WHY I JOINED WHY I JOINED physician assistant (Hahnemann) ’77 the Call for Co-op” by stepping up to conduct I joined to increase representation I have always felt aligned with the Being on the board will hopeful- As I look back fondly at my time at informational interviews with students who had a bonds and in alumni engagement activities University’s ethos and I’m a very ly put me in spaces to be able to Drexel, I see how my connections WHY I JOINED canceled or delayed co-op (see page 46). and policies. Current board mem- proud alumnus. Contributing to advocate for the needs of the alumni with alumni had a great impact on I’ve not previously been involved opportunities ber Angela Harris ’02 was also a Drexel’s future by serving on the community. I see my role as a liaison me as a student. Now as a board with my own alumni organizations, • In October we convened the 10th annual Global Night huge inspiration because of her board is one way I feel I can give between the University and alumni, member, I want to pay it forward although I have experience with of Networking, where we welcomed the Class of 2020 to for fellow continued leadership and commit- back and give forward! specifically our younger alumni. by giving back to the current them through my professional role the alumni community. ment to Drexel. I’ve been blessed I want to be a diverse face in the students. I look forward to using as chair of the Physician Assistant Dragons. to connect with many Dragons ABOUT ME crowd and help ensure that alumni this role to elevate stories of my program at Duke University. I owe • We also launched the Dragon Network (see page 49), across the globe who have influ- In 2015, I hiked the Appalachian can see themselves in this group fellow alumni about how they are Hahnemann University and Drexel our new online professional development community. enced my career and personal Trail for eight days with 11 that is meant to represent them. continuing the “Drexel Difference” a lot — they accepted a small-town growth, and I plan to pay it forward strangers. We stayed along the and foster new connections with Pennsylvania girl and gave me a • We look forward to supporting the efforts of the Uni- through our alumni network. hut system that exists within the ABOUT ME alumni I have not met yet. strong clinical base and self- versity’s Anti-Racism Task Force and have created a White Mountains of New Hamp- I was raised in Italy for close to 10 assurance that allowed me to ex- working group within the board to ensure that we are ABOUT ME shire. It was one of the most years of my life. That time period ABOUT ME pand into other areas in my career. part of promoting action and ensuring lasting change. While attending Drexel, I studied powerful experiences of my life, shaped my thinking of the world. I love the performing arts space abroad and took coursework at and I can’t wait for the day I can Because of that, I speak four dif- and have participated in plays and ABOUT ME I hope that next spring, we will be able to return to Nanyang Technological University recreate the experience with my ferent languages: English, Italian, musicals since I was 8 years old. I was a twirler in high school — campus for Alumni Weekend 2021. In the meantime, located in Singapore. I have since husband and son. French and conversational Spanish. Most notably, I was in the play “The but please don’t ask for a demon- I hope to “meet” many of you online. Please feel free to travelled to more than 50 coun- King and I” at Plays & Players The- stration today! email [email protected] to share how Drexel Alum- tries, learning and appreciating atre in downtown Philadelphia. ni can continue to be a resource to you in the coming cultural norms of different com- months and beyond. munities. Traveling and meeting new people are two of my greatest Sincerely, passions and I hope to encourage others to explore the world around them and connect with people who Amish Desai ’03 are unlike themselves. Chair
44 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 45 We want to hear about your weddings, new babies, special traditions, group trips and regular get-to- CROSS ROADS CLASS NOTES gethers with fellow alumni. Send stories and photos to Sara Keiffer [email protected].
CAREERS
“LOG IN AND LEVEL UP” Pandemic lockdowns Lisa M. Gensemer Pflaumer, systems ’98, published a book to providing resources and insight BS history and politics ’91, was on data literacy, “Practical Data into the opioid epidemic as well will seek another crop impacted about a 60s Alumni Answer of alumni volunteers for John J. Degnan III, BS physics named the first executive director Analysis Using Jupyter Note- as who it affects and how we’re informational interviews quarter to a third of and atmospheric science ’68, of Heartis Yardley Senior Living in book: Learn How to Speak the addressing the issue. when the course reconvenes. Drexel co-ops, but you was presented with the Al- Yardley, Pennsylvania. Language of Data by Extracting bert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Useful and Actionable Insights Vanessa Brown Nedrick, BS civil the Call for Co-op If connecting with current can help. Achievement Award by Marquis Gina Furia Rubel, BS corporate Using Python.” engineering ’00, MS engineer- students and giving back This summer, an incredible 750+ alumni volunteered to conduct nearly Who’s Who as a leader in the communications ’91, founder and ing management ’09, is regional to Drexel in this way is HIRE A CO-OP field of physics. CEO of Furia Rubel, developed a manager for RVE’s Bucks County 3,000 informational interviews with students whose co-ops were can- something you’d like to learn Now more than ever, we are looking celed or postponed due to the coronavirus. — Lara Geragi more about, contact the to our alumni community to provide Coronavirus Crisis and Resource office. RVE is a full-service Office of Alumni Relations at co-op opportunities to students on Center and launched a podcast, On 00s engineering firm that provides [email protected]. a full-time or part-time basis. If you Record PR. Rubel was also recog- James A. Blair, MD ’08, an ortho- design, planning and construc- The University’s co-op program is the cornerstone of a Drexel educa- are interested, contact our Employer 80s nized by Lawdragon among the 2020 pedic trauma surgeon, completed tion management and inspection tion, but the ability of students to participate in co-ops and cultivate Relations team at drexel.edu/scdc/ Carl Richardson Ballinger, MS Lawdragon Global 100 Leaders in his active-duty service obligation services. professional connections was greatly impacted by the pandemic. employers/contact. interior design ’86, joined SOSH Legal Strategy and Consulting. with the U.S. Army shortly after As a way to lessen this disruption, Erin Glaser, senior cooperative Architects, an award-winning receiving a promotion to lieu- Tejal Patel, BS business education advisor for educational enrichment, and her colleagues in MAKE A GIFT TO THE CO-OP architecture, interior design and Christopher A. Saponaro, BS tenant colonel. Blair practiced at administration ’04, published the Steinbright Career Development Center created the course “Ad- OPPORTUNITY FUND master planning firm, as a proj- mechanical engineering ’90, William Beaumont Army Medical Meditation for Kids: 40 Activi- vance Your Career: Log In and Level Up” for students who experienced Donations of every amount have an ect coordinator. is a new shareholder at RVE, a Center in El Paso, Texas, for six ties to Manage Emotions, Ease impact on the Drexel Co-op program a co-op interruption. full-service engineering firm. years and completed two combat Anxiety and Stay Focused (Ages and our students. Support the fund Martin G. Belisario, BS me- Saponaro is the firm’s head tours to Afghanistan and Syria. 4–8). It explains how to make “In developing the course, I thought about the major benefits of co- at giving.drexel.edu/campaign/ op,” says Glaser. “And one is the students’ ability to network and build priorities/co-op. chanical engineering ’85, of of the Mechanical, Electrical He will be transitioning to the meditation a fun, family activity, professional relationships.” intellectual property law firm and Plumbing/Fire Protection civilian world as an associate and teaches readers how to help To replace that important opportunity for professional exposure, HOST A WORKSHOP Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Department, serving as prin- professor and chief of orthopedic kids manage their bodies, their Glaser asked students within the course to participate in information- The Steinbright Career Development Nadel LLP, was named among cipal-in-charge for all MEP trauma at the Medical College of energy, big emotions and their al interviews with an alumnus in a relevant field. For the assignment, Center is always looking for alumni 2020 Pennsylvania Super projects implemented by Georgia – Augusta University. reaction to stress. students selected, contacted and interviewed alumni in a position or to host professional development Lawyers. the firm. industry of interest to them. They were encouraged to ask alumni about ERIN GLASER workshops for our students. To learn Andrew Bleaken, BS sport John M. Pyne, BS civil engineer- industry trends, professional insights, career advice, resources for de- more, contact scdcworkshops@ Jill Leibman Kornmehl, MD ’80, John Simmons, BS electrical management ’09, was appoint- ing ’01, is a shareholder at RVE, velopment and current projects. drexel.edu. celebrated the graduation of her engineering ’92, of intellec- ed director of development for a full-service engineering firm. Glaser connected with the Office of Alumni Relations and, within son, Adam Kornmehl, MD, from tual property law firm Panitch the Martin J. Whitman School Pyne is an executive vice pres- just a couple of months, turned her idea for these interviews into a suc- Temple University School of Med- Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP, of Management at Syracuse ident and director of corporate cessful reality. Glaser put out a request for alumni to volunteer to be icine. Adam is also the grandson was named among 2020 Pennsyl- University. development. He is responsible interviewed by students and got an overwhelmingly positive response of Neil Leibman, BS mechanical vania Super Lawyers. for the strategic growth of the from more than 750 volunteers. engineering ‘48. Amanda Carlin, BS Architectural firm in all the market sectors and “A secure database was created to safely store alumni volunteer in- Glenn W. Stambo, MD ’91, chief Engineering ’05, president of regions served by RVE; he also formation,” says Glaser. “And students could then filter by criteria such Wendell C. Roberts, BS com- of Vascular and Interventional The Carlin Collaborative, a South serves as principal-in-charge the as major, job title and industry to select who they wanted to interview.” merce and engineering ’82, MBA Radiology at AdventHealth Carroll- Jersey-based owner’s rep/project infrastructure division. For his interview, current senior Daryl Nelson selected Danielle ’86, was elected chair of the wood Hospital in Tampa, co-wrote management firm, celebrated the Brief, a 2014 design and merchandising graduate and an associate buy- Virginia Council of School Attor- an article, “The Use of Rapid one-year anniversary of her firm Marek Swoboda, PhD biomedical er for the discount toys retailer Five Below. DARYL NELSON neys. Roberts currently serves as Sequence Magnetic Resonance and ribbon cutting of a $27 mil- engineering ’05, CEO of RightAir, “Danielle explained so much about her background and how I school board attorney for Ches- Imaging of the Brain as a Screen- lion medical office building and invented a simple, inexpensive could one day reach her same level,” says Nelson. “My biggest take- terfield County Public Schools in ing Tool for the Detection of Gross orthopedic surgery center. backup ventilator that could help away from the interview was that anything is possible. People tend to Virginia. He is also an associate Intracranial Pathology in Children save lives in the fight against limit themselves because of pressure to succeed, but Danielle talked adjunct professor of education Presenting to the Emergency Jennifer A. Hermansky, BS COVID-19. At the request of Penn about trying out different jobs to find out what you truly love and at the University of Richmond Department With a Chief Com- business administration ’05, JD Medicine, Swoboda created a being your authentic self.” and teaches at the Curry School plaint of Persistent or Recurrent ’09, of global law firm Green- “Y-vent,” a Y-shaped mechanism According to Brief, her conversation with Nelson went so well of Education at the University of Headaches,” that was published in berg Traurig, LLP’s Philadelphia made on a 3D printer with only that she forwarded his résumé onto her colleague, a buying recruit- Virginia. Pediatric Emergency Care. office, was named as one of $10 worth of materials. er at Five Below. The Legal Intelligencer’s 2020 “When I was interviewed by Daryl, as well as a second student, I Leona Jean Thomas, BS electri- Professional Excellence Award Sandy Sheller, MCAT ’04, was so impressed by their professionalism and enthusiasm,” says cal engineering ’92, MBA ’10, is winners. post-secondary certificate Brief. “I know times are difficult and uncertain, but Drexel is 90s the new chief technology officer nursing ’04, and the Sheller doing something right in fostering these organic connections Mark Lee, BS architectural en- at Benefits Data Trust. Asif M. Ilyas, MD ’01, launched Family Foundation received the between current students and alumni. I’m so glad that these Danielle gineering/civil engineering, was the Rothman Orthopaedic 2020 Secretary’s Awards for conversations are happening now, given the total shakeup of the Brief at her appointed to CEO at Harriman, an Marc Wintjen, BS management Institute Foundation for Opioid Public-Philanthropic Partner- traditional corporate retail world.” studio. integrated design services firm. of computerized information Research & Education, dedicated ships from the Department of
46 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 47 CROSS ROADS CLASS NOTES INTRODUCING DRAGON NETWORK CAREERS DREXEL’S ONLINE PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY Housing and Urban Development, Adam Goodman, JD ’13, works at Engineering ’48 in partnership with the Council State Farm handling insurance Friends Leatrice Matthias Rogers, RN FOR ALUMNI AND STUDENTS on Foundations for its Color Me defense claims. He is active in the We’ll Miss Nursing ’46 Back: Same Day Work and Pay LGBT Bar Association. James J. Silimeo, BS Civil Program. These awards recog- *This list represents alumni identified Engineering ’47 by the University’s third-party infor- nize excellence in partnerships Casey Kissel, MLAS lab animal Lucille Redis Toub, RN Nursing ’48 mation service as deceased between Edna Ward Warner, RN Nursing ’41 that transformed relationships science ’11, is a clinical research March 1 and July 31, 2020. between the public and private veterinarian in the Gene Therapy Arthur Zeglen, MD Medicine ’49 sectors and lead to measurable Program at the University of Penn- 1930s benefits to housing and com- sylvania. She earned her veterinary Albina A. Tedesco, BS Commerce 1950s Ralph L. Adamson, BS Business munity development, especially degree at the University of Minne- Teacher ’35 for low- and moderate-income sota-Twin Cities and completed a Administration ’53, MBA ’64 families. clinical residency in comparative 1940s May Huber Ball, RN Nursing ’52 Barbara Bartow, MLS Library medicine at Johns Hopkins. Richard M. Aronson, BS Mechanical Science ’55 Engineering ’49 Stephen H. Bauer, BS Electrical Christopher Mullen, JD ’19, Arthur T. Barlow, BS Business Engineering ’58, MBA Business 10s joined Klehr Harrison Harvey Administration ’48 Administration ’68 Christina M. Dewland, BS crim- Branzburg LLP as an associate in George A. Burns, BS Business Loretta Schwenk Baver, RN inal justice ’13, joined Capehart real estate and finance. Administration ’49 Nursing ’53 Scatchard as an associate at the Grace Lunger Cavileer, RN Nursing William N. Bayne, BS Mechanical Mt. Laurel office. Dewland focuses Mina Soryal, cert. biomedical ’46 Engineering ’53, MS ’59 her practice in litigation through technology development ’14, MS Margaret DiPasquale Cherniak, RN WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS? NETWORKING • MENTORING • Joanne Kashner Beyer, BS Retail the federal and state courts of biomedical engineering ’14, is Nursing ’43 Management ’56 New Jersey and Pennsylvania. director of product development/ Hildegarde Rossiger Cirelli, RN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT James E. Bitter, MD Medicine ’59 commercialization at ImCare Nursing ’43 Dragon Network is a free and George S. Black, Cert. Mechanical FOR TODAY’S WORLD Nicole Fahringer, BS interior de- Biotech. The FDA granted ImCare George A. Dix, BS Business easy-to-use Engineering ’52, BS ’53 platform that facilitates sign ’19, joined SOSH Architects, an Biotech breakthrough device Administration ’42, MBA ’53 George W. Booz, Cert. Electrical award-winning architecture, interior designation for their product Lucille Henebry Dix, BS Commerce career-focused conversations, provides Engineering ’54, BS ’56 design and master planning firm, Seravue® to support earlier Teacher ’42 meaningful opportunities to give back, Your connection to fellow Dragons can be William J. Boyd, MD Medicine ’55 as an interior designer. At Drexel, diagnosis of liver cancer using a Sara Snyder Flowers, BS Home simple blood test. Joseph H. Bright, BS Business and unites Dragons from around the a vital resource for professional and social Fahringer participated in the com- Economics ’44 pany’s co-op program and gained Administration ’58 James E. Frank, BS Business country and world. opportunities. Through Dragon Network, on-the-job experience in space John J. Luciani, BS civil engi- Joseph G. Brotz, BS Business Administration ’47, MBA ’71 planning, surveying and working on neering ’82, president of First Administration ’58 Erika Dietrich Hauer, RN Nursing you can expand your alumni community, construction documents. Capital Engineering, Inc., in York, Robert O. Brown, MS Mechanical ’48 This is your central hub to: Pennsylvania, is certified as a Engineering ’55 forge a stronger bond with your alma Helen Beadle Heisey, BS Home Lt. JG Elliot J. Farquhar, BS me- Professional Traffic Operations Anthony J. Bruno, MD Medicine ’57 Economics ’44 • Expand your network and catch up mater, and pay it forward by advising the chanical engineering ’15, earned Engineer (PTOE). John F. Cannon, BS Business Meyer Kolodner, BS Electrical his “Dolphins,” qualifying as a Administration ’52 with former classmates Engineering ’47 next generation of Dragons. nuclear submarine warfare of- John H. Chamberlin, BS Civil Donald C. Kopp, BS Commerce and • Connect with fellow Dragons ficer in the U.S. Navy. He serves BABY DRAGONS Engineering ’59 Engineering ’49, MBA Business on the Ohio-class submarine USS Marjorie Powers Compton, Cert. based on industry, expertise, Administration ’70 Florida (SGN 728) based in Kings Library Science ’52 John G. Kopp, BS Mechanical region and more Bay, Georgia. RUBY Emil D. Conti, BS Business Engineering ’48 SIGN UP TODAY! MAY CANN Administration ’50 William F. Kramer, BS Mechanical • Mentor current students or find your Brielle R. Ferguson, PhD neuro- 7.22.20 Michael L. Crippen, BS Mechanical Engineering ’45 science ’18, a postdoctoral fellow Engineering ’58 own mentor Frieda Bornemann Lenthe, BS Learn more and complete your profile in the Huguenard Laboratory at Jerome M. Crosson, BS Chemical Home Economics ’49 • Discover groups based on common Stanford University, Department Michelle Marchesano Cann, BS Engineering ’57 Constance Hambleton McKibbin, at DragonNetwork.drexel.edu. of Neurology, was an organizer history and politics ‘07, cert. Nancy Turner Deduk, MD Medicine interests and affinities Cert. Secretarial ’45 of the inaugural Black In Neuro writing and publishing ’07, ’54 Joyce Maisel Mehlinger, BS Home Week (#BlackInNeuroWeek), and Dennis Cann, BS business Donald N. Dick, BS Electrical • Explore job opportunities Economics ’46 a virtual celebration of Black administration ‘06, welcomed Engineering ’58, MS ’62 Theresa Penza, RN Nursing ’46 • Browse helpful resources and excellence in neuroscience and their second daughter Ruby May John R. Diegidio, Cert. Civil Jane Ecklin Pettigrew, BS Business related fields July 27 to August 2. Cann on July 22, 2020. Engineering ’53, BS ’59 Administration ’46 upcoming programs Nancy Russell Dieter, BS Home Joseph H. Proctor, BS Mechanical
48 Drexel Magazine CROSS ROADS FRIENDS WE'LL MISS
WELLNESS
Economics ’50 Engineering ’59 Engineering ’51 Engineering ’63 Michael J. Dimartino, BS Biological Donald Ralph Kerstetter, BS Civil Joseph Schneider, BS Civil David R. Brocklebank, BS Physics Science ’58 Engineering ’54 Engineering ’54 and Atmospheric Science ’62 Aaron M. Dolin, BS Mechanical Richard G. Krueger, Cert. Chemical Kathleen Cheek Schwartz, MS Edward Stephen Brotzman, BS Becoming a Better You Engineering ’58 Engineering ’54, BS ’56 Library Science ’59 Mechanical Engineering ’66 Jeannine L. Earshaw, MLS Library Mary Ellen Kunkel, MD Medicine ’52 Robert C. Seidler, MD Medicine ’58 Richard D. Brugger, MS Electrical Science ’55 William E. LaForge, BS Industrial Carolyn Kline Sellers, BS Home Engineering ’67 This spring, more than 350 alumni turned to self-care programs led by fellow Dragons to help navigate a new normal. — Lara Geragi Beatrice Senofsy Enson, MD ’53 Administration ’59 Economics ’51 Van B. Bruner, BA Architecture ’65 John A. Fairbank, Cert. Mechanical John F. Laukaitis, BS Mechanical Michael D. Sheridan, BS Business Barry C. Burkholder, BS Business Engineering ’53, BS ’55 Engineering ’50 Administration ’58 Administration ’62, MBA ’70 Nancy King Fisher, RN Nursing ’58 John J. LeBeau, MD Medicine ’58 George J. Silvestri, BS Mechanical Theodore H. Butcher, MBA Walter C. Foulke, BS Chemical Mary Ann Dunlap Lepera, RN Engineering ’53, MS ’56 Business Administration ’69 Engineering ’54 Nursing ’59 Ralph T. Smith, BS Mechanical William J. Campbell, BS Mechanical Barry A. Galman, BS Mechanical Frederick C. LeStourgeon, BS Engineering ’59 Engineering ’65 Engineering ’55 Commerce and Engineering ‘56, Edward W. Smith, BS Electrical John H. Carey, BS Commerce and John T. Gerlach, BS Commerce and MBA Business Administration ’64 Engineering ’53 Engineering ’61 Engineering ’55 Donald J. Loeper, MD Medicine ’54 Peter S. Strilko, MS Chemistry ’59 Don R. Carter, BS Electrical Sarkis E. Giragosian, BS Mechanical Alfred A. MacCart, BS Business Warren O. Strohmeier, BS Engineering ’60 Engineering ’51, MBA Business Administration ’53, MBA ’65 Mechanical Engineering ’51 Roberta William Chase, MS Library Administration ’60 Norma R. Mason, MD Medicine ’53 Thomas H. Strudwick, BS Science ’68 Milton S. Good, MD Medicine ’58 Charles J. Maxwell, BS Mechanical Metallurgical Engineering ’53 John S. Chitwood, BS Electrical Jeannette Weitzel Green, BS Home Engineering ’58 Raymond E. Subers, BS Business Engineering ’68 Economics ’51 John McCallion, BS Chemical Administration ’59 Donald W. Chrisman, MS Rudolph J. Griesbach, BS Electrical Engineering ’51 Donald R. Taylor, BS Electrical Engineering Management ’63 Engineering ’59 Hugh R. McCurdy, BS Metallurgical Engineering ’50 Walter George Cox, BS Chemistry Bernard H. Grindlinger, BS Engineering ’59 Paul G. Tongue, BS Commerce and ’64 Business Administration ’52 Patience Simpers McFarland, BS Engineering ’57 Robert Crowell, BS Mechanical Robert C. Hajner, BS Mechanical Home Economics ’50 John B. Trout, BS Civil Engineering Engineering ’64 Engineering ’52 Ronald Clarke Miller, BS ’59 Elwood A. Dance, BS Electrical Albert W. Hall, BS Commerce and Mechanical Engineering ’58 Leucia B. Venable, MLS Library Engineering ’64 Engineering ’53 George William Mohn, BS Science ’58 John H. Decoursey, BS Mechanical Albert J. Hardwick, BS Electrical Commerce and Engineering ’58 Ernest B. Waters, BS Chemical Engineering ’64 Engineering ’59 Jeannette Cheuvreux Nolte, BS Engineering ’55 Robert C. Donnelly, BS Mechanical Richard Harrington, BS Chemical Home Economics ’52 Emma Seifrit Weigley, MS Dietetics Engineering ’61 Tejal V. Tracey Engineering ’55 Manny Pak, BS Commerce and ’56 William J. Dougherty, MS Electrical Patel ‘04 Morgado ‘90 John L. Hausner, BS Mechanical Engineering ’58 Stanley Joseph Weiss, BS Engineering ’68 Engineering ’52 Lois Davis Parry, BS Home Mechanical Engineering ’59, MS John T. Durant, BS Metallurgical William J. Heger, Cert. Mechanical Economics ’58 ’66 Engineering ’63 In 2020, social distancing, at-home work and school, and the threat of Mindfulness and meditation expert Tejal V. Patel ’04 hosted a we- Engineering ’58, BS ’60 Berj Philibossian, BS Commerce Nicolina Fazio Wilson, RN Nursing Edward F. Engelbert, BS Electrical COVID-19 thrust us into an unsettling new normal. binar on how to build a family meditation practice, increase resilience Rita Blaxland Hojnowski, BS and Engineering ’58, MBA ’55 Engineering ’68 Self-care — the practice of protecting your wellbeing and happiness and find balance. “The pandemic highlighted how ill-prepared and un- Medical Laboratory Technology Business Administration ’67 Mary Zimmerman Yocum, RN Earl F. Fielder, MS Chemistry ’60 — is perhaps more important now than it’s ever been. And so, Drexel aware we are of knowing how to help ourselves calmly navigate stress, ’55 Russell B. Puschak, MD Medicine Nursing ’52 Ronald L. Forys, BS Civil Alumni has prioritized bringing self-care opportunities such as yoga, big emotions and pressures,” she says. Robert E. Holston, BS Mechanical ’56 Engineering ’68 meditation and mindfulness practices to Dragons through convenient Bobby Dalton G. Roy ’12 says he attended the webinar because the Engineering ’56, MS Aerospace Richard N. Rau, BS Electrical 1960s James Henry Greiner, BS Electrical and complementary online programs. stress of working at the California Department of Education and pivot- Engineering ’64, MS Electrical Engineering ’53 Albert W. Anderman, BS Electrical Engineering ’64 From May to August, yoga instructors Tracey Morgado ’90 and ing to distance learning was manifesting physically and mentally. Engineering ’73 Albert C. Roemhild, BS Commerce Engineering ’65 Barbara R. Griffith, MD Medicine ’66 Alumni Board of Governors member Christina Flory ’10 hosted a series “My cup was starting to feel empty; I needed to pour back into it Bart V. Iannetta, BS Physics and and Engineering ’57 Peter B. Baute, MD Medicine ’60 Richard F. Hamilton, MS Mechanical of virtual yoga sessions for alumni. For Morgado, who has been teach- before I could pour more from it,” says Roy. “Given the situation and Atmospheric Science ’59 Robert H. Roth, BS Mechanical Dean W. Beckwith, BS Business Engineering ’66 ing yoga for 23 years, it was a rewarding way to give back and to help environment we find ourselves in, I found the program to be very rele- Albert B. Ikeda, BS Mechanical Engineering ’55 Administration ’60 Leon R. Henry, BS Electrical her fellow Dragons relax and recharge. vant and meaningful.” Engineering ’57 Barbara Peskin Ruderman, BS Carol Zadoronzy Bentley, BS Engineering ’63 “Especially now, being in tune with your body and mind is crit- Drexel Alumni plans to continue providing these resources to Walter W. Joseph, BS Mechanical Medical Technology ’59 Business Administration ’64 Cornelius L. Hensel, MS Electrical ical,” she says. “People need to be able to escape to just be with graduates by expanding its online health and wellness programming. Engineering ’52 Vivian Rosenfeld Schatz, MS John A. Berta, MBA Business Engineering ’66 themselves and breathe.” Whether it’s physical fitness, mental health or emotional wellbeing — if Sally Weiss Kane, BS Home Chemistry ’57 Administration ’67 John M. Hickey, MBA Business Morgado said teaching yoga for the first time virtually had its chal- you are an expert in a field related to self-care and would like to vol- Economics ’59 Stella J. Scheckter, Cert. Library Robert Bisciotti, MBA Business Administration ’68 lenges, but it gave her more experience and confidence. “I always enjoy unteer to host an upcoming event or produce an Instagram takeover, Joseph R. Katz, BS Mechanical Science ’52 Administration ’65 Leonard A. Jankauskas, BS stepping out of my comfort zone.” contact [email protected] to share your background and ideas. Engineering ’55, MS Electrical August E. Schmidt, BS Mechanical George W. Boisbrun, BS Mechanical Mechanical Engineering ’63
50 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 51 MCSHARED0025_Campaign ad_R5_PRESS_REZ.pdf 1 8/27/20 4:13 PM
CROSS ROADS FRIENDS WE'LL MISS
TRIBUTE
into the Drexel 100 in 1998. Goldye Kent Johnson, MS Library Raymond M. Scannapieco, Due to the Burkholder family’s Science ’61 BS Mechanical/Industrial generosity, the Drexel Athletics Albert Jordon, BS Electrical Engineering ’64 Hall of Fame established its first Engineering ’65 Richard A. Schafebook, BS permanent home. The interactive Stanley B. Kita, BS Mechanical Mechanical Engineering ’68 Janet E. and Barry C. Burkhold- Engineering ’62 Joseph E. Schwegler, BS Electrical er Athletics Hall of Fame was Nancy Stark Klath, MLS Library and Engineering ’62, MS ’71 unveiled in 2012 in the Recreation Information Science ’69 Ronney M. Scott, BS Mechanical Center gallery. Charles Kurtz, BS Business Engineering ’68 Administration ’60 Gerald S. Segal, BS Business Joseph F. Lentz, BS Chemical Administration ’63 Engineering ’63 Joel Shusterman, BS Electrical Ivan F. Lichty, MBA Business Engineering ’61 Administration ’61 John E. Smallwood, BS Electrical BARRY C. Bohdan Lukaschewsky, MS Engineering ’64 BURKHOLDER Electrical Engineering ’63 Lawrence E. Smith, BS Business BS business administration ’62, Angelo J. Malizia, BS Electrical Administration ’66, MBA ’73 MBA ’70 Engineering ’69 Theodore M. Stefanik, MS Electrical Edward M. Martin, BS Mechanical Engineering ’64 Drexel Emeritus Trustee Barry C. Engineering ’66 Bryan J. Stevens, BS Chemistry ’67 Burkholder passed away on July James L. Martin, BS Mechanical Martha B. Stone, Cert. Library 24, 2020, from complications of Engineering ’67 Science ’63 COVID-19 at age 80. He is sur- James J. McDade, MS Electrical Helen R. Strelkus, RN Nursing ’62 vived by a loving family, including Engineering ’60 Joseph M. Super, BS Business his wife Janet. Burkholder will be Joan Rogers McKeon, MS Library Administration ’63 remembered as smart and gen- EDWARD B. BURKE III Science ’66 Wallace C. Swaverly, BS Commerce erous, a steadfast leader, an avid BS civil engineering ’94 William F. Megargle, BS Chemical and Engineering ’61 golfer and a devoted family man. Engineering ’64, MBA Business Austin K. Tarpey, BS ’62 Electrical As a student in Drexel’s LeBow Edward Burke suddenly passed Administration ’71 Engineering, MS ’68 College of Business, he earned away on Sept. 12, 2020, at age 49. Dennis H. Membrino, BS Business Carolyn Adams Tibbetts, MS Home both undergraduate and graduate Formerly of Glendora, New Jersey, Administration ’68 Economics ’67 degrees and participated in ROTC. he was living in Cincinnati at the Ann Freedman Mizgerd, MD ’63 Willard C. Titus, BS Business After graduation, he served as an time of his death. Bonnie L. O’Brien, MS Library Administration ’61 officer in the U.S. Army, eventual- Burke leaves behind his children Science ’67 Betsy McCue Train, MS Design ’67 ly rising to captain. Kasey and Ryan, and his former William J. O’Leary, MS Electrical Rosayne Reseter Tumilowicz, MS In his professional life, Bur- wife, Melinda Stodart. He is also Engineering ’67 Library Science ’68 kholder was president and CEO survived by his parents Donna and Corine Ruth Overkamp, MD Robert R. Vennell, BS Chemical of Houston-based Bank United Edward B. Burke Jr., his four sib- Medicine ’60 Engineering ’62 Corp. when he retired in 2001. His lings, his grandmother and many Robert S. Paranich, BS Electrical Ethel S. Weinberg, MD Medicine ’61 career in banking and business nieces, nephews and cousins. Engineering ’60 George W. Westerman, BS Business took him across the country and Burke was a lover of life and Charles R. Peguese, MS Library Administration ’62 overseas to London, where he a successful collegiate baseball Science ’65 Elizabeth O. Witt, MS Home was chairman and managing player. As a student, he was Nicholas Polivka, BS Business Economics ’66 director of Citibank Savings in the the captain of Drexel’s baseball Administration ’65 Edward G. Wolf, MS Library Science late ’70s. Following his military team. “He loved his Sigma Pi Mary L. Pratt, MD Medicine ’60 ’62 service, Burkholder began his fraternity brothers at Drexel and Robert H. Pursel, BS Electrical Thomas F. Wynne, BS Electrical career at Ford Motor Company, in they loved him until the day he Engineering ’63 Engineering ’68 its financial planning area. died,” says close friend Sean Robert J. Rainey, MBA Business Jerold J. Yecies, MD Medicine ’66 Burkholder was a thoughtful Gallagher ’93. Administration ’64 James Charles Zinman, BS trustee, serving from 1998 to 2013 He loved sports, cooking, Richard V. Reed, BS Electrical Business Administration ’67 and chairing the University invest- travel, a good cocktail and he was Engineering ’61 ment committee. He received the always up for a lively conversa- Harrison D. Reed, BS Mechanical 1970s Golden Dragon Award in 2012, the tion. More than anything, Burke Engineering ’68 James R. Addlesberger, BS Drexel University Distinguished loved his children. If it was coach- Pauline Lothrop Rock, MD Medicine Electrical Engineering ’70 Alumni Award in 1988, the 2007 ing, a soccer game, swimming or ’66 James R. Arasz, BS Architecture ’76 A. J. Drexel Paul Alumni Achieve- taking them to MMA training, they Ernest R. Rubbo, BS Civil Maryann Matuszewski Baker, MS ment Award, and was inducted were the light of his life. Engineering ’63 Library Science ’72
52 Drexel Magazine CROSS ROADS FRIENDS WE'LL MISS
John D. Belson, MBA Business James J. Feighery, BS Mechanical/ James Mukoyama, BS Business Administration ’71 Ann Murray Herring, BS Nursing William Carl Nelson, MD Medicine BS Marketing ’94 Engineering ’00 Administration ’74 Industrial Engineering ’71 Administration ’73 James J. White, MBA Business ’80 ’80 Michele Ferris, MPT Physical Mary Jo Byrne, BS Behavioral Jane Smadbeck Brooks, MD ’70 Mary L. Fleming, MS Mental Health Richard F. Pesot, BA Architecture Administration ’70 Glenn A. Hofmann, BS Biological Audrey Murrell Roll, MS Library Therapy ’99 Counseling Sciences ’01 Linda Flanagan Burak, RN Nursing Technology ’77 ’72 Mary E. Williams, BS Business Science ’82 Science ’80 Donald Nelson Ford, MS Accounting Edward M. Jalowiecki, MCAT ’75 Donald J. Gosciniak, BS Chemistry Gordon W. Prescott, MBA Business Administration ’76 Henry J. Huber, BS Accounting ’81 Amy Beth Rowan, MD Medicine ’87 ’94 Creative Arts ’01 James A. Castellan, BS Electrical ’77, PhD ’84 Administration ’79 Genevieve C. Winiarski, MD David W. Jeffers, MBA Business Kathleen O’Connell Selby, BS Derek Richard Gibbons, BS Robert Liston, BS Mechanical Engineering ’74 Robert J. Gray, BS Business Julie Annette Ricking, MD ’71 Medicine ’72 Administration ’82 Mechanical Engineering ’85 Mechanical Engineering ’92 Engineering ’04 Edward B. Chen, BS Mechanical Administration ’73 Paul David Risdon, MS Library Eileen Patricia Kelly, BS Ralf H. Simon, BS Electrical William Eugene Gibbons, BS Engineering ’72 Charles K. Greeby, BS Electrical Science’72 1980s Management Information Engineering ’80 Cardiovascular Perfusion 2010s Theodore Chiglo, AS Medical Engineering ’70 Joseph E. Rosina, BS Mechanical Margaret Susan Cate, MS Systems ’86 Margaret Grace Stineman, BS Technology ’95 Brennan E. Lied, BS Criminal Laboratory Technology ’76 Harry Glenn Hanson, MS and Industrial Engineering ’74 Information Studies ’86 Craig A. Lapham, MD Medicine ’84 Biological Science ’81, MD Rebecca E. Mondress-Baxter, MS Justice ’17 Alan Cicciarelli, MD Medicine ’71 Environmental Science ’74 Carol M. Sheaffer, MD Medicine ’74 James Michael Chiadis, MD Leroy R. Loewenstern, Evening Medicine ’83 Library and Information Science Kate A. Mahoney, JD Law ’16 Duane R. Cooper, BS Business John P. Hilferty, MBA Business Rolfe R. Shellenberger, MBA Medicine ’80 College ’84 Susan Mary Sygenda, MS ’91 Clifford Owen Motley, MS Clinical Administration ’77 Administration ’79 Business Administration ’70 Kent G. Dailey, MBA Business Gerard J. Manna, BS Operations Communications ’85 Lois Kathleen Musser, MBA ’90 Research Organization and Frieda Denenmark, MD Medicine Donald J. Horsfall, BS Chemistry Edward J. Sowinski, PhD Administration ’80 Management ’82 Dorothy Ellis Thomas, MCAT Andrew Craig Phillips, BS Management ’11 ’77 ’70 Environmental Engineering ’73 Eugene M. DiMarco, MS Nancy Sheppard Manzano, BS Creative Arts ’85 Marketing/Finance ’90 John M. O’Driscoll, BS Materials Donald D.T Dodszuweit, BS Fred D. Jacks, MD Medicine ’76 Charles Bruce Spencer, BS Environmental Engineering ’80 Accounting ’89 Deborah Witherspoon, AS Nursing John Kevin Wallace, BS Mechanical Science and Engineering ’12 Electrical Engineering ’72 Eileen Mcmurchie MacBeth, MS Chemistry ’72, MS Materials Carlene Burton Eckroade, MS Steven Joseph Mather, BS ’86 Engineering ’91 John J. Donnelly, BS Civil Library Science’75 Engineering ’85 Library Science ’88 Mechanical Engineering ’87 Harris L. Wolfe, BS Electrical Correction: In a previous issue of Drexel Engineering ’72 Albert L. Meyer, BS Electrical Virgil Thompson, MD Medicine ’79 Frank Anthony Friedman, MS William J. Miller, MS Engineering Engineering ’92 1990s Magazine, Alfred Weingartner, BS elec- Doris R. Doran, BS Marketing ’74 Engineering ’71 Theodore W. Uroskie, MD Medicine Library Science ‘80 Management ’80 Charles William Bogert, MS trical engineering ’65, was incorrectly Faye M. Etter, BS Home Economics Bruce A. Muckley, BS Operations ’70 Andrew Steven Hegedus, MS Carl Richard Moe, BS Business Information Systems ’99 2000s reported as deceased by the University’s ’73, MS Interior Design ’87 Management ’75 Jack H. Ward, MBA Business Mechanical Engineering ’87 Administration ’85 Patrick Kevin Curtin, Gregory Donald Blank, BS Electrical third-party information service. GP0132_Charitable Beq Magazine Ad_R3_PRESS_REZ.pdf 1 8/26/20 9:31 PM MCSHARED0025_Drexel Fund ad_R5_PRESS.pdf 1 8/31/20 4:19 PM
54 Drexel Magazine FALL 2020 55 OVER 150 ONLINE PROGRAMS | BACHELOR’S | MASTER’S | DOCTORATE | CERTIFICATE THINK YOU’VE GOT ALL THE ANSWERS? If so, send Drexel University your completed puzzle to the address at right to be Office of University Communications entered into a drawing to win a great Drexel prize. You 3141 Chestnut Street can also email an image of your completed puzzle to Main Building, Suite 309 Crossword [email protected]. Philadelphia, PA 19104-2875 ONCE CLASS-IC LITERATURE While so many group activities are on hiatus, now is the perfect time for some escape reading. ACROSS A DRAGON, 1 It may be signed at a summit 5 “For the ___ part ...” 9 Cat or mouse tale, say 14 Home of the Norwegian Academy of Music 15 Lab assistant not found in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” Impressive display ALWAYS 16 17 Phaser setting on the USS Enterprise 18 Method of viewing bones 19 Extent 20 2013 Rhidian Brook novel set in post-World War II Europe 23 “Game of Thrones” actress Clarke A DRAGON. 24 ___ trip (display of self-indulgence) 25 Object often placed in a bucket 28 Took part in a 5K, e.g. DREXEL ALUMNI AND THEIR IMMEDIATE 29 Stretch across FAMILY MEMBERS RECEIVE A 15-30% TUITION 32 Hot, as in the video game “NBA Jam” 34 1955 J.P. Donleavy novel about a SAVINGS ON SELECT ONLINE PROGRAMS. redheaded, philandering law student named Sebastian Dangerfield 36 “The Peanut Butter Falcon” actor LaBeouf Do you remember how proud you felt the day you 39 “Foucault’s Pendulum” author Umberto graduated from Drexel? Have you thought about 40 Snaky sea slitherers what it will take to continue to advance your career? 41 2000 Robert Jordan novel whose prologue DOWN is titled “Snow” There has never been a better time to continue your 1 Item hung on a dorm room 22 Extremely excited 44 “There, I’m finished!” 46 Mysterious to many wall Drexel journey and we can’t wait to welcome you back. 25 One who may perform in an 45 Oboe student’s item 47 Magazine that featured Beyoncé on its 2 Mikey’s breathing affliction invisible box January 2020 cover in “The Goonies” 48 Episode that may end on a 26 Test for many a graduate cliffhanger 48 Flipper for a 21-Down 3 Make aware student 49 Cut into, surgically 51 “It wasn’t bad but it didn’t thrill me, either” 4 Having a key, in music 27 Crossword-solving choices 50 Not optional 52 Important subject in Biology 101 5 Rock collection, maybe? 30 Numbers on birthday cakes EXPLORE OVER 150 DREXEL ONLINE PROGRAMS IN AREAS SUCH AS: 53 Build on 54 Maroon 5 lead singer Adam 6 Fairy tale monster 31 Specialized area 2019 Elinor Lipman novel that begins with 56 7 Fly like a falcon 33 Guitar neck strip 55 Decorative receptacles • Business • Education • Legal Studies • Project Management the protagonist Daphne Maritch discarding found in museums her mother’s high school yearbook 8 “Why don’t you give it a shot!” 34 “Ciao!” • Clinical Research • Engineering • Nursing • Public Health 56 One of many tallied by the 59 Mustache trimmer 9 Deceptive action that’s 35 Song heard in December winner of the Golden Boot “pulled” • Computer Science • Health Administration • Pharmaceutical • Sports 62 Chrysler Building’s architectural style 36 Participated in a certain award at the World Cup • Data Science • Library Science • Pre-Medicine • Technology “Was it something I ___?” 10 Curved structure seen in athletic meet Film spool 63 M.C. Escher’s “Relativity” 57 64 Spy’s name, perhaps 37 Take on, as for a job 11 Certain sib 58 Like cakes and cupcakes 65 One starting college, usually 38 “Give them an ___ and 12 Body part seen in a sitting they’ll take a mile” 59 Animal that aptly collides 66 “Anything ___ you want to share?” position with another animal of 42 Support, as in a presidential 67 Source of syrup in a forest the same type to establish LEARN MORE 13 Body part examined by an race dominance 68 Ye ___ Christmas Shoppe ophthalmologist 43 Nevada city that’s home 60 Pie ___ mode (Magic Kingdom store) 21 Flounder of “The Little to the National Bowling DREXEL.EDU/ONLINEDRAGON 69 Planting in a flower bed Mermaid,” e.g. Stadium 61 Close, as some purses [email protected] | 877.215.0009 56 Drexel Magazine 4 Drexel Magazine