Appointments


VPUL: Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum

Provost Stanley Chodorow has named as Vice Provost for University Life Dr. Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, acting VPUL since January 1994 and a member of the University Life division since she joined Penn in 1977.

Calling her "a gifted administrator who has dedicated her career to the causes of education and improving student life," Dr. Chodorow said she is "a remarkable teacher, an energetic leader, and a wise counselor. I am looking forward to working with her."

Dr. McCoullum is the first African American woman to hold the senior student life post at Penn. She will be responsible to the Provost for oversight of the numerous offices and services that are charged with integrating the academic, residential and extracurricular activities of some 22,00 undergraduate, graduate and professional students at Penn. In addition to the ongoing operations of student life, residential living, and related units she will have an integral role in the University's plans to create a new undergraduate experience, the Provost added.

"I am absolutely delighted to be able to serve Penn as VPUL," said Dr. McCoullum. "In the year and a half that I have been Acting VPUL, I have loved working with the University Life staff and with our students. They are superb!"

Early in her Penn career Dr. McCoullum helped create PENNCAP and the campus Upward Bound program here. She has taught in the Graduate School of Education and the School of Social Work, and is a former Master of DuBois College House, and on leave in 1991-92 she served as interim president of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, led a successful effort to achieve reaccreditation by the Middle States. Last year she also chaired the Landmark School Equity Educational Panel which produced the report leading to settlement of a major suit against the Philadelphia School District.

Dr. McCoullum succeeds Dr. Kim Morrisson, who continues as a vice provost, co-chairing the Provost's Council on Undergraduate Education.


VP/Human Resources: Clint Davidson of Vanderbilt

The new Vice President for Human Resources will be H. Clint Davidson Jr., now associate chancellor for human resources services at Vanderbilt University, who will leave the Nashville institution to join Penn October 1, Executive Vice President John Fry has announced.

With over 25 years' human resources experience in public and private universities, Mr. Davidson "understands the challenges of administering programs in large, complex institutions," Mr. Fry said. "He is full of new ideas and his creativity and wisdom will help shape Penn's human resources programs for the future."

Mr. Davidson holds a B.A. in management from the University of Oklahoma and an M.B.A. in human resources management/finance from Vanderbilt. He also attended Harvard's Institute for Educational Management and Michigan's Labor Relations Institute, and has taught in NACUBO's College Business Managers' Institute.

Serving in the U.S. Navy from 1963-68, Mr. Davidson started his human resources career in 1968 at Oklahoma, where he became director of personnel services. In 1976 he joined the University of Cincinnati Medical Center as assistant senior vice preisdent for administrative services, a post he held until 1979 when he moved to the University of Rochester as director of personnel and affirmative action.

In 1985 he joined Vanderbilt, where he has been responsible for the human resources programs and policies of the medical center, hospital and clinics as well as those of the campus, serving in all some 11,500 faculty and staff. Among his many awards are an outstanding teaching award and the annual creativity award from CUPA, the College and University Personnel Association.


Public Safety: Tom Seamon as Managing Director

With a change in the position's title--from Commissioner to Managing Director--Penn's new leader in public safety starting September 25 will be Thomas M. Seamon, the Deputy Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department since 1992.

"Tom's outstanding leadership skills and technical ability make him the ideal person to position Penn's Division of Public Safety for the 21st century," said Executive Vice President John Fry in announcing the appointment. "He is one of the best police executives in the country. And, as a lifelong Philadelphia resident, he has an extensive understanding of the law enforcement challenges faced by the city, its institutions, and its neighborhoods."

Mr. Seamon has been with the Philadelphia police since 1969, beginning as a patrol officer and moving through the ranks to Inspector, Chief Inspector, Acting Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner--the second ranking executive post in the Philadelphia police, which is the fourth largest police department in the country. As its operational head he has had direct command of 5000 personnel in four units --Patrol, Special Patrol, Detective, and Civil Affairs Bureau.

He helped develop and implement the community-policing and problem-oriented policing philosophy for the city; established the Career Services Division which developed and implemented

Mr. Seamon, who holds a B.S. in history and M.S. in public safety from St. Joseph's University, where he is now an adjunct professor teaching law enforcement management in the Graduate School. Mr. Seamon also won a Fulbright Fellowship in 1990--the first given in police studies--and has participated in the Police Executive Research Forum at Harvard's Senior Management Institute.


University Press: Eric Halpern of Hopkins

The new director of the University of Pennsylvania Press is Eric Halpern, editor-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins University Press since 1990. He will take office October 1 at Penn, Provost Stanley Chodorow announced. "Eric Halpern has the experience and demonstrated success in building a publisher's list of distinguished works to make him a superb director here," Dr. Chodorow said. "He has earned a stellar reputation for acquiring books in the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences. He is full of ideas and energy."

Mr. Halpern's plans: "I want to move the University of Pennsylvania Press into the front ranks of scholarly publishers in this country. We will have to enlarge and refine the editorial program, enhance the prestige of the imprint and the visibility of the Press, and create an endowment that will insulate the Press from the inevitable vagaries of the market so that the Press can undertake more ambitious projects."

Mr. Halpern, who took a B.A. in classical studies at UC Santa Cruz, and another from Oxford, holds an M.A. in classical languages from Stanford University. He began his publishing career 14 years ago as an acquiring editor at Cornell University Press. He joined Johns Hopkins in 1984 as senior acquisitions editor for the humanities, and after becoming editor-in-chief four years later, he continued to acquire for publication more than 30 humanities titles a year.


Technology Transfer: Louis Berneman

Dr. Louis P. Berneman, director of Virginia's nationally recognized Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), has been named Managing Director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Technology Transfer, Executive Vice President John Fry has announced. Dr. Berneman took office September 1, heading the center that focuses on moving research results from the laboratory bench into the marketplace. He will have primary responsibility for negotiating the University's technology licenses and other agreements with industry, and will manage the Center's intellectual property protection efforts--which this year included 29 new patents, 136 disclosures of new technologies, and 25 technology license agreements, along with 118 licenses and 20 software licenses in the University trademark program.

At CIT since 1989, he has been recognized for creating partnerships among industry, universities and the federal government for technology commercialization. He is credited with managing agreements for over 75 licenses for research results from Virginia's eight public research universities, and CIT's intellectual property program became noted for its use of university technology to promote regional economic growth.

"Lou Berneman has demonstrated a strong commitment to higher education and supporting faculty in promoting their sponsored research activities," said Penn Provost Stanley Chodorow." His understanding of Penn's research mission and the importance of outreach to industry will make him a wonderful asset to the University."

A Penn State alumnus with teaching credentials from the UC Santa Barbara, Dr. Berneman took his master's and doctoral degrees in education from Columbia. Prior to joining CIT Mr. Berneman founded and served as president and CEO of Response Technologies, Inc., Memphis, a leading provider of bone marrow transplantation and other cancer biotherapy services. Earlier he was vice president of marketing and sales of Immuno Modulators Laboratories, Inc. Houston, a veterinary pharmaceutical company, and was assistant professor of education at the University of Houston.He replaces replaces Steve Sammut, who left the University in January, 1994 to help found a Philadelphia-based venture capital fund.