Honors & Other Things	Print Issue
March 27, 2012, Volume 58, No. 27

WOC Awardees left to right: Diana Olivos, Maryan Soliman (accepting on behalf of Khadija White), Loretta Sweet Jemmott, Elder Marietta Melton and Nicole Maloy.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Penn and UPHS presented Women of Color Day at Penn, an effort to increase awareness of the concerns, talents and achievements of women of color. The accomplishments of these women were recognized at the Annual Women of Color at Penn (WOCAP) Awards Luncheon on March 16.

Helen O. Dickens Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. Loretta Sweet Jemmott is the van Ameringen Professor in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, and director of the Center for Health Disparities Research in the School of Nursing. She is one of the nation’s foremost researchers in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention among African American adolescents and adults and has been actively involved with various community-based organizations regarding issues in minority health to design, implement and evaluate HIV prevention programs. Noted for expertise in building community-university partnerships, she is invited to travel across the country to train other scientists and leaders in various communities on this topic.

Faculty/Staff Awardee
Nicole Maloy, director of multicultural outreach in Alumni Relations, was honored for creating and implementing unique programs that provide an opportunity for diverse alumni to connect with one another, current students, faculty and staff. Ms. Maloy’s department landed Penn’s first-ever conference specifically for alumni of color and LGBT alumni in October 2010, called Penn Spectrum. The event was so successful that her team launched Penn Spectrum on the Road, hosting regional receptions across the country.

Community Awardee
Elder Marietta Melton has exemplified advocacy through her work with her non-profit, volunteer social services organization Helping Hands Ministry, Inc. (HHM). Her free services focus on the needs, concerns and wellness of the elderly, their caregivers and families. She is commended for inspiring positive social change in the lives of the elderly by working to heighten awareness among their caregivers and families.

Graduate Student Awardee
Khadijah White is a PhD candidate in the Annenberg School. She has played an extraordinary leadership role in the Fontaine Society, which helps PhD students of color connect with other students and faculty of color. She supervised the launch of its new website and increased participation to the society’s events by 200%. Ms. White is also a volunteer lecturer with several alternative high schools. She has been selected for a prestigious year-long internship in the White House.

Undergraduate Student Awardee
Diana Olivos, C’12, was commended for her contribution to women of color and Latinos through mentoring and working with university administration to secure the future of the Latino Dialogue Institute, a partnership between students and La Casa Latina that organizes public events intended to culti­vate dialogue and understanding across all communities. She has served as vice president and president of Asociación Cultural de Estudiantes Latinoamericanos (ACELA), the oldest Latino student group at Penn.

Penn #19 in World Reputation Rankings
The University of Pennsylvania is ranked 19th this year in the second annual Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings. In 2011, the University ranked 22nd.

The Reputation Rankings complement the annual World University Rankings, published in the fall. The 2012 Reputation Rankings are based on a survey of academic opinion, featuring 17,554 respondents from 137 countries.

The invitation-only survey, carried out by Ipsos, has in the two years it has been running attracted almost 31,000 responses from senior, published scholars from 149 countries, providing a rich and unique insight into the academic prestige of universities across the globe.

Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education Rankings, said, “Only 100 universities are listed in our prestigious World Reputation Rankings—that is around 0.5 percent of the world’s higher education institutions—so those that feature in the list are part of an exclusive global elite of exceptionally powerful university brands.”

Afaf Meleis: International Think Tank on Health Education
Dr. Afaf I. Meleis, the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing, is co-chairing the Global Forum on Innovation in Health Education with Dr. Jordan J. Cohen, president emeritus of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) established the Global Forum on Innovation in Health Education to bring together educational leaders from academia, professional associations, and governments to share perspectives on instructional and institutional reform in the health professions.

The Forum is a result of the Lancet Commission’s “Health Professionals for a New Century: Transforming Education to Strengthen Health Systems in an Interdependent World,” co-authored by Dr. Meleis, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-IOM report on “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.”

Two Penn Alums: Luce Scholars
Two Penn alums, Aimee Bailey (EAS’06) and Abigail Seldin (C/G’09), have been named Luce Scholars. Launched by the Henry Luce Foundation, the program provides stipends, language training, and individualized professional placement in Asia for 15-18 Luce Scholars each year, and welcomes applications from college seniors, graduate students, and young professionals who have had limited exposure to Asia.

Dr. Bailey graduated from Penn in May of 2006 from the materials science and engineering department. She earned a PhD from Imperial College London in 2009. As a Luce Scholar, Dr. Bailey would like to apply her analytical skill set and energy expertise to the issue of sustainable urban development. She is interested in spending a year in a region experiencing rapid development and urbanization to gain a better understanding of the technological and policy pathways being considered for sustainable development.

Ms. Seldin graduated from Penn in May of 2009 with a BA in anthropology and archaeology and a MSc in anthropology. She has been pursuing a DPhil in social anthropology at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. As a Luce Scholar, Ms. Seldin intends to pursue placement in the cultural heritage and tourism industries in Asia.