Trevor C. Lewis: Vice President of Budget and Management Analysis
President Amy Gutmann and EVP Craig Carnaroli have announced the appointment of Trevor C. Lewis as the University’s Vice President for Budget and Management Analysis, effective July 1. He will succeed Bonnie Gibson who has been in that role since 2003 (Almanac November 16, 2004) and is retiring at the end of June.
In his current role, as the chief of academic finance and planning for the Office of the Provost, Mr. Lewis has direct responsibility for finance, budget, human resources, space and administration for approximately 40 administrative units, staff of 1,050, and $150 million in budget resources. With over 20 years of leadership experience in higher education, he brings his expertise in long-range strategic, financial and capital planning, budgeting, space planning, human resources management, organizational development, project management and systems implementation.
In making this announcement, Mr. Carnaroli and President Gutmann noted that, “Trevor is well known across campus and has a solid reputation as a trusted advisor and leader. As a member of the Provost’s Senior Management Group, Trevor provides advice and counsel to the Provost on many academic initiatives and opportunities. He provides leadership in support of strategic University priorities through facilitation and collaboration resulting in the optimal use of central resources, ensuring both short and long term financial flexibility. Trevor serves as the Provost’s primary budget liaison to the University’s 12 schools and seven resource and administrative centers.”
Mr. Lewis joined the Office of the Provost in 2005 (Almanac October 18, 2005) as the chief of academic finance and planning, where he’s been a key contributor on many projects including the Penn Wharton China Center, the Penn Center for Innovation, the Online Learning Initiative, and most recently, the Human Capital Management project.
He has served as acting senior associate dean for finance and administration for the Wharton School (2005) and acting vice dean for finance and administration with the School of Arts and Science (2012).
He began his career with Penn as an assistant wrestling coach in 1995. In 1997 he joined the Wharton School where he held a number of roles with increasing financial responsibility including comptroller and director of administrative affairs. At Wharton, he was an integral part of key initiatives including the completion of Huntsman Hall, a $140 million project; the development of the School’s cash flow model for Wharton’s $450 million capital campaign; the establishment of Wharton San Francisco; and the restructuring of Wharton executive education finance department.
Prior to his career at Penn, Mr. Lewis competed internationally for the United States, pursuing a spot on the US Olympic Wrestling Team and finishing fourth in the 1996 US Olympic Trials.
He earned a BSE in 1988 in civil engineering with a joint degree in architecture and engineering from Princeton University and in 1990 he earned his MBA in management from Lehigh University.
$9.25 Million Grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to Study Cellular Mechanisms of Concussion and Ways to Improve Recovery
The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation announced that it has awarded a $9.25 million grant to Penn researchers to study the underlying mechanisms of concussion and help uncover potential clinical interventions that could improve recovery.
The grant was awarded to a team of researchers led by David F. Meaney, the Solomon R. Pollack professor and chair of bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Douglas H. Smith, the director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair and the Robert A. Groff professor of neurosurgery in the Perelman School of Medicine. The interdisciplinary project takes a comprehensive and data-driven look at what happens to the brain during and after concussion, with the potential to transform fields of research and clinical care of brain injury.
Launched in 1988 by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and his sister Jody Allen, the Allen family’s philanthropy is dedicated to changing the trajectory of people’s lives and strengthening communities by nurturing the arts, engaging children in learning, addressing the needs of vulnerable populations, and advancing scientific and technological discoveries. Since its creation, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation has awarded over $469 million to more than 1,400 nonprofit groups to support and advance their critical charitable endeavors in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
This new funding for brain science research reflects Mr. Allen’s longstanding commitment to advancing scientific discovery and our understanding of the human brain. There is a surprising lack of basic research on the cellular mechanisms involved in concussions and the intent of this grant is to provide better data and research, which will be made openly available to the scientific community. Instead of viewing concussions as stemming from a single mechanism, this work will uncover how cellular events will combine and influence concussion recovery pathways.
The philanthropists believes this research, if successful, could bring a paradigm shift to understanding traumatic brain injuries, leading to more effective methods of preventing and treating concussions.
“We are thrilled to be the recipients of this grant and to have the resources to address the fundamentals of concussion science in a new way,” said Dr. Meaney. “We have assembled a diverse team of experts in many fields across several academic institutions to take a comprehensive approach to the problem, and are very grateful for the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation’s bold vision to accelerate concussion science and treatment.”
The goal of the project is to understand the nature of concussions by taking a network approach that looks at the concussion’s impact across many scales in the brain, including neural circuit connectivity, multiple cell types, blood flow, and the importance of the blood-brain barrier.
“In particular, we hope to decipher how the brain can re-route signals to bring its network back on line after a concussion,” said Dr. Smith.
The research team will combine studies in living systems with data-driven approaches that will provide insight into mechanisms of damage associated with concussion, as well as what leads to successful brain repair. Because individual cases of concussion vary so widely, capturing data at the level of cells, circuits, blood flow, and metabolism will help to make sense of the concussion’s diverse outcomes and help uncover potential clinical interventions to improve recovery.
PennDesign 2017 Teaching Awards
Perkins Distinguished Teaching Award for Standing Faculty
Randy Mason, associate professor of historic preservation and department chair, teaches courses on historic preservation planning, urban conservation, history and cultural landscape studies. Dr. Mason’s research interests include theory and methods of preservation planning, cultural policy, the economics of preservation, historic site management and the history of historic preservation. He leads the Center for Research on Preservation and Society, which undertakes applied research projects on site management and on social, economic and political aspects of historic preservation. Dr. Mason was awarded the 2012-2013 National Endowment for the Arts Rome Prize and has served and the Executive Director of PennPraxis since 2014. He was recently named to the City of Philadelphia Historic Preservation Task Force. A student said, “I appreciate Professor Mason’s method of orchestrating the class to encourage students to develop their own viewpoints while engaging with the field’s literature and contemporary practice.” Another student said, “Dr. Mason is passionate and it shows. He encouraged us to think on our own and prompted us to explore.”
Perkins Distinguished Teaching Award for Non-Standing Faculty
Michael Luegering is a lecturer in landscape architecture and senior project manager with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA)where he is currently contributing to garden and campus work at Princeton University as well as territorial scale planning work in Houston, Texas. He earned a Master of Landscape Architecture with distinction from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, where he was awarded the Thesis Prize in Landscape Architecture for his work: Vernacular Pasture Lands | The Rural Design Almanac. He teaches in the media sequence at PennDesign with Keith Van Der Sys, focusing on territorial scale workflows and the demystification of data sources and data synthesis.
A student said, “Michael is a great teacher who clearly cares about us and has a love for the topic he’s teaching.” Another student said, “Michael was highly knowledgeable about the material we were working with, the larger implications of the processes we were utilizing, and sympathetic to our struggles with the difficulty of the material.
Perkins Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award
This year’s recipient is Sharka Hyland, senior lecturer in fine arts. Ms. Hyland teaches courses on visual communication and visual studies. Her text-based drawings have been exhibited in solo and group shows in the US and abroad, including the Martin Kudlek Gallery in Cologne, Germany and at Galerie Bernard Jordan in Paris. Ms. Hyland consistently challenges her students in her teaching and provides expertise on the subjects of book design and typography. Her contributions support our undergraduate majors and create curricular linkages between our department, the School of Design and related programs of the University. A student said, “She challenged my way of thinking but made me eager to learn and improve. Her impressive experience, talent and comprehensive knowledge of the field makes her a force to be reckoned with. She is fair and generous, and pushes students to accomplish more than they thought they could.” Another said, “Sharka pushes you past the boundaries you set for yourself because she sees the potential in everyone and is always there to help you reach it.”
These awards were presented by Frederick Steiner, dean of the School of Design, at the School of Design Awards Ceremony on May 14 in Meyerson Hall. The G. Holmes Perkins Teaching Awards recognize distinguished teaching and innovation in the classroom, seminar or studio.
Six members of the Penn Law faculty are being recognized this year for excellence in teaching.
Jean Galbraith, by virtue of a vote taken among the members of the J.D. Class of 2017, receives the Harvey Levin Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence.
William Ewald, by virtue of a vote taken among the members of the L.L.M. Class of 2017, receives the L.L.M. Teaching Award.
Cathie Struve is the recipient of the A. Leo Levin Award for Excellence in an Introductory Course.
Shyam Balganesh is awarded the Robert A. Gorman Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Judge Kent A. Jordan and Matthew Pearson (member of the Penn Law Class of 2005) receive the Adjunct Teaching Award.
GSE Excellence in Teaching Award
Howard Stevenson is the recipient of the GSE Excellence in Teaching Award. Dr. Stevenson is the Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education and executive director of the Racial Empowerment Collaborative. His students have noted his genuine and supportive approach, his balanced perspective, and his devotion to matters of racial literacy and racial empowerment.
Mary Ersek: New Endowed Term Chair at Penn Nursing
Mary Ersek, professor of palliative care in the department of biobehavioral health sciences, has been appointed the new Killebrew-Censits Chair in Undergraduate Education effective July 1.
Dr. Ersek also holds a clinical appointment with the Philadelphia Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, where most recently, she served as director of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ PROMISE Center, a national quality improvement program aimed at enhancing the quality of end-of-life care and outcomes for veterans across 150 medical centers. She is a national and international expert on pain and palliative care for older adults, with an emphasis on the nursing home setting. Dr. Ersek has a successful record of funding from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, and the National Institutes of Health, and is well published in her area of expertise resulting in her service on the IOM Expert Panel on Advanced Dementia; chair of the National Nursing Research Field Advisory Committee of the VHA; and Editorial Board member of the Journal of Palliative Medicine. She is a Fellow in both the American Academy of Nursing and Palliative Care Nursing from the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA). She is the also the recipient of the Distinguished Research Award from the HPNA.
Dr. Ersek’s teaching and mentoring reputation garnered her the Dean’s Award for Exemplary Teaching in 2011. She is a leader in interdisciplinary geriatric palliative care education, and is the author of the original End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Geriatric Curriculum.
In 1991, Pedie Killebrew, a member of Penn Nursing’s Board of Overseers from 1987-2010, joined with fellow Overseer Richard Censits to create the Killbrew-Censits Chair in Undergraduate Education. Together, their funding provided support for “a faculty member who makes outstanding contributions to education.”
Nancy Bentley: Donald T. Regan Professor of English
Dean Steven J. Fluharty is pleased to name Nancy Bentley the Donald T. Regan Professor of English in Penn Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Bentley is a distinguished scholar of American literary and cultural studies. Her work, including the monographs Frantic Panoramas: American Literature and Mass Culture 1870-1920 and The Ethnography of Manners, examines and contextualizes American literature and culture in unprecedented interdisciplinary ways.
The recipient of a Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (Almanac April 17, 2007), Dr. Bentley has also taught and written about the history of American and African American literature, and she is currently writing a book on New World kinship and the American novel. Her service includes her work as chair of the department of English as well as her membership on the Faculty Senate’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility and the Penn Arts and Sciences Personnel Committee.
This professorship is named for the late Donald T. Regan, HON’72 who had an impressive career as an executive at Merrill Lynch, secretary of the treasury, and chief of staff for President Ronald Reagan. He also served as chair of the University’s Board of Trustees. The chair was established by Merrill Lynch and the friends of the late Mr. Regan in 1981 to recognize a distinguished scholar in English who has a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching, particularly the teaching of writing. This chair reflects Mr. Regan’s interest in the English language and his belief that the development of a student’s use of language is one of the most important ends of higher education.
José-Víctor Ríos-Rull: Lawrence R. Klein Professor of Economics
Dean Steven J. Fluharty is pleased to name José-Víctor Ríos-Rull the Lawrence R. Klein Professor of Economics in SAS.
Dr. Ríos-Rull is an influential scholar whose work is shaping the fields of macroeconomics as it informs discourse on economic policy in the US and other high-income economies. His research builds quantitative macroeconomic models with heterogeneous households and applies them to questions about international capital flows, bankruptcy, asset prices and demand-driven business cycle fluctuations. He is also concerned about the interrelations between demographics and macroeconomics.
This chair was created in 1991 in honor of Lawrence R. Klein, a Benjamin Franklin Professor Emeritus of Economics and Nobel laureate in economic sciences. His work provided the foundation for econometric forecasting now used as a basic tool by government and industry. The chair is awarded to scholars who will continue the tradition of superlative teaching and research established by Dr. Klein, who passed away in 2013.
Ronald P. DeMatteo: Chair of Surgery at PSOM
Ronald P. DeMatteo has been named chair of the department of surgery in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine.
Dr. DeMatteo is a surgical oncologist who is nationally recognized for his expertise in treating liver, gallbladder and bile duct and pancreatic diseases, and abdominal sarcomas. He will join Penn July 1, where he completed his surgical residency and postdoctoral fellowship, from 20 years at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he most recently served as the vice chair of the department of surgery and head of the division of general surgical oncology. He is also a professor of surgery and an associate dean at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
He will lead a department which includes 130 faculty across 11 divisions who provide advanced patient care and conduct a robust portfolio of basic science and clinical research.
“We’re excited to have Dr. DeMatteo return to Penn and take the helm of our department of surgery,” said J. Larry Jameson, dean of PSOM and EVP for the Health System. “He is an exceptional choice to lead our team of talented clinicians and researchers as they continue to provide the highest level of care to patients, and forge new ground in the crucial research necessary to develop the next generation of surgical innovations.”
Over the course of his career, Dr. DeMatteo has made significant research advances in the development of therapies to help prevent tumors from returning after surgery. He has served as the principal investigator on three national trials of the adjuvant drug Imatinib following surgery to remove gastrointestinal stromal tumors, leading to approval by the US Food and Drug Administration and a new standard of care for the disease worldwide. His clinical and laboratory research has resulted in a substantial body of scholarly work in high-impact journals including the Lancet, Lancet Oncology, Nature Medicine, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. His research has been supported by $17 million in funding, including several grants from the NIH and generous gifts from patients and philanthropic foundations. A well-respected educator, he was the director of the surgical oncology fellowship program for seven years and has mentored more than 135 clinical and laboratory fellows.
“The department of surgery at Penn Medicine has a storied past, built on the commitment to delivering exceptional patient care, providing pre-eminent training, and uncovering new knowledge,” said Ralph W. Muller, CEO of UPHS. “Dr. DeMatteo’s outstanding track record of leadership and advancements in oncological surgery will ensure an equally bright future as a national patient care leader.”
Dr. DeMatteo earned his undergraduate degree in natural sciences from Johns Hopkins University, and his medical degree from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He completed his residency training in general surgery and two postdoctoral fellowships in molecular biology and virology, and immunology and transplantation at HUP before a fellowship in surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. DeMatteo also completed a research fellowship at Memorial Hospital in New York.
The Penn Medicine department of surgery dates back to 1765, when Penn’s medical school was founded. Since then, it has been recognized for extraordinary contributions to surgery and surgical research, including many American surgery “firsts.” Today, the department’s standing and associated faculty operate at 10 sites and see outpatients at nine locations in southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. The continuing generosity of Penn’s benefactors has provided the department with one of the largest endowments for research in the country.
Bekir Karabucak: Chair of Endodontics at Dental Medicine
Dr. Karabucak, associate professor of endodontics, had been serving as interim chair of the department since October 2014.
“Throughout his career at Penn Dental Medicine, Dr. Karabucak has developed a reputation as an outstanding clinician, educator, and enthusiastic leader,” said Dean Denis Kinane, when announcing the appointment. “I look forward to the continuing legacy of Penn Dental Medicine’s esteemed department of endodontics under Dr. Karabucak’s leadership.”
Dr. Karabucak has been a member of the Penn Dental Medicine faculty since 1998. He joined the department of endodontics as a lecturer upon completion of his postdoctoral training in endodontics at Penn Dental Medicine, advancing to the Standing Faculty as assistant professor in 2002 and associate professor in 2011. Originally from Turkey, Dr. Karabucak holds a DDS from Istanbul University and earned his DMD and MS in oral biology from Penn Dental Medicine as well.
Since 2011, Dr. Karabucak has been director of the postdoctoral endodontics program at Penn Dental Medicine, while also serving as the director of the school’s division of advanced dental education since 2012. He will continue to hold both of these roles in addition to the chairmanship.
Along with his teaching and administrative appointments, Dr. Karabucak, a diplomate of the American Board of Endodontics, is a practicing endodontist in the Penn Dental Family Practice and an attending physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Karabucak presents lectures nationally and internationally with particular focus on the topics of endodontic microsurgery, bioceramics, and regenerative endodontics.
The Penn Dental Medicine department of endodontics has established itself as leader in the integration of the operating microscope into conventional, and particularly, surgical endodontic education and practice. Along with the postdoctoral endodontics program, which accepts eight residents each year, the department has an international program, an advanced continuing education program designed specially for general dentists practicing in other countries who wish to sharpen their skills in endodontics; since 1993, the department has also opened its doors to current practitioners through its Microscope Training Center that provides intensive two-day continuing education seminars and one-on-one hands-on training in both microendodontics and microsurgery.
Extension of Grace Calhoun’s Appointment as Director of Athletics and Recreation
Provost Vincent Price announced that the appointment of M. Grace Calhoun, director of Athletics and Recreation at the University of Pennsylvania, has been extended to 2022.
“This extension,” said Provost Price, “testifies to Grace Calhoun’s extraordinary leadership over the past three years. She is fostering athletic success while reaffirming the vital connections between Penn Athletics and our campus-wide values of community, work-life balance and overall mental and physical health. Above all, she is committed to making athletics and recreation an ever more integral part of the experience of every Penn student—and of every member of the Penn community. I am confident that, in the years ahead, she will continue to advance Penn’s place at the forefront of university athletics and recreation programs around the world.”
Since 2014 (Almanac April 1, 2014), Dr. Calhoun leads the University’s 33 varsity athletics programs, nearly 40 club sports and broad-based intramural and recreational offerings for students, faculty and staff. During her tenure, among many highlights, there have been 13 Ivy League team championships, 106 first-team All-Ivy players, 92 individual NCAA qualifiers, 49 Ivy individual champions, 52 All-Americans, 13 Ivy Players of the Year, 11 Ivy Coaches of the Year and one Rhodes Scholar.
“I am humbled and honored to continue my service at Penn,” Dr. Calhoun said. “I want to thank President Gutmann, Provost Price and EVP Carnaroli for their leadership, friendship and continued support of Penn Athletics and Recreation. Our varsity programs are experiencing competitive success and winning championships, our student-athletes benefit from programming that develops them holistically, and we are engaging the community through spirited intercollegiate events and robust recreational programs, all as a result of our talented and committed students, coaches and staff. I look forward to leading Penn Athletics and Recreation to even higher levels of eminence in the future.”
Penn Athletics has increased competitiveness during Dr. Calhoun’s tenure, winning six conference championships to date in 2016-17 (which ranks third all-time in a single year), while still achieving academic distinctions and offering a second-to-none student-athlete experience. In the most recent NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) announcement, Penn ranked fourth nationally, with 17 teams rated in the top 10 percent of their sport.
Dr. Calhoun has developed and implemented the “Champion Your Life” campaign for Penn Athletics, emphasizing five core values: Character First, Aiming Big, Humility, Enjoyment, and Community Matters. She has launched a Student Development division to enhance the student-athlete experience through holistic programming in academics and life skills and the Penn Athletics Wharton Leadership Academy to foster leadership development for Penn student-athletes. Working closely with Penn Medicine, the Sports Performance division is becoming a national leader in using cutting-edge new technologies for the training, conditioning, and injury prevention of student-athletes.
Appointed this year to the NCAA Division I Council and winner of the 2009 Nell Jackson Administrator of the Year Award from the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators, Dr. Calhoun came to Penn from Loyola University in Chicago, following earlier leadership positions.
Graduate Student Center and Family Resource Center
Vice Provost for Education Beth Winkelstein announces new leadership at the Graduate Student Center and Family Resource Center.
Shaina Adams-El Guabli has been appointed director of the Graduate Student Center. She has been associate director of the Center since 2012 and previously served as program & outreach coordinator at the Penn Women’s Center and an overseas program manager at Penn Abroad. She earned an MSEd in intercultural communication from the Graduate School of Education in 2011 and a BA from Trinity University.
Jessica Allen Bolker has been appointed director of the Family Resource Center, which serves students and postdoctoral fellows with children. She joined the Family Resource Center in 2010 and has been associate director for the last five years. She earned a Master of Liberal Arts and certificate in Nonprofit Administration from the College of Liberal and Professional Studies in 2016 and a BA from the College of New Jersey.
Anita Mastroieni, who led the Graduate Student Center (Almanac July 17, 2001) and the Family Resource Center (Almanac December 8, 2009) since their inception, is now executive director of graduate education and initiatives in the Office of the Provost.
“The Grad Center and the Family Center are vital resources for our graduate and professional students,” said Vice Provost Winkelstein. “We are delighted to bring new leadership to these Centers that will provide both continuity and fresh ideas in support of our students. I look forward to working with these new leaders to continue to enhance the experiences of our graduate and professional students on campus.”