APPOINTMENTS
- Robert A. Gleason Jr. (W'61) was appointed as a Commonwealth Trustee by Senator Robert Jubelirer, President Pro Tempore of the Pennsylvania Senate, effective this month for a term concurrent with Jubelrier's. Gleason is the Chairman and CEO of the insurance company, Gleason Agency, Inc., and former Secretary-Treasurer of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. Gleason has held previous posts at Penn, as vice president of the Alumni Society and on the School of Veterinary Medicine Board of Overseers.
- Bridgette Sancho (SW'98) has been named the Associate Director of Community and City Relations. Sancho was previously the special projects coordinator at Temple University's School of Social Administration, where she oversaw collaborations with universities and community-based organizations. She will assist the director in creation of special events in the community and increasing the number of Penn applicants from West Philadelphia. As part of quality-of-life improvements, she will help develop a new panhandling campaign along with initiatives to strengthen economic development in the community.
- Judith Tannenbaum has been appointed the interim director of the Institute of Contemporary Art. Tannenbaum, currently the associate director and curator of the ICA, will return to her post when the search committee makes its new selection. She was interim director for a period before former Director Patrick Murphy was hired. Currently, Tannenbaum also serves on the Mayor's Art Advisory Council and the art committee of the City of Philadelphia's Redevelopment Authority.
- Annabelle Pelta, Ph.D. (Gr'92) begins her service as Gregory College House Dean this month. Pelta comes to Penn from Temple University, where she served in the Music Preparatory Division at Esther Boyer College of Music. Pelta served as Director of the Italian Studies Summer Institute in Florence, a program co-sponsored by Penn's College of General Studies and Bryn Mawr College, from 1985 to 1989. She received numerous honors at Penn, including a Dean's Fellowship, a Penfield Travel Award and L'Aquila Research Grant for research in Italy and a Mellon Doctoral Fellowship. Pelta's fluency in Italian and reading knowledge of French, German, Spanish and Latin will be welcomed at Gregory College House, home to the Modern Languages Program.
- Amy Pollock has been named Hill College House Dean, starting in February. Pollock comes to Penn from Ramapo College in Mahwah, N. J., where she has served as director of student development since '92. She will be arriving from a winter session as the program director of the Study Abroad Program in London, a position she has held the past two years. Pollock holds a B.A. in behavioral and neural biology from Lehigh University and an M.A. in student personnel administration from the Teachers College of Columbia University. As an adjunct professor in the School of Theoretical and Applied Sciences at Ramapo, she designed and taught an upper-level psychology course that trains students to be peer facilitators and educators. She was also involved in campus-wide health education initiatives, judicial affairs, and community relations.