The Penn Fellows Program provides leadership development to select Penn faculty in mid-career.
Begun in 2009, it includes opportunities to build networks across the university, meet with distinguished academic leaders, think strategically about university governance, and participate in monthly dinners with prominent speakers, from within Penn and beyond.
2009 Penn Fellows
Eric Bradlow, K.P. Chao Professor and Professor of Marketing and Statistics, Wharton School
Prof. Bradlow specializes in applying statistical models to both high-level mathematical problems and real-world topics, such as hit songs, grocery store coupons, Internet search engines, and, in a widely read New York Times Op-Ed essay, the career of baseball player Roger Clemens. He is Editor-in-Chief of Marketing Science; co-director and co-founder of the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative; and winner of more than twenty Wharton teaching awards.
Charles Branas, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, School of Medicine; Co-Director, Cartographic Modeling Laboratory
Prof. Branas specializes in researching and advocating for improvements to public health, especially reducing gun violence and improving emergency and trauma care. His work has been widely cited in national media, and he has led numerous federally funded studies into vital public health issues. A Philadelphia native, he trained as an EMS provider with the Philadelphia and Baltimore fire departments; worked for the US Public Health Service; and in 2007 was elected President of the Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research.
Robert Carpick, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, School of Engineering and Applied Science; Penn Director, Nanotechnology Institute
Prof. Carpick, an expert in nanotechnology, specializes in the study of tribology (friction) at the atomic or molecular scale. His research uses experimental techniques to explore friction’s nature and origins, and its connections to the structural, chemical, mechanical, vibrational, and electronic properties of materials. Since September 2007, he has been Penn Director of the Nanotechnology Institute, a multi-institutional entity, funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, that advances commercial applications of nanotechnology through industry-university partnerships.
Marybeth Gasman, Associate Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education
Prof. Gasman, a historian of education, specializes in issues of leadership, fundraising, and philanthropy at historically African-American colleges. She has also worked directly with a wide range of universities to improve their outreach to African-American alumni. She received the 2006 Promising Scholar/Early Career Award from the Society of Higher Education, and the 2008 Excellence in Teaching Award from GSE students.
John Jackson, Jr., Richard Perry University Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication and School of Arts and Sciences; Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor
Prof. Jackson, an anthropologist by training, is a leading authority on racial identity in America, from fieldwork in Harlem and Brooklyn to a current project on Black Jews in the United States and Israel. He works across a range of media, including scholarly books, a radio show, seven films (combining fiction and non-fiction), a blog in The Chronicle of Higher Education, and his own blog, “From the Annals of Anthroman.”
Joshua Metlay, Associate Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine
Prof. Metlay’s research focuses on respiratory tract infections and treatments, especially patterns of resistance to antibiotics; risk factors for the spread of drug-resistant respiratory infections; and optimal practices to improve the use of antibiotics in the treatment of acute respiratory infections. Co-director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Penn, he is a 2008 winner of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, Penn’s highest teaching honor.
Sharon Thompson-Schill, Professor of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences
Prof. Thompson-Schill’s research focuses on the neurological basis of memory and language, including both normal cognition and cognition in those suffering from stroke, degenerative diseases, and congenital blindness. Recently elected a national board member of the Association for Psychological Science, she is a 2006 winner of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, Penn’s highest teaching honor, described by one of her nominators as “as close to being a perfect teacher as anyone I have seen.”
Sarah Tishkoff, David and Lyn Silfen University Associate Professor, School of Medicine and School of Arts and Sciences; Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor
Prof. Tishkoff, an expert in human genetics, works primarily in Africa, where she has compiled the world’s most extensive DNA database, representing more than 7000 Africans from more than 100 ethnic groups. Her research examines how genetic variations and genetic diversity affect such critical issues as human susceptibility to disease, metabolism of drugs, and evolutionary adaptation. She has won a Packard Career Award, a Burroughs/Wellcome Fund Career Award, and in 2003 was named one of Popular Science Magazine’s “Brilliant 10” American scientists.