Build
Building trust with those we serve.
- Penn Experience
- Penn Quaker Commitment
- Penn Health Advantage
- Penn Works Better
Penn Forward
Penn Forward is a University-wide initiative to shape Penn’s future.
For nearly three centuries, Penn has adapted to the world’s changing needs—innovating in education, research, and service. Today, higher education stands at a pivotal moment, shaped by shifting funding, rapid advances in virtual learning and artificial intelligence, powerful new research tools, rising public skepticism, and expanded opportunities to reach learners worldwide and throughout their lives. Penn Forward brings focus and momentum to this moment. Explore the priority initiatives guiding our work and learn how these areas of focus came to be below.
Priority Initiatives
Penn Forward's initial nine priority initiatives target three objectives:
Discover
Enabling bold discovery.
- Penn Partners for Impact
- Penn AI
Extend
Extending Penn's geographic reach and impact across a lifetime.
- Penn Learning for Life
- Penn San Francisco
- Penn Global
Build
Penn Experience
Fostering belonging, purpose, and deep engagement for all students.
- What we’re working toward: A reimagined journey for undergraduate and graduate students that builds belonging, purpose, and core competencies for future success.
- Why it matters: Strengthens a shared Penn identity and delivers on the value promise of a Penn education.
- Leads: Russell Composto, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education; Kelly Jordan-Sciutto, Vice Provost for Graduate Education; Michael Scales, Vice President of Business Services
Penn Quaker Commitment
Clear costs. Predictable aid. No surprises.
- What we’re working toward: A redesigned approach to tuition and financial aid that simplifies costs and provides clear, predictable pricing.
- Why it matters: Pairs real structural change with transparent communication to ensure predictability and foster lasting trust with families.
- Leads: Whitney Soule, Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions; Mariana Valdes-Fauli, Associate Vice President of Student Registration and Financial Services
Penn Health Advantage
Making health and health care easier for Penn families.
- What we’re working toward: Redesigned health benefits and new employee-centered health services driven by continuous measurement and improvement.
- Why it matters: Supports the health and well-being of Penn employees and their families while reducing friction and lowering costs.
- Leads: David Asch, Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives; Mark Dingfield, Executive Vice President; Felicia Washington, Vice President of Human Resources
Penn Works Better
Simplifying work, clarifying accountability, reducing institutional risk.
- What we’re working toward: A coordinated university-wide effort to streamline administrative processes, strengthen risk management, reduce costs, and modernize how core services are delivered across Penn.
- Why it matters: Reduces administrative burden, improves consistency, reduces costs, and strengthens oversight.
- Lead: Tom Murphy, Senior Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer
Discover
Penn Partners for Impact
Advancing discovery for societal benefit through partnerships.
- What we’re working toward: A partner-forward business development approach to engaging with nonprofit, government, and industry organizations.
- Why it matters: Strengthens strategic partnerships, creates sustainable revenue streams, and expands Penn’s capacity to translate discovery into real-world impact.
- Leads: David Meaney, Vice Provost for Research; Michael Ostap, Senior Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer, Perelman School of Medicine; John Swartley, Chief Innovation Officer
Penn AI
AI in service of impact and human insight.
- What we’re working toward: Positioning Penn as a national leader in artificial intelligence with policies and partnerships that convert technological innovation into measurable impact.
- Why it matters: Places Penn at the forefront of reshaping research, care, and knowledge.
- Leads: Josh Beeman, Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer; Ezekiel Emanuel, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and Levy University Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School; David Meaney, Vice Provost for Research; Michael Ostap, Senior Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer, Perelman School of Medicine; Mitch Schnall, Senior Vice President for Data and Technology Solutions, University of Pennsylvania Health System
Extend
Penn Learning for Life
Connection and growth to support lifelong learning.
- What we’re working toward: A platform for teaching and learning that makes it easy for schools and faculty to find new markets for their content.
- Why it matters: Positions Penn to lead, differentiate, and serve learners from K–12 and onward in a $100 billion global market.
- Leads: Rebecca Hayward, Executive Director, Office of Academic Innovation, School of Engineering and Applied Science; Megan Ryerson, UPS Chair of Transportation and Chair of City & Regional Planning at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and School of Engineering and Applied Science
Penn San Francisco
A West Coast hub for education, business, innovation, and impact.
- What we’re working toward: A Bay Area–based center that broadens academic programming, venture creation, and alumni engagement.
- Why it matters: Expands Penn’s access to tech and investment leadership, opens possibilities for academic and philanthropy pathways, and offers an Asia-facing footprint.
- Leads: Eric Bradlow, Vice Dean for AI and Analytics at the Wharton School; Ben Dibling, Associate Vice Provost for Research and Managing Director of the Penn Center for Innovation; Lori Rosenkopf, Simon and Midge Palley Professor of Management and Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship, the Wharton School
Penn Global
Doubling down on Penn's engagement with the world.
- What we’re working toward: Building a stronger international presence that expands global access to Penn education and research and drives meaningful impact worldwide.
- Why it matters: Creates new platforms for partnership and alumni engagement and diversifies our geographic position.
- Leads: Amy Gadsden, Associate Vice Provost for Global Initiatives; Glen Gaulton, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Vice Dean and Director of the Center for Global Health
“Penn Forward empowers us to proactively shape our future and restore trust in the value we bring to society.”
Penn President J. Larry Jameson
A Look at How We Got Here
In September 2025, six working groups of faculty, staff, students, and postdoctoral scholars were convened and charged with challenging legacy assumptions and proposing bold, actionable strategies to advance Penn’s mission and strengthen operations. Their work generated more than 30 recommendations, nine of which have been prioritized for immediate action. Initiative leaders and cross‑functional teams—selected for their deep subject‑matter expertise and capacity to drive execution—are now guiding these priority initiatives into implementation. Additional recommendations will advance in subsequent phases. This page will be updated as the work progresses.
Penn Forward News
Browse Penn Forward news below or read more on Penn Today.
Penn Forward: Turning vision into action
In a Q&A, President J. Larry Jameson discusses how Penn Forward’s initial nine priority initiatives aim to build trust with the people Penn serves, enable bold discovery, and extend Penn’s reach geographically and across a lifetime.
From framework to actions: Provost John L. Jackson Jr. talks Penn Forward
In a Q&A, Provost John L. Jackson Jr. explains the relationship between the strategic framework In Principle and Practice and Penn Forward—a new University-wide process and action plan that will advance Penn forward for the next decade and beyond.
Penn Forward: Sarah Rottenberg applies design thinking for strategic University initiative
Rottenberg, executive director of the Integrated Product Design Program and an adjunct associate professor in the Weitzman School, collaborated with three Penn Forward working groups to optimize idea development.
The research landscape is changing. Penn Forward’s Research Strategy co-chairs are ready to adapt
As co-chairs of the Penn Forward Research Strategy and Financing working group, David Meaney, vice provost for research, and Michael Ostap, chief scientific officer of the Perelman School of Medicine, are collaborating to expand Penn’s research impact.
Frequently asked questions
Penn Forward is a strategic initiative to reshape how the University fulfills its missions of education, research, and service in a rapidly changing world. We are not starting from scratch, but we are not tinkering at the margins either. The effort will examine fundamental aspects of how Penn operates, how we engage with learners, how we generate knowledge, and how we sustain excellence. Our goal is to design a future for Penn that is academically vibrant, financially viable, publicly engaged, and organizationally sound.
No. In Principle and Practice remains our strategic foundation. Penn Forward is how we put that framework into motion—developing the structures, investments, and commitments necessary to deliver on its vision.
Many of the forces affecting higher education today, such as declining public trust, skepticism about cost and value, increasing regulatory complexity, and unstable research funding, have been building for years. Others, like the rapid emergence of generative AI, have arrived more suddenly. In this shifting landscape, Penn has an opportunity and a responsibility to help define what excellence in higher education looks like for the decades ahead. That means acting now, and with intention.
Penn Forward has been organized and set in motion by the President, the Provost, and the Executive Vice President with direct support from faculty and staff leaders. Each of the six topical domains has working group leads—members of the Penn community with deep knowledge and institutional experience. Those working groups are at the heart of the initiative, and will lead the process. They comprise faculty, staff, senior leaders and thinkers, students and post-doctoral scholars in regular consultation with the organizers and the University Board of Trustees. The overall effort is coordinated by Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and John Morgan Professor, David A. Asch, and Senior Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer, Thomas Murphy.
Working groups are composed to reflect a wide range of perspectives, and there will be structured opportunities for engagement, feedback, and idea-sharing throughout the fall. We recognize that Penn is a pluralistic institution, and good strategy must emerge through dialogue and deliberation.
Each school has its own ambitious strategic plan that advances the aspirations put forward in In Principle and Practice. Those more discipline-specific plans continue to complement and work in harmony with Penn Forward.