Office of the Dean

I take great pride in announcing this year's recipients of the Penn Medicine Awards of Excellence. The distinguished awardees exemplify our profession's highest values of scholarship, teaching, innovation, commitment to service, leadership, and dedication to patient care. They epitomize the preeminence and impact we all strive to achieve.

As we begin a new academic year, it is timely to reflect on the changing educational landscape. Within our thriving academic medical center, education remains our defining mission and is a pillar of our five-year strategic plan, Shaping the Future of Medicine 2.0. In this brief message, I will share with you some of the ways we are advancing medical education at Penn to adapt to the rapidly changing healthcare environment and to meet the needs of future physicians and biomedical scientists.

It is our pleasure to announce that Penn Medicine hospitals have once again been named among the top hospitals in the nation and #1 in the state of Pennsylvania by U.S. News & World Report in the magazine’s annual “Best Hospitals” rankings.

We write to share the exciting news that Penn this week entered into a formal alliance with the Vingroup to improve health care and to create new undergraduate and graduate medical training programs in Vietnam. The alliance is positioned to extend our global reach through the creation of a new Center of Regional Engagement in Southeast Asia.

I am delighted to announce the appointment of E. John Wherry, PhD, for a six-year term as Chair of the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics (SPATT), effective July 1. Dr. Wherry is the Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor in the Department of Microbiology and an international leader in the study of T cell exhaustion, which prevents optimal control of infections and can hamper anti-tumor immune responses.

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Jody J. Foster, MD, MBA, as the first Assistant Dean for Professionalism in Penn Medicine. Dr. Foster’s appointment to this newly created position advances the Campaign for Professionalism, which is being led by Dr. Lisa Bellini, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs.

In this season of renewal, we celebrate the graduation of students, welcome back our alumni, and begin a new Capital Campaign -- The Power of Penn. In this brief communication, I want to express my admiration and gratitude to all of you who make Penn Medicine the best place in the world to learn, discover, or receive care. Below, I share a few highlights from the past year to justify this statement.

We are pleased to announce that Benjamin Sun, MD, MPP, FACEP, has been appointed chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Sun is an emergency physician and federally funded health services researcher who is nationally recognized for his expertise in the areas of safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness in health care.

Good morning. I am Larry Jameson, the Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. It is great to see this huge turnout -- and everyone is here to celebrate YOU, the Class of 2018.

We are pleased to announce that the Blavatnik Family Foundation is directing a $2 million gift to create the Blavatnik Family Fellowship in Biomedical Research in the Penn Biomedical Graduate Studies Program.

We are pleased to announce the reappointment of Dr. Frances Jensen for a second six-year term as Chair of the Department of Neurology. Under her leadership, the Department has thrived, with robust clinical activity, excellent research programs, and highly competitive educational programs.

We are writing to inform you about an exciting new Wharton-PSOM partnership to co-create and deliver non-degree granting Executive Education in the areas of healthcare management and delivery, leadership development in academic health centers and health systems, and healthcare innovation.

At Penn Medicine, professionalism is a core value within our institutional culture, fostering an environment of trust and teamwork. Penn Medicine is committed to maintaining the highest standards of professionalism. We should always aspire to continuous improvement. In pursuit of this goal, I am pleased to announce the launch of a new initiative, the Campaign for Professionalism, which is being led by Lisa Bellini, MD, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs.

We are pleased to announce the reappointment of Dr. Mitchell Schnall for a second six-year term as Chair of the Department of Radiology. The reappointment follows a review process affirming that, under Dr. Schnall's leadership, the Department is on an exceptional trajectory, with strong nationally recognized programs across all areas of the academic and clinical missions.

Protecting patient information is a top priority at Penn Medicine and one that requires all of us to play our part. Indeed, a key component of delivering top quality care to our patients is also taking care to protect the privacy and security of their information. We all must know the "do's and don't s" for keeping data secure, the services and tools available to assist, and where to direct any questions or concerns.

The Academy of Master Clinicians was launched in 2013 to recognize those Penn Medicine clinicians who exemplify the highest standards of clinical excellence, humanism, and professionalism. We are proud and delighted to announce the new members of the Academy and look forward to continuing to expand this group with additional outstanding individuals in the coming years.

As you may recall, we have chosen to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., with an annual symposium on Health Equity. Our program this year is especially significant, and we write to remind you that we will come together as a community on next Wednesday, January 24, as we welcome Dr. Howard Koh, former Assistant Secretary of Health, as our fourth annual MLK Speaker. In our professional lifetimes, we cannot remember a more pivotal moment in our journey for health equity.

We’re delighted to announce that the Princeton HealthCare System has officially joined Penn Medicine. Completion of this effort, which included a series of regulatory approvals over the past year, has further solidified Penn Medicine’s position as the leader in providing comprehensive care on both sides of the Delaware River.

The New Year is an appropriate time to resolve to promote clinician vitality and foster well-being. To that end, we write to share a statement submitted at the close of last year in support of the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience.

With 2017 coming to a close, I want to thank you sincerely for the great work you have done to make this a truly memorable and impactful year at Penn Medicine. Together, we have reached some remarkable milestones.

The gene therapy developed by Dr. Jean Bennett and her team for treatment of a rare, inherited form of retinal blindness -- Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) -- was approved today by the FDA. This milestone marks the nation's first gene therapy approved for the treatment of a genetic disease and the first in which a new, corrective gene is injected directly into a patient.

The 2018 Penn's Way campaign officially drew to a close on November 10, and we are proud to announce that this year's effort raised nearly $1.8 million -- including a record $1.1 million through the generosity of Penn Medicine employees -- to support the crucial work of charitable organizations and community service initiatives throughout our region. We are grateful to be part of a community with such an inspiring spirit of giving.

We are proud to share that thanks to the dedication, commitment, and industriousness of students in the Perelman School of Medicine, the student-led effort to help those affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria raised more than $27,000. These funds have been matched by Penn Medicine, totaling more than $55,000 in contributions.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Suzanne (Suzi) Rose, MD, MSEd, will assume the role as the Senior Vice Dean for Medical Education at the Perelman School of Medicine, effective February 15, 2018. This search process and appointment follows several years of collaborative succession planning with Gail Morrison, who has led the Perelman School of Medicine to its current position of eminence.

I take great pride in sharing with you the wonderful news that five of our colleagues in the Perelman School of Medicine have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine: Lewis A. Chodosh, MD, PhD (Department of Cancer Biology); Christos Coutifaris, MD, PhD (Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology); Maria A. Oquendo, MD, PhD (Department of Psychiatry), Michael S. Parmacek, MD (Department of Medicine); and Flaura K. Winston, MD, PhD (Department of Pediatrics).

I am pleased to share with you Penn Medicine's new Strategic Plan -- Shaping the Future of Medicine 2.0: The Next Era of Innovation and Impact (2018-2023). As each of you appreciate, academic medicine faces dynamic change in each of our mission areas. While much of this change is induced by the external environment, we are in a unique leadership position to shape the field and insure that we adapt proactively to new opportunities and challenges.

We are pleased to announce the reappointment of Dr. Ezekiel (Zeke) Emanuel for a second six-year term as Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy.

We are pleased to announce the reappointment of Dr. Timothy R. Dillingham for a second six-year term as Chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. The reappointment follows a review process that included an extensive self-study, followed by an internal committee review and an external review by three leaders in the field.

This week Penn Medicine and the University launched our annual workplace charitable giving campaign, Penn's Way, which will run until November 10. We can all help Penn Medicine and the University achieve its goal.

I take great pleasure and pride in announcing this year's recipients of the Penn Medicine Awards of Excellence. The distinguished awardees exemplify our profession's highest values of scholarship, teaching, innovation, commitment to service, leadership, and dedication to patient care.

The literature is replete with evidence of high rates of burnout among physicians, scientists, students, and staff who work in healthcare. While Faculty at Penn Medicine have contributed to this literature, we are certainly not exempt from the factors that lead to burnout. At Penn Medicine, we are deeply committed to engaging faculty with innovative programs that maximize well-being, enhance productivity, and make us a preferred place to work.

The CAR T-cell therapy developed by Dr. Carl June and his team recently took a giant step forward at the FDA, where it was supported unanimously by an expert panel as the first-ever genetically targeted, cell-based therapy for the treatment of cancer. This achievement has been hailed as opening a new era in medicine.

I know that it is impractical for most of you to attend the graduation ceremonies. For that reason, I want to take this opportunity to share some lessons I learned from our speakers, and express my appreciation to all of you for all that we have accomplished in the last year

I am writing to share with you a recent Grand Rounds presentation to the Department of Medicine. The talk, which is titled "Shaping the Future of Medicine 2.0," focuses on the tremendous momentum Penn Medicine has achieved over the past five years and our planning process for the future. Owing to the quality of our faculty, students, and staff, the breadth and depth of our accomplishments are truly remarkable. I hope you will take a moment to reflect on them.

It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of Daniel P. Kelly, MD, as the new Director of the Penn Cardiovascular Institute, effective August 2017. Dr. Kelly, a longtime faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis, joins Penn from the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona, FL, where he has served as the founding Scientific Director. Dr. Kelly is nationally renowned for his work on mitochondrial function, with emphasis on heart failure and diabetes.

We are pleased to announce the reappointment of George Cotsarelis, MD, for a second six-year term as Chair of the Department of Dermatology. Under Dr. Cotsarelis's strong leadership, the Department has evolved from being a leading department to arguable one of the top Departments of Dermatology in the country.

As the New Year begins, I want to express my aspirations for Penn Medicine and highlight some of the reasons I am optimistic about 2017. As an Academic Medical Center, we are facing forces of enormous positive change. Scientific discoveries are disrupting traditional paradigms for how we understand circadian biology, epigenetics, the microbiome, neuroscience, immunology, and cancer metabolism, among other areas.

As I reflect on the recent election and events that have unfolded in the subsequent days, I want to reach out to the Penn Medicine community and express my understanding of the many reactions, emotions, and concerns of our faculty, students, staff, and patients. I am keenly aware of the stress that many of you feel as we face a time of uncertainty and digest many months of often bitter dialogue and the accompanying acrimony that has persisted in the days since the election.

I take great pride in announcing this year's recipients of the Penn Medicine Awards of Excellence. The distinguished awardees exemplify our profession's highest values.

Dear Faculty, Students and Staff:

As the new academic year begins, I want to highlight the power of big ideas, and especially their ability to forge common purpose and spur long-term thinking.

During our 250th anniversary celebration last year, we highlighted Penn Medicine's impressive history of transformative discoveries that have changed science and health care. In recent years, with the…

Innovation, inclusion, and impact are fundamental features of our culture of discovery at Penn Medicine and have been key themes in our strategic plan. With the excitement of graduation fresh in our minds, it's timely to reflect on how your creativity helped make for a truly outstanding year.

Activities involving global health have accelerated dramatically on campus over the past several months. This momentum is the direct result of the formation last July of the Center for Global Health under the leadership of Glen Gaulton. I am writing to share with you the steps we are taking to create new opportunities for our faculty and students in this domain.

MLK Day arrives this year as our national conversation about social justice and the frustrating persistence of barriers to inclusion has intensified. It is therefore even more timely to remind ourselves that the pursuit of social justice, and by extension health equity, is deeply embedded in the core values of professionalism..

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Christopher D. Masotti, CPA, MBA, as Vice Dean for Finance and Operations in the Perelman School of Medicine. Chris brings a wealth of experience in medical school finance and administration, higher education leadership, and public accounting in the corporate sector.

I write to announce that after 17 years of impactful and excellent leadership as the founding director of the Penn Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), James A. Hoxie, MD, will be transitioning from this role. CFAR Co-Director Ronald G. Collman, MD, has been appointed as the new director.

We write to alert you to new opportunities to engage with the Institute of Biomedical Informatics and to update you on its exciting evolution.

I take great pride in sharing with you the wonderful news that our colleagues Frances Jensen, MD, FACP, and Sean Hennessy, PharmD, PhD, have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Drs. Jensen and Hennessy bring to 66 the number of current and emeritus members of the Penn Medicine community who are NAM members.

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Nancy A. Speck, PhD, for a six-year term as Chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, effective October 1.

President Gutmann and Provost Price recently released the results of a campus-climate survey on sexual assault and misconduct. I write today to convey my personal deep dismay about these findings.

This week the University and Penn Medicine launched our annual workplace charitable giving campaign, Penn's Way, which will run until November 20th.

I take great pride in announcing the recipients of this year's Penn Medicine Awards of Excellence.

I write to highlight two upcoming events that capture our scientific community’s tremendous intellectual excitement at its very best.

Earlier this month we welcomed a new class of medical students and graduate students, symbolizing the beginning of another academic year.

I am delighted to welcome Jonathan Epstein to his new role as Executive Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer for Penn Medicine, effective July 1.

As the summer begins, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the yearlong celebration of our medical school's 250th birthday, which culminated last month with the dedication of the Jordan Medical Education Center, Medical Alumni Weekend, and the commemorative activities of our Gala celebration at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

On February 23, Dean J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, delivered a State of Penn Medicine address to faculty and staff in the Law Family Auditorium of the new Henry A. Jordan M'62 Medical Education Center.

I write to announce that after more than two decades of exceptional and impactful leadership at the Perelman School of Medicine, currently as Executive Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer, Glen Gaulton, PhD, will transition from this role in July 2015.

As President Obama reminded us, we are on the cusp of a new era of medicine that delivers the "right treatment at the right time."

The core values and character of our scientific community were established 250 years ago by John Morgan and his colleagues, who in founding our medical school established the template for academic medicine in the United States.

The contributions of these clinicians and scientists exemplify the outstanding quality of patient care, mentoring, research, and teaching of our world-class faculty.

The beginning of each academic year is always energizing. But two things set this year apart: 1) our medical school’s 250th celebration of the founding of the school in 1765 and 2) the momentum that has been building as we approached this milestone, especially the great progress we have made across Penn Medicine in the past year to advance each of our mission areas.

Penn Medicine has been a national leader in our effort to accelerate the translation of basic research into clinical applications. The creation of ITMAT, along with a number of other Centers and Institutes, has had the desired effect of catalyzing translational research, and this is reflected by remarkable growth in high impact publications. This exciting pace of discovery creates a predictable need to streamline and make as effective as possible the natural outlets of translational work in technology transfer and clinical trials.