Reflections on Our 250th Anniversary
June 8, 2015
Dear Colleagues and Students,
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. Those events put a brilliant exclamation point on what has been an extraordinarily dynamic year for Penn Medicine.
We have become accustomed to our academic medical center's momentum and fast pace. In the past year alone, we opened Penn Medicine University City, our newest outpatient facility, moved our Trauma Center to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, occupied new clinical and administrative space in the South Pavilion Extension of the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine (PCAM), and opened a landmark medical education facility that has excited the imaginations of students and faculty alike. Added to this, we're ending the fiscal year in a very strong financial position. Grant funding is more robust than projected, reflecting our faculty's creativity, bold experimental plans, and extensive collaborations. Publications and presentations at national and international meetings disseminate our high impact research and foreshadow more to come. In a rapidly changing environment, Penn Medicine is thriving.
What's more, none of this activity is about to slow down. In the fall, well be moving into parts of the renovated Richards Building, which will become the new home for cognitive neurosciences and informatics at Penn. Renovations to Stemmler Hall will also get underway, and the demolition of Penn Tower will begin, laying the foundation for a new inpatient pavilion.
In the fall, I will update you in greater depth about what will come next. For now, I will reiterate that our current success reflects the hard work of faculty, staff, and students, and the careful planning that we have undertaken over the years. We have hired talented people, developed a collaborative and innovative culture, and built new facilities that support the excellence of our teaching, research and patient care missions.
Our 250th year was an opportunity to celebrate a tremendous legacy that calls on us to do great things. I am proud to say that Penn Medicine's societal impact has never been greater. Our school, which created the template for medical education in America, remains the future-defining institution it has always been.
With that thought in mind, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate you on a year of tremendous accomplishment and wish you a most invigorating summer.
With best regards,