U. selects new PIK professor

The offices of the President and the Provost announced earlier this week that Karen Glanz has been appointed as the ninth Penn Integrates Knowledge professor, the first in the School of Nursing.

Her appointment will be shared between the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing, and she will lead a new center focused on research and training in health behaviors, according to a University press release.

"Dr. Glanz epitomizes the interdisciplinary problem-driven research and teaching that we're looking for in our PIK professors," said Penn President Amy Gutmann. "She's got a combination of expertise that's very important and it's also rare."

Glanz's work focuses primarily on the impact of behavior on health, spanning the fields of psychology, epidemiology and disease prevention.

Most recently, she has worked to find solutions to the growing national problem of obesity, as well as new methods of cancer prevention and detection.

Glanz will join the Penn faculty from Emory University, where she is currently the Charles Howard Candler Professor and Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Research Scholar in the Rollins School of Public Health. She is also senior author and editor of Health Behavior and Health Education, now in its third edition.

According to Gutmann, Glanz's appointment will increase the already strong collaboration between the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing.

"It is more important than ever before in human history that doctors and nurses work together to find ways of addressing health problems . some of which like obesity are of epidemic proportions in our population," she said.

Glanz said she is "thrilled" to become not only the first PIK professor in the School of Nursing, but the second woman to be appointed to the program.

"I think it's terrific that we finally have a second PIK who is a woman," said Nursing Dean Afaf Meleis. "She is an absolutely terrific role model for the future in health care, which is a future of interdisciplinary and integration between different areas of knowledge."

In her new position, Glanz said she hopes to increase the dialogue between nursing and other fields.

"Everything I've done throughout my career has been based in the idea that the solutions to the important health related problems . are really solved through bringing knowledge and science and people together from different backgrounds," she said.

The PIK program was implemented by Gutmann in 2005 as a University-wide initiative to recruit faculty members whose research and teaching span multiple disciplines. All PIK professors hold joint appointments between two schools at Penn.

"The PIK program . is aimed at identifying faculty members who would make a unique contribution to Penn," said Provost-designate Vincent Price. "[Glanz] represents the perfect match."

He added that Glanz brings to Penn a "tremendous amount" of experience in the field, and an ability to connect research done at Penn in a way that directly impacts people's lives.

"We really believe that excellence and diversity go together so were really pleased to have another super woman appointed," Gutmann said. "She's a superstar."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.