Penn Provost John Jackson Jr. and Vice Provost for Faculty Laura Perna recently announced the 17th cohort of the Penn Fellows Program.
According to the Sept. 16 announcement, the program aims to “build alliances across the University, meet distinguished academic leaders, think strategically about university governance, and consult with Penn’s senior administrators.” This year, 21 faculty members across Penn’s schools and departments were chosen to participate as fellows.
Established in 2009, the program invites mid-career Penn faculty to engage in professional and academic development opportunities.
Andrew Vaughan — a new Penn Fellow who teaches biomedical sciences in the Perelman School of Medicine — described his upcoming participation in the program in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Vaughan, who previously served on the Senate Executive Committee of Penn’s Faculty Senate and as a member of the University’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, characterized the fellowship as a “natural opportunity” to develop his interest in shared governance.
“As a result of all of the socio-political things that are going on in academia, I think the importance of how decision-making is happening at the higher levels of the University has really started to hit,” Vaughan said. “It felt like the Fellows Program was going to be a natural opportunity to become a little bit more educated about that.”
Vaughan emphasized his goal of gaining “a better understanding of how Penn operates at the institutional level, who's making the decisions, how these decisions are made, and what faculty members can do to get involved in decision making in a productive way.”
Linguistics professor Marlyse Baptista similarly joined the fellowship to learn more about the University’s “inner workings.”
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“I feel privileged to have been selected as a Penn fellow because I view this as a great opportunity to build partnerships with University leaders and other faculty across the university,” Baptista wrote in a statement to the DP. “I am confident that being a Penn fellow will allow me to identify the location of various resources, which in turn will help me guide students more effectively to the right offices on campus.”
Baptista came to Penn in 2023 and aims to elevate her research by strengthening her mentorship of the three doctoral students she currently advises. She said that she hopes that “building these research synergies will benefit them and the Penn community.”
Allison Willis, Neurology and Epidemiology associate professor in the Medical School and another Penn Fellow, also highlighted her motivations for joining the program in an interview with the DP.
“I had established myself on the national level as a leader within my academic specialty and within my scientific discipline … and being a part of the Penn Fellows Program is now allowing me to bring those national experiences and funnel them into my passion,” Willis said.
Willis mentioned that she will prioritize growing as a campus leader “to offer service” to students and other faculty members. She also noted the need for collaboration across Penn’s schools and departments.
“We are all bringing our individual successes and talents and perspectives, and this is an opportune time to think about how those talents can be pulled together to elevate and propel Penn into its next phase of growth, discovery, humanity, and excellence,” Willis said.
