Penn officially launched its Office of the Vice Provost for Climate Science, Policy, and Action on Monday.
The April 20 event featured six speakers across Penn Climate who discussed student fellowships, research funding, and University-wide collaboration. The office also displayed its new website, which went live the same day.
Katie Baillie, who is the director of university and community engagement at Penn Climate, told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the office hopes to “have an impact and create climate solutions” across the University's 12 schools.
“Penn Climate is really trying to act as a force multiplier and be bigger than the sum of the parts of Penn,” Baillie added.
During the event, speakers emphasized University-wide initiatives and student efforts to shape the direction of the office.
Vice Provost for Research David Meaney, who introduced the event, explained that the launch reflects years of development and signals a larger shift toward collaboration.
“It’s really a testament to where we are now but also kind of a prediction of where we could be going in the future with this momentum,” Meaney added.
Stephen Decina, executive director of Penn Climate, emphasized that uniting people across disciplines will be central to the office’s work.
“What I kept finding at each and every stop along this road of mine was that the limiting factor was never really ambition, and it wasn't really funding — it was connection,” he told the audience.
Decina added that Penn Climate aims to bring together individuals and fields “that might not otherwise find each other” to drive change at local and global levels.
Baillie told the DP that “a lot of students have been really hungry for a way to engage with climate action in their academics,” and described the office as a response to that interest.
Faculty are developing new academic offerings in collaboration with the climate office to promote these efforts.
Vice Provost for Climate Sanya Carley shared that a new Penn Climate Student Fellows Program will launch in fall 2026. The initiative will feature 10 paid student fellowships — there will be two spots for communications, data, and climate solutions hub fellows, and four spots for data fellows.
Over the next three years, the office will also offer $400,000 in innovation seed grants for individuals pursuing climate related projects across the University.
“We want Penn Climate to be a solutions-oriented space where we come together and really tackle challenges with a solutions oriented mindset,” Carley said.
Business Economics and Public Policy professor Arthur van Benthem and School of Social Policy & Practice professor R. Jisung Park are offering a course titled “The Climate Challenge.” The course, set to launch in spring 2027, aims to move beyond discipline-specific approaches to climate, according to van Benthem.
“A lot of students learn about climate from their respective disciplines, but this course isn't meant to be the big picture in the background,” he added. “What we're going to do is bring together colleagues from across the University and make sure that we bring in the perspectives and connections and bridges across the wide variety of expertise that Penn has to offer.”
Meaney described the interdisciplinary nature of Penn Climate and emphasized that climate solutions should unite the Penn community and “hopefully the world beyond that.”
“You should never imagine that the discipline that you are studying doesn’t have relevance to climate,” Meaney said. “All of those disciplines have a relevance.”
Meaney also pointed to students as central to the program's long-term impact, emphasizing that the energy "they provide is infectious.”
“To those students, I will say that you are the people that will define the future that your children will inherit, and I would not be despondent by the challenge in front of you, but energized by that challenge," Meaney said.
