WHO SHE IS: Coordinator of the PennSmiles program in Penn Dental’s Department of Community Oral Health.
YEARS AT PENN: 9; nearly 4 with the PennSmiles Van.
WHAT SHE DOES: Taylor-Powell oversees the daily operations and management of the dental van, which travels to West Philadelphia schools to fill cavities, take X-rays and outline preventative care for children, some of whom have never been to a dentist before. She assesses which kids need treatment and readies the van for patients.
HOW THE KIDS RESPOND: “The kids are really great. They all have different personalities. They love coming on the van,” she says.
WHY ORAL HYGENE MATTERS: “The majority of kids that we see have some decay,” explains Taylor-Powell. In a school year, Penn Dental students on the van treat more than 1,200 kids—and more than 500 cavities. “We focus a lot on prevention,” Taylor-Powell adds. “Not having oral hygiene—that’s what gets these kids in trouble.”
Materials in the Annenberg School for Communication Library Archives include thousands of TV scripts, the first issue of TV Guide, and interviews about the early days of HBO—which help to chronicle TV’s 100-year story.
Centering joy in AI development and implementation
PIK Professor Desmond Upton Patton—of Annenberg and SP2—and collaborators introduce a joy-informed framework designed to initiate conversations among engineers, designers, and researchers.
Winter Storm Fern brought icy and snowy conditions to the Northeast and other parts of the country over the weekend. Penn Today asks physicist Robert Carpick about the unique properties of ice, the science of curling, and how close we are to ‘nonslip’ ice.
Organizations like Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships foster collaborations between Penn and public schools in the West Philadelphia community.
Penn receives national distinction for community engagement
The recognition by the American Council on Education and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching acknowledges Penn’s long-standing commitment to community-engaged scholarship and partnerships in West Philadelphia and beyond.
