The University of Pennsylvania has announced the reappointment of Beth A. Winkelstein, the Eduardo D. Glandt President’s Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and a professor of neurosurgery in the Perelman School of Medicine, as deputy provost.
Winkelstein has served as deputy provost since 2020. She also served as interim provost from July 2021 through May 2023 and as vice provost for education from 2015 to 2020. A former Penn undergraduate, she has taught at Penn for more than twenty years, becoming in that time one of the world’s leading innovators in research on new treatments for spine and other joint injuries and applications of novel engineering approaches to detect tissue failure and dysfunction. Her pioneering interdisciplinary research focuses on the mechanisms of pain and its development and persistence—especially from injury and/or degenerative disease—and has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense, among many others, including a Presidential Early Career Award from the NSF.
“Beth Winkelstein,” says Provost John L. Jackson, Jr., “has been one of our most invaluable academic leaders for more than ten years. Her great value to the University was shown yet again last year, when she was asked to lead our implementation of the recommendations that emerged out of the important work of both the Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community and the University Task Force on Antisemitism, on which she served as vice chair.
“Beth’s partnership, wisdom, and strategic insight have been essential to me as Provost, as I know they have been to so many others during her time at Penn. In the Provost’s Office, she has worked closely with me to develop the new roles of Vice Provost for the Arts and Vice Provost for Climate Science, Policy, and Action, while also continuing to supervise the Penn Libraries. Going forward in her next term, she will oversee the Vice Provostial portfolios in Arts, Education, Libraries, Research, and Climate Science, Policy, and Action, along with other critical areas of our work. We will soon announce searches for the next Vice Provost for Education and Vice Provost for Research, forming consultative committees that Beth will chair, and nominations of outstanding Penn faculty leaders for both posts will be welcomed at that time.”
Winkelstein is the author of “Orthopaedic Biomechanics” and has published more than 175 papers and book chapters. She served as editor of the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering from 2012 to 2020 and currently serves as chair of the Board of Editors of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and an executive committee member of the World Council on Biomechanics. She is a fellow and former member of the Board of Directors of the Biomedical Engineering Society and a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which has recognized her groundbreaking research with its Van C. Mow Medal and Y.C. Fung Young Investigator Award. Her leadership in advancing new educational initiatives at Penn has included the launch of Penn First Plus, the six-year grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to increase inclusivity in STEM teaching and learning, and the five-year grant from the American Association of Universities to improve the quality of STEM education across campus. SEAS students twice awarded her the Ford Motor Company Award for Faculty Advising, and in 2012-13 she led the cross-campus working group that studied best practices in undergraduate research as part of the University’s reaccreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
“I am deeply honored to continue my work as deputy provost,” says Winkelstein. “This is an exciting time at Penn, and I look forward to partnering with the Provost, our great team in the Provost’s Office, and our many outstanding students, faculty, and staff to help advance our shared mission of education and research in the years ahead.”
Winkelstein joined the Penn faculty in 2002, following a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from Duke University. She earned a BSE cum laude in bioengineering from Penn in 1993 as a Benjamin Franklin Scholar.
