David Thornburgh, executive director of the Fels Institute, encouraged Evans to write the book, one of the few such efforts by a sitting Pennsylvania legislator in recent memory.
“For those like us at Fels, who try to inspire and educate future public leaders,” Thornburgh said, “there are not enough published stories like this one.”
In “Making Ideas Matter,” Evans weaves an honest, thoughtful tale about politics, policy and government from his days as a freshman representative through his rise to Democratic Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and beyond.
He wrote the book with Pulitzer Prize-winner, journalist William Ecenbarger.
At Penn, Evans has served as a judge of the Fels Institute’s annual Public Policy Challenge. Proceeds from sales of the book will benefit the Fels Institute.
Griffin Pitt, right, works with two other student researchers to test the conductivity, total dissolved solids, salinity, and temperature of water below a sand dam in Kenya.
Griffin Pitt’s upbringing made her passionate about water access and pollution, and Penn has given her the opportunity to explore these issues back home in North Carolina and abroad.
Helping robots work together to explore the Moon and Mars
Penn Engineers, NASA, and five other universities tested robotic systems designed to help unmanned explorers cooperate in the dunes of White Sands, New Mexico, paving the way for Moon and Mars exploration.
From framework to actions: Provost John L. Jackson Jr. talks Penn Forward
In a Q&A, Provost John L. Jackson Jr. explains the relationship between the strategic framework In Principle and Practice and Penn Forward—a new University-wide process and action plan that will advance Penn forward for the next decade and beyond.
