“Back then,” Werner remembers in an interview in her new second-floor LDI office, “David Asch was in charge of LDI and I was never going to be David Asch. Frankly, even a year ago, I couldn’t have imagined I would be doing this.”
“This,” of course, is her recent appointment as LDI’s executive director, the first physician-economist and first female to hold the position in the health services research organization’s 51-year history.
“The physician-economist perspective is a perfect fit for LDI,” says Werner. “It presents a great opportunity to cross the divide between the main Penn campus and the medical school, to further develop the bridge between all of Penn’s schools that has defined so much of LDI’s past success in fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. It also gives me insight into the importance of using rigorous economic methods to answer questions that matter the most to patients.”
As to being the first woman to head LDI, she has mixed feelings.
When the Schuylkill swallowed the city: Lessons from Hurricane Ida’s historic flood
New Penn research shows that Hurricane Ida wasn’t a once-in-a-century anomaly but a preview of how climate change, urbanization, and aging infrastructure are rewriting flood risk.
The Fed explained: What it does and why it matters
Former Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker and financial historian Peter Conti-Brown, both Wharton professors, unpack the central bank’s origins, its unusual structure, and the quiet ways it shapes the economy
How population changes are impacting primary education worldwide
Research from Penn sociologist Emily Hannum and colleagues reveals regional trends in whether school-age populations are increasing, plateauing, or decreasing—and shows how different countries are responding.
A bioengineered bean gum from the lab of Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell is found to reduce the levels of three microbes associated with head and neck squamous cell cancer to almost zero, without affecting the beneficial bacteria normally found in the mouth.
Fighting oral cancer with bioengineered chewing gum
Research led by Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell shows that antiviral and antibacterial chewing gums reduce the levels of three microbes linked to worse outcomes in oral cancers, paving the way for more effective and affordable therapies.
