Penn nurse manager brings health resources to her tribal community
Outside of her day job as a nurse manager for Penn Medicine at Home, Sherry “Strong Sun Spirit” Caputo has helped bring mental health education, COVID resources, and nutrition programming to her tribal community, the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation in New Jersey.
But to Gary Purpura, the associate vice provost for education and academic planning in the Office of the Provost and a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, is teaching Enhancing the Human Mind with Technology this semester.
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Philosophy, technology, and pushing beyond human limitations
Gary Purpura’s class Enhancing the Human Mind with Technology introduces students to philosophy through the lens of transhumanism, illustrating the possibilities of technology to enhance the human condition and expand the idea of what it means to be human.
As part of the year-long Politics of Well-Being series from the School of Social Policy & Practice and the Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy, Tony Shaw moderated a conversation with Dennis Culhane, Isabel Algrant, Ken Miles, and Shana Kleiner.
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Harnessing technology in research to improve well-being
As part of the Politics of Well-Being speaker series, researchers in the School of Social Policy & Practice talked about their work helping governments address social issues and creating a joy-centered framework for AI development.
Helpline support eases stress for dementia caregivers
Penn Nursing researchers and collaborators found that caregivers for family members with dementia who receive one or two consultations saw improvements in their ability to manage stress, and that people requesting more than one call reported lower baseline confidence in their ability to manage their emotions than those requesting only one call.
How tobacco retail exposure impacts smoking behavior
Penn researchers have found that smokers report higher levels of craving and smoked more cigarettes on days when their exposure to tobacco retail is higher.
Inspiring interest in water quality at Cobbs Creek
Faculty and staff, high school and Penn students, and community members are working together to collect and analyze the most detailed water quality data to date at the West Philadelphia stream.
As part of Climate Week at Penn, leading expert on climate solutions and clean energy Joseph Romm will lead a workshop titled “Communication is a Climate Solution: How Taylor Swift can Level Up Your Storytelling.”
(Image: Rebecca Blackwell via AP Images)
Taylor Swift, storytelling, and climate communication
Clean energy expert and senior research fellow at Penn Joseph Romm says that Taylor Swift’s lyrics offer storytelling techniques that can be applied for impact-driven climate communications.
Over 20,000 educators share insights on school cell phone policies
Preliminary findings in the landmark research initiative “Phones in Focus” suggest stricter cell phone policies are linked to less disruption and greater teacher satisfaction.
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.
(Image: Courtesy of Griffin Pitt)
A world shaped by water and access
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.
Who, What, Why: Olivia Larson on sleep and memory in mental health disorders
“My overarching goal was to use sleep as a window into the mechanisms that link poor cognitive functioning with poor mental health,” clinical psychology doctoral student Olivia Larson says of her dissertation.
