Heather A. Davis

Director, News Publications

For the Record: William Adger

In 1883, Philadelphia native William Adger became the first African-American graduate of the College at Penn. The son of a former slave from South Carolina, Adger was the second-youngest child—and one of 13 children—in his family.

Heather A. Davis

Why don’t we better prepare for disasters?

When Hurricane Harvey was bearing down on the Texas coast, few people were caught off guard. Weather models predicted when and roughly where the storm would make landfall and officials, including Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, asked people ahead of the storm to “hunker down” and prepare.Experts, too, knew Harvey was coming. And they knew the results would likely be bad.

Heather A. Davis