Skip to Content Skip to Content

Louisa Shepard

Senior News Officer
  • lshepard@upenn.edu
  • 215-573-8151
  • Louisa Shepard

    Louisa Shepard covers English, history of art, music, theater, classical studies, and cinema and media studies, among other subject areas, in the School of Arts and Sciences. She also supports coverage for the Kelly Writers House, the Graduate School of Education, the Penn Libraries, the Penn Museum, the Arthur Ross Gallery, and the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, as well as fine arts in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. 

    Articles from Louisa Shepard
    Learning to be a Chief Learning Officer
    five people sitting around table with laptops open and one person standing

    The Graduate School of Education’s Chief Learning Officer program for mid-career professionals has a new director, Raghu Krishnamoorthy (standing). Formerly with General Electric, he graduated from the doctoral program in May. The program gives working executives new skills, connections, and expertise to become scholar-practitioners.

    Learning to be a Chief Learning Officer

    The Graduate School of Education’s Chief Learning Officer program has a new director, Raghu Krishnamoorthy. The program gives working executives new skills, connections, and expertise to become scholar-practitioners.
    Celebrating future renovation and expansion of historic Stuart Weitzman Hall
    Four people wearing white hardhats are putting shovels into a trough of dirt in front of a stage, which is outside in front of a brick building.

    The ceremonial groundbreaking for the future renovation and expansion of the newly named Stuart Weitzman Hall featured (from left) Weitzman School of Design Dean Fritz Steiner, Stuart Weitzman, Penn President Liz Magill, and Matt Nord of the School's Board of Advisors. 

    Celebrating future renovation and expansion of historic Stuart Weitzman Hall

    At a ceremonial groundbreaking, Dean Fritz Steiner, Stuart Weitzman, President Liz Magill, and Matt Nord of the School’s board of advisors joined guests to celebrate the future renovation and expansion of the 130-year-old Weitzman School of Design building now named Stuart Weitzman Hall. 
    Mask and Wig makes history with its first gender-inclusive show
    six students dancing in a rehearsal room

    The Mask and Wig Club will make history when they take the stage Oct. 12-15 in the fall show, “Better Call Y’all,” the first gender-inclusive production since its founding as an all-male comedy group in 1889. The cast rehearsed at the Platt House for the Performing Arts.

    Mask and Wig makes history with its first gender-inclusive show

    The 133-year-old comedy troupe becomes gender-inclusive, opening auditions to all undergraduates this fall, recruiting 20 new members, 14 of them female-identifying.
    Keys to knowledge: Penn presidential inaugural traditions
    Archival parchments and ephemera from Archives on a table.

    The oldest sealed diplomas in the Archives collection, from 1760 and 1768, have early examples of the Penn seal of the corporation. Another, dated 1789, has the orrery seal.

    Keys to knowledge: Penn presidential inaugural traditions

    The inauguration ceremony for Penn’s ninth president Liz Magill on Oct. 21 will incorporate decades-long traditions and centuries-old University symbols.
    Poet Wes Matthews combines writing, music, research, and service
    Wes Matthews leaning in a doorway at the Kelly Writers House

    Matthews says he plans to write poetry throughout his life, and hopes someday to collaborate on a poem or book with his mother. 

    Poet Wes Matthews combines writing, music, research, and service

    College fourth-year Wes Matthews is combining writing, music, research, and service during his Penn experience. A former Youth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, the anthropology major and religious studies minor works at the Kelly Writers House and is a Wolf Humanities Center fellow.
    ModPo celebrates its first decade
    Al Filreis holds up the Book "The Difference is Spreading" while seated at a long table with four other people to his left and a television screen with the faces of several other people to his right in front of an audience

    English Professor Al Filreis holds up a copy of the just-published book “The Difference is Spreading: Fifty Contemporary Poets on Fifty Poems,” during the ModPo webcast to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the free massive online open course Modern and Contemporary Poetry. 

    ModPo celebrates its first decade

    Modern and Contemporary Poetry was founded by Al Filreis of the School of Arts & Sciences at Kelly Writers House in 2012, and now has 69,000 people enrolled globally. Poets and participants came to campus to celebrate the 10th anniversary.
    ‘Paths to Freedom’: A new exhibit by John E. Dowell
    Artist John Dowell stands in the gallery with his artworks behind him surrounded by several people.

    About 100 people, including several Penn faculty, attended the opening of the "Paths to Freedom" exhibition of work by artist John E. Dowell (center).

    ‘Paths to Freedom’: A new exhibit by John E. Dowell

    In a new Arthur Ross Gallery exhibition, Philadelphia artist John E. Dowell imagines attempted escapes by enslaved ancestors through his photographs of North Carolina cotton fields at night. “Paths to Freedom” includes 26 artworks, an installation of fabric panels, and a soundscape.
    Undergraduate research on display
    rows of posters on easels with groups of people around them in a historic hall

    Undergraduate research on display

    Showcasing undergraduate student research with Penn faculty, a record 361 posters were on display with students presenting their work at the Fall Research Expo sponsored by the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships in Houston Hall.
    Second Penn affiliate named a 2022 Gates Cambridge Scholar
    Sara Merican smiling before flowering plants on College Green

    Sara Merican, a 2020 Penn graduate from Singapore, has been chosen as a 2022 Gates Cambridge Scholar. 

      

    Second Penn affiliate named a 2022 Gates Cambridge Scholar

    Sara Merican, a 2020 graduate, has been awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in film and screen studies at the University of Cambridge in England. 
    ICA, WXPN awarded Pew Center for Arts & Heritage project grants
    Musicians from the Black Opry Revue performing on a porch

    WXPN is partnering with the Black Opry collective to support a Black Opry residency for five emerging Black Americana musicians. (Image: Black Opry Revue, 2021, by Gabriel Baretto)

    WXPN

    ICA, WXPN awarded Pew Center for Arts & Heritage project grants

    The Institute of Contemporary Art and WXPN have been awarded 2022 project grants from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Stuart Weitzman School of Design alumni James Maurelle, now on the faculty, and James Allister Sprang are among 12 Pew Fellows in the Arts named this year.
    Load More