Sandy Smith

As Christopher Ortiz (W’03) sees it, corporations have many more people to answer to than just their shareholders. Which is why he’s high on the Urban Nutrition Initiative (UNI), among other things. “I’m very much interested in education and community development and what businesses can do to develop the community and make it stronger,” he said.

The new executive vice president for the Health System and dean of the School of Medicine is an accomplished medical researcher and administrator. But Arthur H. Rubenstein, M.D., is still a teacher at heart. “It’s in my bones and blood,” he said at a July 31 news conference. “I hope to teach in any way I can” while running the system.

As a young man in Ghana, Professor of Pediatrics Kwaku Ohene-Frempong knew he wanted one day to do something that would benefit the children of Africa. He discovered what that something was by chance, as a Yale undergraduate.

The new chair of the A-3 Assembly got there on the spur of the moment: A colleague invited Troy Odom (C’96) to attend an A-3 Assembly general meeting last spring. As luck would have it, the meeting was also the group’s general election, and the person who had planned to run for chair could not do so due to illness. So Odom decided to run on the spot, and won.

This is a tale of two thespians. One is a major in theater arts and English. The other started out in pre-med and quickly switched to anthropology. One knew she wanted to explore acting from the age of 9. The other joined a Penn student-theater company because it sounded like something interesting to do.

 

John Street wore two hats when he spoke to the graduating class of the Graduate School of Fine Arts May 21—that of mayor of Philadelphia and that of proud Penn parent. The mayor, his wife, Naomi Post, and his son Sharif were all in attendance as his daughter Rashida Zakia Ng (a married name) received her master’s degree in architecture from the GSFA.

To hear Phyllis Pompa talk about Penn, you’d think she was an alumna herself. But she’s not. She’s merely a loyal and devoted staffer who sees her job as “spreading the gospel of Benjamin.” Benjamin Franklin and his university, that is.

Fine Arts Undergraduate Chair Julie Schneider looked like a kid in a candy store as she led me through the new Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall a few weeks back. “I’m so pleased to be here,” she said, “and could not have imagined how well it all turned out.”

Like any good teacher, Alyse Edwards did some prep work before sitting down for our interview — specifically, reading past Staff Q&As. “I was reading some of the other Staff Q&As and I’m like, God, I did not do anything deserving of this treatment,” she said.