Welcome Back Fall 2023: A Message from Dean Villarruel
In many ways, we are responsible for creating the culture we want to see here at Penn Nursing. With remote work and our hybrid schedule, it’s more important than ever to truly live our School’s values. For me, I appreciate the commitment to excellence I see every day from every one of you—and I am grateful for the kindness, grace, and humor you prioritize within our community. As we move ahead in the days and weeks, let’s actualize our values in how we engage with one another even more. Assume good intentions. Be kind. Be helpful. Be respectful. As the director of the Shoe Museum told me, you never know what someone else is going through until you’re walking in their shoes.
New Year, New Students
Please help greet Penn Nursing’s new students as they start their academic journeys! As of the August 9 count, we are joined by 107 BSN, 103 ABSN, 149 MSN, 7 MSNS, 10 PhD, 28 Post-Master’s DNP and Executive Leadership, 23 Nurse Anesthesia DNP, 57 Post-graduate APRN Certificate, and 26 certificate and non-degree students. This includes all new students starting either in Spring, Summer, or Fall of this year. Congratulations and welcome to everyone! I know all of you—our faculty and staff—have done a tremendous amount of work to ensure these students have an extraordinary educational experience.
I want to give a special welcome to the students in our brand-new MS in Nutrition Science program. I am particularly excited to see this new program of study move forward—it really is a groundbreaking effort, and I want to thank our faculty who helped make it a reality.
This year we also celebrate the final cohort of ABSN students. This program has graduated an incredibly impactful group of nurses that have made Penn Nursing and the profession exceedingly proud. The program is transitioning to a Master’s Entry Program that will enroll its first class in the Fall of 2024. It is truly an exciting time at Penn Nursing as we watch our School change and grow.
Faculty Appointments and News
It isn’t just new students we have to welcome! Please extend a warm welcome to new Penn Nursing faculty:
- Elizabeth Emery, Practice Associate Professor, Biobehavioral & Health Sciences
- Michael Stawnychy, Assistant Professor CE, Biobehavioral & Health Sciences
New Staff
Additionally, I’m pleased to announce new staff who started with us over the summer:
- Ana Coronado Marin, Clinical Research Coordinator, Biobehavioral & Health Sciences
- Ayden Allston, Clinical Research Assistant, Family & Community Health
- Briana Thomas, Program Coordinator for Faculty Affairs, HR and OD
- Jen Sommerfeldt, Administrative Coordinator for ITS
- Sarah Malinchak, Clinical Research Coordinator, Biobehavioral & Health Sciences
- Jessica Martucci, Curator, the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing
- Ann Muramatsu, Associate Director of Personal Health Informatics Lab, Biobehavioral & Health Sciences
- Julia Votto, Senior Innovation Manager, Eidos
- Olivia McPherson, Senior Innovation Manager, Eidos
Welcome to you all!
Upcoming Events
Our Penn Nursing community sustains me—and the events that take place at Fagin Hall and online demonstrate for me one of the critical ways we live our values. Do keep an eye on the Penn Nursing calendar to stay updated on great events that are coming up. I’m looking forward to an October webinar with Dr. Loretta Sweet Jemmott, our most recent Outstanding Alumni Award winner, and I’m told there may be an alumni happy hour in the works as well—not to mention health and wellness events. Further ahead in November will be the presentation of the Dean’s Medal for Distinguished Service, a seminar about psychedelics, and—of course—Homecoming and all the get-togethers that come with it.
More immediately, the annual Back to School event will take place this year on Wednesday, September 13 at 1PM. I look forward to seeing you all there—and please wear your best red and blue attire to show off your school spirit, the theme of this year’s celebration! It’s one of my favorite events, not least of all because we get to laugh together and enjoy each other’s company. It’s always a highlight for me to end the summer/celebrate our return on such a high note—together.
It seems fitting, then, to close this note with a quote from a movie that was everywhere this summer: the Barbie movie. Barbie says, “I want to be a part of the people who make meaning”—and that speaks to what our School is all about. We dream, innovate, lead… what we do here makes an incredible impact on nursing, on health care, and on our communities, and I’m grateful to all of you for being a part of that. I wish you all the best and much success during this exciting year.
Thank you again for making our Penn Nursing community a place of warmth, belonging, and excellence.
- Toni