1740-1875:

Women at Penn during the era of the Charity Schools

1876-1879:

Women's first appearance in Penn classrooms is as Special Students

1880-1900:

Women are first admitted as degree candidates on a limited basis and programs and schools specifically for women first appear

Women emerge in administrative and academic positions as undergraduates begin to create traditions and organizations parallel to those of men

1920-1932:

Women appear on standing faculties and undergraduate women continue to develop their own college life

1933-1950:

The College of Liberal Arts for Women is created

1951-1968:

Men's and women's activities at Penn begin to merge, while a few women faculty members gain tenure and advancement

1969-1974:

As more women are elected Trustees, the University deals with sex discrimination in faculty hiring and promotions

1975-1992

Women students are fully integrated into the University, while women assume key roles throughout the central and academic administration

In January, the Trustees established the Board of Overseers for the Graduate School of Fine Arts and elected a woman Trustee, Marietta Peabody Endicott Tree (Hon. LL.D., 1964), the first Chair of the Board. Dr. Tree was therefore both the first woman member and the first Chair of this Board of Overseers.

In February, after "several months" of planning, the Onyx Senior Honor Society was organized to recognize African American members of the Senior Class who had been outstanding in academics, athletics, extracurricular activities, and community and University service. This student organization admitted both men and women from the time of its inception. The first group of members totalled twenty-four, nine of whom were African American women. A University press release, dated 21 February 1975, provided the following names of "first" women members of Onyx:

• Wanza Valeria Bates Brown (B.S. in Econ., 1975)
• Olivia Ann Billups Cureton (B.S. in Ed., 1975)
• Jessica Mae Gibson (B.S. in Econ., 1975)
• Sharon Celeste Moorer Harris (B.S. in Ed., 1975)
• Leta Blanche McMillan Johnson (A.B., 1975)
• Linda Lee Walker McIntyre (A.B., 1975)
• Lauri Richelle Miller Michel (A.B., 1975)
• Magdalena Gaye Morris (A.B., 1975)
• Jeannette Elizabeth South-Paul (B.S. in Med. Tech., 1975)

In February, the Trustees elected Ludmila ("Lida") Freeman an Associate Trustee of the University with membership on the Board of Overseers of the Wharton School. Dr. Freeman was President of H. Freeman and Sons, Inc. of Philadelphia. She was the first woman to serve on the Board of Overseers of the Wharton School. She retired from the Board in 1978.

The College of Liberal Arts for Women merged with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the College of Arts and Sciences [for Men], and four social science departments in the Wharton School - Economics, Political Science, Regional Science, and Sociology - to form the new School of Arts and Sciences. Associate Professor R. Jean Brownlee, Dean of the College for Women, was appointed Dean of Academic Advising Services in the new School. She retired two years later, in June 1977.

At the Commencement held on 17 May, the University awarded the degree of Master of Science in Engineering for Graduate Work in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering to Carol Louise Worman. She was the first woman to earn the M.S.E. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering degree at Penn.

Also at the Commencement of 1975, the University awarded the degree of Master of Science in Engineering for Graduate Work in Systems Engineering to Kathryn Elaine George. She was the first woman to earn the M.S.E. in Systems Engineering degree at Penn.

In August, the University and former Assistant Professor Phyllis R. Rackin settled out of court the litigation brought by Dr. Rackin against the University in 1973. A December 1974 ruling by the U.S. District Court found "that the University [was] engaged in state action and that this [had] profound implications in presenting a challenge to the University's authority to select and promote members of the faculty." As a direct result, in January 1975, the University's legal counsel reported to the full Board of Trustees that "strenuous efforts [were being] made to reach a fair compromise with the plaintiff." The terms of the August settlement included agreement by the University to the promotion of Dr. Rackin to the tenured faculty position of Associate Professor of English in General Honors, effective 1 July 1975, as well as the payment of all legal fees incurred in the litigation. The effect of this litigation was the opening to women of a more balanced and equitable set of procedures to be followed in the appointment and promotion of faculty at Penn.

In September, Provost Eliot Stellar appointed Patricia Ann McFate, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., to the senior academic administrator position of Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Studies and University Life. She was the first woman to hold the position of Vice-Provost at Penn. The University simultaneously appointed Dr. McFate to the faculty positions of Professor of Technology and Society in the College of Engineering and Applied Science and Associate Professor of Folklore, with a secondary appointment of Associate Professor of English. Prior to accepting her appointment at Penn, Dr. McFate had been Associate Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle. In 1978 Dr. McFate left Penn to accept an appointment as Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, where she served in 1981. In 1998 she was Senior Scientist and Program Director at the Center for National Security Negotiations of the Science Applications International Corporation, a systems engineering company located in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In September, the University appointed Claire Muriel Mintzer Fagin, B.S., M.A., Ph.D., to the senior academic administrator position of Dean of the School of Nursing. She was the third woman to be appointed Dean of this School and the sixth woman to be named an academic dean at Penn. Prior to accepting her appointment at Penn, Dr. Fagin had held the positions of Professor and Chairman of the Department of Nursing at the Herbert H. Lehman College in the City University of New York and Director of the Health Professions Institute at the Herbert H. Lehman College - Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center. Dr. Fagin served as Dean of the School of Nursing until August 1991, when she was elected Dean Emerita and Leadership Professor in the School of Nursing. In April 1993, the Trustees appointed her Interim President and Chief Executive of the University (see entry for 1993 below).

With the promotion of Dr. Ruzena Bajcsy to Associate Professor of Computer and Information Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, women held tenured faculty positions in each and every standing faculty at Penn, for the first time in the history of the University of Pennsylvania.

In April, Kathleen Alice Bell Lee (A.B., 1977) was the first recipient of the Rebecca Jean Brownlee Award. This was the fourth women's senior class leadership award, thereby creating equal numbers of men's and women's senior leadership awards. The Brownlee Award was named in honor of the first woman Dean of the College of Liberal Arts for Women. Dr. Brownlee (B.S. in Ed., 1934; A.M. in Political Science, 1936; Ph.D. in Political Science, 1942; Hon. LL.D., 1986) was Dean from 1960 until the College was merged into the School of Arts and Sciences in 1975.

Ellen Gail Cohen (A.B., 1969) was the first recipient of the Gaylord P. Harnwell Award. Ellen Harris Gordon (A.B., 1969) and Linda Joy Plotnick (A.B., 1969) were the joint recipients of the first David R. Goddard Award. Earlier that spring the University had established the Harnwell and Goddard awards as the second and third women's senior class leadership awards. Both the Harnwell and the Goddard award continue to the present time.

In June, the University appointed Ruth Leventhal (B.S., 1961; Ph.D. in Veterinary Medicine, 1973), to the academic administrator position of Acting Dean of the School of Allied Medical Professions. She was the first woman to be appointed Dean of this School and the seventh woman to be named an academic dean at Penn. At the time of her appointment, Dr. Leventhal had been an Assistant Professor of Medical Technology in the School of Allied Medical Professions since January 1974. She also had a secondary appointment as Assistant Professor of Parasitology in the Department of Pathobiology in the School of Veterinary Medicine and a tertiary appointment as an Assistant Professor of Pathology in the School of Medicine. In July 1979 the University promoted Acting Dean Leventhal to Associate Professor of Medical Technology in the School of Allied Medical Professions and Associate Professor of Parasitology in Pathobiology in the School of Veterinary Medicine. Both promotions, however, were explicitly limited to just two years, because in January 1977 the Trustees had voted to close the School of Allied Medical Professions effective 30 June 1981. In April 1981 Dr. Leventhal announced that she had accepted the offer of Hunter College, in New York City, to become Dean of its School of Health Sciences, effective 1 September. At the Commencement held on 18 May, the University awarded Dr. Leventhal the earned degree of Master of Business Administration even as she, in her role as Acting Dean, conferred the degrees earned by the final graduating class of the School of Allied Medical Professions.

In September, President Martin Meyerson appointed Janis Irene Somerville, B.A., M.B.A., to the senior administrative position of Secretary of the University. She was the first woman to hold the position of Secretary of the University and the first woman to serve as one of the Statutory Officers of the University. Prior to accepting her appointment at Penn, Dr. Somerville had been Secretary of the Graduate Record Examinations Board of the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey.

Also in September, President Martin Meyerson appointed Linda Bradley Salamon, B.A., A.M., Ph.D., to the administrative position of Executive Assistant to the President. She was the first woman to hold the position of director of the Office of the President. Prior to accepting her appointment at Penn, Dr. Salamon had been Dean of Students at Wells College. In 1979 Salamon left Penn for Washington University in St. Louis, where she held the positions of Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English. In 1992 she moved on to George Washington University (GWU), in Washington, D.C., where she also served as Dean of Arts and Sciences before being appointed Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs for the academic year 1995-96. She returned to the GWU faculty in 1996, where, in 2001, she is Professor of English.

Also in September, the corporate separation of Graduate Hospital from the University of Pennsylvania became effective. This step concluded a process which began in 1964, when the faculty of the Graduate School of Medicine was merged into the School of Medicine (see above).

In March, Sheryl Y. George-McAlpine founded the United Minorities Council.

In May, the University graduated the last class of the three-year School of Nursing of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. All nursing education at Penn was brought under the School of Nursing, which offered the degrees of Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing.

Also in May, the General Alumni Society elected Ann Elizabeth Kelley (A.B., 1976), who was then a Thouron Scholar at Trinity College, in Cambridge, England, to a three-year term as one of the two Young Alumni Trustees. She was the second woman to serve the University as an Undergraduate Young Alumni Trustee. The General Alumni Society simultaneously elected Nina Ellen Robinson Vitow (A.B., 1970; M.B.A., 1976), President of the Robinson Home Security Company, to a three-year term as the second of the two Young Alumni Trustees. She was the first woman to serve the University as a Graduate Young Alumni Trustee. Both Ms. Kelley and Ms. Vitow served until the expiration of their terms, in May 1981.

During the fall semester, women students founded Lesbians at Penn (LAP).

In December, the University honored twenty-five women who had earned the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Penn between 1928 and 1948.

In January, the University amended its non-discrimination policy to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. By March, Margaret Helen ("Maggie") Childs (Ph.D., May 1983) had emerged as a leader of the Lesbians at Penn (LAP). In the spring of 1980, LAP merged with its male counterpart, Gays at Penn (GAP). The combined student organization took the name Lesbians and Gays at Penn (LGAP) and was formally recognized by the Student Activities Council (SAC). In the fall of 1981, the first woman to lead the combined LGAP was Teresa J. Grubbs (A.B., 1983).

In May, the Trustees established the School of Dental Medicine Board of Overseers and elected fifteen members to the first Board. One of the fifteen was a woman. She was Jeanne Craig Sinkford, D.D.S., Ph.D., then Dean of the School of Dentistry of Howard University in Washington, D.C. The Trustees elected Dr. Sinkford an Associate Trustee of the University for the duration of her appointment to the Board of Overseers. In 1991, she became a Special Assistant at the American Association of Dental Schools (AADS). She retired from the Dental Medicine Board of Overseers in 1986. Jeanne Craig Sinkford was the first woman and the first African American woman to serve the University as a member of the Board of Overseers of the School of Dental Medicine.

In June, President Martin Meyerson appointed Janis Irene Somerville, who had served as Secretary of the Corporation since September 1977, to the senior administrative position of Vice Provost for University Life. She was the second woman to serve as a Vice Provost at Penn. In 1989, after leaving Penn, Dr. Somerville founded the Philadelphia Schools Collaborative, a joint venture of area foundations and the School District of Philadelphia. In 1994, she moved to Maryland to develop Maryland's Partnership for Teaching and Learning K-16. In 1997, she became Staff Officer for the National Association of [college and university] Systems Heads (NASH) state K-16 network, with offices in Washington, D.C.

Also in June, President Meyerson appointed Barbara Bowie Wiesel (M.A., 1971; Ph.D. in American Civilization, 1973) to the senior administrative position of Acting Secretary of the University. She had served as Assistant Secretary of the University since August 1978 and had previously held the administrative position Assistant Dean for Advising in the School of Arts and Sciences. She was the first woman to serve as Acting Secretary of the University, but did not serve as a Statutory Officer of the University, which required formal nomination to and election by the Trustees. In 1987, after leaving Penn, Dr. Wiesel was named Director of Development for the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. In May 2001 she was appointed Associate Dean for Development at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University.

In September, Provost Vartan Gregorian appointed Joyce Randolph, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., to the senior staff position of Executive Assistant to the Provost. Dr. Randolph had previously held the administrative position of Assistant Dean for Advising in the School of Arts and Sciences. She was the first woman to serve as director of the Office of the Provost. In September 1983, Dr. Randolph was named Director of International Programs at Penn, a senior administrator position she continues to hold in 2001.

In December, the Trustees announced the formation of a Consultative Committee for the Selection of a President. The Committee was composed of thirteen members, including two women Trustees, Dr. Gloria Twine Chisum and Dr. Jacqueline Grennan Wexler, and one woman member of the senior standing faculty, Fay Ajzenberg-Selove, Professor of Physics and Chair of the Commission on Nuclear Physics of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. They were the second, third, and fourth women at Penn to serve the University as members of a presidential search committee.

In March, the Trustees elected Mary Anna Dye Meyers, B.A. (M.A., Ph.D. in American Civilization, 1976), to the senior administrative position of Secretary of the University. She was the second woman to serve as Secretary of the University and also the second woman to serve as a Statutory Officer of the University. Prior to accepting her appointment at Penn, Dr. Meyers had been Director of College Relations at Haverford College. Dr. Meyers served as Secretary of the University for ten years, before being named President of The Annenberg Foundation in St. Davids, Pennsylvania.

In April, undergraduate students elected Allison Elizabeth Accurso (A.B., August 1982) to the presidency of the Undergraduate Assembly. She was the first woman President of the UA, which had been founded in 1973.

The School of Dental Medicine promoted Virginia R. Park (D.D.S., 1942) from Assistant Professor of Operative Dentistry to Associate Professor of Restorative Dentistry. She was the second woman to earn tenure at the School of Dental Medicine and the first woman dentist to earn tenure in that School.

In May, the General Alumni Society elected Sara Spedden Senior (A.B., 1952) its President. She was the second woman to serve the General Alumni Society as its chief executive and the sixth woman to serve the University as an Alumni Trustee. She had previously served the University as President of the College of Women Alumnae Society and founding President of the Society of the College. She was also a 1980 recipient of the Alumni Award of Merit. In June 1980, she was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Trustees, only the fourth woman to serve the University in that role. She was re-elected a member of the Executive Committee in 1981 and 1982. In June 1983, her three-year term as President of the General Alumni Society came to an end and she retired from the Board of Trustees.

In June, the Trustees amended the Statutes, increasing the number of Young Alumni Trustees from two to three and changing the name of this class of Trustees to Recently Graduated Alumni Trustees.

In September, the Trustees elected Ruth Margaret Davis, Ph.D., an Associate Trustee of the University for the term of a three-year appointment to the Board of Overseers of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. She was then Assistant Secretary of Research and Applications at the U.S. Department of Energy. In subsequent years, Dr. Davis became President and C.E.O. of the Pymatuning Group, Inc., in Alexandria, Virginia. She was the first woman to serve as a member of the Board of Overseers for the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the first woman ever to serve in an oversight role at this School. In the years since 1981, Dr. Davis has regularly been re-elected to the Board, and in September 2001, continued to serve the University as a member of this Board of Overseers.

In May, the General Alumni Society elected Linda Camille White Hall (M.B.A., 1981), who was then a Supervisor of Cost Accounting at Philip Morris, U.S.A., to a three-year term as one of the Recently Graduated Alumni Trustees. She was the first woman to serve the University as a Recently Graduated Young Alumni Trustee. While a student at Penn, she had been President of the Black MBA Association, a Wharton Graduate Association representative, and a fellow of the Council for Opportunity in Graduate Management Education. As a Recently Graduated Alumni Trustee she served as a member of the Budget and Finance, Resources, and Student Life committees until January 1986, when her term concluded.

In December, President Hackney nominated and the Trustees elected Shelley Z. Green to the senior administrative position of General Counsel. She became the first woman to serve as General Counsel of the University and the third woman to serve as a Statutory Officer of the University. Ms. Green had been Acting General Counsel for four months prior to her appointment and had previously held the administrative positions of Assistant and Associate General Counsel. Prior to accepting a position at Penn, she had served as a legal advisor to the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Ms. Green continued as General Counsel for sixteen years, before submitting her resignation in December 1998.

In August, President Hackney nominated and the Trustees elected Helen Bohen O'Bannon, B.A., M.A., to the senior administrative position of Senior Vice President. She became the first woman to serve as Senior Vice President of the University and the fourth woman to serve as a Statutory Officer of the University. Prior to accepting her appointment at Penn, she had held the position of Secretary of Public Welfare for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She held the position of Senior Vice President until her death, after a long illness, in October 1988.

In December, Stephanie A. J. Dangel (A.B., 1984; B.S. in Econ., 1984; A.M., 1984) was named the first Penn woman recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship.

Also in June, the Trustees elected Margaret Redfield Mainwaring one of the two Vice Chairmen of the Board of Trustees. She was the first woman to serve the University as Vice Chair of the Trustees.

In September, President Hackney nominated and the Trustees elected Marna Cupp Whittington, B.A., M.S., Ph.D., to the senior administrative position of Vice President for Finance. She became the first woman to serve the University as Vice President for Finance and the fifth woman to serve as a Statutory Officer of the University. Prior to accepting her appointment at Penn, Dr. Whittington had held a series of senior administrative positions in the state government of Delaware. Between 1981 and 1984, she had served as Director of Administrative Services, Director of Budget, and Secretary of Finance for the State of Delaware. In December 1988, following the death of Helen Bohen O'Bannon, President Hackney nominated and the Trustees elected Dr. Whittington to the senior administrative position of Senior Vice President. In December 1991, President Hackney and the Trustees promoted her to Executive Vice President of the University. She continued in this position until September 1992, when she resigned to become Managing Partner of Miller, Anderson, & Sherrerd, an investment banking firm in West Conshohocken, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. When Morgan Stanley Dean Witter acquired Miller Anderson & Sherrerd in 1996, she became Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer for Morgan Stanley & Co.'s Institutional Investment Management Division. She left Morgan Stanley in January 2001 and in June 2001 she was appointed President of Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management, a San Diego-based investment advisor firm.

In May, the General Alumni Society elected Marlene Sue Arnold (Ph.D. in Anthropology, 1985), then an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Millersville University, to a three-year term as one of the Recently Graduated Alumni Trustees. She was the second woman to serve the University as a Recently Graduated Young Alumni Trustee. Her term began in June 1987 and concluded in December 1989. While a student at Penn, she received a Fulbright-Hays grant for doctoral dissertation research in Greece. As a Recently Graduated Young Alumni Trustee, she served as a member of the External Affairs and University Responsibility committees.

In June, at the conclusion of her five-year term as a Term Trustee, the Trustees elected Leonore Annenberg a Life Trustee. She was the second woman to serve the University as a Life Trustee.

In September, President Hackney nominated and the Trustees elected Barbara Sale Butterfield, B.A., M.S. in Ed., Ph.D., to the senior administrative position of Vice President for Human Resources. She was the first woman to serve as Vice President for Human Resources and the sixth woman to serve as a Statutory Officer of the University. Prior to accepting her appointment at Penn, she was Director of Human Resources at Duke University. She served in that position for three and one-half years, resigning in April 1991 to become Vice President for Human Resources at Stanford University. In October 2000 she was elected Associate Vice President for Human Resources and Affirmative Action at the University of Michigan, effective February 2001.

In December, the General Alumni Society elected Regina Kutin Cohen (B.S. in Econ., 1986; B.A., magna cum laude, 1986), then an Assistant Marketing Manager for Money Magazine, to a three-year term as one of the Young Alumni Trustees, effective January 1988. She was the third woman to serve the University as a Recently Graduated Young Alumni Trustee. Her term began in January 1988 and concluded in December 1990. While a student at Penn, she was an advisor for Students Helping Students, the performance manager for the Penn Marching Band, tour guide for the Kite and Key Society, President of her Senior Class, and winner of the Gaylord P. Harnwell Senior Honor Award. As a Young Alumni Trustee, she served as a member of the Academic Policy, External Affairs, and Student life committees.

Also in June, the Trustees elected Gloria Twine Chisum to a one-year term as one of the two Vice Chairmen of the Board. Dr. Chisum was the second woman to serve as Vice Chairman. Margaret Redfield Mainwaring, who had held that senior position since June 1984, declined to be re-nominated.

In October, the General Alumni Society elected Sara Spedden Senior (A.B., 1952), of Merion, Pennsylvania, to a five-year term as an Alumni Trustee. She was the tenth woman to serve as an Alumni Trustee and the first to serve twice as an Alumni Trustee. Her term began in January 1989 and concluded in December 1993. She had previously served as an Alumni Trustee from May 1980 through May 1983, when she was President of the General Alumni Society. In June 1990 she was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Trustees, a Committee on which she had previously served from 1980 through 1983.

In October, at the mandatory conclusion of her service as a Term Trustee, the Trustees adopted a "Resolution of Appreciation" in honor of Margaret Redfield Mainwaring, commending her for her continuous service of fifteen years as a Trustee; for four years as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees; for eight years as a member of the Executive Committee of the Trustees; for seven years as Chairman of the Student Life Committee; and for nine years as Chairman of the Board of Overseers of the School of Nursing.

In May, the University appointed Kathleen Hall Jamieson, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., to the senior academic administrator position of Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, effective 1 July. She was the first woman to be appointed Dean of this School and the eighth woman to serve as an academic Dean at Penn. Prior to accepting her appointment at Penn, she was the G.B. Dealey Professor of Communications at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1996, she was re-appointed Dean and continues to serve as Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the present time.

In June, the Trustees voted to amend the Statutes of the Trustees and eliminate Recently Graduated Alumni Trustees from the several classes of Trustees.

Also in June, the Trustees elected Carol Blum Einiger (A.B., 1970), who was Managing Director of Wasserstein, Perella & Company, in New York City, and Natalie Iris Salkind Koether (A.B., 1961; LL.B. 1965), then a partner in the law firm of Keck, Mahin, Cate and Koether, in New York City, to five-year terms as Term Trustees of the University. They were the tenth and eleventh women, respectively, to serve the University as Term Trustees. Carol Blum Einiger was re-elected a Term Trustee in 1994 and served until the expiration of her second five-year term in 1999. At the conclusion of her second term the Trustees adopted a "Resolution of Appreciation" in her honor, commending her for her service on the Audit and Compliance, Budget and Finance, External Affairs, and Student Life committees of the Trustees, as well as the Investment Board and Undergraduate Financial Aid Committee, and Agenda for Excellence Council. In June 1992 Natalie Iris Salkind Koether was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Trustees. She was the seventh woman to serve the University as a member of the Executive Committee. She was re-elected to the Executive Committee in 1993 and 1994 and also re-elected a Term Trustee in 1994. In June 1999, at the conclusion of her second five-year term, she was elected a Charter Trustee. She continues to serve the University as a Charter Trustee at the present time.

In October, the General Alumni Society elected Sandra Ann DiGioia Williamson (A.B., 1963), Executive Director of the International Corporate Environment Initiative and Senior Lecturer in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, to a five-year term as one of the Alumni Trustees of the University. She was the tenth woman to serve as an Alumni Trustee. Her term began in January 1990 and concluded in December 1994. In October 1994 her fellow Trustees adopted a "Resolution of Appreciation" in her honor, commending her for her service on the Budget and Finance and University Responsibility committees of the Trustees, as well as her service on the Trustees' Council of Penn Women and its Committee on Institutional Advancement for Women.

In October, the General Alumni Society elected Elsie Sterling Howard (A.B., 1968), of Miami Beach, Florida, to a five-year term as an Alumni Trustee. She was the eleventh woman to serve as an Alumni Trustee. Her term began in January 1991 and concluded in December 1995. In May 1995, however, six months before her five-year term was to conclude, the General Alumni Society elected her to a one-year term as its President. She was the third woman to serve the General Alumni Society as its President. The Society re-elected her President four times, in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999. In June 1995 she was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Trustees. She was the eighth woman to serve the University as a member of the Executive Committee. In June 2000 the Trustees adopted a "Resolution of Appreciation" in her honor, which commended her service on the Executive, Development, External Affairs, Neighborhood Initiatives, Nominating, and Student Life committees of the Trustees, as well as for her service as a founder and chair of the Trustees' Council of Penn Women and as a member of the Board of Overseers of the Graduate School of Fine Arts and the Penn Athletics Advisory Board.

Also in January, President Hackney nominated and the Trustees elected Barbara Ray Stevens, B.A., to the senior administrative position of Secretary of the University. She was the third woman to serve as Secretary of the University and seventh woman to serve as a Statutory Officer of the University. Prior to accepting her appointment at Penn, Ms. Stevens had been President of the New Haven [Connecticut] Downtown Council, a position she had taken in 1989, after five years as Assistant and subsequently Executive Assistant to President Sheldon Hackney. In December of 1991, President Hackney and the Trustees promoted Ms. Stevens to Vice President and Secretary of the University. She continued in that position for five years, until her resignation, effective June 1996.

In April, the University appointed Patricia Conway, B.A., M.A., M.S., to the senior academic administrator position of Dean of the Graduate School of Fine Arts, effective 1 July. She was the first woman to be appointed Dean of this School and the ninth woman to serve as an academic Dean at Penn. Prior to accepting her appointment at Penn, she was President of Kohn Pedersen Fox Conway Associates, an interior design firm in Philadelphia, and a founding partner of Kohn Pedersen Fox, Architects, also of Philadelphia. She served three and one-half years as Dean, before submitting her resignation, effective 30 September 1994. She returned to research and teaching at the University and continues to serve the University at the present time as Professor of Architecture in the Graduate School of Fine Arts and also, beginning in January 1997, with a secondary appointment as Professor of Real Estate in the Wharton School.

In June the Trustees elected Susan Williams Catherwood to a one-year term as one of the two Vice Chairmen of the Board of Trustees. She was the third woman to serve the University as Vice Chair of the Trustees. She has been re-elected Vice-Chairman in each year since 1991 and continues to serve the University as Vice Chair of the Trustees at the present time.

In September, the University appointed Rosemary A. W. Stevens, B.A., M.A., M.P.H., Ph.D., to the senior academic administrator position of Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. She was the first woman to be appointed Dean of this School and the tenth woman to serve as an academic Dean at Penn. Prior to accepting this appointment, she was Professor and Chair of the Department of History and Sociology of Science at Penn. She served for five years as Dean, before submitting her resignation on 1 September 1996. She returned to research and teaching and continues to serve the University at the present time as the Stanley I. Sheerr Endowed Term Professor in the Department of History and Sociology of Science.

In October, the Trustees elected Vivian Weyerhaeuser Piasecki, of Haverford, Pennsylvania, to a five-year term as a Term Trustee of the University. She was the thirteenth woman to serve as a Term Trustee. In October 1996, at the end of her term, the Trustees adopted a "Resolution of Appreciation" in her honor, which commended her service on the Budget and Finance Committee and the Student Life Committee of the Trustees, as well as for her service as a member of the Trustee Board of the Health System, the Board of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the Board of Overseers of the School of Nursing, and the Advisory Board of the Institute on Aging.

In October, the General Alumni Society elected Norma Joan Peden Killebrew (A.B., 1961), of Baltimore, Maryland, to a five-year term as an Alumni Trustee. She was the twelfth woman to serve as an Alumni Trustee. Her term began in January 1992 and concluded in December 1996. In May 1993 she was appointed a member of the Consultative Committee to invite and review applications and nominations for President of the University. She was the sixth woman to serve the University as a member of a presidential search committee. In October 1996, at the end of her term, the Trustees adopted a "Resolution of Appreciation" in her honor, which commended her service on the Facilities and Campus Planning Committee and the Student Life Committee of the Trustees, as well as for her service as a member of the ad hoc Committee on Undergraduate Financial Aid and the Consultative Committee on the Presidential Search. It was also noted that in 1993-94 she provided important leadership through her participation in the Commission on Strengthening the Community.

Also in October, the General Alumni Society elected Andrea Louise Mitchell (A.B., 1967) to a five-year term as an Alumni Trustee. She was the thirteenth woman to serve as an Alumni Trustee. Her term began in January 1992 and concluded in December 1996. In June 1995 she was elected to a one-year term as a member of the Executive Committee of the Trustees. She was the ninth woman to serve the University as a member of the Executive Committee. She was been re-elected to the Executive Committee in June 1996 and has been re-elected in each subsequent year. In January 1997 the Trustees elected her to a five-year term as a Term Trustee. She continues to serve the University as a Term Trustee at the present time.

In December, President Hackney nominated and the Trustees elected Norma Marie Skrzypchak Lang, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., to the senior academic administrator position of Margaret Bond Simon Dean of the School of Nursing, effective March 1992. She was the fourth woman to be appointed Dean of this School and the eleventh woman to be named an academic dean at Penn. Prior to accepting her appointment, she was Dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She served as Dean for eight and one-half years, until September 2000, when she retired from the deanship, but returned to an active faculty life in research and teaching. In returning to the faculty, she was named the first person to hold the Lillian S. Brunner Chair in Nursing. In June 2000, the Trustees adopted a "Resolution of Appreciation" in her honor, which commended her for the achievements of the School of Nursing under her leadership, particularly its leadership in federal research dollars from the National Institutes of Health and its top two ranking in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey of graduate schools in the United States. She continues to serve the University at the present time as the Lillian S. Brunner Professor in Medical-Surgical Nursing in the School of Nursing.

Also in June, the Trustees elected Judith Helaine Roth Berkowitz (B.S. in Ed., 1964), Chairman and General Manager of Jarby, Inc., in New York City, to a five-year term as a Term Trustee. She was the fourteenth woman to serve as a Term Trustee. In June 1997, she was re-elected to a second five-year term as a Term Trustee and continues to serve the University as a Term Trustee at the present time.

1993-present:

Women rise to the Presidency

Appendix:

Women Trustees