Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce to Honor Penn President Judith Rodin With The William Penn Award
October 27 2003 - 3:36PM
PR Newswire (US)
Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce to Honor Penn President
Judith Rodin With The William Penn Award Dr. Rodin Becomes The
First Woman to Win The Region's Most Prestigious Award for Business
Leaders PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Judith Rodin, the
first woman to be named President of an Ivy League University, is
now the first female to be named winner of the Greater Philadelphia
Chamber of Commerce's prestigious William Penn Award. Dr. Rodin
will be honored at the William Penn Award Gala on Friday, April 23,
2004. William Penn Award recipients are chosen based on their
personal, professional, and community contributions to the Greater
Philadelphia region and their efforts to transform the region into
a better place to live, work, and play. Under Dr. Rodin's
leadership, the University of Pennsylvania has experienced
tremendous growth, doubling its research funding and tripling its
fundraising efforts as well as its endowment. A record number of
undergraduates have applied for admission during her tenure, and
Penn has risen from No. 16 to No. 5 in U.S. News and World Report's
ranking of the top national research universities. Dr. Rodin has
initiated over a dozen undergraduate and graduate degree programs;
improved the excellence of Penn's faculty which has won 284 honors,
including two Nobel prize winners in the last three years; and
created Penn Medicine to integrate Penn's Medical School into its
health system. Dr. Rodin has overseen Penn's $1 billion capital
construction project - the largest construction period in Penn's
history - which added new classrooms, administrative buildings, and
recreational facilities. The project also has resulted in an
enhanced quality of life for Penn students and the community at
large. West Philadelphia, in which Penn lies, has seen a dramatic
transformation and has become one of the most ethnically diverse,
livable, and attractive neighborhoods in the region. Dr. Rodin
serves on numerous boards in the region, including the Greater
Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Aetna, Inc., AMR Corporation,
Electronic Data Systems and Comcast Corporation. She chairs
Innovation Philadelphia, an organization dedicated to enhancing the
region's economy through technology; and chairs the Knowledge
Industry Partnership, which aims to keep college graduates living
and working in the region. In addition, Dr. Rodin is a founding
member of Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce's Regional
College and University Presidents' Council, which for the first
time brought together the heads of the area's higher education
institutions to leverage the power of the region's academic
community. "Judith Rodin's contributions to the Greater
Philadelphia business community, academia, and West Philadelphia
have been nothing short of historic," said Mark S. Schweiker,
President & CEO, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. "The
William Penn Award is given to a business leader who devotes
exemplary service to Greater Philadelphia and Dr. Rodin embodies
the essence of this award. As President of Penn she has raised the
University of Pennsylvania's academic status internationally, led
the revitalization of University City, and expanded Penn's
commitment to Philadelphia schools. Greater Philadelphia is much
better off today than it was 10 years ago because of Judy Rodin."
In June 2004, Dr. Rodin will step down as President of the
University of Pennsylvania, but intends to remain active in the
Greater Philadelphia region. "I am honored to be chosen as the 2004
William Penn Award winner," said Dr. Rodin. "Working with the
Greater Philadelphia business community over the better part of the
last 10 years has been an extremely rewarding experience and one
that I believe has been of enormous benefit both to Penn and our
great region. I hope we have demonstrated that urban universities
can play a transformative role in helping to make their home cities
grow and prosper, and the partnership between Penn and Greater
Philadelphia is a strong example of a successful collaboration." As
the recipient of the William Penn Award, Dr. Rodin joins an
impressive list of past recipients including Ambassador Walter H.
Annenberg; Willard G. Rouse, III; Rev. Leon Sullivan, Founder of
OIC; Eugene Ormandy, former Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra;
G. Fred DiBona, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer,
Independence Blue Cross; Ronald Rubin, President, Pennsylvania
Realty Investment Trust; and last year's winner John Binswanger,
Co-Chairman of Binswanger-Chesterton Blumenauer. About the Greater
Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce The Greater Philadelphia Chamber
of Commerce consists of 5,500 members serving approximately 175,000
Philadelphia area employees. In 2003, the Chamber merged with
Greater Philadelphia First and united the Greater Philadelphia
business community under one organization with a renewed purpose.
The "new" Chamber has set forth an agenda that includes more
aggressive economy-building measures, the attraction and retention
of businesses, and repositioning the Greater Philadelphia region as
an international center of commerce. In addition, the Chamber hosts
more than 150 programs and seminars throughout the year, reaching
out to small, large and mid-sized businesses, as well as
initiatives targeting women and the international and educational
communities. The Chamber is also an active advocate on behalf of
its members for a variety of issues on the local, state and federal
levels. More information about the Chamber can be found online at
http://www.philachamber.com/. DATASOURCE: Greater Philadelphia
Chamber of Commerce CONTACT: Richard G. Barnes, Greater
Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, +1-215-790-3615, Web site:
http://www.philachamber.com/
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