As part of the Side Gigs for Good series, Penn Today highlights staff who spend time outside their work hours giving back to Philadelphia organizations.
2 min. read
Penn staff members Candace Adams with foster cat Black Pearl (top left); JJ Ahern in the University Archives and Records Center (top right); Sherry Caputo on Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation land in New Jersey (bottom left); and Meryl Krieger.
(Images: Courtesy of Candace Adams (top left); Courtesy of Sherry Caputo (bottom left); Eric Sucar)
Many Penn faculty, staff, and students give back to communities in Philadelphia and around the globe through their research and extracurricular involvement. Through the Side Gigs for Good series, started in 2019, Penn Today has also highlighted the volunteer work that members of the Penn community do outside of their day jobs.
This roundup of recent stories features an archivist who curated an exhibition on the history of the U.S. Navy, a Penn Medicine nurse manager providing health education to the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation, a College of Liberal & Professional Studies instructional designer helping creative teens with entrepreneurial and life skills, and an Institutional Review Board analyst who fosters cats and dogs.
Penn archivist J.J. Ahern has been putting his professional experience and personal passion for the past to work as a volunteer for the Navy’s 250th anniversary curating an exhibition about the human side of the service’s history.
Outside of her day job as a nurse manager for Penn Medicine at Home, Sherry “Strong Sun Spirit” Caputo has helped bring mental health education, COVID resources, and nutrition programming to her tribal community, the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation in New Jersey.
As a volunteer with the nonprofit after-school program Project 440, Meryl Krieger, a senior learning designer for the College of Liberal & Professional Studies, helps artistically minded high school students with life skills.
Outside of her day job at Penn’s Institutional Review Board, Candace Adams works with different organizations in Philadelphia to give temporary shelter and care to cats and dogs.
On the move: Water quality and antimicrobial resistance testing goes mobile
Penn researchers have developed a mobile field laboratory allowing them to test water quality and track antimicrobial resistance in and around San Cristóbal in the Galápagos.
Penn researchers Vanessa and Alexis North are studying one of the largest collections of Egyptian blue objects ever found in the ancient Near East, shedding new light on how the world’s first synthetic pigment may have traveled far beyond Egypt.
A new role for dental providers? Rethinking where vaccines are given
Vaccinations have traditionally been administered in primary care settings or pharmacies. However, for about a decade, some states have authorized dentists to administer vaccines, and many others did so during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effectiveness of this approach has led some countries and states to expand or consider expanding the role of dental providers in delivering routine vaccines, including those against COVID-19 and the human papillomavirus (HPV), and in providing vaccine education.
Penn student develops a way for computer chips to run more efficiently
Fluid Silicon, a platform from President’s Sustainability Prize winner Nhlanhla Mavuso, allows computer chips to continuously monitor their health and self-tune as their characteristics change. The technology has the potential to reduce energy usage in data centers and improve reliability in mission-critical applications.
