Drexel President’s Award for Diversity & Inclusive Community

CIES Team: Bernetta Millonde, Sandra Petri, Marco Valverde

The Center for Inclusive Education and Scholarship (CIES) is deserving of the President’s Award for Diversity and Inclusive Community for Faculty and Professional Staff because it exemplifies Drexel’s founding principle of inclusion, increasing access and opportunity for historically underrepresented and marginalized students, including first-generation college students and students of color. Led by Bernetta McCall-Millonde, Executive Director, alongside team members Sandra Petri and Marco Valverde, CIES provides a supportive community through which students connect with peers and mentors who can help coach them through challenging times and by sharing resources to help students advocate for themselves. With just three staff, CIES serves more than 1100 students across 11 programs. As one example, the Liberty Scholars Program has provided financial support, mentoring and professional development for over a decade, increasing student retention and yielding graduates who help fulfill A.J. Drexel’s vision of a place of higher education accessible to all. In the words of a student writing in support of the nomination: “As a first-generation college student, it was hard to navigate the many resources the University provided, and I began to feel overwhelmed. Luckily for me and many others, the CIES office became my home away from home.”

Terrance Harris

Terrance Harris has imbued the College of Engineering with a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and his ethos speaks to the core tenets of the award.

Terrance serves as a resource for the entire college and a pillar of support for our historically underrepresented minority students. Since taking over the Drexel Engineering Leadership Transformation Academy (DELTA) Build Relationships in Diverse Group Experiences (BRIDGE) program, which provides incoming first-year and transfer students with robust, engaging experiences to prepare them for a diversified engineering workforce, he increased participation and improved the average GPA of DELTA BRIDGE Scholars. He began the DELTA Study Session along with the college’s Undergraduate Advising Center and leveraged their relationship with the Boeing Company to engage with DELTA Scholars interested in aerospace. He helped reestablish a functional, active Drexel chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE).

Terrance’s work is exemplified by the collaborations he has established with other University units engaged in DEI work. Terrance has expanded Drexel's alumni reach through the college’s Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Alumni Advisory (IDEAA) Committee, and by inviting alumni to participate in student events.

Terrance’s approach to collaboration made these accomplishments possible and make him eminently deserving of this award.

Drexel President’s Award for Civic Engagement

Scott Quitel

Scott Quitel, Associate Teaching Professor and Director of Social Entrepreneurship at the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship, has brought Drexel University’s commitment to civic engagement to life through experiential learning and deep collaboration with Philadelphia's Logan neighborhood.

Over the past two years, Quitel has led community-based learning (CBL) classes that immerse Drexel students in meaningful, hands-on partnerships with Logan residents. This predominantly Black neighborhood, rich in cultural heritage and a history of Southeast Asian immigration, has long faced environmental and structural challenges, including the burial of Wingohocking Creek, mass evictions and decades of unfulfilled promises.

Through joint projects driven by neighborhood input, Drexel students and Logan residents have co-designed public spaces, installed a “tree of learning” sculpture in the Logan Library, and created a native plant garden at Jay Cooke Elementary School. An environmental science club, led by Drexel BEES students, now inspires local children, while collaborations like the TEC-funded Climate Justice Incubator connect faculty and stakeholders in planning for sustainable development on Logan Triangle.

Professor Quitel’s leadership exemplifies Drexel’s commitment to civic engagement, empowering students and residents alike to build a stronger, more resilient Logan community.

Annette Gadegbeku, MD, FAAFP

Dr. Gadegbeku is a passionate advocate for communities in need. Through her multifaceted roles at Drexel University College of Medicine, Dr. Gadegbeku has demonstrated her commitment to serving marginalized populations through clinical outreach, innovative research and education. Her leadership with Drexel University’s Office of Community Health and Health Equity serves hundreds of people in Philadelphia annually through community health events, including mobile COVID-19 testing, vaccination clinics, naloxone outreach and cardiovascular health programs.

Dr. Gadegbeku leads Drexel University’s interprofessional educational community engagement efforts to partner with middle schools in Philadelphia. Particularly, she recruits medical, nursing and public health faculty, students and staff to facilitate weekly “Science of Health” and “Go Into Health” lessons for fifth through eighth graders at the Science Leadership Academy Middle School of the Philadelphia School District.

As medical director of the Healing Hurt People program and assistant director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Dr. Gadegbeku serves an advocate for holistic, comprehensive service, education and outreach for those underserved and inclusion in research for those who are under-represented in innovation. Thus, Dr. Gadegbeku’s leadership in in community-engaged healthcare, education and research make her a most deserving awardee for the Civic Engagement Award.

Drexel President’s Award for Excellence

UOkay? Campaign Team: Julia Philips, Krisann Janowitz, Michael King, Nathan Barrick, Jeffrey Urbano, Megan Kilcullen, Keith Fledderman, Kit Hand, Tania Czarnecki, Jared Crossman

The UOkay? Campaign Team was nominated for the 2024 President’s Award for Excellence for Professional Staff because of their exemplary work in creating and executing a campaign regarding mental health needs on campus. The emotional and psychological well-being of college students is a significant issue facing higher education, made all the more challenging by entrenched misconceptions about mental health and perceived stigmas in asking for help. Breaking through these barriers in order to foster a campus culture that championed self-advocacy for mental health needs required a strategy aimed at the heart of the issue: encouraging students to honestly ask one another, and more importantly honestly answer, this simple, everyday phrase: “Are you okay?” Utilizing a multi-media approach, the professional marketing and communication team members joined with the experts at Drexel’s Counseling Center to create the UOkay? Campaign. As a result of this work, the Counseling Center has seen a 20-percent rise in appointments, and there has been significant enthusiasm for the videos, social media posts and printed materials that support these efforts, including praise from the 2023-2024 USGA, who recognized the centrality of this efforts to the well-being of their fellow classmates.

Drexel University College of Medicine Office of Faculty: Nancy Spector, MD; Michele Kutzler, PhD; Donna McNelis, PhD; Caitlin Curcio; Tamar Simpser; Arlene Padolina; Alli Cain; Kyong Park; Janine Barber – nominated by Charles B. Cairns, MD

The Drexel University College of Medicine Office of Faculty team is committed to excellence and innovation. They have demonstrated an outstanding ability to connect and build partnerships with faculty and staff internally across Drexel University as well as with external health systems, universities and institutions.

The Office of Faculty staff has implemented an approach to successfully onboard and support over 2,500 core faculty over the past five years. These efforts drove the successful transformation of the College of Medicine into the nation’s largest private allopathic (MD granting) medical school, despite the disruptions of the Hahnemann bankruptcy, COVID-19 pandemic, opening of new regional clinical campuses in five states and establishment of a new four-year campus in Reading. Furthermore, the team has supported record faculty engagement in governance committees as well as faculty development and leadership programs.

The team leveraged their experience in the nationally renowned Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program to implement Faculty Launch and mid-career development programs, directly impacting professional growth and satisfaction.

Impressively, the team also implemented the innovative Faculty Affairs Dashboard, a comprehensive online program to support for faculty management and interaction.

Thus, the Office of Faculty staff truly exemplifies professional excellence, innovation and teamwork.