School Hosts Penn Forum for Women Faculty’s Phoebe S. Leboy Lecture with Judith Rodin
Philadelphia – Penn Dental Medicine hosted this year’s Penn Forum for Women Faculty’s Phoebe S. Leboy Lecture, delivered April 10 by former Penn President Judith Rodin in the School’s William Cheung Auditorium. The Phoebe S. Leboy Lecture is awarded annually to an outstanding scholar who catalyzes opportunities for women in academia. Penn’s seventh president, Dr. Rodin was the first woman to be named a permanent president of an Ivy League institution and the first woman to lead the Rockefeller Foundation, her post after leaving Penn.
The lectureship was created in 2013 by the Penn Forum for Women Faculty in recognition of the late Dr. Phoebe Leboy, a former Penn Dental Medicine faculty member who was a trailblazer for women in academia and science. Dr. Leboy joined the Penn Dental Medicine faculty in 1966 – one of only a few women faculty members as the time. She rose to full tenured Professor of Biochemistry in 1976 and served in that role until 2005. A respected researcher, she maintained an unbroken record of federal funding for over 40 years. A tireless advocate for women in academia, Dr. Leboy served on many University-wide committees on equity and was Chair of the Faculty Senate. After retirement from Penn, she took her advocacy on the road, serving as President of the Association for Women in Science.
In the Leboy Lecture, Dr. Rodin reflected on her tenure at Penn and the Rockefeller Foundation and spoke on the power of resilience. Penn Dental Medicine’s Morton Amsterdam Dean Mark Wolff presented closing remarks, thanking all those in attendance, and as host, inviting attendees to a reception afterward.