2024 Sachs Program Grants Evaluation Committees
The decisions around what to fund each year are extremely difficult and not taken lightly. This year, 2023-2024 grant cycle applications were peer-reviewed by seven committees, reflecting a range of expertise and including previous grant recipients, students, faculty, staff, alums, and community members. Decisions were informed by the Sachs Program’s mission, priorities, and current program criteria.
As in previous years, the Sachs Program received a record number of applications during the 2023-2024 grant cycle. With so many wonderful, ambitious, and imaginative proposals, the decisions made by the 2024 Committee Members were extremely challenging. We would like to share our sincere thanks and acknowledge the thoughtfulness and care they brought to their deliberations. This careful consideration is a critical part of our process, as it determines what we support each year, but also because it helps us generate feedback for our applicants.
Following the application process we offer unattributed feedback to all applicants, which is then often used to inform subsequent applications to the Sachs Program or other grant opportunities. Providing this feedback is a central tenet of The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation and our mission to support the arts and humanities at the University of Pennsylvania.
Committee Members
- Alissa Jordan
Associate Director, Center for Experimental Ethnography - Alli Katz
Program Coordinator, Kelly Writers House - Anirudh Karnick
PhD Candidate, Comparative Literature and South Asia Studies - Anna Weesner
Dr. Robert Weiss Professor of MusicUndergraduate Chair in Music - Breanna Moore
PhD Candidate, History; Fontaine Fellow - Brian Phillips
Lecturer, Architecture; Founding Principal and Creative Director, ISA - Brooke O’Harra
Senior Lecturer, Creative Writing; Director, Artist and Performer - Carol Muller
Professor of Music - Catherine Bartch
Associate Director, Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies - Christina Yu
Associate Director of Grants and Planned Giving, Institute of Contemporary Art - Cindy Stockon Moore
Philadelphia-based Artist - Clayton Colmon
Director of Curriculum Design, Arts and Sciences Online Learning - Elisa Foster
Director, Penn Women’s Center - Emily Zimmerman
Interim Director of Exhibitions and Programs, Arthur Ross Gallery - Emma Hart
Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History; Richard S. Dunn Director, McNeil Center for Early American Studies; Co-editor of the Penn Press series, “Early American Studies” - Gina Renzi
Director, The Rotunda - Heather Moqtaderi
Founder and Artistic Director, Past Present Projects - Heather Raquel Phillips
Lecturer, Fine Arts and Design; Artist, Independent Curator and Educator - Jasmine Johnson
Assistant Professor, Africana Studies; Sachs Program Board Member - Jennifer Joan Thompson
Lecturer, Theater Arts; Affiliated Faculty, Latin American and Latino Studies - Josephine Park
School of Arts and Sciences President’s Distinguished Professor of English; Sachs Program Board Member - Joshua K. Reason
PhD Candidate, Africana Studies; William Fontaine Fellow - Jonathan Zimmerman
Judy and Howard Berkowitz Professor in Education - Joshua Mosley
Professor of Fine Arts; PAR Lab Co-Director - Julia Heim
Lecturer, Foreign Languages - Kali Meeks
Director of Professional Development & Leadership, Weitzman School of Design - Kayla Romberger
Lecturer, Fine Arts and Design; Artist and Arts Organizer - Kristin DeMarco
Senior Designer, ISA - Lucy Zepeda
Lead Producer, Arts in Action, University of Southern California - Lynn Smith Dolby
Director of the Penn Art Collection - Malik Muhammad
Director, Inclusion Initiatives and Social Justice Education, Penn University Life - Matt Neff
Director, Undergraduate Fine Arts and Design; Sachs Program Board Member - Maxime Cavajani
Research Affiliate, Movement Lab Fellowship, RISD; Artist - Megan Edelman
Associate Director, Platt Student Performing Arts House - Micah Wilson
Correctional Education Director, Philadelphia Department of Prisons - Nicole Maloy
Director, Office of Social Equity & Community - Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano
Assistant Professor of History - Pamela Blanding-Godbolt
Philadelphia-based Artist - Rachell Morillo
DAJ Director of Public Engagement and Research, Institute of Contemporary Art - Rami George
Lecturer, Fine Arts and Design; Artist - Rosa Leff
Artist - Ryann Carey
Associate Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, Development and Alumni Relations - Scott Burkhardt
Lecturer, English and Cinema and Media Studies; Artist - Simon Kim
Associate Professor of Architecture; Director, Immersive Kinematics Lab; Principal, Ibañez Kim
2024 Grant Awards
The Sachs Program 2024 Grant Awards support 47 ambitious and creative projects in the arts and humanities at the University of Pennsylvania.