JANUARY PROGRAMS
Monday Quarterback Luncheon
January 5 from 12:30pm to 2pm
Alan Penziner is our Quarterback.
Thursday Luncheon Roundtable
January 8 from 12:30pm to 2pm
Speaker is Edward Epstein. His topic ‒ University City and the Invention of Gentrification.
The redevelopment of West Philadelphia as University City came about during broader efforts spearheaded by city planner Edmund Bacon during the post-WWII transformation of Philadelphia from a city of industry to one focused on tourism, higher education and medicine. Founded in 1959, the West Philadelphia Corporation became the prime mover in transforming the area. Acting largely in the interests of universities and hospitals, WPC’s gentrification efforts included demolition of the Black Bottom neighborhood as well as improvements to K–12 public school were meant to attract an affluent and whiter population.
For many reasons ‒ with resistance from the local community high on the list ‒ the educational projects failed. In his book Race, Real Estate, and Education: Inventing Gentrification in Philadelphia,1960-2020 (Temple University Press, 2025), Edward explores both this failure and the impact of the more comprehensive efforts of the West Philadelphia Initiatives, launched in the 1990s, which led to the founding of the highly ranked Penn-Alexander K-8 school.
Edward M. Epstein is the Alan J. Lee Director of the Teachers Institute of Philadelphia at Penn. He is a coauthor of Race, Gender, and Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). He holds an EdD from Penn’s Graduate School of Education and taught courses on university-community engagement. He also founded the 40th Street Artist-in-Residence program, which offers studio space to West Philadelphia artists in exchange for service to the community.
Special Event
Friday, January 9 from 6pm to 8pm
Winter Wonderland Party
Come in from the cold for a make-your-own hot chocolate and Irish coffee bar. Keep the festivities going and join us as we welcome the new year with delicious hot drinks, wine, beer, non-alcoholic beverages, and light fare. A Committee for New Initiatives Event.
Monday Quarterback Luncheon
January 12 from 12:30pm to 2pm
Dean Edwards is our Quarterback.
Annual Meeting & Dinner
Friday, January 16 with Member mixer at 5:30pm followed by presentation, with dinner at 7pm
Held on the Friday evening closest to Franklin’s birthday on January 17, our annual Business Meeting of the general membership is followed by the Benjamin Franklin Dinner.
Monday Quarterback Luncheon
January 19 from 12:30pm to 2pm
Palmer Hartl is our Quarterback.
Thursday Luncheon Roundtable
January 22 from 12:30pm to 2pm
Speaker is Jonathan Zimmerman. His topic ‒ You Can’t Say That: American Higher Education and the War on Free Speech.
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, triggered a new set of challenges and contradictions about free speech on American campuses. On the political right, the same people who formerly condemned universities as hostile to free speech demanded new constraints on allegedly hateful statements. And from left-wing advocates of checks on hate speech, we heard demands to protect those same statements. Now the Trump Administration is trying to impose yet more restrictions, via its extortionist “compact.” State legislatures, too, have passed new measures limiting what professors can teach and say, especially on race and gender. Jonathan maps out the path to this frenzied moment, with emphasis on the rise of psychological metaphors like triggers and safe spaces. He’ll suggest a new way forward, which places knowledge and understanding ‒ not trauma and healing ‒ at the heart of the educational project.
Jonathan Zimmerman is a prominent historian of education and Berkowitz Professor in Education at Penn. A former Peace Corps volunteer and high school teacher, he has written nine books, including Free Speech and Why You Should Give a Damn, illustrated by Signe Wilkinson (City of Light Publishing, 2021) and Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools, released in a revised 20th-anniversary edition (University of Chicago Press, 2022). He is a frequent contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Washington Post, as well as popular magazines and professional journals. Before coming to Penn, he taught for 20 years at New York University, where he received its 2008 distinguished teaching award.
Monday Quarterback Luncheon
January 26 from 12:30pm to 2pm
Alina Macneal is our Quarterback.
Movie Night at the Inn
January 27at 6pm; feature at 6:30pm
Feature TBA
With snacks and drinks including light fare, popcorn, chips, nuts, soda, beer, and wine.
Thursday Luncheon Roundtable
January 29 from 12:30pm to 2pm
Speaker is Philip Wasielewski. His topic ‒ Russia and Ukraine: Present and Future.
Philip Wasielewski returns to the Club to give us an overview of the Russo-Ukrainian War as it now stands, as well as the direction it may take in the near future ‒ and what could possibly happen in Russia when Vladimir Putin eventually leaves the scene.
Philip Wasielewski is Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Center for the Study of Intelligence and Nontraditional Warfare and a Senior Fellow in FPRI’s Eurasia Program. As a former paramilitary case officer with a 31-year career in the Directorate of Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency, he was a member of the first CIA team into Afghanistan in 2001, serving a three-year assignment on the National Security Council staff as Director for Intelligence and Covert Action programs. His CIA service paralleled a 30-year active and reserve Marine Corps career as an infantry officer, which included mobilizations for Afghanistan and Iraq. He holds a BA from Penn in international relations and European history, an MA from Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian Studies, and an MA in national security studies from the Army War College.