New Faces at the Katz Center
The Center welcomes five new staff members.
Since 2020, staff members Sam Cardillo, Carrie Love, Becky Friedman, and Bonnie Blankenship have moved on to wonderful new pursuits. We miss them dearly and remain indebted to them for their collective decades of service and unique contributions to the Katz Center. Rest assured that 420 Walnut Street remains hopping, as five dynamic new staff members have come on board!
Lilia Mataac joined the staff early in the pandemic to replace the irreplaceable Sam Cardillo as Business Manager. She juggles everything from the Center’s budget and HR systems to fellows’ paychecks, all the while keeping an eye on our endowment and overseeing the many updates needed to keep this building healthy.
In her new role as Academic Programs Administrator Anna Poplawski has stepped into the shoes once filled by Carrie Love. Anna handles all things related to the fellowship—running the application process, guiding fellows as they move their lives to Philadelphia, and structuring all the details that go into their time here. She does the same work with a range of other academic programs at the Center, from the summer school for graduate students to our named lectureships.
Ray Coyne has an unusual remit: she is both the assistant to the director—managing Steve’s calendar, correspondence, and more—and the go-to person for the thousands of things that seem to need attention in the physical plant. Though we didn’t have such person before, we cannot now imagine how we managed without one.
September saw the arrival of new Communications Coordinator Miriam Saperstein, a role previously held by Becky Friedman (who, having completed her doctorate in English Literature, has moved over to Penn’s English Department). Miriam runs our social media, keeps the website, builds our newsletters, and makes sure the world knows about all the many things we are doing at the Katz Center… and makes everything look great.
The newest member of the team here is Adrienne Atkins, who took over as the journal manager of the Jewish Quarterly Review in January. A recent PhD in Classics from Penn, Adrienne has focused her energy on scholarly publishing, working both for JQR and as managing editor of the the Bryn Mawr Classical Review. She is replacing Bonnie Blankenship, who retired in December after nearly 50 years. Welcome aboard.
Each of them are as good at their jobs as they are delightful to work with. The future looks bright.
