Remembering Penn Arts and Sciences Overseers’ Chair David Silfen

David M. Silfen, C’66, chairman of Penn Arts and Sciences’ Board of Overseers and vice-chair of the University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees, died on November 28.

A longtime member of the Board of Overseers and its Executive and Development committees, Silfen was named Overseers’ chair in 2009. He provided invaluable advice to Penn Arts and Sciences deans in areas such as fundraising, budgeting, and strategic planning. He was one of the School’s most articulate advocates and took a key role in working to increase the rigor of the undergraduate program, to make opportunities for students to take courses at other Penn schools, and to involve other Overseers and alumni as partners in the School. His tenure saw a renewed commitment to faculty diversity, the creation of the undergraduate Integrated Studies Program, record-breaking graduate applications, the construction of the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology, the appointment of Steven Fluharty as dean of Penn Arts and Sciences, the successful completion of the School’s involvement in the Making History campaign, and the groundbreaking of the new Neural-Behavioral Sciences Building, which is scheduled to open in 2016.

Click here to read more about David Silfen.