{"id":292769,"date":"2026-09-24T05:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T05:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/292769\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T05:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T05:18:15","slug":"penn-civil-rights-center-names-inaugural-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/292769\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn civil rights center names inaugural leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Penn\u2019s newly opened Center for Civil Rights announced its leadership on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to a Sept. 23 email to the University community, Deborah Frey will lead the center alongside designated leader and subject-matter experts Michele Rovinsky-Mayer, Majid Alsayegh, Steve Ginsburg, and Michael Athy. The University <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2026\/06\/penn-center-civil-rights-created-jameson-trump-discrimination\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">established<\/a> the CCR in June to consolidate civil rights resources, simplify the reporting and resolution of complaints, and maintain compliance with legal requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the message authored by Frey and Vice President for Human Resources Felicia Washington, Penn described the CCR as a \u201cone front door approach\u201d for community members to receive civil rights resources and support.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, the CCR team will be able to address your concerns in a coordinated, consistent manner, or connect you with other appropriate support and resources across the University,\u201d the email read.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The center unified three formerly separate Penn offices \u2014 the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs, the Office of the Associate Vice President for Equity &amp; Title IX, and the Office of Religious and Ethnic Interests \u2014 under a single administrative structure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-serif\">Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/thedp.us2.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=a96885e3aa3f8131c872ee329&amp;id=370b4800ba\" class=\"newsletter-btn font-sans no-underline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"> Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, the CCR is organized into three subject-matter areas of responsibility: equal opportunity, sex and gender-based discrimination and harassment, and religious and ethnic interests.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Frey, who previously worked in OREI, will spearhead CCR\u2019s work as associate vice president and special advisor to the president.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rovinsky-Mayer, Alsayegh, and Ginsburg will all continue to advance their previous work in Title IX and religious and ethnic interests. Athy has joined Penn as Executive Director of Equal Opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>According to the University, the CCR is also working to create \u201ca shared physical home\u201d located in the Franklin Building meant to be \u201ca welcoming and accessible space\u201d for the Penn community.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The center also plans to partner with campus organizations such as Restorative Practices @ Penn, Student Intervention Services, Special Services, Community Standards and Accountability, Penn Violence Prevention, and the Office of the Ombuds. It will work closely with the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, the Office of General Counsel, and other University leaders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe look forward to continuing this work together to strengthen a Penn community grounded in dignity, fairness, and respect,\u201d the email concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Senior reporter Amy Liao covers student life and can be reached at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2026\/09\/mailto:liao@thedp.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">liao@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, she studies philosophy, politics, and economics and cinema and media studies. Follow her on X <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/amyliiao\" rel=\"nofollow\">@amyliiao<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn\u2019s newly opened Center for Civil Rights announced its leadership on Wednesday.\u00a0 According to a Sept. 23 email&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-292769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}