2021-2022 Executive Committee
Amber Banayat, Chair
abanayat@nursing.upenn.edu
Cynthia Di Loretto, Co-Chair
Cynthia.DiLoretto@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Maureen Goldsmith, Secretary
mgoldsmi@isc.upenn.edu
Jon Crescenzo, Treasurer
jcre@upenn.edu
Donna Crawley, Communications
dcrawley@upenn.edu
Board Member Bios
Amber Banayat, WPPSA Chair, is the Diversity Program Coordinator for the Office of Equity and Inclusion at the School of Nursing. Prior to UPenn, she was a Director of Student Services at the University of California Berkeley. In her 20 years in higher education, she has served on many institutional committees at Penn, UC Berkeley and Stanford including the UCB Dean’s Diversity Advisory Board, Stanford’s Dean’s Advisory Board and Penn’s Professional Staff Assembly. Amber is excited to join WPPSA to provide leadership and vision as well as team with WWPSA members to advance meaningful efforts that impact our staff and community.
Cynthia ‘Cyd’ Di Loretto, WPPSA Co-Chair, is the Administrative Coordinator for Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care in the Perelman School of Medicine. With an accumulation of 35 years in the work force Cyd has worked in the trenches of government, law, healthcare, and academia for both profit and nonprofit. A witness and advocate to change, Cyd has seen weekly paid staff bring a new energy and intelligence to their profession. As a member and co-chair of the WPPSA, Cyd’s objective is to offer a viable presence and participation. Her goal for WPPSA board and members is for the WPPSA to thrive, engage and provide a pathway to knowledge for both present and future generations of WPPSA employees. There is satisfaction and pride to understand how to navigate throughout the Penn organization professionally and personally. The WPPSA is a venue to engage and bring awareness of what is going on in the Penn community.
Maureen Goldsmith, WPPSA Secretary, is the Senior Program Coordinator for Information Systems and Computing. Prior to this position, Maureen was the Administrative Coordinator for Penn Museum. She has served on many institutional committees in the last 5 years at Penn. Though working at Penn for nearly 20 years, her involvement with WPPSA the last 5 years is when she’s felt most connected with various staff across the University.
Jon Crescenzo, WPPSA Treasurer, is the Research Engagement Coordinator for the Consortium of Policy Research in Education at the Graduate School of Education. He has worked in the university system for over 7 years, first with his undergraduate school, CSU East Bay and the last 4 years being here at Penn. With a background in multimedia production and finance, Jon has spent much of his career and time serving on a variety of advocacy and community based projects and initiatives. Outside of Penn, Jon enjoys seeing art exhibits, losing at quizzo and reading history books.
Donna Crawley, WPPSA Communications, is the Academics Program Coordinator for the Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs (BPP) in the Perelman School of Medicine. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies from Eastern University. After spending many years in the human resources field, Donna joined BPP in 2017 to embark on a new experience planning and coordinating over 100 programs and events for the biomedical postdoc community. The best part of the position for her has been building connections with postdocs and learning ways to enhance BPP’s training and career development programming. Recently, she joined WPPSA Executive Committee as the Communications Officer to become more involved in UPenn community. In her spare time, Donna enjoys spending time with her family, serving as a youth leader at church, and traveling.
University Committees
FY 2022-2023
Standing Committees
Committee on Academic and Related Affairs – Maureen Goldsmith
Committee on Campus and Community Life – Erin Gautsche
Committee on Diversity and Equity – Miriam Harris
Committee on Facilities – Raymond Johnson
Committee on Personnel Benefits– Rosa Vargas, Stacie Anderson, Joseph Jackson
Independent Committees
Committee on Honorary Degrees– Cyd Di Loretto
Committee on Open Expression– Erin Gautshce
Other Committees
Committee on Committees – Maureen Goldsmith
Models of Excellence – Rosa Vargas