Penn Researcher, Camden Doctor Get Famed “Genius Grants”
A pair of locals have received the prestigious “Genius Grants” announced today:
— Jeffrey Brenner, 44, Camden, N.J. The physician founded a health care delivery model that finds, tracks and serves the city’s poorest and sickest residents.
— Angela Duckworth, 43, Philadelphia. Research psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania helping to transform understanding of just what roles self-control and grit play in educational achievement.
The 44-year-old created the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers as a means to find and track the poorest patients with the most complex medical issues. Those patients are visited wherever they are — at home, in shelters — and escorted to doctor’s appointments.
“We cut, scan, zap and hospitalize (patients),” said Brenner, whose group is now working with 10 communities to develop similar systems. “But we forget we need to take care of them.”
House calls—which our grandparents took for granted—count as innovation these days. That’s OK! Good for Brenner!
Duckworth, meanwhile, recently wrote about her theory of grit in education:
One characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. And it wasn’t social intelligence. It wasn’t good looks, physical health, and it wasn’t I.Q. It was grit.
Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
There was one other “Genius” with a local tie; a writer who spend part of 2012 living near the Art Museum:
— Karen Russell, 32, New York City. A fiction writer and author of the novel “Swamplandia!” whose work blends fantastical elements with psychological realism.
