Rising Scholar Success Academy

Team

Meet the PennRSSA Team

Ron Harvey

Mr. Harvey is the inaugural Director of PennRSSA. During the past 19 years he has worked in various roles serving high school students. Along the way he served as a network Director of Special Education with Mastery Charter Schools, a Chief of Staff with Imhotep CS, and a principal at charter schools in Philadelphia and Newark. Mr. Harvey has a love for coaching teachers and the education of young people in school and their future lives.

Dr. Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum

Dr. Valarie Ena Swain-Cade McCoullum, a native Philadelphian who is a public school graduate of the Julia Reynolds Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School and the Philadelphia High School for Girls, and the first Black female President of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, has served at the University of Pennsylvania for over four decades and currently holds the position of Vice Provost for Student Engagement.  On behalf of the President, Provost, and Deans, Dr. Cade oversees the work of the University’s pipeline initiatives, more than 150 programs that are designed at all levels of education for groups under-represented in U.S. higher education baccalaureate, graduate, and professional programs, disciplines, and industries with the aim to recruit, enroll, retain, and support underserved community members’ capacity to both persist and thrive—academically, socially, and emotionally—in their chosen disciplines and professions.

With the rank of Provost’s Distinguished Senior Scholar, Dr. Cade is also a faculty member in Penn’s world-class Graduate School of Education, ranked the premier college of education in the United States, where she is an expert in leadership resilience through crisis trauma-informed pedagogy and practice.

Dr. Cade served for 25 years as Vice Provost for University Life, Penn’s chief student affairs officer responsible to the President and Provost for the executive leadership of departments, offices, and services charged with the provision of academic support, wellness, co-curricular, intervention, developmental, cultural, and engagement programs for 24,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students at the University of Pennsylvania.  In this capacity, she had administrative oversight for over 400 staff and 28 departments with annual division operating and associated budgets of over $55 million.

Dr. Cade completed her baccalaureate degree at Penn State University’s University Park campus, and her graduate and post-doctoral studies at Temple University, Penn’s Wharton School, and Harvard University.  Dr. Cade is also the mother of two Penn alumni from Penn’s School of Medicine and Penn’s Graduate Program in Mechanical Engineering.

In addition, Dr. Cade chaired the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania Education Team of the School District of Philadelphia and was a member of the House of Representatives Legislative Black Caucus Advisory Committee on Higher Education. She has been honored, among other prestigious national, state, and local awards, by the University of Pennsylvania for her service distinction and by the City of Philadelphia City Council for her

passionate dedication to educational equity and access.  Some of her additional awards include:

  • University of Pennsylvania Dr. Helen O. Dickens Lifetime Achievement Award
  • Distinguished Daughter of the Philadelphia High School for Girls
  • Pennsylvania State University College of Liberal Arts Centennial Fellow
  • 50th Anniversary Distinguished Service Award:  Delta Sigma Theta Epsilon Gamma

Dr. Cade is the author of five books:  two volumes focused on the access and retention of socioeconomically-disadvantaged students and three, additional—highly regarded- works celebrating emerging visual artists in the City of Philadelphia.  A highly-regarded painter and photographer, Dr. Cade specializes in still and portrait photographic media and arts media, often employing collage and print techniques, including charcoal, acrylics, and watercolors.

Julia (Wenting) Cai

Julia Cai is the Program Coordinator of the PennRSSA program. She is also working as a post-graduate fellow in the Division of the Vice Provost for Student Engagement. Julia obtained her bachelor’s degree in psychology and minored in neuroscience. Pursuing a deeper understanding of how people learn at different ages, she joined Penn in 2020 and finished her master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies in human development. With a deep interest in helping students grow and learn, she became a member of the PennRSSA core team in April 2021. Her focus areas are adolescent development, knowledge acquisition, and youth program management.

Evelyn Martinez

Evelyn Martinez is a Program Coordinator of the PennRSSA program and a student worker for the Vice Provost for Student Engagement. Currently, Evelyn is a senior at The Wharton School of Business, studying Management (Organizational Effectiveness) and Social Impact & Responsibility.

Violet Tan

Violet primarily manages data analysis for the PennRSSA program. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in Economics, with a minor in Applied Mathematics and Statistics and has recently graduated with a master’s degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Violet began her role at VPSE in 2022 and has prior experience in other VPSE programs, including the Provost’s Summer Mentorship Program and Talent Search.