Diversity & Inclusion

Former VP Joe Biden officially joins Penn

The rumors were true. He'll be setting up an office on Penn's campus.

Joe Biden. (Courtesy photo)

Penn President Amy Gutmann confirmed today the rumor about former vice president Joe Biden: he’s joining the Philly-based university as a professor.

Biden, who has been named the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor, will head a D.C.-based research center on foreign policy that will bear his name and the University’s: the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which is slated to open in 2017.

In addition, Biden will have an office on Penn’s campus right here in Philadelphia, from which he will hold joint appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Arts and Sciences, with a “secondary affiliation” to the Wharton School.

“At Penn, I look forward to building on the work that has been a central pillar of my career in public office: promoting and protecting the post-WWII international order that keeps the United States safe and strong,” Biden said in a press release. “The Penn Biden Center and I will be engaging with Penn’s wonderful students while partnering with its eminent faculty and global centers to convene world leaders, develop and advance smart policy and impact the national debate about how America can continue to lead in the 21st Century.”

In the same statment, Gutmann referred to Biden as a “one of the greatest statesmen of our times” and said the former senator was an ideal fit to boost Penn’s role as a “global agenda-setter.”

And now, enter the conflict (ish): as our sister site Technical.ly Delaware reports, Biden also announced today he’ll be joining the University of Delaware, where he’ll serve as founding chair of the Biden Domestic Policy Institute. As reported Joey Davidson writes, the University confirmed Biden would work directly on UD campus.

This means that, in addition to splitting his time between D.C. and Philly, Biden will also be taking a few trips to the First State. Might he still become a champion for Philly’s health IT companies as we had hoped?

Either way, welcome to Philly, Joe.

Before you go...

Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.

3 ways to support our work:
  • Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
  • Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
  • Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
The journalism fund Preferred partners Our services
Engagement

Join our growing Slack community

Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!

Trending

16 places to responsibly dispose of old electronics in Philadelphia

19 tech and entrepreneurship events to check out before the holidays

Expect high-speed internet at 100 Philly rec centers in 2025, Verizon says

Are digital navigators the answer to closing Philadelphia’s tech gap?

Technically Media