In an emergency, the first person able to help is often not a medical professional.
It may be a friend, classmate, colleague, or stranger. And what that person does in the moments before professional help arrives can make all the difference.
What if every Penn student knew what to do?
That is the vision behind Penn Lifesaver, a new campus-wide initiative launched this fall thanks to a generous gift from Joshua Kazam, W’99, PAR’27, PAR’30, and Joia Kazam, PAR’27, PAR’30.
The program equips students and other members of the Penn community with practical lifesaving skills, from performing CPR and using an automated external defibrillator (AED) to administering naloxone, controlling severe bleeding, and responding effectively in other medical emergencies.
A member of the Penn Medicine Board of Advisors, Joshua Kazam first learned about the vision for Penn Lifesaver from Joshua Glick, C’10, MD, FACEP, Associate Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical Director of Penn’s Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT), and a longtime advocate for life-saving training on campus.
“Lifesaver is a unique opportunity to make the Penn community safer by empowering students to care for each other,” Kazam explained. “Dr. Glick and the MERT teams’ enthusiasm in leading this effort are a great example of Penn leadership.”
Kazam and his wife Joia made the gift establishing Penn Lifesaver in memory of Joshua’s mother, Bonnie B. Kazam, MD, CW’69, a physician and proud alumna of Penn’s College of Women.
Penn Lifesaver is about creating a culture where every member of our community feels prepared and confident to act when seconds matter. By making lifesaving education accessible across campus, we have an opportunity to make Penn safer and set a new standard for emergency preparedness in higher education.”Joshua Glick, C’10, MD
Medical Director, Penn MERT
One distinctive feature of Penn Lifesaver is its peer-to-peer training model. Training is led by volunteers from MERT, a student-run EMS organization with more than 70 certified EMTs, with support from Penn’s Mobile CPR Project.
Penn Lifesaver was launched on September 1 with an event at Hill College House where volunteers from MERT and the Mobile CPR Project put the peer-to-peer model into action, providing their fellow students with hands-on training on how to respond to a range of medical emergencies. More than 900 students were trained during the first two weeks of Penn Lifesaver events.
“As a physician, I know how much can depend on the actions people take in the first moments of an emergency,” said Penn’s President J. Larry Jameson. “Penn Lifesaver equips students with practical skills that can make a real difference on our campus and in their lives beyond Penn.”
The campus training sessions, which will continue throughout the fall, are just one part of Penn Lifesaver’s three-pronged approach. Each February, the program will anchor American Heart Month by hosting Penn Lifesaver Day, focused on hands-only CPR training. In addition, the new initiative will provide free, formal CPR certification courses to the entire Penn community.
Long term, the program could reach an entire generation of Penn students, training more than 10,000 undergraduate students over five years, explains Benoit Dubé, MD, Associate Provost and Chief Wellness Officer, University of Pennsylvania.
“Penn Lifesaver brings Wellness at Penn’s mission to help students thrive to life in a powerful way,” he explains. “By giving students practical skills to care for one another, we’re not only preparing them to respond in an emergency, we’re building a stronger culture of health, safety, and shared responsibility across campus.”
Joshua Kazam is the co-founder and partner of Two River, a venture capital firm that focuses on investments in the life sciences sector. A dedicated Penn volunteer, he is the chair of the Wharton Undergraduate Executive Board and a member of the Penn Medicine Board of Trustees and the Council for Discovery. Joia Kazam is a philanthropist and community supporter.
The Kazams’ philanthropic support of Penn has been wide-ranging, funding initiatives including the Wharton Kazam Transformational Scholars Fund, the Kazam Family Undergraduate Innovation Fund at Wharton, Penn First Plus, and the Bonnie Kazam, MD, CW’69 Memorial Scholarship Fund.
