Scott Aker, Xiaoxia "Summer" Dong, and Shea O’Neill have been selected to receive G. Holmes Perkins Distinguished Teaching Awards for Academic Year 2025-2026. The Awards are presented annually to three members of the Weitzman faculty, based on nominations by students, to recognize distinguished teaching and innovation.
Scott Aker is a lecturer in architecture and teaches foundational architecture and design in the Undergraduate Architecture program. An award-winning architect and educator, Aker’s research focuses on inclusive design pedagogy and trauma-informed approaches to architecture. His work emphasizes using architecture as a teaching tool, centering on social issues and professional ethics. Aker is a registered architect and co-founder of the nonprofit Institute for Architectural Research. According to one student who nominated him, “He is incredibly patient when teaching architecture courses and content. He understands that students may not get software or concepts at first glance.”
Xiaoxia "Summer" Dong (MCP’14, PhD’20) is an assistant professor of city and regional planning who has taught at Penn since 2021. Dong’s research examines traffic safety and the impact of new transportation technologies and services on travel behavior and the built environment. He has published peer-reviewed articles on user perceptions of driverless buses, mode preferences for ride share and transit, road safety, and driver’s education for adolescents in the US. Among the nominations for him, one student wrote, “Summer is one of the best instructors I have ever had in my academic and professional career. He is incredibly good at conveying information and has a wealth of knowledge.”
Shea O’Neill (MCP’12) has taught at Penn for over five years in the Department of City & Regional Planning. He is a vice president at U3 Advisors’ Philadelphia Office, where he builds the foundation to support U3’s data-driven approach to economic and real estate development. O’Neill manages the majority of U3’s data and analytic needs across the company on a variety of projects. With a background in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Tableau, he has helped U3 leverage public and institutional datasets to visualize novel trends in housing, transportation, and economic development. One of the students who nominated him said, “Shea is a truly extraordinary lecturer. He has a way of teaching that is both engaging and inspiring, that both provides a solid foundation in GIS and that encourages exploration on its own.”
Aker, Dong, and O’Neill will be formally honored at the 2026 Weitzman Graduation Ceremony on Saturday, May 16, 2026.
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