The American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS) Pittsburgh chapter has named Commander of the Pitt Police and Director of Security Shawn Ellies (GSPIA ’08, EDUC ’15) as the chair of the local chapter, leading more 200 members. Additionally, Ellies is a ASIS Certified Protection Professional, having completed a comprehensive certification program recognized as the gold standard for security management professionals worldwide.

Ellies oversees the University’s integrated safety and security needs. He has been a member of the University of Pittsburgh Police Department for the past 23 years in public safety leadership roles including patrol officer, shift sergeant, shift lieutenant, administrative lieutenant, commander of the special emergency response team and commander of operations.

Ellies served in the United States Army for 23 years. He earned a doctorate degree from the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh in administration and policy studies, a masters degree in public policy and management from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and a masters degree in leadership and management from Duquesne University.

Ellies chairs the Veterans Community group on Pitt’s campus.

The University of Pittsburgh has been recognized for its support for students in the military community.

For the ninth consecutive year, the University’s Pittsburgh campus has been recognized as a 2020-2021 Military Friendly Top 10 School. 

Also receiving recognition for the 2020-2021 year:

• Pitt-Greensburg, Military Friendly
• The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration, Bronze status
• Pitt-Bradford, Bronze status
• Pitt-Johnstown, Military Friendly

The Military Friendly Schools survey is “the longest-running most comprehensive review of college and university investments in serving military and veteran students.” Institutions earning the Military Friendly School designation were evaluated using both public data sources and responses from a proprietary survey. More than 1,000 schools participated in the 2020-2021 survey with 695 earning the designation.

Military-affiliated students at Pitt are supported by the Office of Veterans Services, PITT VETS and other entities across all campuses. 

The Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences recently launched a new writing institute to help create a “more vibrant writing culture” on Pitt’s campus.

The William S. Dietrich II Institute for Writing Excellence, which is rooted in the Department of English’s Composition Program, will help Dietrich School professors advance their writing instruction and help them teach discipline-specific writing in their courses. The new institute will also provide an environment for instructors to share tools that they’ve developed and learn from one another. The center plans to offer workshops for faculty and graduate students working on large projects.

“Writing is important because it allows us to move our ideas forward, to create knowledge, to figure things out,” said Jean Grace (pictured), senior lecturer in the Department of English and director of the Institute for Writing Excellence. “Writing is the life force of the academic community—it’s how we communicate research and advance our fields, how we document our work, how we earn credentials.”

The institute is named for William S. Dietrich II, the late philanthropist and double-degree Dietrich School alumnus who made a historic gift of $125 million to the University to name the then-School of Arts and Sciences to honor his father, Kenneth P. Dietrich. The Dietrich Foundation also gave a generous gift to help create the new writing institute. 

Read more about the new writing institute on the Dietrich School’s website.

The University of Pittsburgh once again is among the nation’s top institutions for producing Fulbright students.

Fourteen recent Pitt graduates—13 undergraduate alumni and one graduate alumnus who is currently pursuing his PhD—are abroad in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. This is a Pitt record; the University’s historical record of 11 recipients was set in 2015. 

The prestigious Fulbright program awards grants for individually designed study and research projects or for English Teaching Assistant Programs in more than 160 countries around the world.

“This recognition, and the work that goes into realizing it, is an exceptional achievement for the University of Pittsburgh,” said Chancellor Patrick Gallagher. “It highlights Pitt’s enduring capacity to not just attract—but to elevate and advance—the very best students in America today.”

“Global impact is a core of the Pitt Honors experience as it prepares our scholars to compete at the highest level and move toward a career of global impact,” said Audrey J. Murrell, acting dean of the Honors College. “Receiving a Fulbright award, as one of the most recognized international awards, is an important recognition of their achievement and shows that they take that global commitment seriously. I'm incredibly proud of their drive and boundary-crossing leadership.”

Read more about the 2019-20 recipients in Pittwire.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has named three Pitt faculty as 2020 Sloan Research Fellows:

• Susan Fullerton Shirley, an assistant professor in the Swanson School of Engineering was recognized for advancements in the field of chemistry. 
• Michael Hatridge, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences was recognized for advancements in the field of physics. 
• Robin E.C. Lee, an assistant professor in the Department of Computational and Systems Biology in the School of Medicine was recognized for work in the field of computational and evolutionary molecular biology.

The fellowship, awarded annually to 126 scientists in the United States and Canada, is dedicated for scholars studying chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, computational and evolutionary biology, neuroscience, ocean sciences and physics. Since the fellowship was founded in 1955, 38 Pitt faculty have received the honor. 

Winners will receive a two-year, $75,000 fellowship to support their research. 

Toi Derricotte, professor emerita in the Department of English within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, is the 2020 recipient of the Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry. 

Derricotte’s sixth and most recent collection of poetry, “‘I’: New and Selected Poems,” was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press and shortlisted for the 2019 National Book Award.

The award, named to honor the late poet Robert Frost, is presented annually by the Poetry Society of America to recognize the lifetime achievements of an American poet.

The Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences has named Frayda Cohen and Barbara "Babs" Mowery this year's Ampco-Pittsburgh Prize for Excellence in Advising recipients. 

The Dietrich School's annual award recognizes outstanding faculty and staff academic advising of its undergraduate students.

Cohen is the director of undergraduate studies, senior lecturer, and undergraduate advisor in the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Program. Mowrey is an academic advisor in the Dietrich School's Academic Advising Center.

Recipients are nominated by fellow faculty and staff, and nominations are supported by the experiences of undergraduate students.

Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Ann E. Cudd and Senior Vice Chancellor for Business and Operations Greg Scott have formally announced the Art on Campus initiative. Art on Campus aims to audit and catalog the public art at the University’s Pittsburgh campus, as well as make recommendations for future installations.

“Public art makes the campus a more vibrant place to visit, and special for visitors, faculty, staff and students,” said Cudd.

Art on Campus is the first major step in producing a complete inventory of artworks owned by the University. Its work will lay the foundation for harnessing Pitt’s art collections to meet the University’s strategic goals in the Plan for Pitt 2025.

The initiative is steered by a committee including members of the Office of the Provost, University Library System and Department of History of Art and Architecture. “This committee’s passion and strong expertise will help us move great ideas forward,” said Cudd.

Art on Campus aims to create a data collection methodology and apply that methodology to several sites on Pitt’s main campus, including Alumni and Mervis halls. In the first year, special attention will be placed on assessing and cataloguing artworks in outdoor spaces and producing a benchmarking study for the development of a public art plan at Pitt.

Pitt’s Black History Month celebrations kick off in earnest this week, with scheduled guest speakers, panel discussions and a step dance performance taking place throughout February.

A full list of programming can be found on Pitt’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion site. 

Highlights include a discussion about the history of African Americans' right to vote and the rise of Black elected officials, taking place from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 11, at the Community Engagement Center in Homewood, and the release of "Race, Justice, and Activism in Literacy Instruction," a new book by Valerie Kinloch, the Renée and Richard Goldman Dean of the School of Education. Kinloch will discuss the topic at noon Feb. 25 in Room 4303 of Posvar Hall.  

Details are forthcoming for Pitt’s signature K. Leroy Irvis Black History Month Program, which will be a four-day festival from Feb. 26-29 celebrating art, music and poetry as a form of activism and social justice. In 2008, the University named its annual Black History Month event to honor the memory of the legendary Pennsylvania legislative leader, Pitt alumnus (LAW '54) and emeritus trustee. Irvis (pictured here), who in 1977 became the first African American speaker of the House of Representatives in Pennsylvania and the first Black speaker of any statehouse since the Reconstruction Era, sponsored the 1966 bill that made Pitt a state-related institution of higher education.

Black History Month is celebrated every February to acknowledge the contributions of those of African descent to our nation’s life and culture.