Office for
Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion

March 2024

Featured this month

• Community tells its stories during Women’s History Month
• Meet the newest members of the OEDI team
• BS/MS bioengineering student wins Thornburgh Award
• See photos from the Irvis BHM celebration
• Mark your calendars for upcoming events

6 p.m. Thursday, March 28
Frick Auditorium (Room 324)
Cathedral of Learning

For the second year in a row, the Office for Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion will bring together storytellers from across the University and the Pittsburgh community to share personal stories that explore womanhood during a story slam.

This signature event, to be held in the Frick Auditorium on the third floor of the Cathedral of Learning, is designed to explore the breadth, depth, and diversity of being and becoming a woman. A reception will follow the event.

• Submissions are being accepted through March 11.
• Pre-registration for the event is requested.

Scenes from last year’s HERstory slam:

Several new staff members have joined the Office for Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion. Their appointments were announced by Clyde Wilson Pickett, vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion and chief diversity officer.

Willa Campbell has joined the Prevention at Pitt team as a full-time prevention educator. Campbell (SPH ’23G) came to OEDI as a facilitator for “Circle Up,” a series of conversation circles that encourage peer groups of friends and colleagues to discuss sexual agency, consent, relationships, and other topics.

Circle Up, originally designed for students, has now expanded to include faculty and staff.

Campbell, who helped develop Circle Up along with lead prevention educator Dev Hayostek (SOC WK ’23G), is looking forward to expanding its outreach in the months and years to come.

“I would really like for the Prevention at Pitt office to continue to grow, because it's grown a lot in the last year,” she said. “It’s been exciting to see so many new people come on-board, and I really hope we can continue to develop Circle Up — it's still relatively new, and we're working on both the implementation and the evaluation of the program to make sure it's successful.”

One focus, Campbell said, will be additional outreach to fraternities and sororities, as well as more workshops with Black students and LGBTQIA+ groups.

A native of Pittsburgh, she grew up in Squirrel Hill and now lives in nearby Edgewood. During her off-hours, she enjoys spending time outdoors with her partner and her family — particularly hiking around the Ohiopyle area.

Erica Vasquez has joined the Office of Civil Rights & Title IX as an outreach and response specialist. A Pittsburgh native, she holds a B.A. in communications from Duquesne University and earned her master’s degree in early childhood development at Carlow University.

She most recently served as a transition manager at City Charter High School, assisting students and their families with post-high school life and opportunities.

“I loved being able to have a part in helping young adults navigate life,” Vasquez says. “High school is so important — students are looking for people to help them plan for adulthood, whether it was post-secondary education or the trades. But I wanted to get on the other side of the equation and go into higher education. I wanted to know what else I could do.”

As an outreach specialist, Vasquez is often one of the first persons that members of the Pitt community will speak to if they are reporting a possible incident of bias, assault, or discrimination.

“It’s not always pleasant, but it’s important,” she says. “People often don’t know what’s covered by Title IX until we explain it to them. I get to help people at some of the most pivotal and crucial parts of their lives. It’s eye-opening, and I hope that I can just be a little bit of help for them.”

Vasquez and her husband currently live in Penn Hills with their children aged 2, 9, and 14. Family time is important to her, she says. “I like the people at OEDI,” she says. “Our staff is awesome, it’s nice, relaxed, people are genuinely helpful. I don’t go home stressed out. Working at OEDI allows me to be more present with my family.”

As OEDI’s new director of data & equity assessment, Jamaal Wheaton is working with units and offices across the University to collect and analyze data to measure Pitt’s progress in advancing its goals of equitable access to education.

“I always say my job is to help people make sense of the programs that we do,” Wheaton says. “This is my way of giving context to the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion. It’s my way of contributing to change. This kind of work feels like I’m part of the bigger picture. At end of the day I go home and say, ‘I did my part to making this world a better place.’”

A 12-year veteran of the United States Army, Wheaton served as a human resources specialist in Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Romania and state-side in Missouri, New York, Colorado, and Washington, D.C. He holds an M.A. in public relations from Full Sail University and previously worked as a manager and product delivery specialist with Deloitte Consulting.

Wheaton is the father of four, ranging in age from 17 to 24. His youngest is currently a junior in high school, while his oldest is attending Millersville University of Pennsylvania.

He and his wife are currently house-hunting, but when he needs to unwind, Wheaton enjoys music — he is learning bass guitar and piano — and playing Flight Simulator. “Sometimes when I feel like getting away and I can’t, I’ll fire up Flight Simulator and take a flight to Japan or somewhere.” He’s also collecting material for a non-fiction memoir.

Angie Jack has been promoted to executive director for strategic operations and planning, where she will be working with Vice Chancellor Clyde Wilson Pickett and OEDI’s team members to enhance the delivery of existing services and provide strategic direction for the office’s continued growth.

She previously served as director of digital equity & special projects, where she was responsible for developing and implementing a digital accessibility program at the University.

Along with Dietrich School associate dean Todd Reeser, Jack is also serving as co-chair of the University’s new LGBTQIA+ Steering Committee.

Prior to joining Pitt, Jack spent more than a decade at the New York City Department of Education, where she held both school-based and district-level positions focused on disciplinary literacy, information access, knowledge management and digital delivery of professional development. She has two children.

Carrie Benson and the Sexual Violence Prevention & Education Team will be honored with the 2024 Community Champion Award by Pittsburgh Action Against Rape.

The award will be presented during PAAR’s annual Teal Ball on May 4 at the Wyndham Grand Hotel, a spokesperson said. Tickets are available at PAAR’s website.

Notification of the award — which was a surprise — came with a bouquet of flowers, which led to some “happy tears” in the Prevention at Pitt offices, Benson said.

Benson (A&S ’08, EDUC ’12G) joined the University as a Title IX specialist in May 2015. She was named the University’s first director of sexual violence prevention and education in August 2023.

PAAR said Benson and her team were selected for “ensuring that faculty, staff, and students are engaged in conversations around identifying, preventing, and responding to sexual misconduct.”

The citation says that members of the team “embody collaboration and are a critical piece” in connecting PAAR to the Pitt community.

“We are so honored to be recognized by an organization we respect so much,” Benson said. “I am so grateful for all of the community members who are actively engaged in preventing violence on our campus and supporting Pitt survivors.”

More than 150 people turned out to Alumni Hall on Feb. 26 for the University's annual K. Leroy Irvis Black History Month Celebration.

Keynote remarks were delivered by Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Clyde Wilson Pickett and — via video — Chancellor Joan Gabel. Other members of the University's leadership team also attended to congratulate the winners of this year's awards, nominated by members of the community:

Aspiring Ally: Jamie Upshaw is the executive director and founder of Autism Urban Connections Inc., a support group she established after learning that resources for family members of people with autism were absent or severely lacking in Black and economically disadvantaged communities.

Campus Leadership: Ian Kehinde, a junior in the Swanson School of Engineering, is the host of “Let’s Talk Social Innovation,” a weekly podcast that features the unsung social innovators and change-makers in our community.

Community Griot: Larry Glasco, associate professor of history, recently completed biographies of K. Leroy Irvis and August Wilson, and is well-known as a passionate advocate for documenting and preserving the history of Black neighborhoods near the University’s campus in Oakland.

Creative Changemaker: James T. Johnson Jr. — better known as “Dr. J” — and his wife Pamela are the founders of the African American Music Institute in Homewood.

Inspiring Leadership: Luana Reis, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages & Literatures, is the founder of Addverse, a writing and poetry collective.

Social Justice Advocate: Medina Jackson (SOC WK ’03G) is director of engagement for P.R.I.D.E. (Positive Racial Identity Development in Early Education) in Pitt's Office of Child Development.

Unsung Hero: Curtiss Porter (A&S ’69, EDUC ’84G) was instrumental in organizing Pitt students in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the development of what came to be known as the Black Action Society.

Soloist Diarra Imani led the crowd in "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," while poet Jamaar Smiley also performed a spoken-word piece on the Black experience.

Cheryl Ruffin, a 30-year veteran of the University who serves as institutional equity manager for Pitt, also was honored.

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