Keynote Speaker: Erin McDonald
Erin McDonald is the Lead for the Federal Plan for Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health where she leads the whole-of-government effort across over 35 departments and agencies to build long-term resilience. Before stepping into this role she was the Regional Administrator for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in Region 3, where she leads ACF’s strategic cross-cutting initiatives and priorities to promote the economic wellbeing of children and families. Prior to joining federal service, Dr. McDonald served in leadership roles in public sector, philanthropic, and non-profit organizations including the Chief Strategy Officer for Human Services in the New York City Mayor’s Office, the Vice President of Research and Strategy at Feeding America, and the Director of Research and Evaluation at Women’s World Banking. She holds a PhD in Public Health and Research from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a Master’s in Public Policy and Evaluation from Johns Hopkins Policy Studies Institute.
Plenary Speaker: James Huguley
Dr. James P. Huguley is an Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. He is also the chair of the Race and Youth Development Research Group (RaYDR) at the Center on Race and Social Problems. His research focuses on school- and family-based interventions that promote positive academic and mental health outcomes for African American youth. Huguley is the Principal Investigator for the Just Discipline Project, an initiative that aims to curb the use of punitive discipline in schools, and the Principal Investigator for Parenting While Black, a program that provides Black primary caregivers with supports and resources around best practices in racial socialization, educational involvement, and promoting positive mental health in Black families. He also serves on the executive board of the Human Services Center Mon Valley, the advisory board of the Office of Child Development, and as a cohort lead for The Pittsburgh Study.
Huguley’s work is supported by the Institute of Educational Sciences, The Health Resources and Services Administration, The Heinz Endowments, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, and the Staunton Farm Foundation. He is the recent winner of a Larry E. Davis Award for Excellence in Community Engaged Scholarship (2022), a Distinguished Research Award from the Counseling and Human Development Division of the American Educational Research Association (2021), and an Excellence in Research Award from the Society for Social Work and Research (2021).
Prior to his academic career, Huguley was a youth program director and middle school teacher. He received his bachelors in Secondary Education from Providence College, and both his masters’ in Risk and Prevention and doctorate in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University.
Deans' Panel
Anthony Delitto
Anthony Delitto is the dean of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) and professor in the Department of Physical Therapy. He received his BS in Physical Therapy from SUNY Buffalo, NY, his MHS in Physical Therapy and his PhD from Washington University, St. Louis, MO.
He is active in the Sections on Orthopedics and Education, and Past-President of the Section on Research for the APTA. Delitto has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed research papers. He actively treats people with painful musculoskeletal disorders and his current research is focused on implementing classification and treatment effectiveness studies into quality improvement initiatives. He is also conducting trials in exercise interventions for people with Parkinson’s disease. He was awarded one of the first large pragmatic trials from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), a multi-site, $13-million grant (the TARGET study) to investigate innovative ways to reduce the transition of acute low back pain by having physical therapists partner with primary care and deliver psychologically informed physical therapy to patients with acute low back pain who are at risk for persistent pain.
His awards include: Golden Pen Award, APTA, 1992; Steven J Rose Award for Excellence in Research, APTA Section on Orthopaedics, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2015; Marian Williams Award for Research in Physical Therapy, APTA, 1997; Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the APTA, 2000.
Adam Leibovich
Adam Leibovich is the Bettye J. and Ralph E. Bailey Dean of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and the College of General Studies. He received his BA in Physics, magna cum laude, from Cornell University in 1992 and a PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 1997. From 1997-2000 he was a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University and from 2000-2002 a postdoctoral research fellow at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). In 2003 he joined the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh. He became the Department Chair in 2015, and Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development in 2017. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2017) and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2018).
Leibovich’s research spans a variety of areas in theoretical physics. Most of his scholarship has centered on the strong and weak interactions of the Standard Model. In particular, he uses effective field theory techniques to study heavy quarks as a probe of these interactions, and to try to uncover physics beyond the Standard Model. Leibovich also researches gravitational waves, the physics of extra dimensions, matter at extreme densities, and the physics of dark matter. He has authored or co-authored over 75 publications that have received more than 6,400 citations with an h-index of 40.
Leibovich is a passionate teacher, and has won the Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ Tina and David Bellet Teaching Excellence Award. He has worked nationally to improve STEM education, authoring articles focusing on undergraduate education. In July 2022, Leibovich was named director of the Pittsburgh Quantum Institute (PQI).
Maureen Lichtveld
Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH, is dean of the School of Public Health, where she oversees the growth and continued success of the school’s seven academic departments and hundreds of students, faculty, and staff. She also serves as professor of environmental and occupational health and is the Jonas Salk Professor of Population Health. Lichtveld studies environmental public health, focusing on environmentally induced disease, health disparities, environmental health policy, disaster preparedness, public health systems, and community resilience. Her research examines the cumulative impact of chemical and non-chemical stressors on communities facing environmental health threats, disasters, and health disparities.
Before joining Pitt in January 2021, Lichtveld chaired Tulane University’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She also directed the Center for Gulf Coast Environmental Health Research, Leadership, and Strategic Initiatives within Tulane’s public health and tropical medicine school. In this role, Lichtveld led development and implementation of disaster management, health promotion, and disease-prevention strategies for Gulf Coast communities. Prior to her arrival at Tulane in 2005, Lichtveld spent 18 years with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, where she designed public health research tools and protocols to guide environmental health studies in communities located near hazardous waste sites.
Lichtveld is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a member of the board of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. She received her MPH from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Hygiene and Public Health and her MD from Anton de Kom University of Suriname and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
Carissa Slotterback
Carissa Slotterback is dean and professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Since arriving at the University of Pittsburgh in October 2020, she has led major efforts in the school around strategic planning; diversity, equity, and inclusion; development and alumni engagement; research capacity building; and enhancing student experience. She is a widely published scholar in the areas of stakeholder and public engagement and decision-making related to environmental and land use policy and planning. She has a particular interest in how stakeholders perceive impacts and use information in making decisions, focusing on impact assessment and collaborative decision-making approaches.
Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh, she served as a faculty member and program director in urban and regional planning, as well as Associate Dean, in the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. She led a number of initiatives focused on interdisciplinary and engaged research and education, including in her prior roles as director of research engagement in the Office of the Vice President for Research and as co-founder and director of the Resilient Communities Project.
She currently serves as Chair of the Dean’s Summit, member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs Executive Committee, and member of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration Executive Council. She has held multiple leadership positions with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, including as Vice President. She was inducted as a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2018.