School Updates
New Faculty and Staff News
Read about the new faculty and staff, promotions, faculty awards, and faculty retirements.
New Faculty
Aliya Durham
has been appointed assistant professor and director of community engagement.
John Dalessandro
has been promoted to assistant professor and director of field education.
Devin Cecere
has been hired as a development associate.
Rachel Gartner
has been appointed assistant professor.
Amy DeGurian
has been promoted to lecturer.
Summer Haston
has been hired as the MSW program assistant.
Travis Labrum
has been appointed assistant professor.
Alicia Melnick
has been promoted to lecturer.
Deborah Moon
has been appointed assistant professor.
Mary Ohmer
is the new Community, Organization, and Social Action (COSA) chair.
Deborah Robinson
has been promoted to lecturer.
Faculty Promotions
Yodit Betru
is the new director of the MSW Program.
Keith Caldwell
has been named the new associate dean for student success.
Melvin Cherry
has been promoted to lecturer.
New Staff
Edoukou Aka-Ezoua
is the project support coordinator for the Child Welfare Workforce Excellence Fellows Program.
Molly Allwein
has been hired as the director of professional education.
Afternoon of Recognition
The School of Social Work held its spring Afternoon of Recognition for graduating students on Sunday, April 28, 2019, at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum. The keynote address was given by Menah Pratt-Clarke, vice president for strategic affairs and vice provost for inclusion and diversity at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where she also is a professor in the School of Education in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences with affiliations in Africana studies, women’s and gender studies, and sociology.
Annual Board of Visitors Meeting
The Board of Visitors met in spring 2019 to discuss directions for the school and creative ideas for career pathways for social workers. The meeting was held in the Cathedral of Learning and at Pitt’s Homewood Community Engagement Center.
Attending the Board of Visitors dinner on April 2 were (from left to right) Henry Loubet, Thomas VanKirk, Steven Paschall, Esther Bush, Dean Betsy Farmer, Alan Momeyer, Marc Cherna, Joy Starzl, and Rod Doss.
Attending the Board of Visitors meeting on April 3 were (from left to right) Esther Bush, James Roddey, Thomas VanKirk, Dean Betsy Farmer, Doris Carson Williams, Steven Paschall, Henry Loubet, Alan Momeyer, Joy Starzl, Marc Cherna, and James McDonald.
In Memoriam
The School of Social Work mourns the passing of alumnus Rodney Rutkowski (BASW ’75, MSW ’80). Rutkowski passed away on October 14, 2019, of natural causes at his home in Allison Park, Pennsylvania. Rutkowski was an amazing social worker who served the community at UPMC St. Margaret for nearly four de- cades. He was a past Outstanding Alumni Award winner, a longtime field instructor, and a tireless advocate for Pitt Social Work
Jesse P. Zeiders, a beloved adjunct instructor for the Pitt-Bradford MSW Program, died on Tuesday, September 3, 2019, following a battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Donna; two daughters and sons-in-law; three grandchildren; his mother and stepfather; and five siblings. Zeiders was born August 3, 1961, in Tyrone, Pennsylvania. A graduate of Falconer High School; Jamestown Community College in Jamestown, New York; Idaho State University; and Roberts Wesleyan College, Zeiders worked as a licensed clinical social worker and then regional clinical director for Catholic Charities of Buffalo, New York. He specialized in trauma and intimate partner violence and greatly enjoyed both his clinical practice and the opportunity to mentor other social workers. Zeiders discovered his true passion for teaching in his initial foray into the classrooms of the Pitt-Bradford MSW program in 2005. In his lengthy and ongoing teaching service to the School of Social Work, Zeiders challenged his graduate students in courses in social work research, cognitive behavioral therapy, intimate partner violence, and trauma. In 2009, he accepted a full-time teaching position at Jamestown Community College, sharing his clinical leadership and insights with the human services program there. He maintained his adjunct teaching load for the Pitt-Bradford MSW program and encouraged his community college students to set their sights on the Pitt School of Social Work.
Zeiders’ clinical knowledge was vast, exceeded only by his patience and com- passion for everyone he met. Because he integrated his unique sense of humor, extensive knowledge of practice theory, and high expectations into his courses, his social work students consistently reported feeling confident in their professional preparation. Student successes were his successes, and through the professional work of Pitt-Bradford MSW graduates, Zeiders has had a profound positive impact across the Twin Tiers region.
Zeiders embodied the social work philosophy that emphasizes the primacy of human relationships, enacting the words of one of his favorite Virginia Satir quotes: “I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen by them, heard by them, to be understood and touched by them. The greatest gift I can give is to see, hear, understand and to touch another person. When this is done, I feel contact has been made.”