Alumni
Members of the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work community gathered on Oct. 20, 2022, to celebrate the newest group of alumni award recipients and the first in-person awards ceremony since 2019. Following opening remarks from Dean Betsy Farmer, the program’s emcee, Toya Jones (MSW ’07), assistant professor and BASW program director, moderated a panel discussion with the awardees about their experiences in the field. Congratulations again to our 2022 Alumni Award recipients!
The Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest alumni award conferred by the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. Honorees have achieved the highest standards of excellence in their careers, advanced knowledge of the social work profession, and supported policies and practices that champion equal rights for all.
Social Work Education
Helen Cahalane (MSW ’79, PhD ’96)
Principal Investigator, Child Welfare Education and Research Programs, and Clinical Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work
Helen Cahalane has primary responsibility for oversight of the Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center and two education programs: Child Welfare Education for Baccalaureates and Child Welfare Education for Leadership. These programs operate in collaboration with 17 schools of social work in Pennsylvania, including Pitt Social Work. Cahalane works closely with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services; the Allegheny County Office of Children, Youth and Families; and the organization Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators.
Cahalane has focused on workforce development, with particular emphasis on organizational factors that influence retention in public child welfare. She is currently the principal investigator on a workforce excellence grant awarded by the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute and previously served as a coinvestigator for the evaluation of Pennsylvania’s Child Welfare Demonstration Project.
Cahalane has been honored with a Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award at Pitt. She also is a licensed clinical social worker, a 45-year member of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), and an expert witness for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs. She has received honors that include the Career Achievement Award from the National Staff Development and Training Association, being named Social Worker of the Year by the Southwest Division of NASW, and the Wilbur I. Newstetter Award from Pitt Social Work.
Social Work Innovation
Kyaien O. Conner (MSW ’04, PhD ’08)
Associate Professor, Department of Mental Health Law and Policy, University of South Florida College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Kyaien “Kya” Conner is a tenured associate professor of mental health law and policy at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Behavioral Health and Community Sciences. She is chair of the USF Faculty Senate’s Council on Racial Justice and serves as the special assistant to the dean on diversity and inclusion. Conner received her bachelor’s degree in psychology, a master’s degree in social work, a master’s degree in public health with a specialization in minority health and health disparities, and a PhD in social work, all from the University of Pittsburgh. She also received postdoctoral training in psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital.
Conner’s research investigates the factors that influence disparities in health and mental health service use and treatment outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities. She focuses on the development and evaluation of culturally meaningful approaches to improving behavioral health for Black Americans. Conner recently coproduced a video series titled “This Is My Brave: Stories from the Black Community,” which used storytelling as a culturally sanctioned strategy to amplify the voices of Black and brown Americans with mental illness, to reduce stigma, and to encourage Black Americans living with mental illness or substance use/abuse to
seek care.
Conner has received several awards for teaching in addition to recognition for her work as a public speaker. She presents nationally on issues regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion; anti-racism; and race-based trauma and its impact on mental health. Conner will be joining the School of Social Work’s faculty as the new director of the Center on Race and Social Problems in summer 2023.
Social Work Leadership
James Browne (MSW ’73) and Noel Browne (MSW ’74)
Noel Browne started out in social work at the nonprofit Easterseals. James Browne started out with eight years of education to be a Catholic priest. Independently, the two decided to enroll in the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. There, they met and decided to get married and start a family. After graduation, James Browne ran into an old classmate. He and the classmate decided to start an investment advisory business that was not insurance based. The interpersonal tools that they learned as social work students were critical for their business to succeed. Today, their business, Allegheny Financial Group, has more than $5 billion under management and more than 100 employees. The same guiding principles that they learned in school continue to guide their business today.
James and Noel Browne have given back to the school where they met by endowing a named chair in social justice and a fellowship to educate non-social work students in social work values.
Social Work Practice
Darla L. Poole (BASW ’87, MSW ’88)
Chief Operating Officer, Auberle
Darla Poole has been a member of the Auberle executive team since 1998. Auberle’s mission is to help build strong individuals, families, and communities throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania. Poole has served in various capacities at the organization, including in-home services manager; director of planning and continuous quality improvement; director of community services; and, currently, chief operating officer. She also has served on several board committees, including personnel, program, and field of vision.
Over the course of her career, Poole has served on the boards of numerous nonprofits serving children, families, and animals. She has led and participated in community collaboratives and groups. She currently represents Auberle as cochair of the Mon Valley Providers Council steering committee and serves on the Human Services Center Mon Valley board of directors.
Poole received the Mon Valley Women of Achievement Award in 2007 and the KDKA Hometown Hero Award in 2016 for her work founding Gray Paws Sanctuary and saving senior dogs. Most recently, she received a Pittsburgh Business Times Women of Influence award in 2019.
Advancing Excellence Award
Richard Garland (MSW ’96)
Assistant Professor, Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, University
of Pittsburgh School of Public Health
For the past 30 years, Richard Garland has worked with at-risk youths and adults, specializing in the prevention of violence related to gang and drug activity. He has worked closely with gang leaders and gang-involved youths, helping to facilitate conversations between gang members in the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. His work has been covered by various news outlets, including WESA (Pittsburgh’s NPR news station), Pittsburgh City Paper, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Garland is currently director of the Violence Prevention Initiative in the Pitt Public Health Center for Health Equity. His research examines the reasons for homicides within Pittsburgh and Allegheny County and aims to find sustainable programs and solutions to combat violence in the region. He also coordinates the Gunshot Reoccurring Injury Prevention Services, or GRIPS, project at Pitt Public Health. GRIPS is a research initiative involving gunshot wound victims at four local major trauma units.
School of Social Work Service Award
Jessica Murray (MSW ’14)
Owner, Jessica Murray, LLC
A two-time Pitt graduate, Jessica Murray graduated with her bachelor’s degree from the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in 2012 and her master’s degree from the School of Social Work in 2014.
Since that time, Murray has spent most of her professional career working in the behavioral health department at Auberle, a local nonprofit organization. She began her work in the field as an outpatient therapist with a specialized focus on trauma. Over the course of the eight years that she was involved with the organization, she became a member of the agency’s executive team as director of its behavioral health department. While in this role, she earned a workplace certificate in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and led numerous DEI initiatives.
Most recently, Murray started her own business in which she provides therapy services in a private-practice setting, consults with organizations on leadership training and DEI initiatives, and gives back to the profession by supervising up-and-coming clinicians seeking licensure. She also remains connected to the University of Pittsburgh through Pitt Social Work’s Alumni Advisory Board, for which she served a two-year term as board chair, and as a mentor for the Panthers Forward program.
Rising Star Award
Miracle Jones (MSW ’20)
Director of Advocacy and Policy, 1Hood Media
Miracle Jones is a community organizer and queer activist who works in the Pittsburgh area for 1Hood Media. She works to advocate for equity along the intersections of gender, race, and class. Her work focuses on implementing abolition-based principles and transformative justice through writing, policy, and advocacy.
Jones currently serves as vice president of the board of the Pennsylvania Youth Congress, a statewide LGBTQ youth advocacy organization. Previously, she served as a member of Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s community health and safety transition committee, helped to mentor and support the next generation of feminist leaders as part of the Women & Girls Foundation’s GirlGov program, and was a featured speaker at the 2021 TEDx event hosted at Carnegie Mellon University.