Winter 2023
CRSP

Celebrating Black Excellence in the Academy

For 20 years, Pitt’s Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP) has been a leader in bringing thought-provoking research and discussions about race and social issues to local, national, and international audiences.

Based in the University’s School of Social Work, CRSP began its 20th anniversary celebrations with a virtual event featuring a lecture by esteemed disability rights advocate and White House Champion of Change Haben Girma in February 2022. “Disability Justice: A Conversation with Haben, the Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law” was the inaugural Florence Gibbs Momeyer Endowed Lecture.

In November 2022, the center hosted the inaugural Dr. Larry Davis Black Excellence in the Academy Awards and Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Center on Race and Social Problems at the National Aviary. The celebration honored the legacy of Davis, who served as dean of Pitt’s School of Social Work from 2001 to 2018, and the accomplishments of Black Pitt faculty. Davis died in
March 2021.

The 2022 award winners were as follows:

Emerging Scholar: Amanda Boston, assistant professor, Department of Africana Studies, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences

Excellence in Faculty Mentorship: Esa Davis, associate professor of medicine and clinical and translational science, School of Medicine; director, UPMC Tobacco Treatment Service; and director, Career Education and Enhancement for Health Care Research Diversity Program

Excellence in Community Engaged Scholarship: James Huguley, associate professor and associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, School of Social Work

Excellence in Leadership: Valerie Kinloch, Renée and Richard Goldman Dean, School of Education

Academic Excellence: Sandra Murray, professor, Department of Cell Biology, School of Medicine

Trina Shanks, director of the University of Michigan School of Social Work community engagement and professor of social work, gave the keynote address honoring Davis.