University Times

Pitt's Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) can boast of an international reputation, well-established research programs and an endowment that has grown from $600,000 to $7 million in the last eight years.

"I don't think there's anything that needs to be fixed at CLAS," says Kathleen M. DeWalt, who will become the center's new director effective July 1. "We're in the position, thanks to our relatively good economic base, to focus on maintaining and enhancing our position as an intellectual force, locally and regionally as well as nationally and internationally."

CLAS awards $50,000-$75,000 annually in research grants to faculty. DeWalt hopes to increase that. "One of the reasons for building up our endowment over the last few years has been to stabilize funding for cutting-edge faculty research," she said. "We're in a position now where we can invest more money in that, as well as in student research."

DeWalt's other goals include organizing high-profile conferences on hot topics such as the U.S. drug policy in Colombia, continuing to raise funds for a Latin American Nationality Room and a Latin American reading room in Hillman Library, creating endowed professorships for Latin American studies (Pitt currently has none) and deepening CLAS's relationship with the International Business Center at the Katz Graduate School of Business.

"We work with many of the local companies with concerns in Latin America, especially in Brazil, where many of those companies are involved," DeWalt said. One CLAS program, funded by the Alcoa Foundation, brings two Brazilian students to Pitt each year for training as engineers. Through another CLAS program, funded by the Heinz Endowment, Pitt trains the top archeologists in Latin America. "One of our current students is the director of the Nicaraguan Archeology Museum, who is studying for his Ph.D. here," said DeWalt.

CLAS also is matching American and Brazilian researchers participating in a Sao Paulo-Pittsburgh consortium on building sustainable urban environments. Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and the three state-supported universities of Sao Paulo are developing research and education aimed at promoting ways in which government, industry and universities can work together for economic development that is compatible with protecting the environment.

DeWalt said she feels "humbled" to be directing a center with a tradition of strong leaders, including founding director Cole Blasier ("truly a man of vision," DeWalt said), Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Mitchell Seligson and, most recently, DeWalt's husband Billie DeWalt, a fellow cultural anthropologist who last winter became director of The Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

William Brustein, director of the University Center for International Studies, said it is rare for the head of an elite center such as CLAS to succeed his or her own spouse. "The fact is that these are two intellectual powerhouses who have their own professional agendas. Kathleen was nominated by the faculty and widely supported, based on her own very strong scholarly and leadership merits.

"Bill DeWalt was a wonderful director, and Kathleen has the potential to be just as superb," Brustein said.

— Bruce Steele