Catherine “Katie” Elizabeth Pope, inaugural associate vice chancellor for strategic operations and planning in the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and its first full-time Title IX coordinator, died May 23 at 49.
“She was an amazing colleague, incredibly resourceful and dependable,” said Clyde Wilson Pickett, vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion. “She reached out and offered contacts and assistance” when Pickett arrived at Pitt in 2020, he recalled. “She was just a committed professional.”
A departmental remembrance noted her rise to associate vice chancellor for civil rights and Title IX in October 2019 before attaining her final title last year.
“Katie helped forge the very foundation of the University of Pittsburgh’s Title IX efforts,” Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said. “Today, we are a better University and a better community because of her steadfast leadership, inspiring example and unyielding quest to do the right thing at each and every turn.”
Kathy Humphrey, former senior vice chancellor for engagement, said of Pope, “All who knew her were struck by her commitment to her work, her keen strategic mind and her empathetic soul,” while former OEDI head Pamela Connelly recalled that “Katie Pope was one of the most intelligent, strong and empathetic individuals I have ever known. She embodied the values of equity, diversity and inclusion not just during her workdays at the Pitt campuses, but after hours, seven days a week, all-year round. She spent decades fighting to affect change in our culture surrounding sexual misconduct.”
Born in Ohio, Pope earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Dayton (1996) and a master’s degree in philanthropic studies at Indiana University (1999), as well as a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies at Iowa State University (2005). She had been pursuing a doctorate from Pitt’s School of Education at the time of her death.
Her early career encompassed work as executive director of the Assault Care Center Extending Shelter & Support and the YMCA, both in Ames, Iowa, and at a women’s shelter in New York City .
Her career in higher education included Title IX coordinator for Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., and at Washington University in St. Louis, where she was development director for the School of Architecture. She worked next in educational programming and outreach for Iowa State and then was named director of Purdue University’s Women’s Resource Office (2006).
She then assisted in its merger into that university’s Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence, where she was named its managing director. There, Pope supported programming and outreach across Purdue for women, underrepresented minorities, those from indigenous nations and people with disabilities.
After coming to Pitt in 2015, Pope expanded her department’s outreach and programming, helping to formulate its mission and hire essential personnel.
Speaking from his office, Pickett noted Pope’s work putting together the University’s Title IX civil rights team; her efforts with Carrie Benson, senior manager for prevention and education in the Title IX Office, on the department's sexual misconduct prevention efforts, where Pope was “definitely a champion for this work”; and her crucial participation in the committee organizing and running Pitt’s annual diversity forum.
“She understood the importance of being involved in the community,” Pickett added. “All of our community engagement pieces she was directly involved with, most recently working to put together an ambassadors program to match our employees with community members” — a program the department intends to continue developing. This past year Pope was focused on bringing about the department’s community awards program.
She was, overall, “personable and authentic,” he said. “We have heard overwhelmingly from colleagues who expressed their appreciation for having a chance to work with her.”
Pope is survived by her husband, Bill Kannel; daughters, Ellie and Erinn; parents, Betsy and Ed Pope; in-laws Ed and Margie Kannel and their children; and many loving aunts, uncles and cousins and extended family and friends.
A memorial service for friends and family is being planned and will be announced.
Memorial gifts are suggested to support colon cancer prevention and research or to a GoFundMe account in support of the education of her daughters.
— Marty Levine