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June 25, 2015

Trustees seat 1st female chair

“As the saying is: ‘You go, girl!’”

Incoming Board of Trustees chair Eva Tansky Blum and outgoing chair Stephen Tritch are acknowledged by those attending the June 19 trustees meeting, including, from left, B. Jean Ferketish, outgoing secretary to the board; Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, and Provost Patricia Beeson.

Incoming Board of Trustees chair Eva Tansky Blum and outgoing chair Stephen Tritch are acknowledged by those attending the June 19 trustees meeting, including, from left, B. Jean Ferketish, outgoing secretary to the board; Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, and Provost Patricia Beeson.

A dozen years after taking fellow board members to task over a dearth of female trustees, Catherine D. DeAngelis offered some enthusiastic encouragement to Pitt’s first female board chair.

“With all due respect and much admiration to Steve and all the other men who have served in this role throughout history at Pitt, it is so wonderful to finally have a woman chair. This is a giant step,” she said as Eva Tansky Blum took the gavel from outgoing chair Stephen R. Tritch at the June 19 Board of Trustees meeting.

Trustee Catherine DeAngelis, right, who was honored for her years of service as her term ended, voiced her enthusiam as the first female chair of the board, Eva Tansky Blum, at left, took over June 19.

Trustee Catherine DeAngelis, right, who was honored for her years of service as her term ended, voiced her enthusiam as the first female chair of the board, Eva Tansky Blum, at left, took over June 19.

DeAngelis, who was the first female editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association, spoke up at the June 2003 board meeting to point out that there were no women among 17 newly elected members of the Pitt and UPMC boards’ executive committees. (See June 26, 2003, University Times.)

At the time, there were seven women among 50 Pitt trustees. Their numbers have grown only slightly, to about 20 percent. Blum, former executive vice president and director of community affairs for PNC Bank and chair and president of the PNC Foundation, is among 10 women currently serving on Pitt’s board.

Blum earned a bachelor’s degree in political science here in 1970 and a JD from the law school in 1973.

A trustee since 2004, Blum co-chaired the University’s $2 billion capital campaign and in 2014 led the chancellor search committee. A past president of the Pitt Alumni Association, she was among the University’s 2015 distinguished alumni fellows.

“I have said many times that the education I received here changed my life. Opportunities opened up that I never knew were possible. From the day I received a full scholarship to Pitt’s law school, I knew I had a responsibility to help future students have those same possibilities,” she said.

“Every year we send thousands of young people into the world. We help launch their careers. We prepare them to understand and appreciate many cultures so they will be ready to work in this global economy. We help expand their thinking and curiosity. And our dedicated and inspired professors certainly provide them with an enormous amount of information and knowledge, and include them in cutting-edge research,” she said.

“We can teach them a little bit about life. The staff works hard to help them cope with being away from home for the first time, guiding them as they move into the dormitory and learn to get along with lots of other people. They watch these young students to make sure they are adjusting to and coping with the stress of exams and papers. … What a responsibility we all have to make sure that Pitt will continue in the great tradition of educating our future students in such important ways,” she said.

“I’m honored to become chair and to work with all of you as we support Chancellor Gallagher and help propel Pitt to even greater heights. I cherish the history and legacy and heritage. I look forward to the future — the challenges we will conquer, and the opportunities we will embrace.”

Following the meeting, Blum said the board’s goals are being developed, but work will focus on aligning with the strategic planning currently underway. (See related story, this issue.) She added that the board has undertaken a study on governance.

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The board named Geovette Washington senior vice chancellor and chief legal officer June 19. She has been general counsel at the White House Office of Management and Budget since 2013. Prior to that, she served as deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Commerce, among other positions. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Wesleyan Colleg ein Macon, Georgia, and earned her JD at Duke University School of Law.

The board named Geovette Washington senior vice chancellor and chief legal officer June 19.
She has been general counsel at the White House Office of Management and Budget since 2013. Prior to that, she served as deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Commerce, among other positions.
She is a summa cum laude graduate of Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, and earned her JD at Duke University School of Law.

In addition to seating the University’s first “madam chair,” the board elected Kathy Humphrey secretary of the corporation and of the Board of Trustees and named Geovette E. Washington senior vice chancellor and chief legal officer.

Humphrey, who will continue in her current roles as senior vice chancellor for engagement and chief of staff, succeeds B. Jean Ferketish, who is stepping down July 1 to join the faculty in the School of Education’s higher education management program.

The board recognized Ferketish with a resolution honoring her service over two decades at Pitt.

Washington, currently general counsel and senior policy adviser of the Office of Management and Budget at the White House, succeeds P. Jerome Richey, who is retiring July 1.

Washington’s salary was set at $395,000 in a June 22 meeting of the board’s compensation committee. She will assume her new role Aug. 17. Alan A. Garfinkel, senior legal counsel, will serve in the interim.

Following the full board meeting, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, who has called for increased diversity at Pitt, said: “None of the women that are in these incredibly important positions are there, in my view, because they’re women. They’re there because they’re outstanding leaders in their own right. I think it’s a sign of progress in the University that we have a climate and culture that embraces that. The reality is that this University can’t be what it aspires to be without embracing the talent and capabilities of everyone. And I view it as kind of a ‘Finally it happened’ moment. It should have happened a long time ago.”

Nuclear engineering program named for Tritch

The board recognized Tritch, former president and CEO of Westinghouse Electric, with a “resolution of gratitude and respect” and the announcement that the nuclear engineering program in the Swanson School of Engineering has been named the Stephen R. Tritch Program in Nuclear Engineering.

Said Tritch, “I have been very honored and feel it a privilege to have been able to work with this board. This is a cohesive board and it’s done some great work in terms of its oversight of the University as this University grew up and up and up.”

Tritch, who was elected chair in 2009, will continue as a Pitt trustee. “I have a lot of confidence in Eva. I think she’ll do a great job here,” he said. “I stand ready to support Eva and Pat and will do whatever they think I can do to help.”

Capital budget additions approved

On recommendation of the budget committee, which met June 17, the board approved more than $37 million in capital budget funding for two renovation projects on the Pittsburgh campus. The board’s property and facilities committee approved the projects earlier this year. (See April 2 University Times.)

Added to the University’s capital budget was:

• $34.38 million for the second phase of renovations to Parran and Crabtree halls, which house the Graduate School of Public Health. This phase will renovate all nine floors of Parran Hall, totaling 127,000 square feet of space. The work will create new offices, classrooms and conference spaces and will upgrade the building’s infrastructure. State funding of $31.15 million will cover the bulk of the project, with public health school reserves covering $3.24 million.

• $3.1 million to expand chemistry faculty member Alexander Star’s nanomaterials, biosensors and drug delivery research lab in Eberly Hall. Project funding comes from Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences reserves.

Board members elected

On recommendation of the board’s governance and nominating committee, which met June 8, the board approved the re-election of 11 members:

Continuing their service will be board members G. Nicholas Beckwith III, chairman and chief executive officer, Arch Street Management LLC; Michael A. Bryson (A&S ’68), retired executive vice president, The Bank of New York Mellon Corp.; James P. Covert (A&S ’91), president and chief executive officer, Institute for Transfusion Medicine; Robert G. Lovett (A&S ’66), partner, Lovett Bookman Harmon Marks LLP; Martha Hartle Munsch (A&S ’70), partner, Reed Smith LLP; John H. Pelusi Jr. (A&S ’77, GSPIA ’79), executive managing director of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP; William E. Strickland Jr. (A&S ’70), president and chief executive officer, Manchester Bidwell Corp.; Stephen R. Tritch (ENGR ’71, BUS ’77G), retired chairman of Westinghouse Electric, and Sam S. Zacharias (A&S ’64), principal of Gateway Financial Group.

Former board members who were re-elected were Emil M. Spadafore Jr. (A&S ’71), partner in Thomas, Spadafore & Walker LLP, and A. David Tilstone, president of National Tooling and Machining Association and ADT International Consulting. Spadafore and Tilstone served as trustees in 2007-09 and 2011-13. Spadafore has served on the Pitt-Titusville advisory board for 13 years and has been its chair for seven years. Tilstone is chair of the Pitt-Greensburg advisory board and has been a member of the UPG board since 1999.

The board also approved Pelusi’s re-election to the University of Pittsburgh Trust board and the re-election of Strickland and Tritch as University representatives on the UPMC board of directors.

Ending terms of service were trustees Catherine D. DeAngelis, Craig A. Hartburg, Thomas M. Kurtz and John A. Swanson. DeAngelis received a trustee medallion; the others were honored in absentia.

—Kimberly K. Barlow