Pitt presented its two social justice awards — Creating a Just Community Award and the University Prize for Strategic, Inclusive and Diverse Excellence (UPSIDE) — at a luncheon on Jan. 26.
Creating A Just Community award
Ron Idoko, associate director of the Center on Race and Social Problems and founder of the Racial Equity Consciousness Institute, won the Creating A Just Community Award.
The award recognizes Pitt faculty and staff members who have made outstanding efforts to create a more just, equitable and inclusive University community and includes a $5,000 cash prize.
Idoko (A&S ’05, GSPIA ’07) also is director of honors education in social innovation in the David C. Frederick Honors College, where he supports students who are tackling systemic social inequities.
The Racial Equity Consciousness Institute, which he founded in 2021, uses a series of immersive resource modules to guide participants through lessons that analyze the complexity and pervasiveness of racism. Most recently, he helped produce a film, “Illuminating the Vaccine for Racism,” in which institute participants reflect on what they can do to combat racism. It debuted on Jan. 25.
UPSIDE award
SAFE Peer Educators won the UPSIDE Award. The program, overseen by the University’s Office of Sexual Violence Prevention and Education, trains students to educate other students in techniques to stop sexual and gender-based violence on campus and to identify and report incidents when they happen.
Following intensive training, peer educators lead other students in training sessions in how to become an active bystander, identify healthy and unhealthy relationships, and support people who have been affected by relationship violence or abuse.
This year’s student leaders are Alexa Miller, a senior from metro Detroit in Pitt’s Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies and accelerated Master of Public Health programs; Aarushi Pant, a senior from Houston majoring in computational social science; and Julia Vroman, a senior from Maplewood, N.J., majoring in psychology.
The UPSIDE Award is presented each year to an outstanding school, division, initiative or program making a significant contribution to increasing diversity and inclusion. It includes a $10,000 cash prize.