By SUSAN JONES
The first steps toward transitioning to a new Pitt chancellor happened well before Joan Gabel was named in April to replace Patrick Gallagher this summer.
“Last fall, I started to do my own digging and my own research and talked to a number of different people that have gone through these transitions,” said Kevin Washo, Gallagher’s chief of staff and senior vice chancellor for University Relations who is heading up the transition team.
Those people included Provost-emeritus Jim Maher, who was vice chair of the search committee that brought Gallagher to Pitt, and Chancellor-emeritus Mark Nordenberg.
Washo also talked to people outside of Pitt — in industry and at other universities — who have been through an executive transition about “what are best practices and what makes sense, what doesn’t make sense. How do we make this smooth for the outgoing chancellor? How do we make this smooth for the incoming chancellor-elect? There are so many different stakeholders within the University, we just wanted to make sure that we were thinking through all those angles.”
Gallagher announced in April 2022 that he would step down this year after his successor was found. He will remain chancellor until Gabel, who finished up as president of the University of Minnesota on June 9, takes over at Pitt on July 17.
Washo said the transition team of about a dozen people is a small but broad-based group that understands the “inside operations of the institution and … the external dynamics of the institution.” Much of their job is collecting data from around Pitt.
That group includes Melissa Schild, associate vice chancellor for strategic planning and performance in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, who headed up development of the Plan for Pitt and is project manager for the transition.
They have people from the provost’s office to help on the academic side of issues and memos from each of the senior vice chancellor areas “to help guide us on different priorities, different issues that are arising. We’re using those as guideposts,” Washo said.
“Our goal is just to make sure that the transition runs as smoothly as possible and Chancellor-elect Gabel is going to have the most impactful resources at her disposal.”
Gallagher said at the June 23 Board of Trustees meeting that of all the leadership transitions he's seen, "This is one of the best ones in terms of planning and execution," and that the team is "working very hard on ensuring that this transition is great for the University and gives Joan every ability to be successful in her role."
Higher-ed transitions are more of a long game, Washo noted. “Let’s look at the first 30, 60, 90, 120 days. What does that first year look like?”
There are short-term goals, including making sure Gabel gets out to meet the Pitt community, both internally and externally, and making sure she has a sense of some of front-burner issues at the University, including the Plan for Pitt.
“All these things are making sure that we have as much information as possible for the chancellor-elect to formulate her own views and thoughts,” Washo said.
The team also is working with Gabel on a welcome message to the community for after she arrives. She has been to the Pitt campus a few times since being named chancellor-elect, Washo said, and is definitely in a listening mode now “digesting all the information that we put together from all the different areas.”
But for the summer, “Outside of having a new chancellor, I think it’s going to be business as usual,” Washo said. “That’s what people would expect.”
If all goes well, the state budget process for this year will be finished before Gabel starts. There are some personnel issues looming for the new chancellor, particularly starting the search for a new provost, but Washo wouldn’t speculate on when that would start.
Chancellor Gallagher will go on leave during the 2023-24 school year before returning to teach physics next year, but he’ll still be around to give advice if needed, just as Nordenberg was there for him. “But there’s always been kind of a common understanding that you only have one chancellor,” Washo said, noting that there is plenty of institutional knowledge throughout Pitt to assist Gabel.
Washo also hopes that the team can collect some of the practices it used during this transition to help make future executive level changes go smoothly.
The chancellor’s residence
One of the perks of being Pitt’s chancellor is a home within walking distance of campus. The chancellor’s residence on Devonshire Street on the border of Oakland and Shadyside is more than 125 years old and designated an historic landmark by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.
Chancellor Gallagher will move out of the residence to a house on the North Side to give crews time to do a thorough cleaning and routine maintenance before Chancellor-elect Joan Gabel arrives in mid-July. Changes underway include repairing exterior eaves, updating the garage to be EV-ready, and painting.
The chancellor typically provides personal-use furniture and the University supplies furniture to be used for events and in common areas. A facilities manager is assigned to the house.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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