Biography
Soska’s primary interests are in community organizing and social administration, workforce development, collaboration and coalition building, and university-community relations and partnerships. He is co-director and co-principal investigator of the University’s Community Outreach Partnership Center funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. His is also principal investigator for the United Way Neighborhood Leadership and Wellness Project evaluation component and for the School’s new gambling community impact research initiative.
Soska has also served principal investigator for the University-Community Career Development Partnership, a welfare-to-work initiative that focuses job readiness training, work experience, and employment placement within the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Health System. He has also been principal investigator for the Catalyst for Community Builders Project, a grassroots leadership and community organizing training initiative in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Soska also provides coordinating support to the Regional Coalition of Community Builders, a grassroots leadership network in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Soska oversees the school’s Continuing Education (CE) Program that provides a range of workshops, courses, institutes, online courses, and training academies for social workers and other helping professionals. Soska has had long service on the University’s Senate Council and Faculty Assembly, notably the Senate’s Community Relations Committee. Soska is a recipient of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Public Service Award (2002). He has published and presented nationally in the area of university and community partnerships.
Selected Publications
Soska, Tracy & Butterfield, Alice Johnson (ed.) University-Community Partnerships : Universities in Civic Engagement. (2005). Haworth Press. Binghampton, NY. Published simultaneously as a special issue of the Journal of Community Practice. 12 (3/4). 2004. Haworth Press
Soska, Tracy & Trudeau, John (Ed.). “Bridging University and Community” Professional Development: The International Journal of Continuing Professional Development. Vol. 1/2. 2005. Temple University Center for Social Policy and Community Development. Seymour Rosenthal (Ed.)
Soska, Tracy (Ed.). The University in Civic Engagement: Service in the University’s Mission. Report of the Senate Community Relations Committee on the University of Pittsburgh Senate Plenary of March 21, 2001. November 2001.
Soska, Tracy. University-Community Partnerships: Implications for Schools of Social Work. Paper presented at the Council of Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting. Dallas, TX. March 10, 2001.