The Alumni Speaker series is a way to highlight alums and allow them to share their experiences in the program and throughout their career.
The Alumni Council’s mission is to serve as a bridge between the school and the social work community and is actively committed to connecting and engaging current students, alumni, and faculty. If you’re interesting in learning more about joining the Alumni Council or being a speaker in this series, please email Katy Gallmeyer kdw40@pitt.edu
Upcoming Events
Alumni Award Recipient Panel
Thursday, November 13, 2025
Past Alumni Speakers
Our most recent series (2024-2025) aimed to highlight alums in non-traditional roles and it is our hope that it acts as a reminder and motivator to our students and fellow alumni of all the incredible possibilities that exist for social workers.
Joanna is a Care Manager in Pitt’s Office of Student Affairs. She also received an EdD in Higher Education Management from the Pitt School of Education. Joanna will be talking about higher education as a pathway for social work graduates.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Pitt-Johnstown where she was a first-generation student. She is a licensed social worker who holds a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work, where she also earned a Social Work in Labor and Industry certificate. Prior to finding her way to higher education, her practice settings include community mental health, Employee Assistance Programs, health and wellness programs, and adoption.
Dr. Mittereder completed her EdD in Higher Education Management from the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. Utilizing her unique positionality as a social worker, student affairs professional, and adult adoptee, her dissertation research focused on supporting adopted students in the college setting. Her work bridges research from adoption practice, social work, and student affairs to celebrate and support adopted students. Her dissertation won the University of Pittsburgh School of Education’s Outstanding Alumni EdD Dissertation Award in 2024.
Dr. Mittereder has been a featured presenter at the Higher Education Case Manager’s Association conference, the University of Pittsburgh’s Mentoring and Advising Summit, the National Association for Behavioral Intervention and Threat Assessment conference, and the University of Pittsburgh’s Inclusion Network Monthly meeting.
She is a member of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work Alumni Council and serves as an advisory board member for a local nonprofit, Angel’s Place.
Kyle Crawford is a strategist with nearly two decades of experience studying and working with movements and organizations. His work on ambiguity has been featured in industry-leading outlets such as the Stanford Social Innovation Review and Social Policy. He leads new initiatives for a $2B community healthcare organization in New York City and plays an active role on the Board of Directors of the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, a creative home rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people. Kyle has degrees in sociology and social work, and was a Jonas Salk Fellow at the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.
Recently, Kyle published the book, “Ambiguity is the Answer: Timeless Strategies for Creating Change”. Destined to be a classic for anyone trying to succeed against the odds, Ambiguity is the Answer is a digestible yet deeply researched book reminding readers of what it takes to truly bring about change in a world dominated by powerful interests: the use of ambiguity.
India Renae Hunter (She/Her/Hers) is a Doula and Maternal and Child Health Public Health Professional. She attended the University of Pittsburgh, where she completed a Dual Masters in Public Health and Social Work. She is originally from Dayton, Ohio and received a B.S. in Exercise Science at Pitt in 2016. During her gap year, she served with Pittsburgh Public Allies, where she worked for New Voices for Reproductive Justice. While completing her Masters, she was involved in community organizing around youth empowerment, community education, incarceration, and public health policy, and maternal and child health.
Professionally, she has worked as the Public Health Project Manager at Healthy Start, Inc., in Pittsburgh, PA and currently serves as a Public Health Analyst for the Human Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. She is also a trained doula and founder of Changemaker Services, where she does consulting as well as birthwork across the spectrum from before conception to postpartum. Her professional interests include Youth Empowerment, Maternal and Child Health, Health Equity, Covid-19, and Preventative Medicine through Exercise.
Mike Dubinski (MSW ’21) is a proud Pennsylvania native and graduate of the Pitt School of Social Work. Mike began the MSW program at an interesting time – he was in the inaugural cohort of Pitt’s Community Engagement Fellowship (now the Community and Racial Equity Leadership Fellowship) and the nationwide cohort of MSW students navigating the many challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst it all, Mike discovered a call to attend law school, to pursue a career at the intersection of social work and law. After graduating from Pitt in May 2021, Mike enrolled in Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he used his MSW experience to focus his legal education on public interest law through various clinics and internships, such as the Marquette Mediation, Restorative Justice, and Volunteer Legal Clinics. This past May, Mike earned his JD from Marquette with a certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution. He now works as a Staff Attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee at their Milwaukee County Children’s Court Office. Mike is excited to share his journey from MSW to JD, to working right at the intersection of law and social work.
Halle Mayes graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work in 1997. After graduation, she moved to Washington, D.C., for what she thought would be a short-term detour on her way to obtaining her master’s degree. Today, she is a trusted, top Democratic political fundraiser on Capitol Hill.
Halle was fortunate enough to have started her career in politics with then-U.S. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle. Since that first job, she has gone on to work on well over 40 U.S. Senate and Congressional campaigns, including current clients Senator Mark Kelly, Senator Maggie Hassan, Rep. Jamie Raskin and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan. In 2004, Halle started her own political consulting business, HM Consulting, leading a team on a wide variety of races varying in size and fundraising goals. Throughout her career, Halle has raised tens of millions for Democratic candidates across the country.
Halle counts her experience at the University of Pittsburgh and the School of Social Work as laying the foundation for wanting to help people and contribute to the greater good, essential components of her overall success. Even though her current career path is not directly related to her degree, her time at Pitt was transformational and set the stage for what was to come in her career.
Halle is proud to be a Pennsylvania native. She currently resides in Silver Spring, MD with her husband, two teens and two rescue dogs – and is H2P always!
On Wednesday, March 27, 2024, Katherine Marshall joined us to kick of this series. Katherine graduated from the School of Social Work in April 2020, obtained her LSW later that year, and achieved her goal of becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in 2023. Katherine has held various roles in mental health settings, her favorite of which being a child and family therapist for 2 years. In the fall of 2023, Katherine decided to pursue Travel Social Work. She currently travels the country providing empathetic care to patients and families in hospital settings. Katherine embodies both compassion and determination in the effort to continually move the Social Work profession forward for the benefit of fellow changemakers and our communities as a whole. Notably, Katherine is an advocate for creating a new narrative: Social workers are indeed able to serve, affirm, sit with, advocate for, empower, and provide unconditional positive regard – all while achieving limitless financial goals and creating a legacy of generational prosperity for themselves and their families. Katherine Marshall is a dreamer, a visionary, a fellow friend, and a lover of all things faith, family, and fun.
Archive of Additional Alumni Speaker Videos :
September 28, 2022
May 26, 2022
March 22, 2022
November 16, 2021
September 23, 2021
May 25, 2021
March 23, 2021
January 26, 2021
