Photos from the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Awards
Distinguished Alumni – Social Work Education
Karen Hopkins (MSW ’79)
Associate Professor, University of Maryland School of Social Work
Dr. Karen Hopkins is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Human Services Leadership and Management Certificate at the School of Social Work, University of Maryland. She teaches courses in human service management and leadership, performance management, and research. Her research and organizational/program evaluation with nonprofit and public agencies is related to supervision and management practices and outcomes, performance management, workforce development, and organizational learning and capacity building. She is Project Director of the Annie E. Casey-University of Maryland Performance Management program, and a national peer reviewer for the Standards of Excellence Institute certification for nonprofits. She currently serves on the national Network for Social Work Management Board and has served on the Boards of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) and the Association of Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA). She is an Editor-in-Chief of the Human Services Organizations: Management, Leadership, and Governance journal. She received a PhD from the University of Chicago, MSW from the University of Pittsburgh, and a BS from the Pennsylvania State University.
Distinguished Alumni – Social Work Practice
Kate Garvey (MSW ’91)
Director, City of Alexandria Department of Community and Human Services
Kate Garvey is the Director of the Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) for the City of Alexandria. DCHS is a unified department that is focused on the safety, well-being, and economic security of residents. It provides child welfare, economic supports, behavioral health, workforce, developmental disability, early childhood, housing, domestic violence, and aging services to more than 22,000 residents each year. Prior to her work in Alexandria, Ms. Garvey served as the Chief of Children, Youth and Family Services of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services for more than 10 years. There she focused on services and integrated approaches to support children and families and advancing opportunities and economic security for youth and adults. Prior to Montgomery County, she worked in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she was served as the Executive Deputy Director for the Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS). Her responsibilities included service integration approaches and organizational development initiatives. Prior to DHS, Ms. Garvey worked for a non-profit educational organization where she was responsible for early childhood and family support services, including Head Start, child care partnerships and community development activities.
Outstanding Alumni Awards:
Matthew Galluzzo (MSW ’05)
Executive Director, Lawrenceville Corp.
Soon-to-be President and CEO of Riverlife
In addition to facilitating nearly $100 million in public and private investment in the neighborhood over past 3.5 years, Matthew has served as the organizational lead for several catalytic neighborhood planning processes including the Upper Lawrenceville Plan, Lawrenceville Pivot, and the Allegheny Green Boulevard Plan. Since he arrived in Pittsburgh a dozen years ago, Matthew has worked as a community development professional in numerous areas of the city, including the Penn Avenue Arts District, Hazelwood, and the Northside. He has also taught as an adjunct faculty member for the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School for Community Organization and Social Administration. Matthew has served on several boards and committees, including the URA Real Estate Loan Review Committee, the URA’s New Market Tax Credit Advisory Board, Green Boulevard Working Group, Sprout Fund Public Art Advisory Committee, Friends of Arsenal Park Steering Committee, Leslie Park Pool Advisory Panel, and the Carnegie Mellon Artist Incubation Advisory Committee. Mr. Galluzzo begins his Riverlife role in September 2019.
Sharise Nance (MSW ’06)
Co-owner and founder of HandinHand Counseling Services, LLC
Founder of VitaminChealing
Mrs. Nance is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, Speaker, Award Winning and Best-Selling Author. She is the co-owner and founder of HandinHand Counseling Services, LLC and has 18 years of experience assisting individuals, couples and families see beyond energy depletion, hopelessness, panic, guilt and feeling overwhelmed and assists them in making a shift to a place of life satisfaction, joy, clarity and fulfillment. She is also the founder of VitaminChealing, an organization that provides services to non-profit organizations, social service organizations, helping professionals and caregivers struggling with self-care, compassion fatigue, burn-out and work-life balance. Sharise presents national keynotes, workshops and seminars for young professionals, helping professionals, entrepreneurs, parents and adolescents. She has facilitated workshops on Compassion Fatigue for Healthy Start, Inc, Family Resources of PA, Westmoreland County Area Agency on Aging, University of Pittsburgh, and Auberle. She has been featured on local TV shows, national podcasts, local radio shows and local newspapers.
Outstanding Field Instructor
Robin Veshosky (MSW ’10)
Program Coordinator II, Wesley Family Services
Robin has been field instructor for 7 Pitt Social Work student interns and always shows a great deal of enthusiasm. She allows students to take advantage of available opportunities and gives them the space to grow. She is proactive and allows students to progress past their comfort zones resulting in a young professional at the end of the field placement. These efforts show great compassion and also speaks to her ability to teach the next generation of social workers. Her optimistic outlook reveals a great commitment to her own learning and to the learning and growth of others.
Rising Star
Capt. Benjamin T. Paul (MSW ’13)
Captain, Brigade Behavioral Health Officer, US Army
Capt. Paul is the 2nd Brigade Combat Team Behavioral Health Officer within the 82nd Airborne Division. In addition to his clinical proficiencies, Ben has extended his influence beyond the community of social work and psychology. Ben has found success in his partnerships with medical professionals and United States Army leaders alike on matters pertaining to improving both clinical and non-clinical services that relate to the psychological health of the force. Ben provides a rare currency within the professional network of relationships he has developed allowing him to remain abreast, brainstorm, and develop new initiatives that focus on the delivery of higher quality services that prioritize the wellbeing of our service men and women. Since graduating in 2013, he has published two manuscripts as a co-author in 2014 and 2016 on the interactions between combat-related blast exposure, traumatic brain injury, REM sleep; and subjective and objective sleep measures in combat veterans with and without PTSD, respectively. He has another manuscript currently under review. Ben has provided two podium presentations. One was on Clinical Practice and Treatment Outcomes: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) Group with an Active Duty Population in 2016 before BMACH. Ben deployed to Iraq in 2017 providing clinical services in an austere environment. He delivered the highest quality of care and sensitivity possible for clinical cases in a deployed setting, especially those that required medical evacuation back to the United States for risk of safety to a paratrooper or others.