By MARTY LEVINE
Carl Lawson was dreaming of a career in the lab when his first study-abroad experience changed his life to a focus on public health.
“Fifteen-year-old Carl Lawson very much would have told you I was going to be a biological science researcher,” said the associate vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion, for the schools of the Health Sciences, at the latest Staff Council Coffee and Conversation, on Aug. 14.
COMING UP
The next Staff Council Coffee and Conversation will feature Adam Lee, vice provost for undergraduate studies, from 11:30 a.m. to noon Sept. 15, in 501 Cathedral of Learning.
“I did a number of high school programs, working in biological science research laboratories, and that was my pathway. I remember the head of one laboratory, a brilliant scientist, told me that you have to love every aspect of this and talk to (him) about coming into work and being excited to open up the latest edition of a cell biology journal. … That was really profound, because even though I enjoyed the work, I couldn’t say that I was excited to read the cell biology journal. I could see myself one day publishing here, but am I excited to read the journal? That didn’t really describe me. So I went down this other direction. I think it worked out well.”
As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, he took advantage of a study opportunity in the Dominican Republic. “This program was focused on health, nutrition and environmental issues,” Lawson said, “and I came away from that experience, including one weekend that was spent with Peace Corps volunteers … feeling pretty stimulated, really interested in possibilities in terms of public health.”
After learning more about the field from a Black graduate student organization in Michigan’s public health school, Lawson shifted his focus from a career in the laboratory and pursued a master’s degree in public health at Tulane before joining the Peace Corps and serving in The Gambia, West Africa. He applied that experience to working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, but “I had the itch again for graduate education,” as well as overseas experiences, earning another master’s degree in Brussels, Belgium, and yet another one, coupled with a PhD, in Costa Rica.
“Even when I started working for an institute of higher education” — at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine in North Chicago, Ill., before joining Pitt last year — “I started as the global health director and so I was still working in very much familiar territory. The opportunity to influence and help educate young people who are thinking about taking some of the paths and pathways that I took, that was interesting to me — that was exciting for me — and I really enjoy being within the learning environment.”
Coffee and Conversation host Sam Young, selecting questions submitted by the audience, asked Lawson, “What are some things we can do in our department to create a more inclusive work environment?”
“One of the things is to reach out to individuals that are within your work, find out about their lived experience, find out about their skills, find out about their backgrounds, find out about their interests and tap into them,” Lawson said. “Everyone brings with them a unique skill set and unique qualities.”
He spoke about “the concept of additive contributions: within a given work unit, there are individuals that can contribute these special skills and perspectives. … There’s somebody that, OK, you know they are the IT person, and that’s your IT go-to — but perhaps they have some background in music that you don’t even know about. Find out about them as an individual, but also find out ways to incorporate them and their extra interest, their extra talent, into your workplace. … You have all these other people that are essentially untapped talent that you can and should be utilizing. … That’s going to help us all connect with those individuals, but it also is going to benefit the work unit in general.”
“Is there anything that staff can do to help transition into this new era of institutional engagement and well-being,” Young offered as another audience question.
“Just because there have been changes within the University doesn’t mean that there’s been an abandonment of the mission of the University or the commitment of individuals that work within the University to make the University of Pittsburgh a place that people want to come to, want to stay if they are employees, but if they are students want to graduate from and walk around with pride that, ‘Hey, I went to Pitt,’ and that commitment is still there.
“The environment is ever changing,” he acknowledged. “Just because there have been changes to roles, changes to offices, the commitment to building an environment where everyone can thrive in and be successful in hasn’t changed.”
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
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