By SHANNON O. WELLS

Even as Kyaien Conner anxiously awaited to hear if she’d be named dean of Pitt’s School of Social Work, she was — in her role as director of the University’s Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP) — fully immersed in serious mid-summer resume-enhancing activity in another country.

“We were able to take our first cohort of social work students on a global excursion through our program, so we brought nine bachelor’s in social work and master’s in social work students to South Africa for two weeks,” she explained. “We spent some time in Durban and then also in Johannesburg. We’ve been building relationships with institutions there.”

Students were able to shadow Pitt social work faculty and social workers running community organizations and areas they’re interested in learning more about, “to really kind of see what it’s like to be a social worker in another country.”

“That was a really nice distraction. The entire time we were there, I thought any email that came from Pitt could be the email letting me know whether I had the job or not,” Conner confessed. “And I was still sort of being interviewed while I was there. Because of the time difference, I was having midnight conversations with the provost.”

Those nocturnal chats clearly proved fruitful, as Conner was, following a national search, chosen to serve as dean of the School of Social Work, starting July 15. She succeeds Betsy Farmer, who announced last November that she planned to step down from the role she held since 2018 and return to the faculty.

Now about six weeks into her position, Conner, who holds four degrees from Pitt, is rallying her resources and expertise to balance new duties while also maintaining her role directing the Center on Race and Social Problems.

“This has probably been one of the hardest months of my life,” she acknowledged. “It’s just a lot to learn and get caught up to speed on incredibly quickly. Coupled with all the federal policy changes around student loans and financial aid, and just University policy changes and all of that intersecting at the same time just made this incredibly difficult and incredibly necessary.”

Being an internal candidate, she noted, likely compensated for not having the “luxury to kind of onboard over time.”

“It put me in a better position to do that (more) than someone that was coming from someplace else … I have not for a moment regretted or thought, ‘Ah, maybe this isn’t what I thought it was going to be.’

So far, in fact, she said she’s “loved being a dean. It has been hard, but it has just been so exciting. I have so many cool ideas, and I just having the support of my different schools … Once I can get into it and learn some of the things and get caught up to speed — it’s never going to be easy, but it’s not going to feel like it has this past month. I know that for sure.”

Community builder

Conner spent formative years in Portland, Ore., but relocated east when her father took a position as chief executive officer of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. She came to Pitt in 1998, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

In 2004, she earned a master’s and PhD in social work and a master’s degree in public health with a specialization in minority health and health disparities.

She worked at the University of South Florida in several positions before returning to Pitt in 2023 as a professor in the School of Social Work. That same year she was named director of the Center for Race and Social Problems.

Conner’s research examines drivers of disparities in health and mental health care access, utilization and outcomes, with her work focused on advancing responsive behavioral health interventions.

She serves as principal investigator of a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) award aimed at reducing health disparities among patients discharged from hospitals with co-occurring chronic and mental illness. Conner also is a co-investigator on a multi-site National Institute of Mental Health R01 study focused on training volunteers in low-income communities to deliver interventions to peers experiencing acute depression, helping to expand community-based mental health support.

Provost Joe McCarthy praised Conner for her passionate, multifaceted devotion to implementing positive changes in public health through her research and work at Pitt.

“Kyaien has demonstrated a deep commitment to public purpose and policy innovation, and her work has realized national impact,” he said. “For example, she serves in a leadership capacity on the NIH-funded Advanced Research Institute for Geriatric Psychiatry and has authored legislation signed into law in Florida in 2021 to restructure the State Office of Minority Health and Health Equity.”

Conner’s contributions have led to several accolades, including the University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Alumni Award (2023), the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Civic and Community Engagement at the University of South Florida (2022), and the University of South Florida Black Faculty Member of the Year Award (2021).

“Throughout her career, Dr. Conner has exemplified collaborative leadership, academic excellence and an unwavering commitment to community-building,” McCarthy noted. “I am confident that her vision, energy and dedication will guide the School of Social Work to even greater impact and distinction in the years ahead.”

Overlapping obligations

After her South Africa adventure, Conner had a relatively relaxing interlude presenting research at a conference in Bologna, Italy, where she spent time with her two sons. Once back in Pittsburgh, however, she definitely hit the ground running.

For one thing, becoming a school dean did not absolve her from obligations with the Center on Race and Social Problems.

“Part of why I’ve been a little bit stressed is because I’m still serving as the executive director … It’s not in the past,” she explained. “I’m holding that role in addition to some others, so I will be hiring someone to replace me this year. Until then, I’ll still be taking on a significant, at least supervisory, role at the center. That’s really important to me (because I) came back to Pitt to be the (CRSP) director.”

She credits the center for inspiring her pursuit of a doctoral degree.

“It was really sort of my first research home (and) provided me some of my initial starts as a doctoral student in terms of pilot funding and really giving me mentorship to see this as a possibility for me,” she said. “It was one of the things that made me pause before (submitting) my name in for the dean because of the little bit of grief that I might have about no longer being the (CRSP) director.

“But I had to reframe that for myself and recognize that that center is a part of the School of Social Work.”

As a new dean, Conner said she is still able to “highlight and amplify the amazing work” happening in CRSP, even if she’s not part of day-to-day administration. “I just feel incredibly honored to be able to be in this position.”

AI and social work

Conner, who said with some understatement that she “tends to be kind of ambitious,” has spent recent weeks thinking of priorities and longer-term goals for the School of Social Work.

“Because I do intend to be here for the long term, and one of my primary things is really focusing on students’ success and enhancing our academic innovation in the School of Social Work to continue to achieve real-world impact,” she noted. “I think as a highly ranked school it is so important that we’re continuing to grow and continuing to evolve to meet the needs of current students.”

It also means meeting the needs of employers who will be hiring students once they graduate.

“I’m really interested in thinking about, ‘Are there gaps in our curriculum and training in that respect? Are there things where we could be enhancing the ability of our students to meet the current the needs of today?’”

That, of course, encompasses the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, and making sure students are comfortable working with the technology in myriad ways.

“We’ve spent a lot of time over this past year just trying to better understand what AI is. How are we talking about integrating it into our courses? How are we talking to our students about how they are using it?” Conner acknowledged. “But I really want to push us a little bit further and be thinking about what is social work and our profession’s role in the conversation more broadly (regarding) AI.

“How are we preparing our students and our future graduates to utilize AI as a tool once they’ve graduated for our program? And what are the expectations going to be for their technology knowledge and savvy when they’re on the job market,” she added. “If we’re not preparing them for that, then we are doing a disservice.”

One of Conner’s goals for the 2026-27 academic year is to create “sort of a task force” to think about AI in the social-work realm “in a more robust way,” not just how faculty teach and talk to students (regarding) coursework, papers and exams, but “really thinking about the role of social work and the broader conversation about the ethical use of AI and how that’s going to change service delivery (and) change the systems that social workers are working in and around.”

As the need for social workers increases, she added, the doorway to get degrees is “in some ways narrowing.”

“Everything is getting more and more expensive. College is following suit, and with some of the changes in federal student loans, etc., there are additional barriers and hurdles that social workers, or people who are interested in becoming social workers, are having to go through just to be able to get access to education,” she said. “That’s a difficult one for me, because being able to get a degree in social work from an amazing institution like Pitt should not be narrow.

“The chances shouldn’t be narrowed just by one’s financial ability to attain that degree.”

Social work steward

As a dean, Conner said she’s trying to identify solutions.

“How can I make this amazing education from social work more accessible to the students and the young people and the individuals in the world who are excited about making a real impact? The people who want to do the hard work, who are willing to stand with folks in some of the most difficult times in their lives. …

“Those folks we want in this program. How do I reach out to them? How do I make it more accessible for them?”

Approaches she’s considering include spreading more information and education about social work and encouraging more philanthropic engagement, fundraising and marketing/branding for the school. “Trying to enhance our ability to give out more scholarships and fellowships (and) additional paid practicum placements for our students while they are here.”

With multiple degrees and a faculty track record in social work, Conner said the time feels right to take on a larger leadership role in the field to which she’s devoted so much time and passion.

“I’ve done all of the things. I’ve quite literally sat in every seat that you can sit in in the School of Social Work,” she acknowledged. “I’ve been a student, a TA, a GRA, an adjunct faculty member, a student advisor, a professor, director of a research center, an associate dean for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.

“Now to be able to steward the school in this way as the dean of a school that means so much to me personally and professionally, the place that prepared me to excel in every position that I’ve had thus far, I don’t take this position lightly.

“I am profoundly honored by the faith and the trust that my colleagues and central administration at Pitt has put into me to steward the school at this really critical time in in history,” she said. “I think for me, in addition to the excitement about being able to be in this role, I feel an immense amount of pressure because I care so deeply that I want to make everyone proud.

“I want to achieve the goals that I’ve set for myself and for this school and continue to contribute to making the University of Pittsburgh the amazing institution that it is.”

Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.

Have a story idea or news to share? Share it with the University Times.

Follow the University Times on Facebook.