By MARTY LEVINE
Clyde Wilson Pickett credits formative experiences in his undergraduate years, and mentors beginning with family, for bringing him to his current post as vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion.
His mother was a public-school teacher, Pickett told the latest Staff Council Coffee and Conversation event on Dec. 7. “What I saw her do in the classroom for young people” was inspiring, he said. “Watching her in life and really making a difference for others was really transformational for me.”
A native of Louisville, he attended the University of Kentucky. “The experience I had as an undergraduate student working as a staff assistant in the office of minority affairs,” he said, helped his life focus on “how do we make a difference. … Having an opportunity to serve in an office like that really set the stage” for his career. As president of the Black Student Union there, he also developed good contacts in the administration and staff who mentored him, encouraged him to pursue his current career “and showed me that it was viable.”
In particular, the Black Student Union’s advisor “really built the confidence in me to consider a role in higher education.” Pickett stayed in touch with this mentor through the years, even taking the advice — against his first impulses — to work first in a smaller institution in a locale where Pickett did not necessarily wish to live because another, more comfortable job choice “wasn’t going to stretch me. Real mentors are those folks who are not willing to rubber stamp our decisions.”
He spent seven years at Ohio Northern University, then in 2012, he left that post for the Community College of Allegheny County, where he was special assistant to the president for diversity and inclusion until 2017, during which time he earned his doctorate at Pitt’s School of Education. Prior to coming to Pitt in July 2020, he was chief diversity officer for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.
“When I found out about this opportunity,” he said of his current post, “I was excited about the potential.” Now in his fourth year here, he calls this work “difficult” at times, especially facing today’s “headwinds. There are seasons in our lives and reasons we are in places. I think this is the season for me to be in Pittsburgh.
“A great part of that work is building community,” he added — connecting with others, joining in the work of neighborhood associations and other community groups. This has allowed him “to see that we are still part of a community where work needs to be done” — including improving access to higher education, among other things. “We are changing lives and transforming the community.”
His son is a recent Pitt graduate; his other child, a daughter, is 27.
His aim for the future is to increase Pitt’s population of diverse students, faculty and staff, and to have discussions about equity and inclusion “with folks who don’t always come to the table.”
Asked what advice he might give young professionals wanting to be DEI leaders, he offered: “You have to be willing to accept things that will put you out of your comfort zones,” as well as to “understand where your strengths are but willing to lean into” areas where you need to learn new skills.
He also urged DEI professionals early in their careers to “think about the way you can ask for more opportunities” to get involved with new areas in your own organization as well as groups outside your place of work, to develop relationships with people who can help your career as sponsors.
Sponsors, he said, are able “to put you in different rooms, to put you in positions where skills can be amplified.” While he didn’t have a sponsor himself, Pickett said, he certainly saw their benefits to colleagues.
Next year will see the release of the results of the Diversity and Equity Campus Climate Survey done almost a year ago, he said, which are still being evaluated.
Sam Young, Staff Council moderator of the Coffee and Conversation events, announced that January’s guest will be Andrea Hergenroeder, assistant dean for faculty affairs and development in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and director of the Undergraduate Program in Rehabilitation Science.
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
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