By MARTY LEVINE
Zachary Davis’ opportunity to contribute to equity and inclusion at Pitt is still evolving, he told the latest Staff Council Coffee and Conversation event on Jan. 6.
COMING UP
The next Staff Council Coffee and Conversation event is at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 10 with Julie Bannister, assistant vice chancellor of auxiliary services in the Office of Business, Hospitality and Auxiliary Services. Register through the University calendar.
Recordings of past events can be found on the Staff Council website.
Six months into his new post as director of equity & inclusion programs in the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (OEDI), Davis recalled his first days at Pitt, 13 years ago, after growing up in the South: “Trying to feel at home was hard, and so leaning into the relationships that I’ve had the opportunity to build and grow and create that sense of belonging, it’s what instilled that passion in me to create those spaces for others here at Pitt.”
After working in student affairs and the School of Dental Medicine, he joined OEDI as the gender discrimination and Title IX response manager — an investigator — “sitting with people at their absolute worst, probably having experienced one of the most traumatic and difficult things that they may ever have to deal with.
“It’s really about those individual conversations,” he continued, “about listening, to (let others) know that there’s somebody here at Pitt that believes in you, that wants to help you and wants you to be supported.
“Now, I’m literally planning our signature celebrations of culture and heritage. That’s a big shift. That’s a 180-degree vibe shift, (from) ‘Let’s be with people in their darkest times’ (to) ‘Now let’s help people celebrate their successes and their achievements.’ I’m leaning into that.”
Helping himself didn’t always come easily either, he explained: “I’m a native of Mississippi. I was born and raised in Indianola not far from the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tennessee. … I actually didn’t even want to go to college. In high school I worked on a corn farm. I was considering an opportunity at a large food chain to be a produce inspector, and my classmates, all 26 of them, made fun of me for not taking that (next step) into college. On a whim I applied and got in.”
However, he added, “during that time I really struggled. I actually chose to go to a Bible institution because during my time as a child I was struggling with my sexuality. I am a gay man and during that time and growing up in that place, that was not something that I could talk about or be open with. I thought that I could pray the gay away by going to Bible college, and that actually made it worse. But during that time, I found a lot of passion and acceptance in student affairs professionals who were excited to see me learn and grow as a leader. That tapped into my passions.”
His leadership experiences in college were many: He was an RA, a student government representative and a fraternity member, alongside doing volunteer work. “I just said, I can’t leave the college experience,” he recalled, and earned his master’s degree in college student development and student affairs administration at Florida State,
“I think that we are all called to some form of service,” he told the audience. At the same time he was “so passionate to move out of the South. I was looking for a more progressive experience for myself, to be around people like myself, because I didn’t experience a lot of that growing up in Mississippi and Florida. I was thinking New York City, San Francisco, D.C.,” when his LinkedIn profile attracted a contact from Pitt.
Along with his first boss, Kathleen Kyle — now director of Housing and Panther Central — he credits Melissa Warthen, who was an assistant director in Residence Life when Davis arrived, as a mentor.
“She was somebody that gave me the time and space and capacity to grow. She leaned into those growing pains with me. … One of the things she told me was, ‘The place to be happy is here; the time to be happy is now.’ That changed my vision to where I started to make Pitt from being a job to Pitt being a home.”
One of his biggest mentors was Katie Pope, former associate vice chancellor for strategic operations and planning in OEDI, who died in 2023.
“Thinking about her and reflecting about her life and her legacy at Pitt, I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to have worked under her,” Davis said. “It’s certainly been a difficult past year and a half trying to navigate this new leadership role without having her to lean into. Over half of my time here at Pitt she was my boss and I can’t think of a greater person to have that opportunity to grow with than Katie.”
Asked about his leadership style and whether he had an open-door policy, Davis responded:
“The phrase ‘open-door policy’ is something that I remember very much when I first started my professional career at Pitt, and it’s not necessarily something that I continue to use — because I like to go to your office. I like to be where you are. I don’t think you need to come to me to figure out something. I don’t think we need to meet in the middle. I actively want to engage in your space and see how you are and get that kind of feedback from there. I very much enjoy the water-cooler experience. Meeting people in their spaces, being available, is really important.”
Considering that he has had several roles already at Pitt and lately has been moving up, Davis also was asked his advice for those seeking promotions.
“It’s all about those transferable skills,” he said. “There have been times of heartache in seeking promotion, even internally. I had applied for a different director position over a year ago and I didn’t get it. But that didn’t stop me. I’m very much attuned with: It’s going to happen when it’s supposed to happen, because that’s how it’s supposed to happen. … You’ll learn to grow through pain sometimes. For this last time that I didn’t get that promotion, I said, hey, I’m going to take a beat. I’m going to lean into what I’m supposed to be doing right now, and after a year I’m going to reflect on that experience and see if I’m too comfortable or am I ready for that next leadership job. Resilience and dependability and making sure that you hear your own self is where I’m going with this.”
Asked how he hopes he will leave his mark at Pitt, Davis offered:
“I love orientation because, if you’ve ever seen the residence T-shirts that say ‘Panther Pride Lives Here,’ my first boss, Melissa Warthen, came up with that phrase and she had tasked me to create a logo. … When you see that, that always makes me feel really proud that there’s something tangible there.
“But I do think that legacy is much more than that,” he said. “There’s a quote, ‘Our leadership is like a shadow; it will extend to places that you may never know.’ I hope that people think, ‘He cared.’”
Assessing the current state of equity and inclusion here at Pitt, Davis said: “I think we’re solid. I say all that to also say there are people hurting here and I don’t want to minimize the trauma. There are people hurting everywhere. We still have a job to do, to continue to meet those people where they’re at, not expect them to come halfway or come to us, and find out ways that we can continue to bend that arc of justice so that they feel included, so that they feel heard. … Maybe you are somebody who’s questioning your identity. Maybe you are queer and you’re not open at work and you feel like you need to do something. Know that there’s others here to help. Know that you don’t have to do that charge on your own, that emotional labor.”
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
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