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Meet Madison Seeger, an Industrial Engineering major. Madison has a passion for building things better, and at the University of Pittsburgh, progress is always in progress. Before committing to Pitt, she visited four other schools, but Pitt was the only place she could see herself for the next four years. The professors, staff, and fellow students at the Swanson School of Engineering share her same passion, and she feels at home within the Panther community.

The Department of Industrial Engineering at Pitt offers a wide range of opportunities for upperclassmen to get hands-on with different disciplines, taking on real-life projects like building cars from scratch. The Swanson School of Engineering offers flexibility with nine different engineering disciplines available, giving students like Madison the chance to find a path that best fits their interests. Madison is inspired by the program’s opportunity to compete in the Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) student design competition, which brings students from different engineering disciplines together. Madison looks forward to being a part of the team as she forges her path at Pitt.

Shawn Ellies is the Integrated Security Director and Commander for the Pitt Police. He teaches courses for the Administrative Justice program in the College of General Studies. He has earned a doctorate from Pitt’s Department of Administrative and Policy Studies program in the School of Education. Before joining the Pitt Police in 1997, Commander Ellies served in the United States Army for 23 years.

Meet Chase Diehl, an Accounting and Finance major. Chase is more than a numbers guy, and he wanted his college career to reflect that. Pitt’s 500+ student organizations give him the freedom to pursue all of his interests, and it was the biggest thing that stood out to him when making his college decision. Outside of the classroom, Chase is involved in the Political Science Student Association, the snowboard club, and his favorite-the Pitt Pendulums acapella singing group. Chase has taken a leadership role with the Pitt Pendulums. He is the group’s event coordinator, which means he manages their performance bookings on campus and around Pittsburgh. Currently, Chase is working on writing an 18-part musical arrangement for the group that showcases everyone’s favorite songs. At Pitt, Chase has found a place to grow both in the classroom and beyond

Lauren Jonkman is an Assistant Professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and serves as the Coordinator of International Pharmacy Student Experiences, co-director of the Area of Concentration in Global Health, and co-director of the PGY2 Pharmacy Residency in Global Health and Underserved Care. She is the faculty advisor for Pitt Pharmacy’s SNPhA Chapter and mentors students on research and practice experiences working in limited resource settings around the world. Her teaching and research interests focus on addressing barriers to access for vulnerable populations both locally and globally and she is particularly interested in improving care for non-communicable diseases. She co-coordinates the Population Health and Management course for the PharmD program and coordinates several electives including an elective bringing students to Namibia. Dr. Jonkman is a member of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, and the Federation of International Pharmacists.

Andrew Lotz serves as an Assistant Dean in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, as well as a Lecturer and Advisor in the Department of Political Science. He has focused his work and teaching on the intersection of pop culture and politics, with special attention to Manga comics, the Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones), and Hamilton (the Musical). The political theory side of his teaching interests are politics and pop culture, propaganda, fascism, totalitarianism, democratic theory, feminist political thought, and justice theory. Dr. Lotz earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh. His most current research interests are twofold: 1) propaganda and myth and their role in regime support, and 2) the ways political theory handles the future.

Meet Margaret Palko, an Information Science major.

When Margaret isn’t studying, she’s planning events and programs for students as a Resident Assistant at Panther Hall. This role not only builds her leadership skills but has given Margaret a community here at Pitt. She’s also a project manager for the Students Consulting for Non-Profit Organizations group—a role that helps improve and build upon her strategy and people skills. Being a part of this student organization has made Margaret feel prepared to take her learning out of the classroom and into the real world.

Michael Beach’s areas of practice include emergency medicine and disaster preparation and response. He coordinates the 2nd Degree Accelerated BSN Program and teaches courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He teaches a variety of courses ranging from topics such as Trauma and Emergency Medicine, Clinical Diagnostics, and Critical Care Nursing. One of his courses, Fundamentals of Disaster and Mass Casualty Care, equips students with disaster response knowledge and experience — giving them the opportunity to use a TVI Decontamination tent, PAPR hood assemblies, and TYVK suits. Beach has worked in search and rescue and disaster management for more than 30 years and is a member of the Pennsylvania 1 Disaster Medical Team (DMAT). Beach and his search and rescue team have provided relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina Disaster; as part of PA-1 DMAT, he responded to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey.

Meet Deven Herbine, a Pitt gymnast.

Deven came to Pitt ready to be on the gymnastics team and to take on Pitt’s academic rigor, but unsure of where she wanted to focus her studies. She applied to the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and took her general education classes before deciding to try the School of Business and Administration. It was there that she found her Introduction to Marketing class, which inspired her to her take her career in that direction. Deven admits that coming to college as an undecided student was nerve-wracking. The variety of options at Pitt allowed her to test drive different avenues until she found the right fit. Pitt drives Deven to stay balanced both on the beam and in life.

Rosta Farzan is an Associate Professor at the School of Computing and Information. She earned her PhD in Intelligent Systems from the University of Pittsburgh and currently teaches courses on Social Computing, Analysis and Design of Information Systems, and Research Design. Dr. Farzan studies socio-technical systems that empower individuals and groups to contribute to knowledge production and community building, such as Wikipedia, online discussion forums, and hyper-local online communities. Her research focuses on understanding what contributes to the sustainability of socio-technical systems; how to encourage participation of under-represented groups in socio-technical systems; and, what the value of these systems are for their users and beyond.

She studies how these systems can play a role in addressing important societal problems, such as increasing civic engagement, empowering non-profit organizations, fighting cyber-bullying, supporting individual’s privacy in face of high presence of sensors, and increasing reliability and neutrality of user-generated information in social media. Her research has been supported by a variety of federal, academic, and industry sources such as the National Science Foundation, AT&T, and Google. Dr. Farzan’s work has been published in high impact conferences such as the ACM CHI, ACM CSCW, Social Informatics, Communities and Technologies, World Wide Web, and the ACM Group.

Meet Payton Wargo, an accounting major.

For Payton, Pitt’s location perfectly balances city and campus life. She gets the experience of living in a big city while still having the feel of a “college town”. Payton’s first accounting professor at Pitt inspired her to pursue a future in the field. She feels lucky to have a support system helping her to forge her own path. She has been in a sorority since her freshman year and Greek life has been a mix of fun and community service. Her sorority hosts an annual five-hour wing eating contest to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The event raised nearly $3,000 last year—enough to grant two wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses. Payton is thankful that her college experience has been a balance of having fun, making new friends, and giving back to the Pittsburgh community she calls home.