UPitt Dean Works to Advance Equity in Policy, Practice

Cultivating ‘a better world’ is Dr. Valerie Kinloch’s end goal as an education scholar.

"The work that we do in the world is so important,” said Kinloch, describing her hopes for advancing equitable policies and practices that benefit students, faculty, staff, communities of people in schools, school districts, and universities around the world.

“To advance equitable policies that are grounded in education is to understand the full humanity of people,” she said. “It is to understand who people are, people's dreams and hopes, [and] what people want.”

Dr. Valerie KinlochKinloch does the work in her leadership role as the Renée and Richard Goldman Endowed Dean of University of Pittsburgh’s (UPitt) School of Education, a position she has held since July 2017. In that time, Kinloch said she has strived to bolster equity and justice at the school.

For this work, she was surprised to received the university's inaugural Dr. Larry E. Davis Excellence in Leadership Award in November 2022.

“I received the Excellence in Leadership Award I think because of my vision for education, the efforts that I have made to not only shape education but to reimagine education through a more equitable lens, and to involve people in this collective effort to ensure that higher education is responsive to the needs of people in communities across the world,” said Kinloch.

One such effort was Kinloch’s major initiative to have conversations about strategic direction, culminating in a strategic plan she led that involved faculty, staff, students, and external partners.