Sheila Elaine Confer EdD
Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Director, Academic Village, University of Pittsburgh Greensburg; Electus Faculty, David C Frederick Honors College
2025
Sheila Confer has been at Pitt since 1999 serving in a variety of staff, faculty, and administrative roles. She completed her EdD in Social and Comparative Analysis in Education at Pitt in 2017. She teaches courses in acting, theatre history, social science research, and wellness and resilience. Through her entire career, she has been dedicated to work in anti-violence, wellness, and DEI spaces. Sheila is particularly committed to community based work and research, working with agencies such as Blackburn Center, the YWCA of Westmoreland County, and PFLAG Greensburg. She is also a certified trainer for the Racial Equity Consciousness Institute through Pitt’s Center on Race and Social Problems. In 2021 Sheila initiated and continues to lead a community based reading program called Westmoreland Reads, which brings college students and community members together to engage with a common read. She became involved with CuPID (Community Partnership Identity and Dialogue) in 2023 when the Pitt-Greensburg campus began developing their own asynchronous CuPID course. Her next project will be co-hosting a podcast, sponsored by Blackburn Center, which will address the root causes of gender based violence through conversations about popular culture.
The effort to eradicate hate requires the active participation of every component of our society, to include governments, the private sector, communities of faith and indeed every aspect of civil society. There is no more urgent task in front of us. The organizers of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit are doing the United States and the world an enormous service by tackling hatred and extremism with a focus on honest dialogue and conversation, genuine learning and practical solutions. This will not happen overnight, but the Pittsburgh community’s leadership in this effort is genuinely inspiring and motivating.
