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.
My network of professionals working on countering hate in all its forms grew exponentially after attending Eradicate Hate in 2021. The myriad voices represented at Eradicate Hate, from big tech companies to academic researchers to those with lived experience, reinforced to me the importance of cross-cutting and collaborative approaches to counter hate and its devastating impacts on society. I’ve been fortunate to sustain and build those networks with many of those I met at Eradicate Hate in 2021.
