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 catalytic power of this Summit in bringing together those who are devoting their lives to pushing back and working to confront, understand and work towards solutions around hate in our society is a noble and difficult task. The Summit not only energized those who attended but led to connecting the dots in a global network of those doing this work. The stories of the victims of hate were painful to witness but their courage in coming forward was inspirational. Those who attended left energized with the hope that by working together solutions can be forged.
