Doctoral student Kess Ballentine is the winner of this year's Iris Marion Young graduate student award, recognizing her political engagement and social justice work. The Iris Marion Young Awards are given annually by GSPIA and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program to recognize Pitt undergrad and grad students, faculty, and staff. The event will be held January 27th at 5pm. Register here.

As part of a special Martin Luther King Jr. Day event, a panel of distinguished University of Pittsburgh educators took part last Monday in an online discussion called “What Just Happened? Race, Justice, and Politics after the Capitol Siege.” Read more about the panel in the Tribune Review.

Associate Professor Mary Ohmer is Co-investigator for a $324,997 one-year grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) for the Child/Youth Thriving Matrix, Community-level strategy to reduce youth violence project, in collaboration with the Dr. Liz Miller, PI, from the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and several other Pitt and community co-investigators. 

MSW alumnus Jan Hammond was named president of Pittsburgh's Commission on Human Relations. The commission, established by city ordinance in 1955, investigates complaints of alleged discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations within the city. Read more in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

A memorial for MSW alumna Shulamit Bastacky is set at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh on Tuesday, February 2, 12:30pm. Register here.

Read about her extraordinary life in The Pitt News.