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During the 2026 State of the School, SHRS faculty and staff were honored with recognitions by their peers, named the Shining Stars, highlighting their exceptional work at SHRS. These individuals contribute to the mission and strength of our school community. They might be leading a special project or initiative, taking extra steps to provide support for students or their coworkers or offering mentorship. Read on to see who was recognized!

Counseling and Behavioral Health

Michelle Schein, Vice Chair for Education, Director of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program and Associate Professor

“Michelle Schein is guiding counseling through a period of unprecedented growth on multiple fronts while ensuring that our high standards are never compromised. It’s a challenging task to maintain this crucial balance. It requires daily strategizing, planning and advocacy. Stated simply, Michelle is the glue that holds Pitt counseling together.”

Communication Science and Disorders

Ashley Parker, Director of Research Enterprise and Development, Assistant Professor

“Our ability to submit grant applications in a timely, seamless (and importantly successful) manner has changed drastically under Ashley’s direction. She has changed the attitudes of our senior Communication Science and Disorders (CSD) students from resenting final semester courses to anticipating their early mornings with her.

These, however, are not the reasons I want to highlight Ashley’s work. Ashley has taken on coordination and deployment of our new mobile unit–the Communication Van. The logistics of upkeep/maintenance, training of individuals using the van, equipping the van and supporting clinic and research van activities is a monumental task. For the expanded clinical activities, Ashley has partnered with our UPMC colleagues, community organizers and Pitt CSD students to make our ongoing outreach events a success–reaching people in need of hearing care throughout Southwestern PA. She does all of this with good humor–something happens on every outing that could be met with frustration but Ashley choses to model the best possible approach–humor and resilience.”

Community Health Services and Rehabilitation Science

Natalie Belin, Administrative Assistant

“I would like to recognize Natalie Belin as a Shining Star in SHRS for her consistent, behind-the-scenes contributions that make the undergraduate Rehabilitation Science program run smoothly. As our administrator, Natalie is the person that students and faculty rely on to get things done, whether that means fixing enrollment issues the same day, organizing and improving our new student orientation or stepping in to proctor exams when needed. During our move to Fifth and Halket, she ensured continuity for students and faculty and worked tirelessly to make sure every student knew where to go when we had to unexpectedly shift locations back to Forbes Tower. With our significant program expansion in Rehabilitation Science, Natalie has taken on additional responsibilities without hesitation, meeting the increased demands with positivity and a clear willingness to help. She shows up every day ready to support whoever walks through the door, and her positive approach consistently elevates the experience for our students and our team.”

Health Information Management

Dilhari DeAlmeida, Vice Chair for Education, Program Director and Professor

“Under her leadership, the Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics (BSHI) and Master of Science in Health Informatics programs achieved dual accreditation in the same year, with the BSHI becoming the first accredited undergraduate Health Informatics program in the nation. She is conscientious, positive and proactive in problem solving.”

Occupational Therapy

Joanne Baird, Professor

“Joanne has gone above and beyond in her dedication to supporting admissions for our Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) program, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to building the next generation of occupational therapy practitioners. From engaging prospective students and championing the program’s mission to putting in the extra effort needed to fill our incoming class, Joanne’s enthusiasm and tireless work ethic have made a meaningful difference. Her dedication reflects the very best of what it means to be a member of the SHRS community, and we are incredibly grateful for everything she does to ensure the success and growth of our OTD program. Thank you, Joanne—your efforts truly shine!”

Denise Chisholm, Vice Chair for Department Affairs, Director of the Doctor of Occupational Therapy Program and Professor

“Denise Chisholm is essential to the strength of Pitt’s Doctor of Occupational Therapy program through her dedication to supporting students, faculty and staff. She sets high standards for herself and others, fostering accountability and growth. Her leadership shapes a culture of excellence, collaboration and mutual respect that strengthens the entire department.”

Ann Marsico, Associate Professor, Academic Fieldwork Coordinator

“Ann Marsico plays a vital role in supporting students as they translate classroom learning into meaningful clinical experiences. She provides thoughtful guidance and practical insight, helping students build confidence and competence in real-world settings. Through her mentorship, she ensures students are well-prepared, bridging the gap between academic knowledge and professional practice.”

Lauren Terhorst, Professor, Associate Director of Statistics Education for the SHRS Data Center​

“Lauren Terhorst is instrumental in strengthening our research through her commitment to methodological rigor. She brings a critical, evidence-focused lens to clinical ideas, ensuring that research is grounded in best practices. Her approach elevates the quality and credibility of research, fostering a culture of thoughtful, high-standard clinical research.”

Physical Therapy

Regan Harrell, Assistant Professor

“Regan consistently goes above and beyond for students, not only her assigned advisees, but any student who needs support. She is incredibly generous with her time, often meeting with students outside of scheduled hours and investing the time needed to ensure they feel supported, prepared and successful in the program. What stands out most is that Regan does this without hesitation and without seeking recognition. Students trust her, seek her out and genuinely benefit from her guidance, mentorship and advocacy. Her impact extends far beyond what is expected of her role.

She manages all of this while balancing numerous professional responsibilities and actively working toward completion of her PhD, which speaks to her dedication, work ethic and passion for both education and student development. Regan embodies the kind of faculty member who makes a lasting difference in students’ academic and personal journeys, and she is highly deserving of recognition.”

Qadeerah Robinson, Student Services Coordinator

“Qadeerah Robinson has consistently demonstrated exceptional dedication and impact within our program. She steps in wherever needed, providing meaningful support that enhances both the student and faculty experience. She thoughtfully organizes student breaks, including snacks and treats during high-stress periods such as finals week, helping to boost morale and foster a strong sense of community.

Beyond these visible contributions, Qadeerah is deeply involved in departmental event coordination, ensuring programs and activities run smoothly and successfully. She is an essential behind-the-scenes presence at every event and the go-to person for keeping operations organized and on track. Her support also extends to students navigating the post-graduation National Physical Therapy Exam and licensure process—an often significant and under-recognized time commitment. She guides graduates through complex procedures with patience and attention to detail, ensuring they feel supported during this critical transition.

Qadeerah also plays a central role in orientation, helping new students acclimate to the program and setting the stage for their success. On a daily basis, she manages countless behind-the-scenes responsibilities, keeping operations seamless and allowing faculty to focus on teaching and mentorship. Through her dedication, organizational skill and genuine care for students and colleagues, Qadeerah is an invaluable member of our team and a true shining star in our department.”

Clarice Rutledge, Post-Professional Education Administrator​

“Clarice Rutledge is truly deserving of the Shining Star recognition for her transformative impact on communication within the Department of Physical Therapy. Since joining the department, Clarice has been instrumental in streamlining and organizing both internal and external communications, filling a critical need with energy and initiative. She created and curates the weekly “From the Desk of the Chair” newsletter, keeping faculty informed and connected, and is developing “The Huddle,” a dedicated internal newsletter for students. She also launched “Pitt Pillars,” an external-facing newsletter that elevates the department’s visibility and reach.

Beyond building these platforms, Clarice has been an active and intentional voice in ensuring that students, faculty and staff alike feel represented and included in departmental communications. Her commitment to inclusive, consistent and thoughtful messaging has strengthened the department’s sense of community and cohesion, making her an outstanding choice for this recognition.”

Bonnie Virag, Assistant Professor, Director of Community Engagement​

“Bonnie Virag has been with the Pitt Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program since 2023, integrating community-based learning with classroom content on social determinants of health and equitable, person-centered care. Her team has developed a network of 270+ partner organizations across 32 states and Washington, D.C., and 100% of residential and hybrid DPT students have completed at least two distinct community engagement experiences prior to their graduation.

At Birmingham Free Clinic, she has been the lead Physical Therapy and faculty supervisor since 2020, expanding student involvement from seven to over 110 DPT volunteers providing supervised pro bono physical therapy to uninsured community members. She also leads an SHRS Interprofessional Education Seed Award–funded initiative, Optimizing Pro Bono Health Care Through Student-Led Interprofessional Collaboration, supporting a monthly interprofessional free clinic involving PT, Occupational Therapy and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation clinicians and students.

She has mentored student groups presenting at the Pro Bono Network National Conference about the impact of their community engagement and initiatives at the Birmingham Free Clinic on the health of community members. Dr. Virag also serves on the APTA Academy of Leadership and Innovation Global Health SIG and the ACAPT task force on social and structural determinants of health education.”

Physician Assistant Studies

Jamie Hammond, Assistant Professor

“Jamie Hammond embodies our program’s mission to develop collaborative leaders in patient care, service and advocacy. Her commitment to students, colleagues and the community is evident in her everyday interactions. In her role as community engagement chair, Professor Hammond has strengthened and expanded opportunities for community involvement. Her efforts include CEC On the Road, Homewood Health Station, Healthy Habits and the Farmers Market. Additionally, in 2025, she organized a Floating Doctors mission trip to Panama with Physician Assistant Studies students and coordinated with Remote Area Medical for a Butler and Erie pop-up clinic with students and faculty.

As the faculty Mentorship Committee Co-Chair and advisor for student societies PASS and PASPDI, she fosters a student-centered approach to mentorship grounded in genuine listening and respect. She encourages leadership development while helping students grow in confidence. In the classroom, she emphasizes service, accessibility and equity in patient care, often using humor to put students at ease. Professor Hammond is deeply valued by faculty for her collaborative spirit and dedication, as well as her kindness, humility and authenticity, which make her a true shining star.”

Rehabilitation Science and Technology

William Merletti, Clinical Instructor

“William Merlatti is an invaluable member of the Prosthetics and Orthotics program, ensuring continuity and safety for students as they develop. His sustained commitment to student success makes him a critical contributor to both the educational and clinical mission of the program.”

Sports Medicine and Nutrition

Shelly Fetchen DiCesaro, Associate Professor

“Shelly brings a wealth of professional leadership experience to the department, reflecting a model for students on the importance of service and advocacy for one’s profession. She is instrumental in advancing shared governance in our School through her efforts regarding our Faculty Council and movement of our workload policy.”

Mary Murray, Director of Clinical Education for the Athletic Training Program, Director of the Sports Medicine Program and Associate Professor

“Mary has maintained her strong leadership skills through several challenges and has selflessly accepted new responsibilities for the best interest of the Athletic Training program, department and SHRS. She creates meaningful opportunities for the Athletic Training program to become involved in the community and serve those in need.”

Dean’s Office

Business and Finance

Kristin Hopkins, Director of Finance

“Kristin does a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ financial work that benefits all departments and programs, students, faculty and staff in SHRS. Kristin recently completed the school’s FY27 Tuition Budget. While staff and faculty may know that SHRS has 30+ programs, many may not realize that we have over 70 subplans and over 30 tuition rates. Each program subplan must be calculated per cohort, per residency status, per continuing and new student projections. There are many data points from multiple systems that must be gatherer, analyzed and calculated. Additionally, we had to forecast the impacts of the potential elimination of federal loans. Kristin expertly tracks and manages all of these various data. Analyzing enrollment numbers is a key factor in preparing the school’s tuition budget. Despite working on such a complex and critical project, Kristin remained calm under pressure, ensured her work was accurate and met the Health Sciences and University deadline, all while supporting each of our departments and office of dean functions.”

Office of the Dean

Tessa Moore, Administrative Assistant

“Although she has only been here a short time, it is almost as if Tessa was always working for SHRS! She has learned so much about SHRS, the new building and all the complexities that come with our school. She always has a moment to stop, say hi and chat a while but is also quick to offer help to whatever must be done in the Dean’s Office!

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement

Leen Hamza

“Leen Hamza began working as a temp with our office in October 2024. From the first day we met her, we knew she was extraordinary! Although her position is still that of a temp, Ms. Hamza approaches her role as a long-standing member of our team. She always goes above and beyond as a colleague and team member. Additionally, she is beloved by the Community Engagement Center of Homewood’s staff and community members. Leen has brought additional vitality to the SHRS Wellness Pavilion and always provides a cheerful, positive welcome to all who enter. Moreover, she volunteers her time, outside of her job responsibilities, to help our team with events in the Wellness Pavilion and at the main campus. Without her, our SHRS Wellness Pavilion would not be able to function as smoothly as it does. With the growing need for appointments, Ms. Hamza handles all the fast changes with a smile. Ms. Hamza is truly a shining star, and we know that she will continue to raise the bar and reach new heights within our team for the betterment of our community.”

Marketing, Communications, Recruitment and Enrollment

Jill Bodnar, Director of Communications

“Jill has been taking on additional roles and responsibilities: guiding the way we prepare and present the School to the rest of the world. She is conscious of the data to back it up as well. Jill always asks the important (and maybe tough) questions in order to make sure all that who work or study at SHRS have the transparency and clarity they need to continue doing whatever they are doing with confidence. She also serves as the liaison between other communication teams both internal (Health Sciences and UCOMMS) and external to Pitt. This ensures that all of the major moments at SHRS do not go without a spotlight. She has a passion for featuring research, student success and outcomes, and the faculty and staff that make up the school. Also, no one deals better with constant change! Her ability to pivot from one project to the next (sometimes in the same day) is all thanks to her organizational skills and understanding of SHRS as a whole.”

Haley Geisler, Senior Enrollment Specialist

“Haley stepped up to lead the Recruitment and Enrollment team at the end of last year and navigated us through a long and tricky transition. Since then, she’s done a great job supporting everyone on the team and maintains an open-door policy to offer help and mentorship whenever she can. Haley has made many changes to our regular operations to improve functionality, including launching several new email journeys in Salesforce and streamlining committee operations. Even though she’s taken on a lot more responsibility, Haley is still the primary enrollment specialist for the Doctor of Medical Science program, just because she loves working with students. She also says that keeping her finger on regular enrollment specialist tasks makes her a better supervisor, and I agree.

She is a passionate about the student journey and featuring SHRS at every opportunity. Her dedication to students, process and organization show in her day to day. She is very mindful of how events, outreach and personal connection with each individual student affect the MCRE unit, programs and the school as a whole. Haley is also always looking out for her team members and working to make MCRE (and SHRS) one of the best places to work every day!”

Joshua Hughes, Graphic and Web Designer

“Josh is the one and only dedicated graphic designer for SHRS. I have the pleasure of working with him on a variety of projects that support organic and paid marketing efforts for the school. He loves to work on projects both familiar or brand new and is always open and flexible with any change (or last minute requests) that may come! Even under pressure and tight time constraints, he never sacrifices quality. Serving as the liaison between UCOMMS and the Health Science Comms team, he seamlessly blends brand and the school’s individuality into the work he does to meet the needs of the programs and MCRE as a whole.

He collaborates with SHRS faculty, staff, and leadership to ensure that our school is represented in a polished and professional way across our presentations, meetings and activities. Though his contributions are often unseen, they are felt by everyone — and it’s time he received the recognition he deserves.”

Alice Miner, Enrollment Specialist

“Alice is an exceptional enrollment specialist and is always looking out for the best interest of prospective students. Her attention to detail for her programs and care in outreach to future SHRS students may be one of the many reasons they choose Pitt! She always puts in 110% into our school and programs and has done exceptional work to support many internal initiatives for the MCRE unit, such as the success of our Annual Open House.”

Lauren Serge, Executive Assistant

“Lauren wears many hats and serves the roles and needs of both the marketing and recruitment teams, and even beyond that of her main unit in MCRE. No matter the task, she always looks to help in any way she can! Her extension into a writer and editor for our article and story content for the website has greatly improved the quality of content over time and support the important school, research and student stories. Also, Lauren is one of the friendliest people I have ever had the pleasure to know! You can find her out to lunch with someone new almost every week! I am lucky to work with someone as SHINY as her!”

Alex Sozansky, Web Developer

“Alex diligently works behind the scenes (and sometimes into late hours of the night when there is limited web traffic) to ensure that the SHRS website functions as intended! He regularly streamlines user experience to make sure people can always find the information they need and that bugs are fixed ASAP!”

Research

Jenna Tomashosky, Research Analyst

“Jenna Tomashosky completes much of the behind-the-scenes work related to pre-award processes like new submissions and progress reports; maintains and analyzes support items like the active grants list for post-award; she manages Vincent participant payments for human subjects research; and audits overdrawn accounts and Vincent payments on university accounts. She is on the ball and always timely in processes. Her attention to details is integral to the success of our pre-award and post-award administrators. She does not always get recognized since she is not investigator-facing, but her work has had a significant impact on daily operations. This includes activating new funds within 48 hours of receipt as opposed to other departments at Pitt that take upwards of two weeks to activate new accounts. She is always looking to take on additional work, is a great team player and an overall joy to work with.”

Student Affairs

Kelsie Fallon, Senior Admissions Coordinator

“Kelsie Fallon is an integral member of the SHRS Admissions team. She has redesigned the external transfer application process, making it significantly more user‑friendly for this important student population. In addition, Kelsie helped developed the Undergraduate Exception Request PowerApp, which streamlined the submission and review of course and pre-requisite exception requests. She also organized the approved requests by creating a centralized library where the requests can be easily accessed and tracked.

Kelsie further demonstrated leadership by initiating a comprehensive training manual for new staff and creating a standardized dictionary of email templates to support efficient and consistent communication with applicants. Her strong organizational skills, creativity and work ethic have made a lasting impact on the admissions process. Kelsie’s contributions continue to be a valuable resource to the SHRS Admissions team and have improved both internal operations and the overall undergraduate applicant experience.”

Jessica Maguire, Executive Director of Student Affairs, Ombudsperson

“Jess is constantly seeking to provide access, resources and support to our current student body. With all the recent change, the move to the new building and navigating changes at the university level, she is working with all the appropriate resources to make sure that things are clear and accessible for our current students. Her dedication to this effort, and as one of the Health Sciences Ombuds, is another reflection of that. I am thankful we have someone this thoughtful working for our students in SHRS!”

Trish McCarthy, Student Support Coach

“Trish McCarthy joined SHRS in the summer of 2024 from the Office of Financial Aid. Right away, Trish’s passion for financial wellness positively impacted students through school-wide programming, specifically surrounding financial aid processes and loan repayment. Trish’s expertise has also furthered staff understanding of the student financial aid landscape; these conversations around cost of attendance for students on clinical rotations or hybrid immersions have led to collaborative projects between Pitt EDGE, SHRS support coaches and university housing services to pilot cost-saving housing options for students in future terms.

Trish’s day-to-day work centers around the success of hybrid Physician Assistant Studies (PAS) students. She quickly became embedded into the program’s student support structures and has become a valuable member of the team. Trish meets with students individually, providing ongoing support and exceptional guidance in a vast array of topics including study strategies, motivation and persistence, health and wellbeing and campus resources. Trish is a vital member of both the PAS hybrid and student affairs teams, and her work has great impact on the individual and system levels for our students.”