Carol and Gene McGrevin to Receive Pitt Distinguished Alumni Fellow Award
Carol McGrevin, a 1964 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, and her husband, Gene McGrevin, are each recipients of the Pitt Distinguished Alumni Fellow Award, to be presented Thursday night at Alumni Hall. The award—Pitt’s premier alumni honor—recognizes graduates with extraordinary records of professional achievement and community service.
The Distinguished Alumni Fellow Award will be bestowed upon the McGrevins by Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher at the 2017 Distinguished Alumni Fellow Dinner. The invitation-only affair will begin at 6:15 p.m. October 12 in the J.W. Connolly Ballroom of Alumni Hall.
Carol McGrevin received her Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from the School of Education in 1964; her Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from Rider University in 1974; and her Doctor of Philosophy degree from Georgia State University in 1984. She received Pitt’s School of Education Distinguished Alumni Award in 2015.
Carol taught in Philadelphia and New Jersey schools before transitioning into administration, working as a principal and as an assistant superintendent. She eventually moved into higher education and focused on educational leadership while teaching at Pepperdine University, Texas Christian University, University of Northern Colorado, and Georgia State University.
Since retiring in 2003, Carol has worked as an educational consultant and master trainer, while also serving multiple college boards, including Pitt’s Board of Trustees, and she currently serves as the chairman of Arts Now.
Carol and Gene have made a commitment to establish an endowed chair in the School of Education for educational leadership, in addition to providing financial support to the School of Education’s new Center for Urban Education.
They also have established the Zord Endowed Scholarship, a fund that honors Carol’s parents and is awarded to students from Western Pennsylvania who are preparing to become elementary school teachers.
Gene McGrevin earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Pitt, majoring in Political Science and Economics and minoring in Chinese, at the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in 1966. He received a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and International Business from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968.
Gene has held numerous leadership positions at health care and pharmaceutical companies across the country, including Syncor International, Microtek Medical, Everest Healthcare, and Surefire Medical, Inc. He led the commercialization of Positron Emission Tomography pet scanning by co-founding P.E.T. Net Pharmaceutical and led the commercial introduction of therapies for cooling for post-sudden cardiac arrest patients as Chairman of Medivance.
Although retired, he continues to serve on several boards and is developing a catheter delivery system that treats solid cancerous tumors. Gene and Carol have given generously through a portion of their estate to benefit the School of Medicine with these resources offering support for pediatric cancer research and scholarships to students majoring in cancer treatment, research, or radiology. They also have established the McGrevin Post-Doctoral Award, which is awarded to a current Pitt Post-Doctoral student working as an intensivist within the Department of Critical Care Medicine.
