Professor Ross Selected to Extended Diversity Experience
The Health and Physical Activity faculty member will forge interdisciplinary connections into the curriculum.
For Pitt School of Education faculty member Sharon E. Ross, equity and justice are more than just a pair of buzzwords – they are personal and professional passions. She was recently selected for the 2019-2020 Extended Diversity Experience at the University of Pittsburgh.
Ross, who is part of the Health and Physical Activity department, will join a cohort of nine faculty members from across the university who will work to promote equity and justice in their curriculums. The program uses a triad model in which instructional designers and teaching consultants, librarians, and faculty members such as Ross come together to forge interdisciplinary connections. The experience will span throughout the 2019-2020 year, and is meant to leave a lasting impact on curriculums.
Equity and justice have served as guiding forces in Ross’s career.
“I try to question whose voice is or isn’t at the table, who is being served by our efforts and who is being left out, and whether these services and opportunities are available and accessible to everyone,” said Ross.
Ross, whose research includes health in Latinx communities, says that the Extended Diversity Experience program fits her current goals for instruction and learning. She currently teaches courses on Social Justice and Diversity, Psychosocial Aspects of Health, Evidence-Based Lifestyle Program Design and Evaluation, and Health Promotion Policy and Program Implementation.
Ross’s commitment to an equity and justice approach means that she focuses class time on topics like social determinants of health, health disparities and health equity, social identities, and evidence-based intervention design and programming for diverse populations. Ross integrates these topics into all her classes, from the undergraduate to doctoral levels.
The Extended Diversity Experience is designed to guide Ross in further enhancing her course curriculums. She expects the experience to help her in expanding her teaching approach to incorporate more interactive activities that will help students to better apply equity and justice concepts. She also hopes to integrate more inclusive readings and multimedia to enhance students’ reflection and discussion.
“I expect that the experience will push me to grow as an educator and improve the training and experience for the next generation of health and physical activity practitioners, researchers, and professionals,” said Ross.
Learn More
View the Pitt School of Education’s commitment to equity and justice, which includes our scholarships, mission-vision, and more.
