CAS director has worked with students worldwide

Judith McConnaha is probably more than capable of handling Pitt’s Arts and Sciences… Judith McConnaha is probably more than capable of handling Pitt’s Arts and Sciences undergraduates, considering she used to work at a zoo.

McConnaha, who holds a degree in horticulture and worked at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoological Gardens earlier in her career, was recently appointed director for undergraduate studies in the School of Arts and Sciences.

As the director of arts and sciences, McConnaha says that she will be fully involved with undergraduate studies. She will be collaborating with other department directors to oversee the day-to-day operations in certain administrative departments, the Advising Center, the Office of Experiential Learning and the Academic Resource Center to name a few.

She will also be involved with programs and projects for undergraduates – a process that she says takes a lot of brainstorming, budgeting and teamwork.

Previously, as director of development at Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, McConnaha’s main objective was fundraising. But her new job is very different, she said.

McConnaha’s list of credentials and previous experience is long and impressive, chocked full of the types of skills she believes will be necessary to successfully take on her new position.

It’s a multi-dimensional job,” McConnaha said. “It incorporates many things that I’m really interested in.”

Of first and foremost importance to McConnaha are the students.

“I won’t have as much student contact now, but my job exists because of the undergraduate students,” she said.

She won’t miss them too badly, though, since her day-to-day tasks within the office will focus on undergraduates and her office building sits in the midst of Pitt’s campus – a place swarming with students all day long.

McConnaha has worked with students on numerous occasions in her past jobs. She both instructed students and worked in advising in the Office of Student Affairs at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. She has also worked at the University of Iowa in Cedar Falls and Greyhills Academy High School in Arizona.

She earned two undergraduate degrees from nearby Ohio State, a Bachelor of Science in horticulture and a Bachelor of the Arts in English. She also received a Master’s degree in public policy from the University of Northern Iowa.

McConnaha has held jobs all over the country as well as overseas – from a position as a curator of education at the Lincoln Park Zoological Gardens, to the education and events coordinator at Powell Gardens in Kingsville, Mo. McConnaha even taught a class in London about cultural diversity, where she particularly enjoyed the opportunity to expose people to cultures they never even knew existed, she said.

Prior to her first Pitt job as a fundraiser for the Graduate School of Public Health, McConnaha was assistant director of development at COSI Toledo, a hands-on science museum geared primarily towards children in Toledo, Ohio.

McConnaha does not, however, have any plans for change in CAS as of yet. A teacher through and through, her present plans consist of working hard to see how things are done at Pitt and soaking in all the new details. The learning process never stops, she said.