Sites: a social services pioneer

An accumulation of 40 years worth of books and other academia, four brief cases, a cluster of… An accumulation of 40 years worth of books and other academia, four brief cases, a cluster of file cabinets and innumerable pictures of blond beauties, “beloved” grandchildren, pepper a 23rd-floor office in the Cathedral of Learning.

Patterned bow ties, starched white collars, and gigantic glasses may evoke an image of a stodgy, 19th-century professor, but according to doctoral student Virginia Davidovich, Professor Edward Sites is “a pioneer on the leading edge of social services.”

And his lengthy credentials prove it. Sites has been an active professor at Pitt’s School of Social Work since 1978 and has been a faculty field adviser since 1966.

He has served as a board member, chair or consultant for numerous child welfare advocacy groups and has provided pro bono consulting services for not-for-profit organizations.

In addition, he has been a principal investigator on at least one state or federal foundation- or agency-funded grant in the field of child welfare education every year since 1971.

As a third-generation social worker, he imagined his life in rural Fayetteville, N.C., as permanent until one fateful call in 1965, which he dubbed his career-defining moment.

Unexpectedly, Sites received an invitation to teach in the ever-demanding field of social work at Pitt. He adamantly refused.

“I was happy as a clam,” Sites said. But the caller persisted, and to “humor” him, Sites made the long trek to Pittsburgh to hear him out. “I’ve been here ever since,” he said.

Sites’s most noted accomplishment, for which he received an award for distinguished public service from Chancellor Mark Nordenberg in 2003, is countless millions in dollars raised through grant writing.

These funds are acquired not only to aid human service organizations, according to Sites, but the money enables him to oversee permanent instructional sites for social work education at 15 locations in Pennsylvania.

These facilities train social workers and foster parents and work to instill a sense of accomplishment, according to Sites.

According to Solveig Peters, who is studying in the social work program at Pitt, with so many accomplishments to boast about, it’s difficult to imagine a more “accessible person with such great humility.”

“He’s considered to be internationally known in the field,” Peters said. “He’s in charge of training and has testified before congress, yet you can still talk to him.”

Sites’s teaching style is described by Peters as upbeat and insightful, and not without humor.

Davidovich recalls Halloween of 2003, when she came dressed to Sites’s class in full costume. “You should’ve dressed for the occasion,” Davidovich said to Sites.

He then exited the classroom to organize his class papers – or at least, so Davidovich thought – but, when he returned, Sites wore a pair of glasses which, in place of lenses, had paper eyes to replace his own.

“Will this do?” Davidovich recalled him saying.