4 Pitt people won a Provost’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Student Success

The University of Pittsburgh has recognized four faculty and staff with the 2025 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Student Success.

Each year, Pitt’s Office of the Provost recognizes staff, faculty and administrators who have positively impacted the student experience by engaging in collaborative and holistic academic advising and student success practices.

The awards are given in four categories:

Professional Staff Academic Advisor Award

Shannon DeMateo (A&S ’15, EDUC ’16G), an academic advisor in the College of General Studies, is the recipient of this year’s Professional Staff Academic Advisor Award. This award is given to those whose primary role is staff who serve as designated undergraduate academic advisors.

DeMateo has been at Pitt since 2017. According to her nominator, Krista Stokes, assistant director of the Advising Center, “Shannon can cultivate meaningful relationships with her students where they trust the information and guidance she provides. They do not hesitate to reach out to her with questions and concerns, and she responds with respect, honesty and care."

Faculty Advisor and Mentor Award

Michael Meyer, a professor of English in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, received this year’s Faculty Advisor and Mentor Award. Meyer — also an electus faculty in the David C. Frederick Honors College, where he teaches journalism and nonfiction writing — tells his students that his classes come with a “lifetime warranty,” and he enjoys hearing of their success long after they've graduated.

Frederick Honors College alumnus Alex-Jaden Peart (A&S ’24), who is completing a Lionel Pearson Fellow at Cambridge, said, “I know that I have Professor Meyer as an indefatigable anchor.”

Current student and Fulbright Fellow Ebonee Rice-Nguyen added, “Having Professor Meyer as mentor has truly changed the trajectory of my life and opened up so many doors I never could have dreamed for myself.”

Advising Administrator Award

Liz Adams (A&S ’85) is the director of academic advising and student success in the Frederick Honors College. Along with her bachelor’s in economics and political science, she has completed comprehensive exams in her political science PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Bachelor of Arts in economics and political science, both from the University of Pittsburgh. Adams started working at Pitt in 1995.

“I simply cannot imagine a more deserving candidate for the Advising Administrator Award,” said her nominator, Frederick Honors College Dean Nicola Foote. “Liz’s commitment to students, to the Frederick Honors College, and to Pitt are truly exemplary. Her work is a primary reason why the FHC has been so successful over the past two and a half years.”

Student Success Impact Award

Anita Peraud, director of retention in the Swanson School of Engineering, earned this year’s Student Success Impact Award, which honors full-time staff who support students’ academic success. Before joining Pitt in 2012, she earned a Doctor of Education and Master of Education in counselor education from Penn State and a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Queens College of New York.

“Anita Persaud is one of our school’s most valued staff members,” said her nominator, Mary Besterfield-Sacre, the Swanson School’s senior associate dean for academic affairs. “She is a devoted and highly effective administrator and an admired colleague. Anita has been an exceptional leader in the success of our students.”

Photography by Aimee Obidzinski