Pittsburgh Team at the Intensive Session, July 2007. (Left to right: Karen Goldman, Associate Professor of Spanish and Cultural Studies, Chatham University; National Fellows Jessica Colbert, Sheila Lorraine Carter-Jones, and Paula Shaffer-Roche; director Helen S. Faison; and National Fellows Kristen Kurzawski, Eric James Laurenson, Patricia Marasco, and Janelle A. Price.)
The Pittsburgh Teachers Institute, bringing the resources of Chatham College and Carnegie Mellon University to a school district that now has 95 schools serving 38,000 students, began in 1999 by working with 20 elementary, middle and high schools, representing the three regions of the district. In 2001 the Institute reached out to several other schools, and in 2002 it opened its program yet more widely across the school district. The seminars have been approved for increment credit, which qualifies participating teachers for salary increases with the school district; they have also been approved by the Pennsylvania Board of Education for Act 48 credit, which the State of Pennsylvania requires that teachers earn to retain their teacher certification.
The founding director of the Institute is Helen S. Faison.
