Lab Manager, Thathiah Lab, Neurobiology (2025 Awardee)
Swati Banerjee perpetuates the spirit of sustainability in Pitt’s Green Thathiah Lab through her multifaceted promotion of eco-friendly practices. Her implementation of recycling tailored to labs showcases her determination to enhance waste production and treatment. Swati’s successful lab energy use reduction resulted in noticeable drops in lab energy use and operational costs. In addition to direct action, the Thathiah Lab fosters a welcoming culture of sustainability through both education and awareness, helping inspiring members to pursue eco-conscious lifestyle choices both in the lab and at home.
Senior Manager of Custodial Services, Facilities Management (2025 Awardee)
Ernest Robinson is a vital partner and champion for sustainability at Pitt, and his work towards Pitt’s goal to reduce landfill waste 25% by 2030 is honorable. Amidst managing the Pittsburgh campus’s custodial operations and team, Ernest prioritizes integration of sustainability measures. He has helped lead waste diversion initiatives including compostables, specialty materials (including pipette tip box recycling), and pilots to improve waste data tracking marks vital strides towards a more sustainable future. Across all efforts, Ernest has been a patient, persistent, and helpful partner to and champion for University-wide Sustainability efforts.
2025 Group Awardee
Tara Stakich, Wendy Romeo, and Vanessa Legeza are leading the way in sustainability at Pitt through the “Caps for a Cause” project, part of the "People First Organizational Culture" initiative in the Pitt's Department of Medicine. The Caps for a Cause project engages staff across all divisions to collect plastic bottle caps (plastic types 2, 4, and 5) instead of discarding them. Collected caps are cleaned by the Division of Geriatric Medicine and counted in a friendly competition. Through October 2024, the team gathered approximately 1,100 pounds of plastic, which will be transformed into park benches. Additional team members include Jessica Higgins, Marisa Eckles, Yvonne Hollenbach, Will McDade, Andrew Mininger, Pranavan Sriranganathan, and Xhesi Ndreca.
2025 Group Awardee
Karen Sebolt and Brynne Bashioum have transformed Heinz Memorial Chapel into a model of creative, small-scale sustainability. Despite the Chapel’s historic limitations, their teamwork led to achieving "Mighty Oak" status in Pitt’s Green Office program. Brynne, as Sustainability Ambassador, coordinated initiatives from staff Green Host training to printer and lighting upgrades, vase reuse, and creating event signage that promotes eco-consciousness. Karen’s leadership brought lasting impact, including a major lighting retrofit projected to save $15,000 annually. Together, they’ve proven that even a small, historic department can lead with innovation, inspire others, and embed sustainability into daily operations and long-term culture.
Foundations Lab Technician, Biological Sciences (2024 Awardee)
Swagatika performed a sustainability audit of all teaching practices in the “Foundations of Biology” course — and took leadership in transforming them into sustainable workspaces. These research-based labs serve thousands of students annually and generate a significant amount of single-use plastic waste. Swagatika researched and implemented best practices to recycle lab plastics for all 80+ lab sections. Swagatika’s efforts dramatically transformed the course’s waste footprint, including the scientific plastic recycling program and refillable dry erase markers now used in classrooms.
Recycling & Refurbishing Supervisor, Pitt Surplus (2024 Awardee)
As the first recycling & refurbishing supervisor for Pitt Surplus, Eric Hammill has processed 407,317 pounds of electronic waste generated by the University to-date. Eric and his team have also destroyed 20,791 hard drives (then recycled as metals), which contribute to the 2.9 million pounds of scrap metal recycled by Surplus Property since his start. Eric has also led recycling of 14,273 pounds of batteries and 67,488 pounds of textiles.
Eric also worked with both Pittsburgh Public School’s “Start on Success” program and Life’sWork (which helps adults with disabilities find meaningful employment), training individuals how to recycle and take computers apart. Since 2019, Eric has trained and supervised these team members to help recover 24,950 pounds of precious metals.
Computational and Systems Biology (2023 Awardee)
Nelson Castilho Coelho is Senior Research Specialist in The Carvunis Lab. Born in Portugal, Nelson has an undergrad in Biochemistry and a Masters in Biotechnology both from University of Algarve. He first worked as research technician at the Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology (IBMC) and then as lab manager/research technician at the Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR) in Portugal and at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA. Before joining the Carvunis lab he was working as research assistant at the Institute of Genetics and Development of Rennes (IGDR) in France. Nelson likes to dedicate his free time to photography, running and baking.
Academic Records (2023 Awardee)
Brandi Liskey Belleau, the Director of Academic Records in the School of Computing and Information, is recognized for redesigning SCI Academic Records’ interactions with students, staff, and faculty into a paperless experience. Belleau is a beacon of sustainability stewardship in SCI and a champion of campuswide collaboration, making paperless a realistic goal across the University.
Parking, Transportation, and Services
The University's movers and drivers are on the front lines of sustainability here at the University of Pittsburgh. They handle the pickups and deliveries for surplus property. By doing this they help drive a circular economy and increase the number of items being recycled by the university. They transport recycling streams such as e-waste, textiles, cardboard, batteries, scrap metal, and toner cartridges. They provide logistical support for events such as Clutter for a Cause, Most Wanted Food Drive, Welcome Week, Thriftsburgh's annual move in sale, and the Holiday Toy Drive. They transport donations to community partners like Construction Junction, Salvation Army, Goodwill, Free Store Wilkinsburg, and Salvation Army.
Without this group, more items would be landfilled and less assets would be given a second chance at life. They keep sustainability moving here at the University of Pittsburgh.
Mei Yu-Kephalogianis has been a housekeeper in Pitt Housing since 2010 -- and lead housekeeper at Nordenberg Hall, Pitt’s first LEED residence hall, since it opened in 2013. As a native Chinese speaker, Mei understands the challenges first-year Chinese students face and is extremely welcoming to all. She embodies the mission, vision, and values of Pitt’s Housing department and was recognized with the department’s Harvie Keppler award in 2015. In Fall 2021, Pitt’s housekeeping team introduced glove recycling for housekeepers to divert glove waste from landfills. Mei jumped at the opportunity to reduce the impact of her work and, in just six months, had filled a 50-gallon barrel with thousands of used gloves from her and her colleagues in Nordenberg Hall. Mei also initiated the idea to repurpose bags that would have otherwise been thrown out for her housekeeping carts glove collection. Mei is a natural leader and dedicated to sustainable practices.
Office of University Communications
At Pitt since 2005 and the University Communications Manager with sustainability as her “beat” since 2017, Kim is the pen, WORD, and puns behind Pitt’s telling of its sustainability story externally. Whether writing a Pittwire release about an award or pitching a sustainability story to a journalist, Kim has always been knowledgeable about sustainability across Pitt’s campus and passionate about the work and the people who do it. Often behind the scenes and article, Kim is an integral part of the Pitt Sustainability team and has a special flair for showcasing student efforts.
Caitlin is a very reliable person for encouraging sustainable practices and bolstering the sustainability procurement program at our residential dining location. Besides, she is always looking into ways to reduce food waste in our Kitchen
Department of Chemistry
As Manager and Dietrich School Scientific Stockroom (DSS) Customer Service Director, Joshua Jones has been using his expertise in chemistry to create sustainable solutions for a number of years. In addition to contributing to DSS sustainability efforts, Mr. Jones has been greening his own work flow in a variety of ways, including 1) coordinating with janitorial staff to repurpose empty bleach bottles to safely collect aqueous chemical waste like Strontium sulfate to reduce plastic jugs bought by the department) and 2) safely recrystallizing copper solutions for students to use in their learning lab for educational experiments.
Office of Facilities Management
Will Mitchell is the Director of Facility Services in Pitt Facilities Management — and has been an instrumental leader in Pitt’s sustainability journey. Along with serving on the Chancellor’s Advisory Council for Sustainability, Will has been imperative in Pitt’s materials diversion efforts for decades, including the University’s transition to single stream recycling over 5 years ago. More recently, Will oversees Pitt’s custodial, sustainable landscaping, and trades teams – and is a fundamental partner for many Pitt Sustainability projects, including anything relating to zero waste, but especially recycling, and composting. If it’s a green, chances are Will is on the scene. In 2019, Will was one of the New Pittsburgh Courier’s 50 Men of Excellence.
Purchasing Services
As Pitt Procurement Specialist, Kristin has been a constant champion for sustainability at Pitt by leveraging her position supporting laboratory programs across campus by piloting materials diversion programs for water filters and gloves. She has also asked scientific suppliers to embrace more innovative and sustainable practices, create takeback programs, and more. Kristin advocates for more sustainable policies within University-wide contracts that help build a thriving culture of sustainability on campus. In a recent example, Kristin has been collaborating with the University Store to create a lab coat rental program so lab coats used by students for lab courses have a life after the class.
Pitt Eats
William ensures that compost and recycling procedures are correctly followed in kitchens. He keeps our team motived towards our sustainability programs at the Eatery.
University Store
Monica led a program during COVID to establish a partnership with the Greater Pittsburgh Food bank to raise awareness around the challenges facing the food bank during COVID and to organize support. The Stores teams attended engagement sessions with the Food Bank and implemented donation mechanisims on the Stores registers and website to collect donations for the food bank, as well as collect physical goods like non-perishable donations. More than $1,000 has been raised through the effort so far.
Maggie & Stellas
As a University Stores Green Team member, Meagan is always working to make Maggie & Stella’s more sustainable. Meagan has also provided invaluable support to the University of Thriftsburgh as they work to set up an online sales platform.
Office of PittServes
Ciara is an outstanding leader and advocate! She provides leadership for the Pitt Pantry & provides assistance with other food-related initiatives. She is leading the Basic Needs and Meal Scholarship Committees working to assure student access. Ciara does awesome with working across departments to ensure work is done strategically.
Office of PittServes
Dez has been a campus leader in equity and access, coordinating the University’s first year of participation in the Real College Assessment. Because of his persistence and creativity over the past year and a half, the Campus Basic Needs Committee will have data from over 5000 students, which will shape the future of student support programs and partnerships at Pitt.
Pitt Eats
Chef Timothy has committed to make Sutherland hall as vegan friendly as possible. Adding make to order vegan pizza and increasing the plant-based dishes in every single station.