By MARTY LEVINE
Kevin Washo’s family made sure his introduction to Pitt and Pittsburgh was done in the right manner, he told the latest Staff Council Coffee and Conversation event on June 25.
While they were touring colleges after high school, an uncle suggested they visit Washo’s cousins at Pitt. But upon arrival, the family, from Scranton, stayed at the airport overnight so they could drive in under daylight.
COMING NEXT
The next Staff Council Coffee and Conversation is with Jana Sestili, director of Event & Conference Services, Hospitality@Pitt, at 11 a.m. Aug. 20, at the University Club, 123 University Place.
“He actually wanted me to have the visual of coming into the city from the Fort Pitt Tunnel in the morning,” Washo said. “It was a one of those beautiful fall days, no rain, it was perfect and it was the first time I was ever in Pittsburgh. I fell in love with it from that day. I never would have thought I’d be here.”
Washo, who graduated in 2004 from Pitt with a political science and communications degree and was later appointed as a commonwealth trustee to the University’s Board of Trustees, is now senior vice chancellor for external relations.
After his Pitt student days, he said, “I spent most of my time in a combination of politics, government and nonprofits.” Nine years ago, “oddly enough, I was looking to do something different with my life and one day I get a call out of the blue from Paul Supowitz, our long-time head of community and government relations. I knew Paul from my undergraduate days, and he said that Chancellor Gallagher was looking for a new chief of staff. I flew out to Pittsburgh, met with Pat for two hours, and then the rest is history.
“I was also president of student government, which was kind of a neat experience,” as an undergraduate, he added. “You learn a lot about yourself in those early years. So I get to actually work with Chancellor Emeritus (Mark) Nordenberg quite often. Being an undergrad and working with the chancellor, you know you’re learning from really smarter people. Then you come back and then you get to work with Mark on a daily basis, it’s really something you can’t get in a classroom. Just observing how people operate, observing how they handle things, how they handle pressure, how they handle the public dynamic, it was just a very interesting experience.
“A lot of people at Pitt — that was one of the draws coming back,” Washo continued. “Charlie McLaughlin (senior director, commonwealth relations, in Community and Governmental Relations), I know Charlie since I was 18 years old. So, a unique opportunity.”
He appreciated not only the mentors he has had but the chance to learn from others in action: “I’ve always been a big observer of how people operate on a daily basis. How do people lead teams? How do people surround themselves with good people? I’ve always tried to take little bits and pieces of people that I’ve admired over my career and bring that into my own world, and do it my way, but still remember: How would they handle it? Who would they hire?”
Asked what fueled the continued evolution of his career, Washo explained: “Chancellor (Joan) Gabel had a really, really great vision in terms of how she wants things structured.”
Washo said the chancellor wanted “really rethink how we’re talking about Pitt externally.”
That involved bringing together philanthropic and alumni engagement, community relations, government relations and the communications team, “just to make sure that we had an outward-facing group that was seeing it from the same (perspective). A lot of other universities are actually now trying the model and we get a lot of calls from universities: How do you do it?”
Event moderator Sam Young or Staff Council asked Washo how Pitt “can continue to improve its reputation compared to peer institutions when reputation and even rankings are so non-scientific and not based on clear metrics?”
“I’m so proud of our communications and marketing,” Washo answered. “I think we have the best team in the country. I really do. It helps when you have great faculty and staff to push stories. They’re aggressive, they’re smart, they deal with integrity and hopefully you’ve been seeing more of an uptick in the earned media and the paid media. But it’s very complicated on the reputation side. The best thing you can do for reputation is make sure we’re doing everything we can to support our faculty and staff so they could do their job. You just have to be dogged on pushing out your message.
“In this environment we’re all challenged. It’s a place I love, it’s a place that gave me a lot, it’s a place (where I) kind of grew up in many respects. I probably won’t be working at another university. I feel like I still have a lot to give back and I’m excited about the next year or two, especially as we gear up for fundraising campaigns. We lay that foundation again for that next group of people to come after us, and we’re all caretakers here.
“Part of the excitement about working in higher ed is that it’s so complex but it gives you a real opportunity to grow and I think that’s why we’re on this earth. Even as we get older we all want to continue to grow.”
Questioned about his work-life balance, Washo said: “I had a boss one time who gave me great advice. ‘Kevin, when your work is done for the day, go home. You’re not going to get any brownie points for being here late. So if you can, work smart, go home, enjoy whatever it is you do.’ I was 26 or 27 at the time. I’d never heard anyone say that before, because you’re trained: I gotta do this, I gotta grind, but there’s a certain point where, if you don’t feel good about yourself mentally or physically, you’re not going to be able to perform to your level of work, and that’s not going to be good for anybody — mostly yourself.
“We’ve tried to create at least a culture on it, and we’re not perfect by any stretch, but we take — I don’t want to say ‘work-life balance because I just don’t like that term — but we take it very seriously. When you’re off, you should be off. If you’re with your kids, you should be with your kids. You want to coach that baseball game, you should coach that baseball game.”
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
Have a story idea or news to share? Share it with the University Times.
Follow the University Times on Facebook.