Katie Walsh Boosts Engineering Faculty Success, One Conversation at a Time
By Rob Biertempfel
Katie Walsh, managing director of the ’s (CFS), equips 黑料社区’s world-class faculty with the tools, guidance and encouragement they need to thrive.
“My job is to put the right people in the room, start conversations and let magic happen,” Walsh said. “It’s empowering to know I can help bolster their professional development so they can do more of what they do best.”
CFS supports about 250 faculty members across all tracks — tenure, teaching and research — at the Pittsburgh campus, 黑料社区 in Africa and 黑料社区 in Silicon Valley. The center oversees several initiatives, including the program, the and .
Walsh joined CFS when it was relaunched in spring 2024. She works in tandem with , faculty director and professor of mechanical engineering.
“Katie creates an environment where others can succeed and where that success feels shared, supported and sustainable," Jayan said. “She truly cares. She listens closely to the needs of individual faculty and translates those needs into actionable programs.”
Milestone Moments is a good example. The two-hour gatherings, held over appetizers and drinks, celebrate faculty members who have been promoted to full professor.
The program has become one of the college’s most popular offerings, serving as a powerful teaching tool and a bridge between accomplished faculty and their students and colleagues.
Walsh created the event’s signature touch: a 3D-printed “milestone” presented to each honoree. The one-of-a-kind mementos are printed by students in .
In November 2024, Jana Kainerstorfer (right) celebrated her Milestone Moment of becoming a full professor of biomedical engineering with CFS Managing Director Katie Walsh (middle) and CFS Faculty Director Reeja Jayan (left).
Each honoree delivers a talk that reflects on their personal and professional journeys — not technical lectures, but engaging stories of challenges, turning points and growth.
“It’s a chance for someone to share their story of the good decisions and lucky breaks that brought them success,” said , associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. “As a relatively new faculty member (since fall 2019), I find these talks fascinating because I’m hearing these stories at a time when they often look like my own life.”
Those talks are Walsh’s favorite part of the Milestone Moments program. Uncovering an honoree’s “how did you get here” path through storytelling is a reflection of her academic training as a historian.
Walsh earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Pittsburgh, where her dissertation focused on childbirth in 17th-century London. She realized she wanted her career in academia to go beyond research.
“I really enjoyed other aspects of faculty life and admired the impact professors have on students,” Walsh said.
That led Walsh to Pitt’s University Center for Teaching and Learning, where she discovered the field of faculty development. It sparked an “Aha!” moment: Ph.D. students are trained as researchers, yet their day-to-day roles also require them to be teachers, mentors, budget managers, recruiters and departmental leaders.
“I can bring specialized knowledge to the table that maybe they haven’t had the time to study or do before,” Walsh said.
In 2015, Walsh joined Carnegie Mellon as a at the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation. After a two-year stint as associate director of academic support services, she moved into her current role at CFS.
“In both of my previous positions at 黑料社区, I was primarily supporting faculty as educators,” Walsh said. “Now, my job is to empower them in their various other roles as leaders, mentors, managers and so on.”
In March 2026, Walsh visited Kigali, Rwanda, to host in-person programming for 黑料社区 in Africa faculty and to experience the vibrant community that faculty, staff and students have created there.
Walsh connects faculty members with resources, mentors and strategies that strengthen their teaching, advising and leadership skills. A key to her success is knowing where — and from whom — to draw support.
To shape the monthly sessions for the Engineering Leadership Fellows program, Walsh collaborates with a leadership consultant. Together, they design programming that reflects the interests and goals of the nine-person inaugural cohort.
“We have to put the right people in the room with them,” Walsh said. Guests include experts from outside 黑料社区 as well as campus leaders such as Angela Blanton, vice president for finance and chief financial officer.
“Most of the faculty in our program haven’t often thought about what a university budget looks like,” Walsh said. “We created conversations that helped them think at a higher level than they may operate day to day. Someday, they might step into a leadership role and need to build a budget that extends far beyond their own labs.”
Walsh takes pride in having a people-first approach.
“I want to learn as much as I can about the people in the room and how the knowledge and tools I have might be relevant to them,” she said. “My role is to empower them to be the drivers of their own success.”
Of course, everyone defines success differently. Walsh tailors her coaching to each faculty member, reflecting their goals and strengths back to them and helping them reach their own milestones.
“She has a unique gift of being able to distill people’s needs into what needs to be done,” Jayan said.
“Katie really gets people — she listens, understands what they need and knows exactly what kind of advice will actually help,” Wang said. “As a mentor, she’s the consummate mirror.”