Image of Tracy Soska
Award: Service and Leadership in Social Work Education Award
Associate Professor & COSA Chair | University of Pittsburgh
The Service and Leadership in Social Work Education Award is presented to Tracy Soska, MSW, LSW. Soska is assistant professor, chair of the Community Organization and Social Administration Program, and director of continuing education at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work. Soska teaches courses in human service management, community organizing, economic/social justice, and social work for civic engagement. He co-directed the university’s Community Outreach Partnership Center 2000–2012, and continues to work on numerous campus initiatives to enhance community engagement, service learning, and student community service.
In 2000 Soska received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Public Service Award and in 2008 the University Senate Service Award. He also maintains faculty affiliations with the University Center for Social and Urban Research and the University Center for International Studies and its Jean Monnet European Union Center of Excellence. He was a founder of the Continuing Education Directors’ Network in schools of social work, which is active at the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Annual Program Meeting, and he has served on the CSWE Commission on Membership and Professional Development and the Council on Conferences and Faculty Development. He also initiated the University–Community Partnerships track at the Annual Program Meeting.
Soska was twice national chair of the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA), in addition to serving as an editor of its Journal of Community Practice, 2007–2017. He serves on ACOSA’s Special Commission to Advance Macro Practice and worked on CSWE’s Specialized Practice Curricular Guide to Macro Practice Social Work. Soska is co-author (with Alice Johnson Butterfield) of University–Community Partnerships: Universities in Civic Engagement (Haworth Press, 2004), a special issue of the Journal of Community Practice titled “Service Learning: Community Engagement and Partnership for Integrating Teaching, Research, and Service” (2010), several iterations of the chapter on housing in the Encyclopedia of Social Work, and many other book chapters and articles. He has presented numerous conference papers on the topics of university–community engagement, community/citizen leadership development, and research/service learning.
Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh faculty in 1993, Soska was a nonprofit executive for more than 15 years. He led organizations addressing neighborhood revitalization and advocacy, workforce development, criminal justice and reentry, and human services collaboration, including 10 years leading coordinated human-service efforts in the Mon and Westinghouse Valleys at the height of Pittsburgh’s industrial collapse.
In 2000 Soska received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Public Service Award and in 2008 the University Senate Service Award. He also maintains faculty affiliations with the University Center for Social and Urban Research and the University Center for International Studies and its Jean Monnet European Union Center of Excellence. He was a founder of the Continuing Education Directors’ Network in schools of social work, which is active at the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Annual Program Meeting, and he has served on the CSWE Commission on Membership and Professional Development and the Council on Conferences and Faculty Development. He also initiated the University–Community Partnerships track at the Annual Program Meeting.
Soska was twice national chair of the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA), in addition to serving as an editor of its Journal of Community Practice, 2007–2017. He serves on ACOSA’s Special Commission to Advance Macro Practice and worked on CSWE’s Specialized Practice Curricular Guide to Macro Practice Social Work. Soska is co-author (with Alice Johnson Butterfield) of University–Community Partnerships: Universities in Civic Engagement (Haworth Press, 2004), a special issue of the Journal of Community Practice titled “Service Learning: Community Engagement and Partnership for Integrating Teaching, Research, and Service” (2010), several iterations of the chapter on housing in the Encyclopedia of Social Work, and many other book chapters and articles. He has presented numerous conference papers on the topics of university–community engagement, community/citizen leadership development, and research/service learning.
Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh faculty in 1993, Soska was a nonprofit executive for more than 15 years. He led organizations addressing neighborhood revitalization and advocacy, workforce development, criminal justice and reentry, and human services collaboration, including 10 years leading coordinated human-service efforts in the Mon and Westinghouse Valleys at the height of Pittsburgh’s industrial collapse.