Mike Giancola is Pitt’s next dean of students

Mike Giancola has been selected as the University of Pittsburgh’s associate vice provost and dean of students, effective Nov. 9.

As dean, Giancola will serve as a visible and engaged advocate for all students on the University’s Pittsburgh campus and will lead the Office of the Dean of Students, including the student culture and community and student engagement teams.

He will also serve on the Student Affairs Strategic Leadership Team and will play a key role in advancing the Division of Student Affairs’ mission and the Plan for Pitt, working closely with colleagues across academic and student affairs to support student success, belonging and development for more than 21,000 undergraduate and nearly 10,000 graduate and professional students. His experience building strong teams, sustaining student-facing programs through periods of change, and forging partnerships across a large, complex institution will serve our community well.

Giancola joins Pitt from North Carolina State University, where he has spent nearly three decades in progressively senior student affairs roles, most recently as assistant vice chancellor and student ombudsperson. He previously served as associate vice provost for student leadership and engagement and as director of the Center for Student Leadership, Ethics and Public Service. He worked and taught at Kent State and Ball State universities before moving to Raleigh, where he also taught undergraduate courses on leadership and social responsibility at NC State.

Throughout his career, Giancola has demonstrated student-centered leadership: He co-founded Feed the Pack, NC State’s campus food pantry, and went on to develop the Pack Essentials initiative and Student Emergency Fund to support students facing food and housing insecurity, helping raise more than $5 million for those efforts. He created NC State’s Alternative Service Break program and, over 25 years, helped build service-learning partnerships in more than a dozen countries focused on areas like housing, health care, water quality and education access. He also brings deep experience in mediation, conflict resolution, crisis response and student conduct, having served as a hearing officer and campus ombudsperson throughout his career. 

Giancola, a Pittsburgh native, holds a Master of Education in Higher Education Administration from Kent State University and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from John Carroll University.

“Returning to the city that raised me to serve as associate vice provost and dean of students is both a deeply personal homecoming and a profound honor. I step into this role with immense gratitude for the Pitt community, ready to listen, learn and lead,” Giancola said in a Sept. 1 announcement. “Everything truly is Possible at Pitt, and I look forward to working alongside the campus community and our partners as we explore those possibilities together. Hail to Pitt!”