Lyke builds relationships between Pitt, community

Invited to serve as the keynote speaker Thursday morning Downtown at the Spirit of St. Anthony Breakfast, Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke mostly wanted to thank the local charity for its work with children who have intellectual disabilities.

But it also was yet another chance “to share a little bit about what’s happening at Pitt and let people know who we are.”

“So it’s not like ‘Oh, the AD,’” Lyke said, with air quotes around her abbreviated title and a deep voice to signal the perception of being an unapproachable university official. “I don’t like that feeling.”

And so there was Lyke, praising a room full of St. Anthony School Program board members, donors and Pitt fans at the Rivers Club, drawing parallels between what inspires them running a faith-based educational foundation and what inspires her running a college athletic department.

As she enters the third month of her second year leading the Panthers, one of her primary goals now that her staff is more established is to build upon what she hopes are strong relationships between Pitt and Pittsburgh.

“In the community, you realize how many — I mean, we have donors in this room, we have people that give to other organizations and are making a real impact,” Lyke said after shaking hands and chatting with the attendees. “If we don’t know these people and understand what they’re doing … “

Lyke said she’s also prioritizing spending more time with “major corporations” and recently sat down with UPMC executive vice president and chief financial officer Robert DeMichiei. She wanted to learn more about the health care giant’s mission, how it intends to help the city and, of course, how it can help Pitt as it plans a human performance and research center as part of its “Victory Heights” complex project.

“I think that we’ve gone and sat down with people that haven’t been sat down with, like for example Mr. Di Michiei and sitting with that whole group at UPMC, understanding the breadth of that organization,” Lyke said. “It was very good because they hadn’t had those kinds of sit-downs, relationships and conversations.”