The first time Dr. Sheila Roth walked into a Carlow classroom, it was as a one-off guest speaker. She wasn’t planning to start a program that would change the University—and the way social work is taught in Pittsburgh—forever. But sometimes the smallest moments lead to the biggest transformations.
That guest lecture turned into a part-time teaching gig. Then a full-time job. Then a mission.
In the thirty years that followed, Roth built Carlow’s undergraduate and graduate social work programs from the ground up—programs known not just for academic rigor, but for their deep human focus. At Carlow, social work was never about memorizing diagnoses or checking boxes. It was about people. About real-world resilience, about showing up. It was about “the heart work.”
“We wanted to create the kind of program that prepares students to walk into crisis, not away from it,” she says. “And to do it with compassion, skill, and confidence.”
Today, Dr. Roth is retired from the classroom, but not from the work. In her private practice, she now counsels first responders—bringing the same empathy to those who are too often overlooked. She’s still teaching, still advocating, still doing the work of mercy.
Because for Sheila Roth, service was never just a lesson plan. It was—and is—a calling.
A Night Shift Conversation That Changed Everything
Before she was a professor, Dr. Roth was a hospital social worker. “I was one of the first emergency room social workers at Mercy back in the mid-80s,” she recalls. “I worked nights and weekends, doing trauma, crisis, ICU, burn unit—you name it.”
One night, during a long shift, she found herself in conversation with the daughter of a patient. This turned out to be Sister Rita Flaherty, chair of Carlow’s psychology department. “We were talking about my PhD program, and she said, ‘Why don’t you come be a guest speaker?’” Roth remembers. “Eventually, she asked if I’d teach the class.”
In 1993, pregnant with her son and finishing her doctorate, Roth accepted a full-time position. “I delivered my son in July,” she says, “and in August I was at Carlow starting the BSW program.”
Programs Built for the Real World
Over the next 30 years, Dr. Roth helped build both the undergraduate and master’s social work programs at Carlow, co-founding the MSW program with her colleague Dr. Marsha Frank. But from the start, her vision for social work education was clear: it had to be real.
“We didn’t just teach theory—we built in skill labs, role-play, and simulations every week,” she says. “Students needed to hit the ground running. They had to know how to talk to people, how to work through a crisis… how to be present, even in moments of trauma.”
That approach earned Carlow students a strong reputation in the field. Dr. Roth describes the Carlow model as grounded in the “person-in-environment” perspective, encouraging students to look beyond surface-level symptoms. “Someone may present with anxiety,” she says, “but what’s really going on? What’s happening at home, at work, in their community?”
Just as importantly, Carlow programs fostered a sense of belonging for students navigating real-life challenges. “We created an atmosphere of comfort,” Roth explains. “Students could say, ‘I’m struggling this week,’ and we would help them find support. That mattered.”
Recognition Well-Deserved: SWAG Award and “The Pitt”
Earlier this year, Dr. Roth received a SWAG Award, which honors social workers making a meaningful difference in the field. “I had never even heard of it,” she laughs. “But when I found out colleagues from past and present had nominated me, I was so touched. I told the organizer—it’s the first time in my life I’ve felt so valued as a social worker.”
Dr. Roth’s reputation as a crisis expert and ER social worker even led to an unexpected Hollywood turn. In 2024, she was contacted by the Norman Lear Center to consult on a new medical drama being filmed in Pittsburgh: HBO’s The Pitt.
“At first, I thought it was spam,” she says, laughing. “But it was real. They wanted someone who had been there, who understood emergency social work.”
She reviewed storylines and advised writers, contributing to the development of complex, human-centered scenarios for the show’s storyline. “I told them, don’t make the social worker frumpy and one-dimensional. We have a broad scope of practice. Show that.” Her husband, an ER physician, later consulted on the show’s final episodes as well.
A Legacy of Compassion
To students considering social work, Dr. Roth is enthusiastic. “You get to wear a hundred hats,” she says. “You can do clinical practice, community work, policy. And if you ever want to reinvent yourself, you can.”
And why Carlow? “Because people will care about you here. You’ll learn how to do the work—and you’ll be supported while you learn it.”
In her post-Carlow chapter, Dr. Roth launched a private practice: Roth Consulting, dedicated to serving first responders and crisis workers. “My heart has always been with first responders,” she says. “That’s who I grew up around—firefighters, medics, police. I’ve always wanted to create a space where they could come talk after a bad call.”
For Dr. Roth, retirement is just another reinvention. But the legacy she built at Carlow lives on in classrooms, agencies, and communities across the region. “I’m very proud to have been a part of it,” she says. “It was always about heart.”