These Pitt students took to the world stage to share a database project designed to combat systemic racism

Databases can be overwhelming, inaccessible and challenging to maintain in the ever-evolving world of information technology. Eight students in the David C. Frederick Honors College’s Social Change Martinson Applied Project (MAP) are creating one that feels entirely different.

Meghana Dodda, Gabriella Garvin and Garrett Whitney are among the students developing the Racial Equity Resource Database (R.E.A.D.) through the MAP, funded by renowned philanthropist John Martinson, whose gift also funds study abroad and internships for honors students. The students presented the user-friendly global database, which is accessible via website and mobile app, in Geneva, Switzerland, during the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on People of African Descent in April.

Modeled after the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, the interactive mapping tool is designed to combat systemic racism. Set to launch in the fall, it will house information about organizations committed to supporting historically marginalized communities.

“Issues of racial equity can be quantified, qualified and understood,” said Whitney, a junior double majoring in economics and politics and philosophy. “Achieving solutions-driven results was a driving element in what we sought to gather regarding resources and is something we discussed in Switzerland.”

The student creators envision universities, politicians and citizens using the platform as a practical tool to help inform their research, curriculum, policies and community engagement initiatives. Eventually, they want to see it grow into a premier navigational system, facilitating a vibrant and strategic exchange of information, opportunities and best practices.

The team consisted of undergraduates Dodda, Garvin, Whitney, Cole Belling, Kamila Dominquez, Ryan Shindler and Alexia Wagurak, graduate student Tofunmi Okunbor, student advisor Mary Angbanzan and staff administrator Candace Sinclair. They hope the platform will assist with coordinating, planning and promoting racial equity resources among the Pitt community and potentially establish an institutional baseline for what outward-facing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility efforts can look like across the University.

“We wanted an engaging platform that not only highlights the problems of systemic racism but cultivates solutions,” said Garvin, a senior double majoring in philosophy and economics with minors in French and law, criminal justice and society.

Over the last year, the students gathered data on 300 local organizations enhancing social equity for back-end development for the project, a Social Change Research Hub collaboration. You can still use the Qualtrics form to submit a resource.

“Now that that is done, we’re hoping to finish out the front-end and make it presentable, ensuring this database is accessible to professors, students and the general public,” said Dodda, a senior neuroscience and English literature double major. “We’re focusing on human-centered design.”

[Read more: The Frederick Honors College co-hosted a side event during last year’s U.N. forum.]

Each student said this project is among the most impactful of their academic careers and aligns with the quality of work in the Frederick Honors College and across Pitt generally.

“There’s a lot of great academic research that goes on here, and that’s very important,” said Whitney. “But the Frederick Honors College has become such an engine for social change that’s moving society, Pittsburgh and the human race forward.”

A local launch with global possibilities

Given Pittsburgh’s status as one of the least livable and inequitable U.S. cities for Black people (despite its 2024 U.S. News and World Report ranking as a most livable location), the group said it was ideal to launch such a dynamic platform that encourages collaboration between researchers and organizations.

“There are many pressing needs within existing University and community frameworks that need to be explored more,” said Garvin, adding that other cities around the world face the same racially related issues plaguing Pittsburgh, such as unemployment, high fetal death rates and poverty.

[The students also presented at a Justice and Equity Honors Network gathering.]

R.E.A.D. advisors Ron Idoko, a research assistant professor and director of the Office of Social Innovation in the Frederick Honors College, and Gabby Yearwood, an anthropology professor and managing faculty director for Pitt Law’s Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice, collaborated with FHC leadership to secure funding for the students to travel to and present in Geneva. The funding was provided through the Frederick Fund, an endowed fund established by David C. Frederick. They then connected them with U.N. Delegate and Howard University Law Professor Justin Hansford to initiate the process.

“Our goal was to make students enacting positive change more practical,” said Idoko, whose Racial Equity Consciousness Institute’s framework directly influenced R.E.A.D. “Our students leveraged the Social Change Research Hub to not only create the database but to say to other students, ‘this is something you can do yourself.’”

The group even created a manuscript that offers actionable steps to creating meaningful data for specific needs and communities, making their process easy for others to replicate.

As participants of the U.N.’s Forum Youth Group, the students conversed with world leaders about their tool’s potential collaborative uses, like connecting researchers studying the same topic in different countries.

There was immediate interest. Already, there are discussions about establishing the database across 40 U.S. cities and leveraging it to create a record of stolen African artifacts.

Understanding the global possibilities, the team is also considering translating the database to ensure ideas are shared without language barriers since the mission is to build community on campus and globally.

“This can be straightforward and doesn’t have to be so difficult,” said Idoko. “This is scalable because we’ve given folks a road map as to how they make this happen.”

Photography by Aimee Obidzinski and provided