Key Areas

Mentoring and advising • training and development • student success • student success hub • undergraduate student resources • academic intervention • academic technology • action research

Associate Vice Provost Role

As the inaugural Associate Vice Provost of Student Success and Advising, Dr. Belback leads the University of Pittsburgh’s collaborative vision for holistic advising, mentoring and student success by connecting campus innovators, advisors, faculty, and students. She spearheads the implementation of the Undergraduate Academic Advising Coordination Project, as Pitt moves from a decentralized to a shared advising model to streamline the student experience and boost student success measures for over 21,000 undergraduate students. Through this model, 13 undergraduate college and school directors (and associated academic advising units with over 120 full-time staff) report to Belback, who coordinates shared intervention strategies, expectations, assessment, and goals.

Belback also coordinates student success across Pitt’s regional campuses (Bradford, Johnstown, and Greensburg) through the implementation of the PRSSIM (Pitt Partners for Rural Student Success Impact and Mobility) Project, impacting an additional 4,000 students with initiatives such as advising, mentoring, coaching, tutoring, career exploration, and student success technology.

Through a transformational leadership lens, Belback (a certified LUMA human-centered design practitioner) prioritizes providing the campus community with professional development and training opportunities with the goal of building connection, raising motivation, and driving organizational change. These include strategic leadership retreats, planning sessions, large-scale collaborative forums, and consultations.

Dr. Belback also developed Pitt's first student success framework and leads the central Office of the Provost Student Success Team (a growing portfolio of 17 full-time staff as well as faculty mentors, graduate student assistants, and undergraduate student interns). Aligned with the first pillar of Pitt's strategic Plan for Pitt 2028, the team's work is guided by principles which include a north star vision, defined values, and clear goals focused on cultivating student success. Likewise, through a collective impact approach, Belback leads institutional student success assessment by collaborating with colleges, schools, and campus partners. Utilizing an OKR (objectives and key results) framework, this approach establishes shared goals and leverages common data sets, while still allowing for autonomy within workstreams and units.

Additionally, under Belback’s leadership, the central Office of the Provost Student Success Team is responsible for the following four priority workstreams:  

1. Training and Development: The Student Success Team coordinates internal and external professional development, training opportunities, and resources to highlight the shared model of advising and student success as a national best practice.
2. Advising at Pitt: Through the shared advising model, the Student Success team coordinates systems of academic support for students by collaborating with colleges, schools, and campus partners to discuss best practices, share information, and provide resources to boost student outcomes.
3. Supporting Student Success: The Student Success team coordinates programs to support students.
4. Action Research: In collaboration with the Learning Research and Development Center, the Student Success team leads the implementation of research-informed strategies to drive innovation and boost long-term student academic success across colleges, schools, and campuses.

Professional Biography

April Belback, D.Ed., currently serves as the Associate Vice Provost of Student Success and Advising at the University of Pittsburgh. In this capacity since 2019, she leads the university's collaborative vision for holistic advising, mentoring, and student success. Belback spearheads the implementation of Pitt's Advising Coordination Project, guiding the transition from a decentralized to a shared advising model. This initiative has yielded a 9% increase in overall student satisfaction with advising (80-89%) and institutional high watermarks for first-year retention and six-year graduation rates.

Through national collaborations and a secondary appointment as an associate in Pitt’s Learning Research and Development Center, her research focuses on the impact of shared advising models on student success outcomes. She has authored several publications and has active research grants on the subject.

Dr. Belback has also provided training and consulting to over 25 institutions seeking best practices in change management and organizational redesign. She co-leads the steering committee for the Advising Administration Community of Practice (AACoP) through the Association of Undergraduate Education at Research Universities (UERU) and serves as NACADA's (Global Community for Academic Advising) Chair of the Advising Administrator Community.

A proud first-generation college student herself, Belback has a long history of educating and working with at-promise student populations. Prior to Pitt, she served as the Director of Advising and the Division of Undergraduate Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, Greater Allegheny, where the first-generation and low-income student population is over 50%. Belback also served as the campus Program Director for TRIO Student Support Services. Earlier in her career, Belback’s focus was on rural education, where she taught high school English, was a cooperative lead for pre-service teachers, and a temporary faculty member for secondary education at California University of Pennsylvania.