On January 14, 2026, the Safar Center held a celebration to honor Linda Ryan, for her over 38 years of service to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and over 30 years of service as grants administrator to the Safar Center. Linda (see photo) began here at Pitt in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine (CCM) in 1987 when the combined Department was an independent Foundation before UPMC. She then served as the grants specialist for the Anesthesiology and CCM Core Lab. In 1994 when Dr. Kochanek was named director of the Safar Center, Linda joined our staff as the Grants and Contracts specialist, a position that she has held continuously since then and never looked back. Linda has helped countless faculty and trainees over the 38+ years and has also been instrumental to guiding and developing many staff members. She has been primarily responsible for the administration of hundreds of funded grants at the Safar Center. Congratulations to Linda from the entire Safar Center family for a spectacular career.
Safar Center current and former administrative staff members including (along front, from left to right, Marci Provins, Fran Mistrick, and Linda Ryan, and in the background, Dr. Patrick Kochanek) at Linda Ryan’s retirement celebration.