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Anthony Detre
Age 36 | Vice president of business development,
UPMC Health System
It's easy for Anthony Detre to promote all the good things happening
in Pittsburgh. He should know. Detre led the development of UPMC's
oncology network, including 10 regional cancer centers with an estimated
cost of $75 million. He was also responsible for the planning and
development of the $30 million UPMC Sports Performance Complex on
the South Side, and is president and CEO of Chromodynamics, a biomedical
start-up company developed by Carnegie Mellon University physicians
who combine microscopy and endoscopy to mark metabolic activity
and fight cancer.
Ironically,
Detre's career aspirations were to avoid working in health care.
"Everyone in my family is a physician. I decided that they
worked too hard, so I went into real estate and business development,"
says the Point Breeze resident. But the first property he brokered
was an office building of Allegheny General Hospital.
"At the
time I joined UPMC, we were trying to design ourselves as a regional
center. My mom and dad (Thomas Detre, former senior vice chancellor
for health sciences) worked at Pitt, so I knew the quality of care
and service that we had to offer." Pittsburgh is home to some
of the most extraordinary biotechnology talent in the world, he
says. "These people's ideas will build the base for Pittsburgh's
future. While e-commerce has been rationalized, biotech is significant
and is the future."
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4
Adrienne Wehr
Age 39 | Filmmaker and performing artist
Adrienne Wehr
wears many hats: filmmaker, model, artist, actress and educator.
And they all fit.
After graduating
from Denison University, Wehr first worked as an educator at the
American School in Switzerland. Upon returning to Pittsburgh, the
Green Tree native worked at the Carnegie Museum of Art as a multidisciplinary
arts educator in the Children's Studio. She has worked at Gateway
Studios (from graphic design to writing to production management),
ad agency HBM/Creamer Inc., Arts in the Parks and Family Communications
(as an associate producer for "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood").
Just to make
sure that she was really busy, Wehr acted with the region's many
theater companies, from the City Theatre to Attack Theatre to the
Unseam'd Shakespeare Co. and national film productions, such as
"Inspector Gadget" and "Dogma," and worked as
a model, voice-over artist and illustrator.
"It's
a roller coaster of a life," says Wehr.
Her multidisciplinary
history has led her to her new career, independent filmmaker. Writer/director
Melissa Martin and Wehr combined forces to film their first feature,
"The Bread, My Sweet," in June 2000. Starring Scott Baio,
filmed in the Strip District and completely staffed with Pittsburgh
filmworkers, the film has already been named best dramatic feature
at the Santa Monica International Film Festival and best of show
at Worldfest-Houston.
"If all
goes as planned, it ["The Bread, My Sweet"] will put Pittsburgh
on the map," says Wehr.
Wehr has also
been cited as best supporting actress in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's
"Best Of" listings and has been honored as an emerging
artist nominee for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Creative Achievement
Awards. She's now working on another project with Baio and his brother
Steve, as well as on the film version of Martin's play, "The
Shriveled Arm of Uma Kimball."
And then there's
the food show she hopes to sell to the Food Network and continued
work on film shorts. Somehow, she even managed to find time to get
married to her husband, Robert Bupp.
"I love
this free-lance kind of life," says Wehr. "I'm open for
whatever comes my way."
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8
Ken Segel
Age 35 | Director, Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare
Initiative
When
Pittsburgh needs to address critical human issues in health-care
delivery, Ken Segel is the one to call.
After
a career in national politics, the Peabody High School and Harvard
graduate returned from Washington, D.C., to become one of the youngest
program officers of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. Since June
1999, he has directed the Foundation's Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare
Initiative, a collaborative to create the world benchmark for health-care
outcomes in the Pittsburgh area.
"Health-care
industry and community leaders realized that we didn't have a community
plan for our largest industry -- health care," says the Shadyside
resident. "It's really an anchor for our quality of life. Were
we going to leave ourselves to fate for an approach to how to solve
it?"
Segel's
leadership of this $3 million collaboration involves 36 hospitals,
four insurers and 40 purchasing organizations. U.S. News & World
Report in a story last year recognized the Initiative as a promising
model for health systems change.
Segel,
who recently completed his M.B.A. at the Katz Graduate School of
Business, University of Pittsburgh, embraces the chance to lead
the effort. "It gives me a chance to work very close to the
ground and be personally connected."
It's
possible to do big things here, he says. "When I left Pittsburgh
for college, I thought I would go off to more exciting and dynamic
experiences. I have traveled all over the world, but to have the
chance to work in a community and be so closely connected is unique
and satisfying."
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Marc Daffner
Age 33 | Owner/managing partner, Daffner & Associates
Marc Daffner
says he learned more in his six months of campaigning for one of
two vacancies on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas in the
2001 primary than he ever learned at the University of Pittsburgh
Law School. He attributes his loss, in large part, to his age.
"In politics,
citizens expect chronologically older people to have more experience,"
says the Shadyside resident. "In reality, I had spent more
time in court and tried more cases than all of my opponents combined."
Daffner says
seeing the inside track of local politics was an eye-opener that
strengthened his desire to change the system, especially the old-boy
network keeping young people from getting involved in politics.
"Underdevelopment
of young people is a primary challenge in this region. As long as
we don't cultivate young leaders, the old boys will remain in charge.
That isn't change and that isn't good."
The criminal-defense
attorney dedicates much of his time to pro bono services. "Unfortunately
there are so many repeat offenders. People come into our offices
who are really getting the shaft, and I just have to serve them."
Daffner raises
a few eyebrows with his payment plans or flat-out pro bono caseload.
"I want to inspire other young people to get involved. As to
my political career, I just want other young professionals to speak
up."
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Kerry Spindler
Age 30 | Associate program officer, Heinz Endowments
After Kerry
Spindler finished her master's degree in arts management at the
H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie
Mellon University, she didn't follow the streams of grads who headed
for New York.
"I decided
to stay in Pittsburgh after graduation specifically because of the
arts here," says the Arlington resident. She says she wanted
the opportunity that comes from the region's manageable size and
its wealth of community support for the arts.
"It's
the kind of city where you feel that you can make a difference without
getting swallowed up," she explains. Once Spindler decided
that she was in a place where she could make a difference, she had
to find a job that blended her passion for art and the administrative
side of integrating arts into the community: "How would I match
my arts interest and economics undergrad?"
They came together
when she was appointed one of the youngest program officers at the
$1.5 billion Heinz Endowments, where she focuses on bringing arts
into communities and places that may not already have strong arts
programs.
She is most
proud of coordinating the relationship between the City of Pittsburgh,
Allegheny County and Youth Artworks, a joint program between Friendship,
the Hill District and downtown Pittsburgh, and the foundations that
provide opportunities for kids to be trained and hired to work for
professional artists. She has also volunteered for Ground Zero,
bringing art to vacant spaces. "Expanding the art audience
is key."
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7
Michael Chaido
Age 27 | Assistant vice president/market manager,
Washington Federal Savings Bank
"I love
where I am," says Michael Chaido.
That's the
Washington Federal Savings Bank, where the Peters Township resident
is the youngest person in the 101-year history of the bank to serve
as assistant vice president. And he did it by moving quickly through
the organization since joining it after graduating from St. Vincent
College in 1996.
"They
didn't know where to stick me [at first]," says Chaido. He
started in the branch system and moved to commercial lending as
the only analyst in the division. From there, he moved back into
the branch system as a branch manager. Last October, he moved into
his current position, managing the bank's two branches in Peters
Township (the bank has a total of nine branches) as well as the
bank's business-development efforts in the South Hills area.
"I love
where I work," says Chaido. But don't think that his life revolves
around dollar signs. He laughs that his job at the bank is only
"part-time."
Any "free"
time the Canton, Ohio, native has is spent in Washington County
community development. Chaido is chairman of Community Action Southwest's
Head Start Policy Council and also serves on the $6 million organization's
strategic-planning committee.He
was influential in the opening of a new educational day-care center
in Charleroi, which continues to be a model for Head Start nationwide.
Chaido also
works extensively with the United Way of Washington County, especially
on its fund-distribution committee, as well as the Caring Tree and
Day of Caring programs. And he's in the McMurray Rotary Club, American
Cancer Society's Relay for Life committee and American Heart Association's
American Heart Walk recruitment committee.
"I think
I'm doing what everyone should be doing," says Chaido. "I
have a great life."
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3
Jeff Kotula
Age 28 | Director of economic development, Washington
County
Jeff Kotula
means business for Washington County. The West Pike Run Township
resident, as director of county economic development, is the lead
economic-development official through a public/private partnership
comprising the Washington County Commissioners, Washington County
Chamber of Commerce and Washington Industrial Development Corp.
In the nearly
three years he has led the "one-stop shop" for economic
development, Kotula is credited with attracting about $32 million
in public/private investment to the county, creating or retaining
1,700 manufacturing/ high-technology jobs.
He was instrumental
in attracting Netherlands-based Apex Europe to the county, as well
as assisting in the development of the county's newest high-technology
start-up, Pennatronics. He also stays busy as the executive director
of the 750-member Washington County Chamber of Commerce and executive
director of the Washington Industrial Development Corp.
"My job
is to create new wealth for the county," says Kotula. "We're
doing very well."
Outside of
that, Kotula has also served on the boards of the United Way of
Washington County, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Area Labor/Management
Committee, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Community Development Corp.
and the Middle Monongahela Industrial Development Association. Oh,
and he's also chairman of the Community College of Allegheny County's
Economic Development Committee for Washington County.
Despite often
not having enough time to indulge his passion for golf, Kotula says
he's happy with where he is. "It's nice driving by a building
and knowing you had a small part of putting it up."
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6
Andy Fraley
Age 37 | Co-founder and president, CoManage Corp.
For a brief
time, Andy Fraley figured he'd be a professional tennis player.
After he discovered computers, he never looked back.
"Back
in the '70s, you couldn't even save information," he recalls.
"You turned off the power, and it was gone." But he saw
the possibilities and got hooked, writing computer games with his
brother and "selling them for five bucks a pop" to corporations.
By high school, he was competing in local and national computer
fairs.
After growing
up in Reading, eastern Pennsylvania, the Franklin Park resident
never figured he'd move here. Then, while attending a trade show
in Sacramento when he worked for Hewlett-Packard, he bumped into
someone from Fore Systems, at a time when the term "ATM"
meant only a bank automated teller (Fore's asynchronous transfer
mode makes Internet connections faster and more efficient). He realized
an incredible opportunity lay before him to capture the new technology,
and then moved here in the winter of 1993, the coldest winter on
record.
"Even
with all the snow, we fell in love with it right away," he
recalls. "I remember being in Giant Eagle and this customer
was walking out and said Ô"Hi -- how are you?' I was shocked."
After a successful
stint at Fore as senior director, he founded CoManage Corp., which
builds software to power telecommunications systems, and is often
noted as one of the strongest companies in the tech boom.
"We built
the company from the beginning focused on building a real business
with a viable business plan. This is one of the things that separates
us from the dot.com crowd."
Things continue
to look up, so he spreads the word about Pittsburgh. "I actively
recruit people from other places, since the quality of life here
just can't be beat."
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Erin Fleming
Age 34 | Education director, Prime Stage
(not pictured)
Erin Fleming's
energy is palpable when she talks about theater. And Mister Rogers.
And kids.
"Part
of why I love working with children is that you put a chair on the
floor and tell the kids it's a horse -- it's a horse. Talk about
avant-garde theater -- kids are it."
Fleming, also
an actress, director and playwright at Prime Stage, has introduced
live theater to more than 6,000 young people and teachers in the
region.
"It is
the best thing in the world to give a kid a chance to be involved
in theater, because you are giving her a chance to tell her own
story."
Fleming started
working in the Point Breeze family-oriented theater three years
ago. She may not have ended up in theater except for some advice
from her mother, who steered her away from a major in psychology
by saying, "You've always admired Mister Rogers -- go into
children's TV."
Years later,
Fleming met him in an elevator at the City Theater and ranks the
fact that she made him laugh as one of her top-10 life highlights.
Fleming grew
up in Dormont, attended Duquesne University and now lives next door
to her childhood home. She says she won't leave.
"The point
is: Who are you going to be in the community? We were once described
as ÔHell with the lid off.' "Thank God the lid is off. It's
been blasted off by creative explosions, big and small. Pittsburgh
is a celebration of serendipity -- you're walking along the Mexican
War Streets and you bump into the Mattress Factory. Where else does
that happen?"
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