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Kathleen Beaver
Age 35 | Assistant executive director, Animal Friends
Each year,
17,000 animals are euthanized in Pittsburgh. "Our goal here
[at Animal Friends] is to change that," says Kathleen Beaver.
Five years
ago, the Ross Township resident got involved with shelters, first
as a volunteer. Beaver says she felt that strongly about animals
and wanted to change the public's awareness of shelters. She
was hired by Animal Friends as development director in 1997. The
job grew and was split, with Beaver acting as marketing director.
In August this
year, she was promoted to assistant executive director. During her
tenure, adoptions have gone up to about 2,000 a year. Beaver is
hoping to reach 2,400 by the end of this year.
Working from
the supply side, the shelter has also spayed and neutered about
20,000 animals in the last couple of years, says Beaver. "Animal
Friends is growing so much right now," says Beaver. The shelter
has cage space for 156 animals, but usually has around 170 on-site.
Part of that
growth is thanks to Beaver. She initiated the shelter's gala fundraising
event, "Black Tie and Tails" -- something Beaver calls
a "black-tie event with a twist." (Even the pets get dressed
up in their finest duds.) The event, 4 years old this year, has
already raised $160,000 for the shelter. About 225 people came the
first year, and 600 attended last year.
Beaver also
started Animal Friends' annual giving program, which in 2000 raised
$800,000. But even outside her work at Animal Friends, Beaver is
dedicated to raising awareness and participation in the stray-animal
population in the region, and working toward a dream of Pittsburgh's
becoming a no-kill city (a feat that only San Francisco has accomplished)
by 2005.
Animal Friends
is leading the charge, says Beaver. "We have a lot of work
to do, but we're making progress. It's taking responsibility for
part of the problem. It shows the compassion of our community as
a whole."
At home, Beaver
has her own menagerie -- husband Kent, daughter Delaney and son
Kiernan -- as well as a German shepherd, Boz, and two cats, Beckley
and Suzannah.
"I thrive
on chaos in my life," laughs Beaver. "It's a fine balance."
Animal
Friends.
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33
George Starz
Age
37 | Owner, Starz Interior Restoration
George Starz
lives in the home that was his grandfather's. He's been lovingly
restoring the old Friendship home for years, learning new skills
every day to apply to other homes, churches and structures around
Pittsburgh that are his clients.
"I started
this restoration business by fixing some of the woodwork in my parents'
home, then some neighbors'. My dad said he'd indulge me for a year
until I would have to get a Ôreal' job like him in banking."
Fifteen years
and lots of dust later, he's the man of choice for local preservationists.
Most of his clients want to restore their painted-over wood to its
original state or to retain the woodwork and stained glass in their
homes.
Still, he says
about one project a year is "me coming in to save a weekend
project gone wrong." Starz, who likes to think of himself as
a modern-day craftsman, can be seen restoring historic structures
throughout the region: a church in Shadyside, a home in Ben Avon.
His work is
slow and meticulous and, unlike most people his age, he has absolutely
no reliance upon e-mail. "I don't even own a computer,"
he admits.
"Time
means the opposite for me than others. My business is really low-tech.
It's never how fast. It's how many days to remove and put back the
wood."
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Ray Obenza
Age 38 | Engineer and member of the senior tech staff,
Software Engineering Institute, CMU; founder of GLENDA
Ray Obenza
never thought of himself as a community service-oriented person.
But after moving to Pittsburgh in 1990, he says he discovered its
personal and community benefits.
Still, "I
was nervous about being a gay Pittsburgher. I wondered if one way
to make gays and non-gays comfortable with each other might be through
volunteerism."
In December
1993, he helped organize 30 people to present the idea of a service
organization for gay men and lesbians that would strive to break
down negative stereotypes. That night, 25 people signed up.
He then approached
Pittsburgh Cares, which connects potential volunteers with local
groups. The new Gay and Lesbian Neighborhood Development Association
(GLENDA) completed its first effort, with the Global Links Project,
in February 1994. The organization has since completed dozens of
projects, from helping out at the Pittsburgh Komen Race for the
Cure to serving at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
"We look
for projects where we partner with others in order to promote diversity,"
the Wilkins Township resident explains.
Obenza ensures
that volunteers wear identifying buttons while at work in order
to open up a dialogue. "At one of our projects," he recalls,
"this guy says, 'Oh hi, Glenda, it was nice of you to wear
a nametag.' When
Ann, the volunteer, explained the button, the man opened up a whole
conversation about his struggle with his son."
Now incorporated
and partially supported by the Three Rivers Community Fund, among
others, GLENDA keeps 400-500 volunteers, both straight and gay,
active.
"When
people congregate, they have a chance to recognize each other as
people, not stereotypes. It's been very positive."
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34
Dan
Cohen
Age 37 | CEO, Personity
What do you
call a former punk-rock drummer riding a razor scooter to a multimillion-dollar
business meeting?
Answer: Dan
Cohen.
In 1987 after
the Shadyside resident (no relation to Pittsburgh City Council member)
was recruited out of his junior year at CMU to run the Andrew Systems
(CMU's network) computer implementation, not only were there no
razor scooters, but there were no such things as venture capitalists
handing out money to local dot-coms.
Between working
out of his dorm, then mortgaging his first house for funding, and
today, Cohen has played a key role in the development of critical
technology.
His current
company, Personity, a wireless- communications firm, received a
multimillion investment in September from Chicago-area-based Motorola
Co. Cohen marvels at the pre-tech landscape, when banks mostly thought
he was nuts. He and his friends pooled their money.
"I had
about $2,000 in a savings account to help us get us started,"
he recalls. But those who did invest made a wise choice. When Cohen
left his first company, Strategy One (later USConnect), he and his
management team negotiated a multimillion-dollar international alliance
with IBM.
Cohen actively
and aggressively recruits young talent from all over the country,
bragging about the region's nightlife and bike trails. As he rides
that scooter to meetings, he talks about "more growth and economic
development over the last few years than anywhere."
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32
Donna Nedelk Boyer Age 38 | Founder, Young Women's
Leadership Training Program; manager of technical training, Columbia
Gas
Donna Nedelk
Boyer won the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Award last year
for her work on a major Columbia Gas project that involved seven
unions and a massive management team. Serious
stuff, she says, directly influencing her hours of volunteering,
overseeing the Young Women's Leadership Training Program.
"My experience
in labor management and economic development is directly applicable
to teaching leadership skills to girls," the Peters Township
resident says. Nedelk Boyer founded the group in 1996 with the support
of the American Association of University Women.
She says being
able to communicate effectively is key to working through problems,
which many girls don't inherently know how to do.
"There's
a need in the world for women leaders. I believe in women helping
women," she says. "We select one high school sophomore
from each of the 14 Washington County high schools, out of a pool
of nominees submitted by their guidance counselors," she explains.
"The process is competitive, and once they are accepted into
the program, they work together as a team."
The year-long
program involves education, hands-on experiences and mentoring.
Past projects have included an outreach program to connect students
to area senior citizens and the literacy program "Reach Out
and Read."
Nedelk Boyer
says that if someone just pays attention to these girls, they will
excel.
"Exposing
them to politics, government, the corporate sector, showing them
what is out there for them is a joy. When I'm with these girls,
I know the world will be all right."
Email
Young Women's Leadership Training Program.
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35
Jerry DeRosa
Age 38 | Assistant vice president of the environmental
services department, PNC Financial Services Group
Growing up
in a New Castle farming community, Jerry DeRosa remembers, he told
his parents that he wanted to be a biologist or Secretary of the
Interior.
"I just
knew that I wanted to go into the environmental field. I read a
book, "Lost Wild America," and I never forgot it, because
it talked about all the species in America that became extinct due
to abuse and poor planning."
After college,
he moved away to Rochester, N.Y., for nine years to work. "There
were a lot of former Pittsburghers in the office, and the joke was,
ÔYou'll go back. They always do.'"
When he did
return to be with family in 1998, the then-environmental consultant
for PNC was thrilled to see how much had changed, "particularly
these brownfields that are being developed."
He's active
in the Green Building Alliance, and the River Life Task Force, and
serves on the boards of the Allegheny Land Trust and of the Three
Rivers chapter of the Academy of Certified Hazardous Materials Management.
But making
brownfields viable again and using our rivers are the keys to making
Pittsburgh a better place to live, says the Squirrel Hill resident.
"I've had the opportunity to be involved with the development
of the PNC at First Side Center," he says.
"It's
now the largest environmentally certified building in America as
certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. That building is a
shining example of an old brown site [a former railroad yard] being
transformed into a major corporate place with tons of jobs -- in
all aspects, we made that a big positive."
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