|
36
Linda Babcock
Age
40
| James Mellon Walton Professor
of Economics at Carnegie Mellon University
Linda
Babcock seems like a contradiction. She's a former ballet dancer
(whose career was sidelined at age 19 by injury) who went on to
become a professor of economics, focusing on the interface between
economics and psychology. The California native has brought these
disparate fields together in her work with about 20 professional
ballet companies, including the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre as well
as national companies like American Ballet Theatre, the Joffrey
Ballet and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Her focus on behavioral
economics (she is the first and only woman named to the Russell
Sage Foundation's Behavioral Economics Roundtable) has led her to
specialization in negotiations. She advises the ballet companies'
management on how to think more cooperatively in their negotiations
with their unionsÑdancers, musicians and stagehands. "I understand
the psyche of dancers," says Babcock. "They [the ballet companies]
claim I have been successful." Besides her work with ballet companies,
Babcock has helped the City of Pittsburgh in its negotiations with
police and fire unions, helping the city present its cases in arbitration.
In May this year, Babcock finished as acting dean of CMU's H. John
Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management. "It was challenging,"
laughs Babcock of her time in administration. During her time as
dean, Babcock was instrumental in the founding of the Institute
for the Study of Information Technology (InSITeS) at CMU, as well
as in the hiring of its new director, Peter Shane. InSITeS' mission
is to measure information technology's impact on society and democratic
participation, focusing on a range of issues from privacy and confidentiality
to e-commerce, from health care to e-government. This school year,
Babcock is on a mini-sabbatical, teaching only one course during
the spring semester. She is working on a new book, Women Don't Ask:
Negotiation and the Gender Divide (Princeton University Press),
which focuses on women and negotiations in everyday life.
TOP
39
Dr. William Curtis
Age 34 | Pastor, Mount Ararat Baptist Church
Sounding more
like a corporate executive than a religious leader, Dr. William
Curtis says, "We get bored when we act too traditionally --
I do ministry by thinking out of the box."
Recruited from
York in eastern Pennsylvania five years ago, the young pastor of
Mount Ararat Baptist Church in East Liberty guides a diverse congregation
of 4,500 people. He says he attempts to address his congregation's
"holistic growth" by making the church a centerpiece of
community life, focusing on the mind, body and spirit.
He also works
with the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh. "I think
partnership with the City of Pittsburgh is key," says the Penn
Hills resident. "We [Mount Ararat Baptist and the URA] formed
the Community Development Corp., which supports shop creation and
home ownership."
Curtis has
overseen the purchase, rehabilitation and sale of commercial redevelopment
in East Liberty and surrounding communities, including the Paul
Street Development across from the church.
He also implemented
Community Tithing Program, where 10 percent of all money collected
by his church each year goes back into the community in the form
of grants from $5 to $10,000.
"When
others succeed and grow, we succeed and grow together as a community,"
he says. "The key for me, when it comes to ministry, is to
make sure that as a spiritual leader I am always growing."
TOP
|
37
Jon Rosenson
Age 25 | Director of strategic initiatives, Stargate Industries
You never know
who you'll meet online. Entrepreneur Jon Rosenson was an Internet
virgin his freshman year at Pitt when he met his future partners,
the Ruscitto brothers (Mark and Mike), his first time hanging out
in the Rusted Root e-mail list.
He bought a
book on how to create a website so that he and his new friends,
who were far more computer-savvy than he, could create and upload
a website for the band.
Within three
days, Stargate Industries was born in the Ruscittos' Peters Township
house. "Since I didn't have a car, one of them had to drive
into Oakland each morning, get me and drive me back home every night,"
Rosenson recalls.
Today, Stargate
is still a private company and employs nearly 330, providing nationwide
Internet access to 90,000 customers, both large businesses and individuals.
The Shaler
Township resident says Stargate is here to stay. "We're signing
a lot of larger partnerships these days that are ensuring our longevity."
Rosenson credits
slow growth for the success of the Strip-based company, which also
has offices in Erie, Hagerstown, Md., and Beckley, W.Va. "What
we've done is smart growth, a lot of which has been through acquisition
of companies that were duplicating our services."
Rosenson, who
focuses on continuing to lead more expansion, has returned to Pitt
to finish his degree. "I look at everything with two perspectives,"
he says. "A lot of students don't have any connection to the
business world. I want to get other students connected to the business
community to show them what's out there."
TOP
40
Michelle Pagano
Age 35 | Director of community relations, WQED Pittsburgh
Some community
activists choose one cause. Michelle Pagano's list runs from affordable
housing to AIDS awareness.
She didn't
intend to be a "do-gooder," she says. "I always knew,
though, to quote [actor] John Cusack, that I didn't want to make
anything, process anything, or sell anything processed or made."
After a brief
stint as a high school guidance counselor, Pagano needed a change
and moved here from Boca Raton, Fla., in the mid-1990s for graduate
school.
A chance landing
of a key position at the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force (PATF) in 1995
showed her that her efforts could have a direct impact on people:
"It became immediately clear that people's very quality of
life would suffer if I didn't do my job well."
She has since
worked on three of the top-grossing fundraisers in Pittsburgh, graduated
from the Leadership Development Initiative, been appointed by Jim
Roddey to serve a five-year term on the Allegheny Housing Authority
board of directors, organized a life-skills program for the recently
arrived "lost boys" of Sudan (orphaned by the decades-long
civil war there), founded a women's investment club and raised nearly
$5 million for area organizations.
Professionally,
she just last month assumed responsibility for broad community support
as the director of community relations for WQED Pittsburgh.
She says that
while her community work may appear disparate, it's based on a simple
premise: "I pick organizations that have a direct impact on
the people of this region. I think it's important to get involved,
and Pittsburgh makes it easy for every man to have access to being
heard."
TOP
|
38
Warner Macklin
Age 25 | Founder and president, The Macklin Group
Warner Macklin
has embraced the study of law and politics since growing up in the
Hill District as one of the region's first African-American Eagle
Scouts.
Serving nearly
a year as community liaison for the Citizens Police Review Board,
he left to be one of the youngest Pennsylvania delegates at the
2000 Democratic National Convention.
Since then,
he helped to form the Onyx Alliance, a volunteer organization that
recruits, attracts and retains young African-Americans to the region.
But Macklin still gets frustrated at the lack of diversity in Pittsburgh's
professional community.
"It's
one thing to say we need more diversity, but you need to actively
make it happen."
This year,
he formed The Macklin Group, a strategic political-consulting firm.
So far, the company has helped Brenda Frazier become the first African-American
woman on the Allegheny County Council (representing District 13),
and he's been named Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Valerie MacDonald's
campaign manager.
He now attends
Duquesne Law School at night and cites Allegheny County Court of
Common Pleas Judge Livingstone M. Johnson as a key mentor.
"I've
met a lot of legal icons from the African-American legal community,
and I want to help push forward what they started," Macklin
says. Focusing on city neighborhoods is the key to improving the
quality of life for minorities and for the entire region.
"Pittsburgh
is the head and the suburbs are the legs," he says. "You
can't wiggle your toes without the head."
END
|
