Sometimes taking stock of what happened in the past informs and enlivens future possibilities. That's just what Leadership Pittsburgh Inc. had in mind when it invited five local civic leaders, including JHF President and CEO Karen Wolk Feinstein, PhD, to participate in "Leadership Development Initiative XXVII, Civic Leadership – The Pittsburgh Way, a Case Study," on February 6th.
Moderated by Rick Stafford (former director of the Allegheny Conference and Distinguished Service Professor of Public Policy at CMU), Daniel Booker (Partner at Reed Smith), Michael Lamb (Controller, City of Pittsburgh) and Jim Turner (former Director of Finance for City of Pittsburgh) joined Dr. Feinstein to share their collective experiences as leaders of Compact 21 and the Home Rule referendum in the City of Pittsburgh's tumultuous 1990s. Together with others, these civic leaders made Allegheny County's governance more democratic, bringing about a change in a structure that had been entrenched for two hundred years. The session provided an opportunity for sharing their strategies and lessons learned with a new generation of Pittsburgh leaders.