Endowments’ interns have htheir own guide in eTracy R. re&there Kay, executive director of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Philadelphia, one of several sites they visited while researching the most successful after-school environmental education programs in the state. The charge to the graduating high school students, from left, Beth Anne Lawson, Marja Bell and Nitin Aggarwal, was to identify existing programs and evaluate them against best practices in the field. The Schuylkill Center’s programs were noted for their out- standing environmental curriculum. In addition, the three college-bound students conducted extensive research on the Endow- ments’ internship program, interviewing their predeces- sors going back to 1994, the first year. Information compiled from the interviews Steve Mellon will be used by supervising Children, Youth & Families Heinz Endowments Directors Don Wiley Program staff to refine the RIVER’S-EDGE VIEW and Barbara Robinson are able to see the application process and tremendous development and recreational potential in a foundations-group purchase of a 177-acre future interns’ projects. former mill site during a boat tour along the Monongahela River. Lisa Schroeder, executive director of the Riverlife Task Force, holding microphone, and Bill Widdows, of the Regional Industrial Development Corp., not pictured, provide details. About 30 directors and staff members were updated on progress and the hurdles yet to be cleared in the project. The Endowments and the McCune, Benedum and Richard King Mellon Foundations pooled funds totaling nearly $10 million to transform the former LTV coke works from polluted brownfield to state-of-the-art, mixed-use development. While the four founda- tions have made it possible for the development process to begin, the property manager role is being assumed by the Regional Industrial Development Corp. That public agency’s staff has been in charge of a search for a developer, now down to several finalists. The amount needed to prepare the site, which also is bordered by the economically depressed city neighborhood of Hazelwood, is about $200 million. Foundation sponsors are likely to make more investments in the project under the agreement that they would recoup their money through the sale of prepared land to a private developer. A master plan for the site includes plans for 1,000 units of new housing, at least 500,000 square feet of office and research space and 50,000 square feet for retail and restaurant operations. The development would include such amenities as a marina, riverfront trail extensions, soccer fields and tennis courts. 371

Economic Development Specialist Joins Endowments Suzanne Walsh, who has spent the past five years coordinating workforce development programs for Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Steve Mellon has joined the Endowments as a program officer in Economic Opportunity. FRANCO HARRIS ELECTED TO While Walsh’s recent career focus has been on economic development, ENDOWMENT’S BOARD she comes to the foundation with varied work experiences. As an attorney Former Pittsburgh Steelers stand-out Franco Harris, specializing in public-interest law, she worked with Oklahoma Indian Legal whose decade-long, pro-football career made him Services to provide legal representation for low-income Native Americans, a household name across the country, and who has and clerked at the Zacchaeus Free Clinic in Washington. Around her formal since made his mark nationally as a successful businessman, has been elected as a director on education, she has done stints as a research consultant in urban planning in the Vira I. Heinz Endowment Board. Cleveland and as a human services caseworker Harris, a New Jersey native, graduated from in Albany, New York. the Pennsylvania State University’s Food Service and In announcing her appointment, Administration program. In his pro-football career as Endowments President Maxwell King said a running back, he led the Steelers to four Super Walsh’s work with more than a dozen nonprofit Bowl victories. In the early 1980s, after retiring from groups around quality-of-life improvement football, he capitalized on his university degree, provides the Economic Opportunity Program creating and distributing all-natural foods. His Super Bakery line of products are served to more than “…with exactly the kind of person needed 75 million consumers, mostly young people, each year. to broaden our strategic thinking about how Much of Harris’ free time in recent years has to get more southwestern Pennsylvanians into better jobs.” Program Director been devoted to community service as a spokesman Brian Kelley said Walsh’s contributions in Cleveland and her connections to and sponsor for charities like the National Multiple successful economic empowerment programs fit into a key grantmaking Sclerosis Society, a leader in African-American strategy at the Endowments. “She has a very personal, front-line understanding empowerment organizations like the Urban League of what is involved for an individual with lower-level skills trying to meet the and as a celebrity volunteer for the Inner-City Games. Responding to Harris’ election, Vira I. Heinz challenges of a demanding new economy,” said Kelley, “and I’m counting on Endowment Chairman James Walton praised his her to help us make much more progress in this area.” quiet style of leadership. “Franco has a special Walsh, who began work in September, said the Endowments’ position is ability to relate to people one-on-one, especially “very much the dream move for someone in my field. What you’re constantly young people. He also has significant business faced with in working in the public sector or in the nonprofit arena is the experience. This is a rare combination and his problem of severe limitations—how to get the job done with not nearly perspectives will be invaluable.” enough. But with this switch to the funders’ side, I have an opportunity to Endowments President Maxwell King predicted offer more resources to programs that I know from my own experience are that Harris will be a key guide for staff in developing strategies to increase economic opportunities for capable of meeting the Economic Opportunity Program’s strategic objectives. African-American families. “But all our grantees will I also have an opportunity to better tailor those objectives to the needs of benefit; this is a leader from the ground up who the region.” believes in this community. He’s respected by policymakers and the general public,” King said.