Rudiak reflects on her eight years on council

Women’s Caucus helped forge history

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Natalia Rudiak never talks about this. She doesn’t want it to seemexploitative.

But the fact is, the spark that led her to Pittsburgh City Council — where she just finished eight high-profile years — was a deadly shootingin Mount Oliver.

Before a teenage robber claimed his life, Ms. Rudiak got to know Jamal Mouzaffar, 28, in the corner store where he worked withhis uncle. Ms. Rudiak, then a consultant at professional services firm Deloitte, stopped and talked the night before violence struckin August 2007.

Mr. Mouzaffar, from Syria, was visiting Pittsburgh for an adjustment a prosthetic leg.

“It was just crazy to me that someone would come to the United States and then be shot to death by a 16-year-old boy,” said Ms. Rudiak, 38, of Carrick. She said it “really woke me up from the spreadsheets and the airport travel and the dreary office park thatI was working in.

“Irealized that there are things happening in my backyard that I needed to be part of, and conversations that I needed to start having,”she said.

Ten years, two elections and two terms later, Ms. Rudiak left city council last month having forged Pittsburgh history. The first woman elected to represent District 4, she was among four members of the Women’s Caucus — the first time so many women served together on the nine-membercouncil.

“Being young and single was nota detriment. It was actually an asset. She gave us a perspective that many of us didn’t have,” Councilwoman Theresa KailSmithsaid.

Mrs. Kail-Smith said the caucus “collectively showed folks how they can build a consensus.” Including council members Deborah Gross and Darlene Harris,