Walker’s next chapter
URA’s deputy director reflects on childhood, communities that need ‘more investment ... more partnership’
A glaring reality stands out to Diamonte Walker — that not all communities are afforded the same opportunities. The 38-year-old deputy executive director of Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority said there may be only two young men from her fifth-grade class at the Hill District’s now-closed McKelvy Elementary School in the 1980s who are “alive and thriving” today.
The other 10 are either dead, in jail or addicted to drugs, she said.
While she was afforded greater opportunities than some of her peers through gifted programs growing up, Ms. Walker said some were not and got caught in “headwinds that were just too strong.”
“I think about growing up in a community that needed a lot more investment and needed a lot more partnership, mentorship and tutelage,” said Ms. Walker, who in 2019 became the first black woman in the URA’s nearly 75-year history to hold such a position. “Being in a gifted program, I was sort of set aside and given certain levels of investments. My thing is, why can’t we invest like that across the board? Why can’t all youth, all children, have someone thinking about them on the other side?”
As one who comes from “humble beginnings,” Ms. Walker said she and her family saw tough times growing up in the Hill in the ’80s. Now as an adult, with more than 15 years in the for-profit sector and having recently served as a business development program manager in the nonprofit sector, she said she has continued to witness first-hand the need for assistance in the city’s poorer communities.
“I grew up at the height of gang violence, the height of the crack epidemic,” she said. “For a young girl to escape all of those toils and snares and exercise judgment far beyond my years was not by any means easy . ... Growing up in the city’s urban core was rough, but [because of] where I come from, I’m not easily intimidated.”
Watching her mom, Joann Lewis, take on teaching jobs and day care center positions — and often carrying her children with her most places she went — helped instill an “unshakable” work ethic within her, she said. An “aging millennial” raised by the silent generation and baby boomers, Ms. Walker said she learned early how to give a firm handshake and make eye contact.
Looking back, the values she gained as a child were foretelling of a destined future, she said.
“My mother helped us to look at the community that we came from, and although it had some challenges, she always implanted that
seed to think about how it can be better,” she said. “Think about how you can be a part of the solution. She gave us the skills and resources that we need to be able to do that through her guidance, her parenting and just her unwavering support.”
Ms. Walker first joined the economic-development agency in 2017, and served as the Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise officer until her promotion last June. Her job then mainly focused on economic inclusion focused initiatives, geared toward improving community engagement and building strong partnerships with neighborhoods, stakeholders and elected officials.
But changes had been on the horizon since Ms. Walker stepped in the door at the URA. Mayor Bill Peduto and authority officials in November officially announced the authority’s “next chapter” under new leadership to put inclusion at the forefront of economic strategy. Around that time, the “unexpected” departure of former URA head Robert Rubinstein was announced, and a new executive director was introduced in January — Greg Flisram, 57, of Kansas City, Mo.
Inclusion was right up Ms. Walker’s alley, she said, and a huge part of her work. Before her promotion, she said they had already observed a huge divide in the way resources were deployed to minority and women-owned businesses in the city. With support from Mr. Peduto and others, the URA last year reimplemented a micro-loan enterprise program that was started the year before in 2018.
The loans help cover costs of machinery and equipment, working capital, and site improvements, including facade renovations, according to the URA. As of April last year, the URA had made 23 such loans with 96% of them issued to minority- and women-owned businesses, according the city’s website.
“I knew we really needed to increase our loan portfolio and invest in these businesses that don’t need a whole lot of capital to get across the finish line,” Ms. Walker said. “They just need between $5,000 and $20,000 and they can start employing people and start offering all these services that African Americans and women do find valuable.”
The authority most recently announced the first $850,000 in grants under a Neighborhood Initiatives Fund program in early February. The 18 grants awarded will impact 30 city neighborhoods, according to the URA. The organization is involved in hundreds of projects yearly, all of which “seek input from community development organizations throughout the city.”
Ms. Walker said she credits her team at the URA, and all the “wonderful” associates who support her vision, and the overall vision of the agency. She said diversity is important not only externally, but inside organizations as well. As a new “assertive” female voice within the organization, she said she hopes to continue helping women have a voice, too, within the agency, she said.
“For me, diversity is about completion,” she said. “It’s really about making sure we have an organization that can check its blind spots, listen to indigenous voice, that can be culturally competent and culturally astute, without isolating anybody.”