12 WOMEN TO MEET IN 2019
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | Sustainable Pittsburgh
At no time in Pittsburgh history have so many women overseen so many cultural, health and public service institutions — agencies that essentially bolster the livability of the region.
They run the Pittsburgh Public Theater, Allegheny Conference on Community Development, Allegheny County Airport Authority, Port Authority of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Allegheny County Health Department, Pittsburgh Film Office, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Jewish Healthcare Foundation, Friends of the Riverfront, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Allegheny Health Network, Allegheny County Parks Foundation and many other organizations.
Here are stories of 12 of those women, how they got where they are and what they hope to accomplish. They range from veterans such as Barbara Baker, who has overseen the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium for 28 years, to Joylette Portlock, who stepped into her role at Sustainable Pittsburgh just last month.
In a winning series of 34 short Communitopia climate-change videos titled “Don’t Just Sit There — Do Something!” Joylette Portlock stars as a scientist — you can tell by the white lab coat — and news anchor and wisecracking woman on the street. They’re just characters, but they’re also her.
The Delaware City, Del., native studied biology and anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned her doctorate in genetics at Stanford, designing genetics programs for science museums.
But she warmed to climate change and to communicating its dangers and solutions. And she aims to do so in practical and approachable ways.
That’ll be one part of her new job, which she started in mid-December, as executive director at Sustainable Pittsburgh. She comes from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, where she was associate director of science and research, to fill the big shoes of Court Gould, who 20 years ago founded this nonprofit that promotes sustainability programs for businesses and collaboration on regional policy initiatives for sustainability.
Ms. Portlock also worked for Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project and has served as Western Pennsylvania outreach coordinator with PennFuture, a statewide environmental advocacy group where she worked with its members, elected officials and the public on energy, air, water, mining and transportation issues.
All of this is a natural fit for the girl who persuaded her parents to recycle and co-founded her high school Earth Club. Now the 40year-old resident of Swissvale (where she founded the farmers market) has two children, ages 10 and 7, with whom she loves to spend every rare second of free time that competes with roles such as serving on the Allegheny County Board of Health.
Couldn’t she have picked something easier than, you know, saving the Earth?
She laughs a big laugh and pauses for several seconds. “I’m not afraid of a challenge!” She takes another long pause and quotes Jonas Salk: “‘Are we being good ancestors?’ It’s important.”
When the magnitude of the challenges starts to get to her, she buoys herself by looking at all the gains that have been made, including existing programs and relationships of Sustainable Pittsburgh, and she’s confident that she can build on those to help communities make the world better together. Don’t be surprised if she does so with a joke.
“You have to figure out a way,” she says, “to meet people where they are.”