About the Western Pennsylvania Brownfields Center

 

Western Pennsylvania’s landscape is littered with brownfields, vestiges of the region’s industrial heritage. The Western Pennsylvania Brownfields Center at Carnegie Mellon University (WPBC), helps to promote the value of underutilized sites in the region, by acting as a regional resource for communities and small businesses to realize sites’ inherent benefits and eliminate development barriers. The WPBC’s work addresses the environmental, economic, land-use, and community issues surrounding the revitalization of brownfields—sites with real or perceived environmental contamination.

The WPBC is a neutral platform, which brings together a variety of stakeholders including researchers, public officials, property owners, and developers to uncover opportunities and strategies for continued development of the region’s brownfields. Supported by the Small Business Administration, the WPBC applies academic research and decision support tools to real-world problems facing public and private investors. Our “Programming Committee” and “Advisory Committee,” both comprised of local practitioners, provide relevant guidance on our near term initiatives as well as our future directions.

Pictured left to right: (front row) Brownfields Center 2007 Summer Student Researchers: Lauren Hudock, Maura Carroll, Melinda Angeles, and Andrea Fisk; (back row) Program Coordinator Meredith Meyer Grelli and Executive Director Deborah Lange.

  

  

  

    

  

Faculty Advisor David Dzombak, Professor of Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon Advisory Committee Dennis Davin, Allegheny County Economic Development Mark Dellana, Soffer Organization Ken Doyno, Rothschild Doyno Associates Bill Hunt, Elmhurst Group Carl Knoblock, Small Business Administration Cathy Neiderberger, PNC Financial Group Jennifer Buchanan Rapach, Office of Rep. Altmire Mark Schneider, Fourth River Development John W. Ubinger, Jr., Jones Day Lewis Villotti, Southwest Pennsylvania Commission Programming Committee Rob Arnold, Northern Allegheny Chamber of Commerce Cheryle Campbell, Housing and Urban Development Carl Knoblock, Small Business Administration Susan Morgan, Redevelopment Authority of Washington County Jim Palmer, Beaver County CED Laura Rubino, Beaver County CED John Stephen, Allegheny Rivertowns Enterprise Zone