Housing Opportunities, Inc. was a McKeesport-based nonprofit that provided financial advice and counseling to enable first-time homebuyers to purchase homes and meet resulting mortgage obligations. Through its work, HOI recognized that the inability of first-time homeowners to make mortgage payments was due to rising utility costs and inadequate conservation education, which resulted in its involvement with the Energy House project.  HOI’s responsibility was for the maintenance and management of the structure during the life of the project, then for the disposition of the property to a qualified first-time homeowner. In 2001, after 25 years of service, HOI changed its corporate structure and added McKeesport Neighborhood Initiatives.

Frederic B. Sargent has a long history with CCI, beginning with his service as a member of the Energy House Advisory Committee when he was president of Sargent Electric Company, an electrical contracting firm.  Fred recently completed a turn as a CCI director and continues his involvement as a member of the organization’s strategic planning committee. Professionally, Fred maintains his dedication to well-managed service operations as founder and president of Great Service Forums, a company that helps electrical contractors develop their service organizations.  He also shares his experience through a column about service and maintenance he co-authors in Electrical Contractor Magazine.  Fred’s latest book—Great Service Made Simple—was released in October 2017.

Ann Jones Gerace was an elementary school teacher before raising four children.  Her next job, which she started in 1987, was energy manager at CCI.  She became executive director in 1990.  Ann retired from CCI in 2013.  During the intervening years she was a major voice in championing the benefits of energy efficiency, especially in low-income neighborhoods. Her vision for the CCI Center “as an example promoting and highlighting those “green” values, and a resource hub for other environment organizations and the public,” according to Don Hopey in the Post Gazette.

Ellis Schmidlapp has been called a master in restoring and recapturing historic buildings while introducing modern amenities into the design to make them energy efficient and environmentally sensitive.  For more than 35 years, he was the president of Landmark Designs Associates (LDA), a full-service architectural firm he founded that specialized in historic preservation in western Pennsylvania.  The firm’s work received awards and honors from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh (URA) is the City of Pittsburgh's economic development agency. Its goals are to create jobs, increase the city’s tax base, improve the vitality of the city’s businesses and neighborhoods, and improve the City of Pittsburgh’s livability as a whole. Incorporated in 1946, the URA was one of the first redevelopment authorities in Pennsylvania. Organized by corporate and civic leaders, the URA undertook the first privately financed downtown redevelopment project in the United States -- Gateway Center. Since then, the URA has constructed and rehabilitated tens of thousands of homes, reclaimed thousands of acres of contaminated brownfield and riverfront sites and assisted hundreds of businesses in neighborhoods throughout the City of Pittsburgh.

Colteryahn Dairy was the oldest and last remaining dairy in the City of Pittsburgh.  It  now is operated by Turner Dairy Farms as Pittsburgh Special-T Dairy.  Prior to the June 2017 transfer, Colteryahn operated at the Brownsville Road site for almost a century.  In 2012, Economic Development South, a multi-municipal community development corporation, received a URA grant to develop a plan for a Carrick Dairy District, with the Colteryahn Dairy on Brownsville Road as its eponymous centerpiece.  A pavilion—named the Historic Dairy District Marketplace—was added in 2016 and houses the Citiparks weekly Farmers Market, flea markets, food trucks, and other special events.   

The Heinz Endowments is a regional foundation formed from the Howard Heinz Endowment, established in 1941, and the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, established in 1986. It is the product of a deep family commitment to community and the common good that began with H. J. Heinz, and which continues to this day. Based in Pittsburgh, its mission is to help southwestern Pennsylvania prosper as a vibrant center of creativity, learning, and social, economic and environmental sustainability.  Core to its work is the vision of a just community where all are included and where everyone who calls the region home has a real and meaningful opportunity to thrive. Over CCI’s 40-year history, The Heinz Endowments has awarded grants to help further its work energy efficient, healthy homes and communities.

Samantha Balbier is a long-time Pittsburgh resident with a track record in policy analysis, development, strategic communications, and building collaborations to mobilize policy makers and the public to take action. She is passionate about the nonprofit sector’s role and value in building strong communities. Her experience includes serving as the lead consultant for the Pennsylvania Early Children Education Healthy & Green Initiative; development director at Carriage House Children’s Center; program associate at The Heinz Endowments for Children, Youth and Families; and as a consultant to the Allegheny County Department of Human Services’ Office of Community Services. Sam is certified by the US Green Building Council as a LEED Green Associate. Early in her career, Samantha led Healthy Home Resources, an organization launched and housed by CCI that focused on lead paint removal and healthy homes. 

The mission of Construction Junction(CJ) is to support and promote conservation through the reuse of building materials.  Construction Junction accepts donations of used and surplus materials at its large warehouse, then sells them at its 30,000 sq. ft. store to new users, achieving both environmental and social impact. As a nonprofit, Construction Junction covers most of its operational costs with the revenues from sales and its annual fundraiser, the Steel City Big Pour®, to cover the balance and to invest in improvements.  The idea for Construction Junction was developed by the oldest grass roots environmental organization in the state, the Pennsylvania Resources Council, together with the Green Building Alliance, and Conservation Consultants, Inc.   CCI, GBA and PRC all participated in a task force that shaped and launched Construction Junction.

ACTION Housing was established in 1957 by Mayor David L. Lawrence and philanthropist Richard King Mellon to address the region’s pressing housing issues.  Its mission is to empower people to build more secure and self-sufficient lives through the provision of decent, affordable housing, essential supportive services, asset building programs, and educational and employment opportunities. ACTION-Housing has long considered energy efficiency a priority because it doesn’t make sense for people to have low housing costs and high utility bills. It has pioneered programs to preserve energy in its building and economic independence in the residents it serves.

Barry Kukovich has a utility career that spans multiple decades.  Since 2010, he has been the manager of community affairs at Peoples Natural Gas.  Prior to that, Barry spent more than 20 years at the Duquesne Light Company, including a stint as manager of media relations and community affairs. Barry’s specialty in translating complex energy concepts into conversational language, using examples most can understand.  Not surprisingly, he is a published author.  His novel, The Church of Wolves, was published in paperback in 2015.

He is an instructor in Aikido and other martial arts, at Kim's Martial arts in Freedom and an avid student of history.

Sharon Pillar has a passion: to cultivate sustainable community development, climate change action, and clean energy market transformation.

Sharon was the driving force behind Solarize Allegheny, a campaign to increase solar energy use in Allegheny County by assisting businesses and homeowners to go solar and for which CCI partnered to lift up energy efficiency benefits. Sharon is the owner of the Hot Earth Collaborative LLC, a clean energy consultancy, and works with Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) as their Pennsylvania consultant and serves as the president of the Solar Unified Network of Western Pennsylvania (SUNWPA). Sharon previously worked at PennFuture as their manager of solar programs and has a master's in Earth Literacy, an interdisciplinary study of the environment. 

Grounded (formerly GTECH) Strategies was founded in 2007 out of the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University through research on the economic impact of vacant land. Over the past decade, its work has evolved in many ways but has always included cross-sector collaboration, research and innovation, and working hand-in-hand with those most closely impacted by decisions made at all levels.  Grounded works to strengthen the economic, social, and environmental health of transitional community by building capacity through collaborative greenspace projects.   Grounded does this by mobilizing residents, policy-makers, and like-minded organizations to ensure communities have the resources, knowledge, tools, and partners to make change happen in the places they live, work, and play.

The Reenergize Pittsburgh Coalition consists of 40 organizations across Western Pennsylvania devoted to increasing access to and demand for energy efficiency and healthy homes.  The Coalition aims to reduce residential energy waste throughout Allegheny County, help create jobs, and improve air quality. It brings together diverse stakeholders aligned around this goal, collaborating to leverage resources, share information, and coordinate services in order to increase energy literacy among residents and empower them to make informed energy decisions, leading to a cleaner healthier environment.  Its strength as a Coalition comes from the involvement of its membership, who engage in work on committees such as policy, outreach, and financial assistance.

Zaheen Hussain serves as the sustainability coordinator of the borough of Millvale as well as the director of sustainability for New Sun Rising, a nonprofit organization that creates economic opportunity, solves social challenges, and strengthens the vibrancy of place. Zaheen is part of team that helped Millvale become the first municipality in Pennsylvania to achieve a platinum sustainability rating through the Sustainable Pennsylvania Community Certification Program.  Prior to his current positions, Zaheen was project manager leading the ReEnergize Pittsburgh effort at GTECH Strategies (now Grounded).  Born in Bangledesh, Zaheen immigrated to the United States when he was eight years old.  He is a Pittsburgh transplant by way of Connecticut.

Eva Resnick-Day and the Sierra Club volunteers are engaged in inspiring leaders to embrace a vision of healthier communities powered by 100% clean energy through the #ReadyFor100 program.  Operating in the spirit and culture of the national Sierra Club, which was founded in 1892, Eva and her corps of volunteers are asking mayors, CEOs, pastors, principals, civic and community leaders, parents and students to commit to solutions that help achieve 100 percent clean, renewable energy by the year 2050.  Their vision is for Pittsburgh to become the first industrial city in the U.S. to run on 100 percent clean and renewable energy.  One of the ways they are working to make this a reality is through the partnership with CCI and the Grassroots Green Homes program.

Alan Sisco and Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh believe everyone deserves to live in a safe and healthy home, which is why they provide low-income homeowners with critical home repairs, accessibility modifications, and energy-efficient upgrades.  Together with more than 25,000 volunteers, Alan and his team have transformed the quality of life of homeowners in nearly 2,300 rebuild projects in Allegheny County over 25 years.  Started in 1993 as an all-volunteer nonprofit organization, Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh now has an annual budget of more than $3 million that supports the work of nearly 20 staff completing more than 150 physical rehabilitation projects annually for low-income homeowners in Allegheny County.

Paul H. Diegelman is a Pittsburgh native who had an impressive impact on the city’s efforts on healthy homes before joining the federal Housing and Urban Development Authority (HUD). In the 1990s while director of the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh’s Prevention of Residential Environmental Hazards Program and chair of the Mayor’s Lead-Safe Pittsburgh Coalition, Paul collaborated with CCI and others to create a nationally-recognized lead prevention coalition that produced significant change in Pittsburgh’s battle against lead poisoning in children. Currently, Paul is Healthy Homes representative for HUD’s Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control out-stationed in the Cleveland Field Office, where he is responsible for Region 5. Prior to this assignment, Paul was a community builder in the Cleveland office. He holds a Masters Degree from Duquesne University with a bachelor from the Pennsylvania State University.

Michelle Nacarrati-Chapkis is the first and current executive director of Women for a Healthy Environment (WHE). She leads the organization’s strategic activities with a focus on human health problems linked to environmental risk factors. She has worked for almost 20 years in the nonprofit field, including as director of land development at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy where she managed the Conservancy’s real estate transactions and oversaw conservation of more than 49,000 acres of land. At WHE, Michelle works to provide citizens access to reliable, scientific information and tools necessary to advocate for policy solutions that address environmental issues that impact human health. She serves on the PA Green and Healthy School Partnership, Children’s Environmental Health Network, Protect Our Children Coalition, and Healthy Schools Network, among others. Michelle convenes and coordinates activity of the Get the Lead Out Pittsburgh Coalition, of which CCI is among many members.