About Tree Pittsburgh

For over 20 years, Danielle has worked in var­i­ous capac­i­ties in the Pitts­burgh envi­ron­men­tal com­mu­ni­ty. She has served as Tree Pitts­burgh’s Exec­u­tive Direc­tor for 15 years, where she has led the orga­ni­za­tion through sig­nif­i­cant growth — includ­ing their cur­rent effort to trans­form a for­mer steel mill site into Tree Pitts­burgh’s head­quar­ters, includ­ing a tree nurs­ery, edu­ca­tion cen­ter, and office building.

Pri­or to join­ing Tree Pitts­burgh in 2007, she was the found­ing Board Pres­i­dent and Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Alleghe­ny Clean­Ways, a group ded­i­cat­ed to empow­er­ing peo­ple to fight ille­gal dump­ing and lit­ter­ing in Alleghe­ny County.

Danielle was named a top 40 under 40 envi­ron­men­tal leader across the state of Penn­syl­va­nia by the PA Envi­ron­men­tal Coun­cil, and in 2011, she was a Board mem­ber for the Alliance for Com­mu­ni­ty Trees — the only nation­al orga­ni­za­tion sole­ly focused on the needs of those engaged in urban forestry. In 2015, as ACTrees Pres­i­dent, she led the merg­er of ACTrees with the Arbor Day Foun­da­tion where she now sits on the Board of Trustees.

As Direc­tor of Urban Forestry, Matt man­ages many of Tree Pitts­burgh’s urban forestry pro­grams includ­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of the Urban For­est Mas­ter Plan. In his 15 years at Tree Pitts­burgh, he has cre­at­ed numer­ous pro­grams and exe­cut­ed the first instal­la­tion of Sil­va Cells in Penn­syl­va­nia. He is an Inter­na­tion­al Soci­ety of Arbori­cul­ture (ISA) Cer­ti­fied Arborist and an ISA Munic­i­pal Spe­cial­ist with a degree in urban forestry.

Since 2009 he has served on the Pitts­burgh Shade Tree Com­mis­sion. He served as the Pres­i­dent of the Penn­syl­va­nia Urban and Com­mu­ni­ty Forestry Coun­cil and is the for­mer Trea­sur­er of the Pen­nDel ISA.

As Direc­tor of Tree Care and Refor­esta­tion, Jake over­sees tree main­te­nance oper­a­tions in the field. Work­ing with vol­un­teer groups and sea­son­al staff, Jake coor­di­nates projects to keep street trees healthy in com­mer­cial and indus­tri­al por­tions of the city where there is lit­tle Tree Ten­der support.

In res­i­den­tial areas where there is Tree Ten­der sup­port, Jake works direct­ly with neigh­bor­hood Tree Ten­ders to sched­ule and sup­port their com­mu­ni­ties’ tree care through reg­u­lar events like Mulching Par­ties and Prun­ing Workshops.

Jake is also in charge of Tree Pitts­burgh’s refor­esta­tion projects along green­ways where the tree canopy has been impact­ed by inva­sive species. To advance these projects, Jake orga­nizes vol­un­teers and staff to plant new trees and main­tain these sites.

Jake holds a BA in Envi­ron­men­tal Stud­ies from Buck­nell Uni­ver­si­ty and a Mas­ter’s Degree in Envi­ron­men­tal Hor­ti­cul­ture and Eco­log­i­cal Restora­tion from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton in Seattle.

Jake is an ISA Cer­ti­fied Arborist and an active mem­ber of the Pennsylvania/Delaware Chap­ter of the ISA.

Joe helps to coor­di­nate the Tree Ten­der Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion cours­es for adults as well as many youth pro­grams in the com­mu­ni­ty. Joe sched­ules and/or teach­es many pro­grams includ­ing gar­den club talks, vis­its to schools, sum­mer camps, host­ing scout pro­grams, tabling at fes­ti­vals, lead­ing tree iden­ti­fi­ca­tion walks, and host­ing nurs­ery tours. He has pre­sent­ed at nation­al and region­al con­fer­ences includ­ing the Arbor Day Foun­da­tion’s Part­ners in Com­mu­ni­ty Forestry Con­fer­ence, and the Penn­syl­va­nia Delaware chap­ter of the Amer­i­can Soci­ety of Land­scape Archi­tects. He has instruct­ed facil­i­ties and grounds crew train­ings at uni­ver­si­ties includ­ing Carnegie Mel­lon Uni­ver­si­ty, Chatham Uni­ver­si­ty, and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Pitts­burgh. He is pas­sion­ate about nature and incor­po­rates insects, birds, amphib­ians, and mam­mals into many of the pro­grams he facilitates.

As Nurs­ery Man­ag­er, Megan is respon­si­ble for devel­op­ing and man­ag­ing all aspects of Tree Pitts­burgh’s Her­itage Nurs­ery, which works to address the issue of for­est bio­di­ver­si­ty by grow­ing a diverse tree stock for local plant­i­ngs and ecosys­tem restora­tion efforts. Megan over­sees all prop­a­ga­tion and sales efforts, and man­ages the nurs­ery vol­un­teer pro­gram. From seed col­lec­tion to the con­tin­ued pro­duc­tion of nurs­ery stock, she works to ensure the high­est qual­i­ty stan­dards by using cur­rent best man­age­ment practices.

Pri­or to join­ing Tree Pitts­burgh in Novem­ber 2014, Megan served as the Busi­ness Devel­op­ment and Design Man­ag­er at Phipps Con­ser­va­to­ry and Botan­i­cal Gar­dens where she led the orga­ni­za­tion’s sus­tain­abil­i­ty con­sult­ing ini­tia­tives. Megan learned the nurs­ery trade by work­ing along­side her father for many years at their fam­i­ly-owned nurs­ery busi­ness, Michael Broth­ers in West Deer, PA. She earned her B.S. in Land­scape Archi­tec­ture with a con­cen­tra­tion in Hor­ti­cul­ture from Cor­nell Uni­ver­si­ty in 2007.

Nicole was hired in 2013 and she runs a tight ship. Her pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty is to ensure that busi­ness oper­a­tions are effi­cient and effec­tive and fos­ter a pro­duc­tive work envi­ron­ment. When annu­al fundrais­ing events are sched­uled, she helps to plan, orga­nize, and pro­vide logis­ti­cal sup­port. her cre­ative flair shines in our shop, where she has curat­ed and designed logo mer­chan­dise sold to sup­port Tree Pitts­burgh programming.

She brings eight years of expe­ri­ence in com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment, non­prof­it man­age­ment, and grass­roots orga­niz­ing to Tree Pitts­burgh. A Tree Ten­der since 2009,  she has helped to plant over 100 new street trees in her home neigh­bor­hood of Troy Hill and was our Vol­un­teer of the Year in 2010. Nicole is pas­sion­ate about envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice and her favorite tree is the catal­pa (espe­cial­ly the ones on the riv­er trail).

She earned a BAS in Graph­ic Design from the Art Insti­tute of Pitts­burgh in 2004 and worked for years as a design­er. When Nicole is not busy at work or vol­un­teer­ing, you can find her run­ning with her dog, Ava.

Kelsey Small is the shared Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer for the Envi­ron­men­tal Finance Col­lab­o­ra­tive with finan­cial respon­si­bil­i­ties for five orga­ni­za­tions: Alleghe­ny Coun­ty Con­ser­va­tion Dis­trict, Con­struc­tion Junc­tion, Ground­ed, Nine Mile Run Water­shed Asso­ci­a­tion and Tree Pitts­burgh. Kelsey is respon­si­ble for pro­vid­ing oper­a­tional finan­cial exper­tise and over­sight, bud­get­ing and busi­ness plan­ning, and adop­tion of best prac­tices in finan­cial management.

Most recent­ly Kelsey was the Inter­im Direc­tor of Finance and Admin­is­tra­tion for the Carnegie Muse­um of Art, where she over­saw finan­cial, fundrais­ing, and orga­ni­za­tion­al plan­ning ini­tia­tives. Kelsey holds a Mas­ter of Arts Man­age­ment Degree from Carnegie Mel­lon Uni­ver­si­ty and a Bachelor’s degree in Busi­ness from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Florida.

Out­side of the office, Kelsey enjoys explor­ing the city parks, bak­ing, and gardening.

As Man­ag­er of Mar­ket­ing and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Mag­gie is respon­si­ble for all of Tree Pitts­burgh’s com­mu­ni­ca­tions includ­ing social media, press releas­es, and email newslet­ters. She also serves as a sup­port for devel­op­ment and fundrais­ing events.

Mag­gie came to Pitts­burgh in the fall of 2010 to par­tic­i­pate in the Pitts­burgh Urban Lead­er­ship Ser­vice Expe­ri­ence. She spent 7 years run­ning her own non­prof­it com­mu­ni­ca­tions firm, work­ing with local, region­al, and nation­al nonprofits.

When she’s not at Tree Pitts­burgh, Mag­gie is a bak­er, knit­ter, and avid out­door­swoman. You can prob­a­bly find her camp­ing in Penn­syl­va­ni­a’s state parks.

As Direc­tor of Devel­op­ment and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Mau­ra is respon­si­ble for over­see­ing fundrais­ing, grant writ­ing, com­mu­ni­ca­tions and mar­ket­ing at Tree Pitts­burgh as well as help­ing to expand our edu­ca­tion pro­grams. Pri­or to Tree Pitts­burgh, Mau­ra man­aged fundrais­ing and mar­ket­ing pro­grams at pub­lic media and health devel­op­ment organizations.

Matt joined Tree Pitts­burgh in 2019. As Nurs­ery Oper­a­tions Man­ag­er, Matt is a part of all things Her­itage Nurs­ery. This means he is instru­men­tal in trans­plant­i­ng, water­ing, and weed­ing plants as well as col­lect­ing and pro­cess­ing seeds.

Matt is an Air Force Vet­er­an and an Eagle Scout. He had 10 years of res­i­den­tial tree care and removal expe­ri­ence before join­ing Tree Pittsburgh.

When he’s not car­ing for the trees, Matt is an avid back­pack­er, cyclist, and kayaker.

Clara joins Tree Pitts­burgh as the Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor for One Tree Per Child. She is a Mas­ter of Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Man­age­ment grad­u­ate from the Heinz School of Pub­lic Pol­i­cy and Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems at Carnegie Mel­lon Uni­ver­si­ty. If she looks famil­iar, that’s because Clara is actu­al­ly rejoin­ing our staff after com­plet­ing her first intern­ship here in 2010! Since then, she has gath­ered a diverse array of skills through her work­ing career as a for­mer teacher, sus­tain­abil­i­ty fel­low with the Stu­dent Con­ser­va­tion Asso­ci­a­tion, pro­gram coor­di­na­tor at CMU, and a pol­i­cy intern with the City of Pitts­burgh. She also sup­ports local vol­un­teer ini­tia­tives and is a cer­ti­fied Tree Ten­der with us! Clara is excit­ed excit­ed to take on this new pro­gram that will bring mul­ti­ple stake­hold­ers to the table to focus on the most impor­tant stake­hold­er: the chil­dren and the future of clear air in our city.

When she’s not at work, Clara loves to be out­doors. She loves to take walks in the park and ride her bike on a good sum­mer or fall evening. She is also an in-house musi­cian, so be on the look­out for some work from her soon!

As the Tree Care and Refor­esta­tion Project Coor­di­na­tor, Jamie trains sea­son­al field staff and man­ages com­mu­ni­ty tree care and plant­i­ng projects. With inter­ests in urban forestry and ter­res­tri­al ecol­o­gy, Jamie pro­vides a unique per­spec­tive in the effort to grow Pittsburgh’s urban forest.

Jamie orig­i­nal­ly joined Tree Pitts­burgh in 2016 as a sea­son­al mem­ber of the Sum­mer Tree Care Crew, but his role devel­oped into a long-term posi­tion as a Pro­gram Assis­tant. He briefly left Tree Pitts­burgh in 2019 to gain more expe­ri­ence in arbori­cul­ture, but is now back to train the next gen­er­a­tion of arborists and neigh­bor­hood Tree Tenders.

Jamie holds a BS in Envi­ron­men­tal Biol­o­gy from Clar­i­on Uni­ver­si­ty with work expe­ri­ence in mul­ti­ple dis­ci­plines that span across non­prof­its, pri­vate busi­ness­es, and city government.

Kelsey joined Tree Pitts­burgh in 2021 as the Com­mu­ni­ty Tree Spe­cial­ist. In this role, Kelsey plays a big role in our ReLeaf pro­grams. She works with com­mu­ni­ty groups to con­nect, work togeth­er, and imple­ment projects towards big­ger ReLeaf goals.

Pri­or to work­ing with Tree Pitts­burgh, Kelsey was an Alleghe­ny Coun­ty Park Ranger. In her role as an edu­ca­tion­al inter­pre­tive ranger, her role was to lead hikes and trail projects, includ­ing tree plant­i­ng projects with Tree Pitts­burgh. Her intern­ship with Grey Tow­ers His­tor­i­cal site with the US For­est Ser­vice inspired her to pur­sue a career in envi­ron­men­tal con­ser­va­tion. She holds a bach­e­lor’s degree in Parks and Recre­ation from Cal­i­for­nia Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia, and a mas­ter’s degree in Park & Resource Man­age­ment from Slip­pery Rock University.

When she’s not in the com­mu­ni­ty work­ing on trees, she enjoys gar­den­ing, tak­ing her dog for walks in South Park, and serv­ing as the cap­tain for her Rag­nar run­ning team.

Odera joined Tree Pitts­burgh in 2021 and is the dri­ving force behind our tree adop­tion events across Alleghe­ny Coun­ty. Her role also includes man­ag­ing vol­un­teers and match­ing indi­vid­u­als, com­mu­ni­ties, and cor­po­rate groups with our vol­un­teer oppor­tu­ni­ties in the Her­itage Nurs­ery and at plant­i­ng and care events.

Odera had her first inter­ac­tion with Tree Pitts­burgh and the urban for­est as a a stu­dent groundskeep­er at the Chatham Uni­ver­si­ty Arbore­tum. She then worked with West­ern Penn­syl­va­nia Con­ser­van­cy and Tree­Vi­tal­ize Pitts­burgh to con­tin­ue to increase our region’s tree canopy. Odera fur­thered her con­nec­tions in the com­mu­ni­ty as a project coor­di­na­tor at Ground­ed Strategies.

In her free time, Odera likes to draw, hike, and do jig­saw puzzles.

Maeve serves as Tree Pitts­burgh’s Edu­ca­tion Coor­di­na­tor, but this isn’t her first time on staff! Her cur­rent role, which began in 2021, involves cre­at­ing edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram­ming and sup­port­ing edu­ca­tion efforts across all Tree Pitts­burgh pro­grams. Pre­vi­ous­ly, Maeve has worked in our Her­itage Nurs­ery for 5 years and on the win­ter prun­ing crew for 2.

Maeve stud­ied envi­ron­men­tal biol­o­gy at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege Dublin and spent a decade work­ing in nature con­ser­va­tion in North­ern Ire­land. She moved to Pitts­burgh in 2010 and was drawn to the city’s trees.

Out­side of the office, Maeve enjoys learn­ing more about the diver­si­ty of plant life by hik­ing in the forests, fields, and off-beat­en paths in Pitts­burgh. She’s also an active mem­ber of the Lawrenceville Tree Ten­ders and helps to main­tain the Lawrenceville Tree Park.

Lau­ren has served as Tree Pitts­burgh’s Her­itage Nurs­ery Seed Tech­ni­cian since 2021. In this role, she sup­ports the Her­itage Nurs­ery by col­lect­ing seeds and pro­cess­ing them — the first step in grow­ing the trees that will grow our urban forest.

In her career, Lau­ren has worked in envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion, farm­ing, land stew­ard­ship and con­ser­va­tion, dump­site cleanup, and land­scap­ing. She is anoth­er return­ing face at Tree Pitts­burgh, hav­ing served on our win­ter prun­ing crew in 2019.

Chris­tine start­ed in her role as Her­itage Nurs­ery Hor­ti­cul­ture Tech­ni­cian in Spring of 2021. In this role, Chris­tine sup­ports all things Her­itage Nurs­ery, from trans­plant­i­ng to water­ing to seed pro­cess­ing. Her work helps get young trees out into the world, grow­ing our urban forest.

Chris­tine com­plet­ed the Hor­ti­cul­ture Tech­nol­o­gy Train­ing at Bid­well Train­ing Cen­ter, where she learned a lot about Tree Pitts­burgh. This expe­ri­ence led her to join our Urban Forestry Tech­ni­cian pro­gram before join­ing the staff.

Oak­lee start­ed at Tree Pitts­burgh in the fall of 2017, help­ing with fam­i­ly sto­ry time at Arbor Aid and Paw­paw Fest. At Tree Pitts­burgh, it’s Oak­lee’s job to make events more fun. Some might say Oak­lee is just a mas­cot, but we know Oak­lee brings so much more to the orga­ni­za­tion. Be on the look­out for Oak­lee at Tree Pitts­burgh events around Alleghe­ny County!

A native of the oak trees on Flagstaff Hill in Schen­ley Park, Oak­lee recent­ly moved to Lawrenceville to work for Tree Pitts­burgh. In their spare time, Oak­lee climbs trees, jumps fences, and eats nuts and berries.