About Tree Pittsburgh

For over 15 years, Danielle has worked in var­i­ous capac­i­ties in the Pitts­burgh envi­ron­men­tal com­mu­ni­ty. She has served as Tree Pitts­burgh’s Exec­u­tive Direc­tor for 10 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 10 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, and rent­ing boats to peo­ple through her busi­ness Boat Pitts­burgh. She also serves as the sec­re­tary of the Pitts­burgh Safe Boat­ing Coun­cil and has been an active mem­ber since 2014.

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 sup­port for all fundrais­ing events includ­ing Arbor Aid. Mag­gie han­dles all event rentals and sched­ul­ing for our River­front Room on the Alleghe­ny. She has been with Tree Pitts­burgh since the fall of 2012.

Mag­gie came to Pitts­burgh in the fall of 2010 to par­tic­i­pate in the Pitts­burgh Urban Lead­er­ship Ser­vice Expe­ri­ence. She has spo­ken at local and nation­al con­fer­ences, includ­ing the Arbor Day Foun­da­tion’s Part­ners in Com­mu­ni­ty Forestry Con­fer­ence. A ded­i­cat­ed sup­port­er and vol­un­teer, she is a mem­ber of the Pitts­burgh Urban Lead­er­ship Ser­vice Expe­ri­ence Board of Direc­tors. She was named to The Incline’s Who’s Next in Com­mu­ni­ca­tions in Novem­ber 2016.

Out­side of the office, Mag­gie is a bak­er, knit­ter, and avid out­door­swoman. You can prob­a­bly find her camp­ing in Penn­syl­va­ni­a’s state parks.

Kin­sey’s main respon­si­bil­i­ty as Tree Pittsburgh’s com­mu­ni­ty forester is to pro­vide tech­ni­cal urban forestry sup­port to neigh­bor­hoods and munic­i­pal­i­ties across Alleghe­ny Coun­ty. Such sup­port includes advo­cat­ing for the val­ue of urban trees, assist­ing com­mu­ni­ties with the devel­op­ment of strate­gic urban forestry plans, orga­niz­ing tree ordi­nance work­shops, advis­ing and pro­vid­ing resources to shade tree com­mis­sions, and pro­vid­ing exper­tise on tree plant­i­ng and care.

Kin­sey holds a BA in envi­ron­men­tal stud­ies and worked as an urban forestry spe­cial­ist and climb­ing arborist in the greater Philadel­phia area pri­or to join­ing the Tree Pitts­burgh team.

Out­side of work, Kin­sey enjoys danc­ing, cook­ing, fiber arts, and being outdoors!

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.

As Vol­un­teer and Spe­cial Events Coor­di­na­tor, Erin is respon­si­ble for over­see­ing the vol­un­teers who help make the work of Tree Pitts­burgh pos­si­ble. She also orga­nizes tree give­aways and oth­er spe­cial events for the orga­ni­za­tion. Erin start­ed with Tree Pitts­burgh in 2014 as an intern. After her intern­ship end­ed, she went on to have var­i­ous envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion roles through­out the city and has returned to Tree Pitts­burgh to take on this new role.

Grow­ing up with woods as her back­yard, Erin has always felt a deep con­nec­tion with trees and strong­ly rec­og­nizes the ben­e­fits they pro­vide to all life. Her nat­ur­al curios­i­ty and work as a nat­u­ral­ist has led to her study of organ­isms that have strong rela­tion­ships with trees such as fun­gi, insects, and birds. Erin hopes to con­tin­ue devel­op­ing her nat­u­ral­ist skills and appre­ci­a­tion for trees as she helps the Tree Pitts­burgh team expand our urban tree canopy.

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!

Matt joined Tree Pitts­burgh in 2019. As Nurs­ery Oper­a­tions Assis­tant, 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.

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.