Tree Pittsburgh adds Tree Equity Manager to staff

Tree Pitts­burgh is excit­ed to announce the cre­ation of a new role at the orga­ni­za­tion: Tree Equi­ty Man­ag­er. This posi­tion will con­tin­ue the orga­ni­za­tion’s impact­ful neigh­bor­hood-based ReLeaf urban forestry plan­ning efforts and deep­en robust part­ner­ships with­in com­mu­ni­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly those with low tree canopy or in Envi­ron­men­tal Jus­tice areas.

Cur­rent Tree Pitts­burgh staff mem­ber Clara Kiton­go will tran­si­tion from her role as One Tree Per Child Pro­gram Man­ag­er to this new­ly cre­at­ed posi­tion. As the Tree Equi­ty Man­ag­er, Clara will play a piv­otal role in fos­ter­ing strong col­lab­o­ra­tions with com­mu­ni­ties, res­i­dents, and local organizations.

With the cre­ation of this posi­tion, Tree Pitts­burgh is deep­en­ing its com­mit­ment to com­mu­ni­ties and part­ner­ships in Pitts­burgh and Alleghe­ny Coun­ty. We will con­tin­ue to work in estab­lished ReLeaf neigh­bor­hoods (Beltzhoover, Cal­i­for­nia-Kirk­bride, Hazel­wood, Home­wood North, Home­wood South, Home­wood West, Lawrenceville, and Man­ches­ter-Chateau) and expand the pro­gram to more com­mu­ni­ties under the lead­er­ship of the Tree Equi­ty Man­ag­er. Clara will also sup­port the efforts of the new­ly cre­at­ed Pitts­burgh Shade Tree Com­mis­sion Tree Equi­ty Task Force whose goal is to exam­ine and refine poli­cies and prac­tices that have long per­pet­u­at­ed urban for­est dis­par­i­ties across the city.

“We will con­tin­ue to build rela­tion­ships in schools that are in these com­mu­ni­ties who are EJ com­mu­ni­ties or have low canopy,” said Kiton­go. “This new posi­tion allows us to have a guid­ing north star that is always ques­tion­ing how we are apply­ing our pro­gram­ming in com­mu­ni­ties and meet­ing them where they are.”

In a con­tin­ued effort to align the team with their skills and pas­sions, Com­mu­ni­ty Tree Spe­cilist Kelsey Mun­sick will take on the new role of Tree Ten­der Pro­gram Man­ag­er. She will help to increase engage­ment among Tree Ten­ders and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers in vol­un­teer oppor­tu­ni­ties as well as edu­ca­tion pro­grams. This role will allow her to con­tin­ue to work with ReLeaf com­mu­ni­ties in a new capacity.

With the cre­ation of these new posi­tions, Tree Pitts­burgh is hir­ing a new One Tree Per Child Pro­gram Man­ag­er. To learn more, please vis­it this link.