We Can Be Podcast - The Heinz Endowments

Heinz Endowments President and “We Can Be” host Chris DeCardy welcomes Matt Galluzzo, the president and CEO of Riverlife, which serves as the north star for the redevelopment of Pittsburgh’s riverfronts with high-quality design, accessibility and environmental integrity.   From ancient Greek philosophy to our country’s own Native American history, cultures around the world have embraced variations of the phrase “water is life.” Millions will see the life that the Pittsburgh region has built along its rivers when the NFL draft comes to Pittsburgh in April of 2026. <Courtney - insert “listen” button here> Much of the beauty, public green space and vibrant activity along Pittsburgh’s Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers can be traced to Riverlife. The organization was established in 1999 with key support from the Endowments and Heinz family members who recognized the enormous potential of visually and environmentally sound riverfronts.   “For me, the real beauty of what we’ve accomplished is that generat

“Together, a network of public health professionals, air quality scientists, advocates and community groups can move the needle on air pollution,” Breathe Project Executive Director Matt Melahik tells host Chris DeCardy, president of The Heinz Endowments.   Founded with support from The Heinz Endowments in 2011 and now an independent organization, the Breathe Collaborative and its communications platform Breathe Project have set a national standard for community-centered, data-informed environmental groups.   Two of their innovative tracking systems have gained national attention. Their Breathe Cam project is a 24/7 live video feed showing visual components of air quality in multiple locations. Their Smell PGH app, developed in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab (Community, Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment), gives citizens an easy way to report their air quality experiences.     With a doctorate in systems engineering and as a professor teaching sustainability and environme

“My dream for every child is that they understand that there are no limits,” Demeshia Seals tells Heinz Endowments President and “We Can Be” host Chris DeCardy.   Demeshia is chief executive officer of the Sarah Heinz House, established by food entrepreneur H.J. Heinz’s son Howard Heinz on Pittsburgh’s North Side in 1901 as a resource for boys from immigrant families.   Two years later the Sarah Heinz House had the distinction of being the first organization of its kind in the country to serve both boys and girls at a time when doing so was unprecedented. It has given youth community-building experiences in sports, nature, well-being and life skills ever since. Its accomplishments gained national attention once again when the organization became a charter member of the national Boys and Girls Clubs of America in 1930.   Demeshia joined the Sarah Heinz House in 2023, bringing decades of experience with companies including Massaro Construction and Nike Inc., where she led its skills development programs.   She

“The value of public art is the space to ask questions and to imagine answers,” Tim Kaulen, founder and executive director of Industrial Arts Workshop, tells host and Endowments President Chris DeCardy in this episode of “We Can Be.”   A successful working artist and educator, Tim is also a thoughtful community advocate committed to public art, creative spaces and workforce development. Under his leadership, Industrial Arts Workshop began a decade ago as a mobile sculpture program that brought together high school students to learn safe welding and metal fabrication techniques, as well as artistic process, community engagement and team building.   Now with a permanent home in Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood community, a neighborhood with a deep history in the region’s steel industry, Industrial Arts Workshop has served more than 600 students, with many going on to careers in both the arts and the welding industry.   The large-scale welded steel sculptures Tim and his students and have created in prominent locations ac

For nearly a decade, Tammy Murphy has been on the front lines of the fight to protect families from the adverse environmental and health effects of fossil fuel extraction. Tammy is the public policy and advocacy manager for Make the Road Pennsylvania, a nonprofit that builds power for justice in Latinx, immigrant, and working-class communities of color, with a key focus on climate and environmental justice. Host and Endowments President Chris DeCardy met Tammy at a convening of environmental funders last year when she was the advocacy director at Physicians for a Social Responsibility Pennsylvania. She spoke movingly about her personal experience in helping amplify the voices of those experiencing serious health issues related to fracking. “It’s hard to talk about families who are losing their children, their spouses, or who have kids doing homework in hospitals because their parent is dying,” Tammy said. Tammy is fearless in speaking truth in corridors of power – evident when she led a demonstration inside t

Marques Redd, acclaimed artist and co-founder of multidisciplinary art collective Rainbow Serpent, is helping create the future of art by reviving ancient – and often erased – traditions. By uplifting Black LGBTQ creativity and culture through the exploration of emerging technologies, innovative healing protocols, African cosmologies, and multimedia art, he is sparking important dialogue and reconsideration of the Western artistic canon. He shares with Endowments President and podcast host Chris DeCardy why this dialogue is important, and how art creates a bridge for empathy and understanding. “Public artwork does have a psychic impact and can have a subtle kind of influence over people that might see it.” Marques says. “Ideas that may otherwise be passed over can be sparked into thoughtfulness and conversation when people engage with art.” A celebrated multimedia artist, independent scholar and traditional African cosmologist, Marques has had an impressive impact across the United States and in cities around

Colette Pichon Battle, Heinz Award for the Environment honoree and the vision and initiatives partner for the climate justice nonprofit Taproot Earth joins host Chris DeCardy. Colette  was inspired to shift her career from corporate law to environmental activism after her family’s experience in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina nearly two decades ago.   As the United States begins recovery from the historic devastation of Hurricanes Helene and Milton and faces increasingly serious effects of climate change, her leadership is helping address the urgent need for knowledgeable insight and direction.   “It is an emotional moment because you know that people are not going to pay attention to this issue in a deep and real way until you're hit by it,” Colette tells host and Endowments President Chris DeCardy. “But it is also a moment where I am reassured that the work that I've committed my life to is the right work.”   Born and raised in a close-knit family in the Bayou Liberty region of coastal Louisiana, Colette

Sharon Pillar, Pennsylvania Solar Center founder and executive director, is continuing the solar energy advocacy started nearly a half-century ago by former President Jimmy Carter, who recently marked his 100th birthday.   “It’s a lot different now than it was when President Carter put those solar panels on the West Wing roof,” Sharon tells host and Endowments President Chris DeCardy. "We are really seeing this proliferation and adoption of solar energy just taking off. And now with the Inflation Reduction Act, it's become an even bigger and undeniable game changer.”   From that first White House solar array in 1979 to the $90 billion in clean energy investment that came in the first six months of the 2022 IRA, a new generation of advocates is working tirelessly to bring the health, financial and workforce development benefits of solar energy to light.   Sharon has led solar and climate change programs at both PennFuture, a nonprofit that advocates for the clean energy economy, and the Solar Unified Network o

VoteRiders CEO and Executive Director Lauren Kunis is clear about what is at stake when it comes to those who are using false claims of voter fraud as the basis for enacting overly stringent voter ID laws. The laws affect 35 million voting-age citizens – a majority of whom are first-time voters, low-income residents, people of color and/or differently abled.    “Those who are already underrepresented in our electorate are most harmed and most disproportionately impacted by voter ID laws,” Lauren tells “We Can Be” host and Endowments President Chris DeCardy. “These laws are undermining our shared democracy and impacting all voters, not just ones from certain states or specific communities.”   Santa Monica, California-based VoteRiders is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization with a mission to ensure that all citizens can exercise their freedom to vote, with team members or partner organizations in 44 states and more than 10,000 volunteers across the country.   A fair, accessible voting experience is critical f

Dr. Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew, Allegheny Health Network’s first chief clinical diversity, equity and inclusion officer, wrote in a widely shared 2023 op-ed: “It is perilous to be Black and pregnant in America. We need to do better.”   The nationally respected expert in maternal and infant health equity is not afraid to speak out against health injustice or to amplify the startling differences between Black and white mothers and babies’ health outcomes – while helping forge a better way.   Dr. Larkins-Pettigrew’s expertise is especially critical in a nation where the number of Black babies who die within one year of birth is three times higher than the death rate of white babies. In Pittsburgh, where Allegheny Health Network is based, female Black infant mortality is higher than in 70% of similar-sized cities.   “When we do things that intervene and decrease those higher numbers for Black women, then we also decrease mortality rates for white women, so everyone wins,” Dr. Pettigrew tells “We Can Be” host and

Jen Flanagan is founder and executive director of Community Kitchen Pittsburgh, an employment-based social enterprise that empowers people through food service training and life skills mentoring. With an impressive 93% placement rate in professional kitchens for those who complete their training programs, she and her team are giving brighter futures to hundreds who find themselves struggling to overcome systemic barriers at the margins of society. After witnessing the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in NYC from her publishing company office window, Jen felt a change inside. "After 9/11, I decided I wanted to do something more with community service," she said. "I just wanted to change my trajectory." When an AmeriCorps VISTA program placement brought her to Pittsburgh, she soon realized the intersection of two of the most persistent issues our country is facing – food insecurity and access to living wage jobs – provided enormous potential to do good. She launched Community Kitchen Pittsbur

Leah Penniman, “Farming While Black” author, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm and Heinz Award for the Economy honoree has a deep commitment to sharing regenerative farming best practices and land stewardship with Black, Indigenous and people of color. Addressing racism and injustice in the food system is a central focus of her work. “When I was a young farmer growing up in the mid-90s and attending agricultural conferences and trainings,” Leah tells host Chris DeCardy, “it was very rare to see someone who looked like me or reflected my heritage, especially among leaders and experts.” Based in Petersburgh, NY, Soul Fire Farm started as an 80-acre family farm and has since blossomed into a nonprofit training center for Black and brown people to reconnect with the land and equip them with the skills needed to become leaders in the farming and food justice movement. Whether in her books – “Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists” and “Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guid

Dr. George Thurston, internationally respected scientist, professor and pioneer in the study and communication of the effects of air pollution’s impact on human health joins the “We Can Be” family.   ”Science is a way to bridge a lot of our societal division and distrust,” he tells Chris DeCardy, Heinz Endowments president and “We Can Be” host. “People trust science, and we have a responsibility to speak out when we can help.”   In 1987, Dr. Thurston published the first research that showed the association between fine particulate matter and human mortality. He was also a brave voice that spoke up in the aftermath of the 9/11 catastrophe in New York City when statements by municipal officials about air safety did not match the results of research that he and his team were undertaking.   More recently, Dr. Thurston led a groundbreaking, Endowments-funded study focusing on the myriad of health benefits Pittsburgh-region communities experienced after the closing of the Shenango Coke Works on Neville Island. The

Kilolo Luckett, nationally renowned art curator & founding executive director of ALMA | LEWIS, believes in the transformative power of art for both artist & audience.   “When we genuinely connect with art, we can dream whole other worlds of possibility,” she tells Heinz Endowments President Chris DeCardy, who takes the wheel as our podcast’s host on the first episode of this new season of “We Can Be.” “   With nearly 25 years of experience at respected art spaces including The Andy Warhol Museum & Wood Street Gallery, Kilolo founded ALMA | LEWIS as an experimental, contemporary art platform for critical thinking, constructive dialogue & creative expression dedicated to Black culture.   Featuring residencies designed to nurture rising & accomplished Black artists from around the world, Alma I Lewis is named after early 20th-century painter Alma Thomas, who has been cited as a “godmother of abstract painting,” & painter Norman Lewis, the winner of the top art prize at the 1955 Carnegie I

Ohio River Valley Institute Executive Director Joanne Kilgour joins host Philip Johnson, the Endowments’ senior program director for Environment & Health, in breaking down the hype around hydrogen hubs and carbon capture.      Hydrogen hubs have as their centerpiece massive pipeline networks that funnel carbon captured from power plants and factories to injection points for underground sequestration. Some present the process as key to our environmental future, but are the promises of jobs and a reduction in global warming real?   Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) was founded in 2020 with an aim of providing data-driven environmental research that advances a more prosperous, sustainable and equitable Appalachia. The organization has become a leading voice in researching and communicating what carbon capture and hydrogen hubs would really mean for our country's future.   “Our research shows that not only are hydrogen hubs likely to be costly, taking funding away from more sustainable, long-term solutions,”

Dr. Daniel Perkins, professor, founder and principal scientist of the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State University, leads the largest-ever longitudinal study of post-911 transitioning veterans, “The Veteran Metrics Initiative.”   Danny joins host Megan Andros, the Endowments’ senior program officer for veterans, in diving into the startling findings of his team’s research. Beginning with an initial cohort of 10,000 veterans, the study followed an eventual 6,700 veterans over a three-year period as they transitioned from active military duty to civilian life.    The resulting data has revealed hard truths about the bureaucratic, financial, health and vocational obstacles veterans often face, and provides a basis for asking: Are we failing our veterans at the moment they need us most?   Despite the enormous leadership skills, technical ability, and work ethic veterans bring to our world, the study found that only 34 percent of post-9/11 veterans were deemed successful in transitioning fr

Raqueeb Bey, the founder and executive director of Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh, joins this episode’s host, Endowments Vice President of Sustainability Andrew McElwaine, to discuss food deserts, the healing effects of holistic gardening and the organization’s surprise boost from alt-rock stars Rage Against the Machine.   Raqueeb founded Black Urban Gardeners (BUGS), a collective of Black men and women who use education and gardening experiences to address the food desert challenges that persist in many Black and brown communities, in 2015. As she came to recognize a fraying generational knowledge of how to garden, she was moved to take action through BUGS and Mama Africa's Green Scouts, a youth program she founded that teaches community gardening and sustainability.    “We don’t just grow food,” Raqueeb says. “We grow minds and leaders.”   Raqueeb shares her journey from a career in finance and banking to becoming a prominent figure in the growing food sovereignty movement, as well the the

Jeffrey Brown, PBS NewsHour chief correspondent for arts, culture and society,  joins “We Can Be” host Janet Sarbaugh, The Heinz Endowments’ vice president of Creativity, as they tackle one of the creative realm’s big questions: Are the arts essential?   “Art matters because it shows us a bit of the world we might not otherwise see,” Jeffrey says. “It takes us places we might not go because it makes us think, because it makes us know other people, because it makes us laugh and cry.”   In his more than 20 years with PBS NewsHour, Jeffrey has reported on a wide range of national and international arts- and culture-related issues.  He created PBS NewsHour's online "Art Beat” segments and its monthly book club, "Now Read This," a collaboration with The New York Times.   An Emmy and Peabody award-winner, Jeffrey is a talented creative in his own right, too. He wrote the well-received poetry collection “The News” and contributed to a newly released collection of essays titled “Are the Arts Essential?”   From the im

“I’ve had letters from young Black girls saying ‘I now know this is possible,’” Carlow University’s groundbreaking president Dr. Kathy Humphrey, tells “We Can Be” host Michelle Figlar, The Heinz Endowments’ vice president of Learning.   As the first Black president in Carlow’s nearly 100-year history, Dr. Humphrey brings a life-long love of teaching and a wealth of experience, including positions at the University of Pittsburgh and St. Louis University.   From playing school in her free time when she was a child to an ongoing belief that we must “treat teachers like the gold they are,” she has dedicated her professional life to helping students understand their true worth.  “It’s important that students know: ‘You are somebody. Your dreams are possible,’” she says.   Renowned for her efforts to “build the whole student” through programs that foster leadership, communication, social and “real world skills,” Dr. Humphrey’s dedication to young people comes naturally: She has 107 nieces and nephews, as well as tw

The importance of gratitude, what makes a community great, & his hope for what the future holds for the social change realm are among subjects Grant Oliphant covers as his tenure as president of The Heinz Endowments – & as host of “We Can Be” – comes to an end.   While the “We Can Be” podcast will continue with new episodes and hosts in the coming months, this episode includes Grant’s  reflections on the 70-plus guests he hosted over the past four seasons and spotlights why supporting those who speak truth to power is crucial.   “Challenging the conventional trains of thought takes bravery,” he said. “Sometimes advocates make people in power uncomfortable, and I think that’s OK.”   Grant shared the deep gratitude he feels toward the Heinz family and why the work of those in the social change community is critical to our country.   “Philanthropy does what government can’t and won’t do,” he said. “Government doesn’t invest in innovation and risk-taking, and philanthropy can – and does. It is an