Office of Equity
The Office of Equity was established on May 8, 2019, through an executive order signed by Mayor Peduto, The Office of Equity was formed to support the Administration’s priorities to make Pittsburgh a livable city for all. According to Mayor Peduto’s executive order, the Office of Equity was created to conduct continuous in-depth analysis of outcomes, services and best practices of City departments to examine how they are contributing to inequity around the City of Pittsburgh. The Office, by design, is also expected to provide recommendations on policies and national best practices to address systemic inequities.
The Office of Equity is still titled “The Bureau of Neighborhood Empowerment” in the City Code. Upon signage of the underlying executive order, the Office was informally retitled “Office of Equity.” The former Bureau of Neighborhood Empowerment was formed in 2014 as a division of the Office of Mayor to provide equity, opportunity and inclusion for all Pittsburgh residents. The proposed managers and policy analysts that were to compose the Bureau of Neighborhood Empowerment were expected to be subject matter experts and policy specialists in critical areas that impact the equity of the City and focus on alleviating issues that exclude or evade residents from accessing opportunity or upward mobility. Under the Bureau of Neighborhood Empowerment structure, the position of the chief urban affairs officer served as the director of the Bureau of Neighborhood Empowerment. With the signing of the Office of Equity Executive Order, the role was amended to reflect the change of the entity and was titled “Chief Equity Officer.”
The Office of Equity is currently managed by Lindsay Powell, who was recently promoted to the role of City Chief Equity Officer and Deputy Chief of Staff after the recent departure of the former Deputy Chief of Staff, Majestic Lane. Given Ms. Powell’s brief time in the role, we were unable to gather substantive information regarding any strategic plans or goals for the office. Under the Peduto administration, this office primarily functions as the administrative liaison for the following City of Pittsburgh advisory groups, committees and commissions:
- Equal Opportunity Review Commission.
- Gender Equity Commission.
- Welcoming Pittsburgh Steering Committee.
- LGBTQIA+ Commission (coming soon).
Under the Chief Equity Officer’s purview are the following six (6) key areas, which are further discussed in greater detail in the “About the Agency—Description of Services” section of the report:
- Youth and education.
- Gender equity commission.
- Economic opportunity.
- Business inclusion.
- Critical communities.
- Special initiatives.
More about Office of Equity
Below is a list of content in the Office of Equity's Transition Brief (prepared by Thomas Consulting Group for The Pittsburgh Foundation).
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KEY FINDINGS
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MORE ABOUT THE OFFICE
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