Q&A With The Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project Executive Director Josiah Gilliam

By Olivia Miller

Pittsburgh is a vibrant, diverse city full of talent, culture, and potential to create a bright and successful future. Josiah Gilliam, executive director of the Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project (PUMP), has made it his mission to secure the future of the city by engaging and mobilizing the youth in our community.

Q. Please detail how you got started as executive director at PUMP.

A. After attending events and getting to know the team, I served on the Board of Directors until 2022, so I was a fan of and familiar with the organization. When the former Executive Director decided it was time for a new adventure for him and the next generation of leadership, I considered the opportunity and decided it was the right call to throw my hat in the ring.

Q. I see you got your start working with Meals on Wheels and My Brother’s Keeper. What made you want to work with community outreach programs and nonprofits?

A. I went to Penn State for Political Science and had intended to go to law school somewhere in the City and got a part-time Meals on Wheels delivery and outreach job while I tended a local bar at night and studied for and took the LSATs. That organization ended up needing more help making community connections, recruiting volunteers, finding additional food sources and general partners, so my role became full time. I loved how practical and direct the work was and began to realize that we have a very robust nonprofit community in Pittsburgh. I looked for opportunities to work in other impact areas and aimed towards working with young people to maximize impact and learn more about the City. After working in workforce development, I built the website and then began working full-time for the Homewood Children’s Village. While there, Mayor Bill Peduto and County Executive Rich Fitzgerald signed on to President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative and I talked with the team and we applied to serve the initiative as staff support and a convener as we built towards an action plan for that initiative. The point I’m trying to make is that Pittsburgh has such a robust and diverse nonprofit scene that I was able to choose my own adventure over time and learn about a whole host of programs, partnerships, initiatives, networks, etc while doing so. After studying these terms conceptually in college, I relished the contrast of working directly with people.

Q. I also see you have worked with Mayor Ed Gainey and former mayor Bill Peduto. Why did you want to start working with public officials?

A. I loved my time working for two Pittsburgh Mayors - a truly special time in my career thus far. Initially, I joined Mayor Peduto’s office to run the My Brother’s Keeper Initiative that had since done regranting, formed an action plan, and fundraised in local philanthropy to support it. The position as Mayor Peduto designed it was housed in the Mayor’s Office and was a blend with Citiparks in order to do community engagement about conditions, programs, and opportunities in spaces the City owns or operates like Recreation Centers and Parks. I was then brought wholly into the Mayor’s Office when the Office of Equity was created. Mayor Gainey and Chief of Staff Wheatley invited me to stay on to continue the work of My Brother’s Keeper for the first Black Mayor in Pittsburgh’s history and to help the team as they hired and got the administration going. They added additional items to my plate like food equity work and Downtown as a neighborhood. It’s such a privilege and exciting opportunity to work for a Mayor. You get to meet all sorts of people and learn so much about what’s happening throughout the City and region. And you get to help people that are reaching out with problems they are facing or exciting opportunities for projects and it feels amazing to be part of the Mayor’s Office and the City of Pittsburgh serving neighbors in real time.

Q. What about Pittsburgh has brought you back to live and work?

A. I have family roots on both sides in the City and region and while I boomeranged out and in many times growing up, Pittsburgh was always home and I feel that it is where I am supposed to be.

Q. In your opinion, what is the future of Pittsburgh?

A. The future of Pittsburgh is bright and promising. We have a long storied history behind us with plenty of lessons learned, a community that has drawn closer together since the global pandemic and many examples of clear-eyed leadership focused on the challenges we have, an excellent blend of institutions, industries, amenities, resources, and people, and the chance to set up a new era of peace and prosperity. The future is not certain and we will have to strive and collaborate and build to achieve our promise, but I like what we have going for us and expect the Pittsburgh our children and their children will enjoy to be even better than the one we have now.

Q. What is your favorite project you have been a part of in your career?

A. I am proud of the Pittsburgh Passport. It is an initiative started five years ago to engage with graduate and college-age students to encourage them to explore Pittsburgh more and be directly connected to opportunities to recreate, build community, and build careers. It is a great example of what is possible when people in Pittsburgh from different sectors collaborate on an opportunity and laid some of the foundation for the new Talent Coalition that the Allegheny Conference, universities, and other partners are working on to engage with young Pittsburghers and talent more broadly and rigorously.

Q. What events or projects are in the works at PUMP for the future?

A. We are in the final phases of aligning a County Executive Candidate Forum. We are strictly nonpartisan, but want to give our members and the broader community opportunities to hear from and engage with people who have a vision on how they can help Pittsburgh become an even better place. And we will have our annual fundraising kickball tournament aptly named Kickball for a Cause on August 12th of this year. The beneficiaries are still being voted on by the community, so please feel free to vote for one of the six great finalists! If you are a PUMP member, your vote will count as two votes! (Become a PUMP member if you’re not already!)

Q. What is your ultimate goal for PUMP?

A. I want PUMP to build on the great stuff it is already doing and become an indispensable civic, recreation, and community building organization. If you are engaging with PUMP, I want there to be an ever-improving menu of options for you to learn, get active, have fun, learn about other ways to get involved, and to explore Pittsburgh and the region.

Q. I understand that PUMP’s purpose is to be the voice for young Pittsburghers. Why is it important for you to give young people a voice, especially as a young person yourself?

A. The reality is that in this current moment, there are so many excellent examples of youth leaders, youth voice, activism, and social change. We benefit greatly from hearing from diverse perspectives in life and the experience of young people can help inform decisions made in many different rooms - especially where young people are a focus or need to be reached. As such, I think PUMP’s role is to convene, connect, and provide a platform for many voices to be heard. We engage with tens of thousands of young professionals from all sorts of backgrounds each year and we want them to feel that they are valuable, informed, sought after to be leaders or at least participatory in this moment in Pittsburgh’s history. If we all row together, I am confident that we will do many great things and will be able to be proud of our chapter in Pittsburgh’s great history.