Tom Mattei, associate dean of Duquesne University’s Mylan School of Pharmacy, started his career as a pharmacist working in the Hill District. So telling an audience of Hill residents and stakeholders at the former AUBA Church on Centre Avenue that the university would open a community pharmacy in that spot this fall, he said was a thrill.

FIRST OF ITS KIND— Carl Redwood Jr., Hill Consensus Group chair; Esther Bush, Urban League president and CEO, and staff pharmacists; Charles Dougherty, Duquesne University president; J. Douglas Brinker, dean of Pharmacy, center, and Tom Mattei, associate dean of Pharmacy, far left, announce the opening of the nation’s first community pharmacy run by a university pharmacy school.

“I always wanted to thank my former patients from the Hill for all they did for me when I was starting,” Mattei said during the April 22 announcement. “I can’t think of a better way than this.”

The Hill District has been without a drugstore since Eckerd closed 10 years ago. Since then, residents have had to go Downtown, to Oakland, to the South Side or the North Side for pharmacy services.

By the time he had graduated from Westinghouse High School, Gregory Collier could barely read a paragraph. Even after taking an extra year to finish his requirements, Collier still worried his grades were not high enough to graduate.

“My education didn’t prepare me for anything except some subservient job,” Collier said. “I was basically passed through. In actuality they did me a disservice.”

GREGORY COLLIER

Since then Collier has spent his life helping others overcome their misfortune. With a master’s degree in organizational leadership, he has founded two youth outreach programs, fostered 15 children and currently serves the United Africa Support Center.

Two local community organizations announced new support to take their strategies of change “from paper to possibility…from planning to implementation.”

At a press conference at the Hill House Association April 26, the Black Political Empowerment Project and the Coalition Against Violence announced the hiring of a new Community Liaison and being the recipient of a three-year $150,000 grant given by the Pittsburgh Foundation.

COMMITTED TO CHANGE—Kenneth L. Huston, center, discusses his commitment and goals for making a change using the coalition document created by the Coalition Against Violence.

“We are thrilled and very appreciative of the Pittsburgh Foundation and their faith in the work we do,” said Tim Stevens, chairman of B-PEP and co-convener of the CAV. “We feel the foundation is recognizing and rewarding the work and passion that has been put into the Coalition document.”

Since January 2009, the Stanton Heights Community Organization has been trying to keep Neighborhood Academy, a private school, from being built in their “backyard.” The battle has disintegrated into a war of words with opposing sides unable to reach a compromise.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION— From left: Jean Bryant, Howard Harrington and Joyce Meggerson-Moore will be close neighbors to the new development.

“In January 2009, Neighborhood Academy introduced their plans to the community. Only about two people from around here were at that meeting. The majority of people there weren’t from this area,” said SHCO President Jean Bryant. “The next thing we knew, the school had approval to build. We approached the planning commission and asked them to rescind the approval and of course they could not.”