Former State Rep. Jake Wheatley, Angel Gober, and Dr. Kathi Elliott have been named for the new Pittsburgh mayor’s team.

By Lucia Shen

Photo: Now-Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, who at the time of the photo, was a state representative, speaks at a Pittsburgh Black Elected Officials Coalition press conference at Byers Hall on the campus of the Community College of Allegheny County on Oct. 7, 2021. By Ashlee Green

Mayor Ed Gainey assumed office on Jan. 3, and his new team includes three individuals with Northside ties. Former State Representative Jake Wheatley, who represented Pennsylvania’s 19th Congressional District, which includes parts of the Northside, is joining the administration as the mayor’s new chief of staff. Angel Gober, the executive director of OnePA, is the chair of the mayor’s transition team; and Dr. Kathi Elliott, CEO of Northside organization Gwen’s Girls, is leading the Community Health and Safety Committee. 

The Northside Chronicle spoke with Wheatley, who worked alongside Gainey in the Pa. House of Representatives before being selected for this new position, about his new role.

“I try to do whatever he needs me to do, but mostly it’s trying to make sure his big picture—what he wants to accomplish, what he promised to accomplish—that I help him do those things,” Wheatley said of the job. 

That big picture centers around making Pittsburgh the safest, most equitable city in America. For Wheatley, this means making sure Pittsburgh citizens have access to jobs and job training opportunities. 

“We feel like the mayor’s office can play a vital role in pulling our business community, pulling our foundation community, pulling our educational community, pulling our civic community all around one table; really working to build a seamless system around workforce and workforce development where you can go through a training opportunity and then see a job at the end of it,” Wheatley said.

Wheatley said that Pittsburgh has all of the pieces required to give everyone the opportunity to advance themselves, but people are working within silos; they’re not collaborating with others in the city to create this job market. 

“Part of what Ed’s vision is, [is] ‘How can we be the connector to take all these different job training programs and connect them to the jobs that are currently here and those that will be there in the future?’”

“We want this city to be equitable,” Wheatley said. “We don’t want anyone to feel like they don’t have a fair shot. We know that far too often in this city there are like two Pittsburghs… We really want to make sure we have all Pittsburghers no matter where they are, whether that’s Brookline, the Hill District, or the Northside, that they all feel like they’re part of the city.”

Wheatley said that while the last 10 years have really cemented his relationship with Gainey, they have known each other for even longer.

“… We go back almost 20 some years of knowing each other, working with each other, being opposed to each other, and it’s been a really wonderful ride, like a brotherhood.” 

Angel Gober, chair of the mayor’s transition team, has previous experience as the executive director of OnePA, a multi-issue organization dedicated to helping underserved communities and campaigning for education, economic, and environmental justice. 

Gober’s story started 19 years ago in the Northside when she joined the Northside Coalition for Fair Housing tenants’ union. The union’s fight against mass eviction in public housing foreshadowed Gober’s continued involvement in housing advocacy and community organizing. She’s also the president of the Brightwood Civic Group’s Board of Directors. 

“I’m grateful for this opportunity to serve,” Gober said in a tweet on Nov. 24. “I’m dedicated to working [with] this team to change the lives of the most vulnerable people in the City of Pittsburgh. This will be the most diverse administration that this city has ever seen.”

Dr. Kathi Elliott, CEO of Northside-based organization Gwen’s Girls, is the co-chair for the Community Health and Safety Committee. 

Gwen’s Girls, founded by Elliott’s mother, the late Gwendolyn Elliott, has been serving youth on the Northside since 2007. It offers after-school programs that provide academic support and emotional guidance on subjects such as healthy relationships and anger management. The organization takes a holistic approach to supporting each individual girl in the program, Elliott said, which is also something she is taking with her in her work as the new role with Gainey’s team.

“Each girl needs support as an individual. She has individual strengths that we can tap into and address her needs based on those,” Elliott said. “That’s similar to what the charge has been for this Community Health and Safety Committee: To take a holistic approach in looking at how we solve some of the issues that are disproportionately impacting Black and brown people in our city, but also everyone in our city.”

You can find more information about Gainey’s full transition team at gaineytransition.com.