Dave Coplan is the Executive Director of the Human Services Center and Director of the Mon Valley Providers Council. The Human Services Center was honored as the recipient of the 2004 Wishart Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management awarded by The Forbes Funds of The Pittsburgh Foundation. In 2012, Dave was the inaugural recipient of the statewide CAAP Sargent Shriver Community Service Award.

Jessica Pelland is a senior biology and psychology major at the University of Pittsburgh. Jessica is very involved on campus serving as the President of Pitt’s Animal Lovers Club, a Laboratory Assistant in a neuroscience and psychology lab, a Peer Leader for the Academic Resource Center, and a Undergraduate Teaching Assistant for Biology 2. She intends to complete her PhD in the future and do research and teach in veterinary medicine for a career.

As a Massachusetts native who relocated to Pittsburgh in 2013, Deb Hopkins spent more than two decades in New England focusing on leveraging the energy and passion of dedicated volunteers to create meaningful change in the community. She served as the Executive Director of three organizations that relied heavily upon volunteer resources to improve the quality of life for at-risk children – CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for abused and neglected children), Junior Achievement, and Girls Inc.

Jason Davison will graduate in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Minors in Spanish and Linguistics from the University of Pittsburgh. He currently serves as a House Manager at the William Pitt Union Building on campus as well as serves as the Secretary and Social Chair of Omicron Delta Kappa. Jason interned abroad in Sydney, Australia! Read his interview below and learn more about his international experience: 

Daniel Frank McCoy is a native of Pittsburgh, a 2012 graduate of Fox Chapel High School and a student at the University of Pittsburgh. Dan was born with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.

Writer, Hedonist, Patron of the Arts. Ariadne Vales d. Caldera is the founder of the travel and lifestyle blog Born in Purple. Dublin Street is her first book. The author currently resides in her native New York after a protracted stint in Europe. When she isn't writing, she is tending to her legions of honeybees, all named Persephone.

Rachel Bukowitz is a sociology and environmental studies major at the University of Pittsburgh. She interned at the Israeli Wildlife Hospital during the summer of 2014 where her responsibilities focused on caring for sick and injured animals [primarily young ones in the nursery] and then releasing the animals back into the wild.

Every so often, a book comes along that beautifully, powerfully reminds you of humanity. One such book is the first in a series (YAY!), entitled Untamed. Written by Madeline Dyer, this YA novel takes a look at a world that is changed - and who the changemakers are. From the start of Untamed, you're pulled into the arc of the story, as if one of the family. Then (and make note of this, so you plan for it) you won't be able to put the book down. Meals? Who needs them! Sleep? Ditto!

I grew up near Paw Paw, Michigan, and yet never thought of it as a place for the so-named fruit. All that has changed now, with Sara Bir's genius new guide, The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook. Bir knows her stuff - she's a food writer and researcher extraordinaire, and she brings those talents to this recipe zine.