Draw the Lines PA is organized around three regions, each led by its own steering committee composed of civic, business and education leaders who represent a cross-section of that region.
Some well-known citizens of Pennsylvania have stepped forward to act as chairs of the committee, including a former governor, former Superior Court Judge, former U.S. attorney and a former state senator.
The West region’s steering committee is chaired by Maureen Lally-Green, the former Superior Court judge, and Frederick Thieman, the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Lally-Green is now dean of the law school at Duquesne University. Thieman is the Henry Buhl, Jr. Chair for Civic Leadership with the Buhl Foundation.
In the Central region, the co-chairs are former Republican state Sen. Mike Brubaker of Lancaster County and Sandy Strauss, head of policy and advocacy for the Pennsylvania Council of Churches.
In the East, former Republican Gov. Mark Schweiker (pictured) agreed to lead the effort, along with Sharmain Matlock-Turner, a longtime civic leader in Philadelphia and the CEO of the Urban Affairs Coalition.
Thanks to Draw the Lines’ focus on engaging high school and college students, the steering committees include many educators and college administrators.
Among the institutions and organizations represented on the committees are Pittsburgh, Carnegie-Mellon, Duquesne, Harrisburg, Penn State, Drexel, Wilkes, Temple, Kutztown, Mercyhurst, Gannon, Widener and Pennsylvania universities, as well as Dickinson College, Washington and Jefferson College, the School District of Philadelphia and the Remake Learning initiative in Allegheny College.
Review the rosters of each of three steering committees.
While the Draw the Lines initiative is run out of the Committee of Seventy good-government group in Philadelphia, it has two regional “host organizations” that serve as its base of operations in the West and Central regions.
In the West, that is Duquesne University and its law school.
In the Central region, it’s the Commonwealth Law School of Widener University.
Each steering committee is charged with promoting Draw the Lines, seeding it on school and college campuses, recruiting partners, helping to organize DTL events and supervising the judging of its twice-yearly mapping competitions.
Eventually, the project would like to expand the number of steering committees to six, adding them in northeast, north central and northwest Pennsylvania. The goal would be to move the initiative closer to the ground and to ensure a significant presence in the areas farthest away from Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia. With an eye on that objective, steering committee members are still being recruited, with a particular focus on adding members from those northern areas.
