Allegheny County Democratic Committee

Dan Miller HD 42

Dan Miller

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As the eldest child of immigrant parents, Dan was the first member of his family born in America. Raised by a single mom from an early age, finances were often challenging. Even so, his family instilled in him a strong appreciation and recognition of the special opportunities America offers. As a result, Dan has made public service an important part of his life.

He enlisted in the Army National Guard after high school. While his military service was cut short due to injury, he found another way to engage in service. As a Team Leader in the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corp, he led a team of young people working on community projects across the Mid-Atlantic. Dan earned undergraduate degrees in education and history and became a teacher. He later graduated with a law degree from Catholic University, where he received two community service awards, chaired their public interest auction, and served as executive editor of their communications journal. Upon passing the bar Dan decided to serve the community again as a public defender focusing on juveniles and later as a county solicitor where he worked to make sure kids were safe in their homes and received a proper education.

Dan and his wife Kim moved to Mt. Lebanon, where they currently live with their one son. Dan joined the Mt. Lebanon Fire Department as a volunteer firefighter and in 2011 he was awarded the Medal of Merit for his attempt to save the life of a three-year-old child from a devastating house fire. He went on to be elected municipal commissioner, and has served the community as a board member of such local institutions as Outreach Teen and Family Center, the Center for Theater Arts, and the Hollywood Theater in Dormont.

Dan was elected to the House of Representatives in 2013 and currently serves on the Education Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Labor and Industry Committee, as well as the Human Services and Children and Youth Committees. He is the co-chair of the Sub-Committee on Special Education and the Autism and Intellectual Disabilities Caucus. Additionally, Dan is a member of the Government Reform, Steel, Heroin, Opioid Prevention Education (HOPE), Early Childhood Education, Equality, and the Fire/EMS caucuses.

As state representative, Dan has received awards for his advocacy for people with disabilities from Achieva, The Peal Center, and the Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association, and he has been awarded a lifetime membership in the PTA.

Austin Davis

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At an early age Austin knew that he wanted to dedicate his life and career to public service. A lifelong resident of the McKeesport, in high school Davis founded and served as Chairman of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council under McKeesport Mayor James Brewster. After graduating high school in 2008 he attended the University of Pittsburgh. While in college Austin was hired as a Legislative Intern by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. At the age of 21, the Tribune Review called him “a veteran at the politics of helping others.”

Upon earning his degree in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh, Austin accepted a position with Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald to serve on his Executive team as an Executive Assistant to the County Executive. In this role, Austin spearheaded the County Executive’s Vision/ Transition teams early in the administration. Austin also represents the County Executive in a number of capacities including serving as Mr. Fitzgerald’s representative on the Jail Oversight Board, the Kane Foundation, the Minority, Women, and Disadvantage Business Enterprise Advisory Board, and the Shuman Detention Center Advisory Board. In addition, he currently serves as Vice-Chairman of the Allegheny County Housing Authority board of commissioners. Austin serves as the liaison between Municipal/Elected officials and the County Executive’s office. He is also responsible for constituent services and many other tasks that add to the day to day functions of the County Executive’s office.

Austin currently serves as the Vice-Chairman of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee as well as on board of directors of the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh, The Consortium for Public Education, Communities in Schools of Pittsburgh, and Auberle. In 2015 he served as United States Delegate to the One Young World Summit in Bangkok, Thailand. At the 2016 Democratic National Convention Austin served as a member of the Rules and By-Laws committee. He is committed to help better the lives of those in some of Pittsburgh’s most distressed communities. He has received numerous awards/recognitions for his work in government and the community such as Pittsburgh Magazines 40 under 40 award, Pittsburgh Tribune Reviews People to Watch (2015), the Josh Gibson Foundation Civil Service Award, the McKeesport NAACP Character Leadership Award, the New Pittsburgh Courier’s FAB 40 Award, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Gentleman of Excellence in Government Award, New Pittsburgh Courier Who’s Who in Black Pittsburgh, Champion Enterprise’s Public Service Award, CEA’s Community Builder Award and the Pittsburgh Service Summit’s Get Involved Male Emerging Leader Award.

Austin and his wife Blayre live in his lifelong hometown, McKeesport.

Joe Torsella

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Joseph M. Torsella is a successful civic leader who brings integrity, energy, and vision to the office of Pennsylvania State Treasurer.

Joe is the kind of commonsense problem-solver we need in public life. Because Treasury manages $100 billion in public funds and has pre-audit authority over every single check the Commonwealth issues, it’s an ideal platform for someone with Joe’s record of bringing efficiency, sound management, and innovation to the public sector, a theme of Joe’s career.

And because the Treasurer – who sits on nearly twenty consequential boards dealing with issues ranging from infrastructure to pensions to higher education – has such a wide-ranging role, Joe will be a strong voice for smart policy, fiscal responsibility, and public integrity on many, many issues that will shape Pennsylvania’s future:

  • A Record of Leadership and Service. From Philadelphia’s City Hall to the National Constitution Center to the halls of the United Nations, Joe has spent much of his career in public service, delivering impressive results even in challenging environments.
  • Committed to Transparency and Integrity. Joe’s efforts brought unprecedented new transparency to United Nations operations, and he has already won praise for his proposals to bring new accountability to Pennsylvania. As PA’s fiscal watchdog, Joe will open the state’s books, empowering every citizen to act as auditor. Under Joe’s leadership, Treasury will set the bar nationally as a leader in integrity and transparency.
  • Lifting the Fortunes of Low and Middle Income Families. Joe has a vision for Treasury as an engine for creating more prosperity for more Pennsylvanians. As America grapples with inequality and income disparities, Joe is preparing policies to help more Pennsylvania families improve their financial literacy and save for college, steps that can meaningfully change the economic lives of hard-working families.
  • Proven Results for Taxpayers. As Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning under Ed Rendell, Joe championed reforms that closed a $1.25 billion deficit without raising taxes and led to what the New York Times called “one of the most stunning turnarounds in recent urban history.” He will bring the same drive for efficiency and fiscally responsible management to Treasury.

From serving as an U.S. Representative to the United Nations to leading the development of the sparkling new National Constitution Center so effectively that the Philadelphia Inquirer declared him “a modern-day founding father,” Joe Torsella has always valued the need for innovation and new ideas in public service.

From 2011 to 2014, Joe was US Ambassador to the UN for Management and Reform. He was the architect and chief public spokesperson for the Obama Administration’s UN reform plans released in 2012, and was the United States government’s lead fiscal watchdog at the UN, from its $36 billion in annual budgets to its $41 billion pension fund to its $2 billion headquarters renovation project. In his tenure, the US reversed a decade-long trend of unbridled growth in UN budgets, brought new transparency to the UN through webcasting of meetings and publication of UN audits, and won milestone reforms toward ending sexual exploitation and abuse of civilian populations by UN peacekeepers and ending the unfair exclusion of Israel in UN bodies. Torsella’s plainspoken style earned him praise from UN watchers and from publications ranging from Le Monde to the New York Post, and he was recognized for his successful use of social media and public diplomacy to promote US policy. A UN outsider, Joe spoke frankly and colorfully about the need for the UN to end “business as usual” and frequently reminded his UN colleagues that the “obligation to our taxpayers” is to “do more with less.”

Prior to his service as an UN Ambassador, Joe served as Chairman of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education. In that role, Joe opened the board’s workings to the public – holding board meetings outside of Harrisburg for the first time in decades – and led the board to set forth an agenda around high school reform, teacher quality, healthy and safe schools, and college affordability. The Board’s hearings and proposals on making higher education more affordable won national notice and sparked legislative action in Pennsylvania.

From 1997 to 2003, Joe was the founding President and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a non-profit museum and education center dedicated to explaining and celebrating American ideas and ideals. As the driving force behind the concept, construction, and opening of the $200 million facility on Independence Mall, Joe led the Constitution Center to international acclaim, financial stability, and an unparalleled institutional reputation. He returned to the Constitution Center for a second term as CEO from 2006 to 2009, persuading President George H. W. Bush to join the Center as its Chairman, and working to establish the Center’s international program, including democracy education work in Afghanistan. Joe was asked to lead the National Constitution Center by then-Mayor Rendell.

Between 1992 and 1993, Joe served as Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning in Philadelphia under Rendell. He helped devise initiatives that helped resolve a $1.25 billion cumulative deficit. The New York Times hailed this nationally-acclaimed financial recovery as “the most stunning turnaround” in American municipal history. In addition to his career in government, Joe has served in a variety of high profile civic posts. In 2005, he co-chaired the Greater Philadelphia bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. A former successful small business owner, he serves on several corporate boards, and he served as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Public Policy at Drexel University.

Raised in Berwick, PA, Joe graduated from Wyoming Seminary high school. After graduating with honors from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Economics and History, Joe studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He lives with his wife, Carolyn P. Short, in Flourtown, Pennsylvania; they have four children.

Josh Shapiro

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Josh Shapiro is a rare public servant who has risen above politics time and again to take on the status quo and protect everyday Pennsylvanians.

As a State Representative, Josh wrote and passed some of the toughest ethics laws in state history. Philadelphia Magazine wrote that Josh was “a blast of oxygen in the smoke-choked back rooms of quid-pro-quo Harrisburg,” and his work earned him a national reputation as a bipartisan consensus builder.

Then, as Chairman of the Montgomery County Commissioners, he led a fiscal and ethical turnaround, took early steps to combat the heroin epidemic, helped the first LGBT couples in Pennsylvania marry and fired Wall Street money managers to save retirees millions. His work on behalf of victims and for criminal justice reform as the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency earned him the trust of law enforcement leaders from both parties.

As Attorney General, Josh has restored integrity to the office and is standing up for the rule of law and safeguarding Pennsylvanians’ rights — no matter what they look like, who they love, or who they pray or don’t pray to.

He has taken on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, identifying 301 predator priests and thousands of victims and spurring investigation across the United States. He has twice secured national injunctions protecting women’s access to no-cost contraception as required by the Affordable Care Act. He is fighting our country’s opioid epidemic on every front– including leading a multistate investigation into pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors.

Josh Shapiro earned his law degree at night from Georgetown University, and is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar. Josh was raised in Montgomery County, where he met his high school sweetheart, Lori, and where they are raising their four young children.

Jake Wheatley

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As the youngest child of Jake Wheatley, Sr. and Rosie Taylor, Jake learned rather quickly that in order to get things done, you need to step forward or get left behind.

It was with that attitude that led Jake to join the United States Marine Corps and serve his country during Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield. During that effort, Jake received the Combat Action Ribbon, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Kuwaiti Liberation Medal.

Additionally, Jake holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University where he graduated with honors and would then go on to receive a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Pittsburgh.

Jake would join the Coro Center for Civic Leadership, engaging in community affairs across Pittsburgh. And in that continued spirit of service, Jake was elected to the General Assembly where he has built a solid reputation as a thoughtful and independent champion for our community.

Jake is only the second member ever to be selected to serve on the powerful Appropriations Committee as a first-term legislator. Now, in his 7th term, Jake serves as Co-Chairman of both the Hunger Caucus and the After-School Caucus, and is the Treasurer of the bipartisan Legislative Budget and Finance Committee.

From his very first day of service, Jake has championed the cause of access and inclusion for all of Pennsylvanians. And Jake has been a stalwart for the 19th District, pushing for economic development, mass transit, and true education funding and academic advancements for all children. He has also been an advocate for providing leadership on covering every Pennsylvanian with quality, affordable and error-free care.

During his thirteen years in the state Legislature, Jake has earned the respect of his colleagues which have resulted in leadership appointments to the following posts:

  • Deputy Majority Whip for the House Democratic Caucus
  • Subcommittee Chairman of Education for the Appropriations Committee on Education
  • Subcommittee Chairman on Health for the Health and Human Services Committee
  • Vice Chair for the Democratic Policy Committee
  • Treasurer for the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus
  • Treasurer for the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee
  • Member, Education Committee
  • Member, Transportation Committee

 

When Leadership Matters

Jake Wheatley State Representative at State House

Working with his neighbors and residents of the 19th district, Jake led a community initiative calling for a Community Benefits Agreement between the Hill District community, the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, the Sports and Exhibition Authority, the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Improving the quality of education for all children is a high priority of Jake’s and as a member of the House Education Committee, he has initiated reforms to close the “achievement gap” in Pittsburgh’s schools.

When the Pittsburgh Public Schools budget called for school closings, Jake went to work to organize our entire community to address the concerns of parents and to give them a voice in how these decisions would impact their children and their families.

Jake Wheatley State Representative Shaking hands with a residentJake has worked with the Legislative Black Caucus to create the Public Health Crime and Violence Prevention Task Force that addressed the threat of violent crime, guns and other forms of crime and violence in our neighborhoods. Through this program, Jake is working hard to create high-quality after school programs which he views as essential to fighting the war on crime

His leadership helped ensure the communities most impacted by the creation of the gaming industry had a voice at the table. And because of that advocacy, Jake was able to receive a commitment of $6 million from Don Barden and the Rivers Casino, to be shared equally between the Northside and Hill District neighborhoods.

Working with other community stakeholders, Jake was able to bring about the completion of a multi-year community engagement process which led to a historic Community Benefits Agreement and CCIP.

 

The People’s Office

Jake Wheatley State Representative – The People’s Representative

Jake Wheatley has always believed that he works for those who have sent him to Harrisburg, and has used the late Speaker K. Leroy Irvis’ statement “Through us, they speak” as a guiding principle in his daily work.

For this same reason, Jake calls his district office “The People’s Office” as a daily reminder of this principle to himself, his staff, and the people he is honored to serve.

While the politics of Harrisburg are uncertain, there are a few things that remain constant: Jake leads with purpose so that each of our neighborhoods prosper.

Contact

The Allegheny County Democratic Committee.
22 Wabash St., Suite 205 Pittsburgh, PA 15220
ph: (412) 481-5646
Paid For And Authorized By The Allegheny County Democratic Committee.

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