A change in power
Diana Stares was charged up about the opportunity.
Washington & Jefferson College was launching its Center for Energy Policy and Management in the fall of 2011, and needed a director – someone to insert the plug. Stares, an environmental attorney for three decades, applied and was selected for the position.
Nearly five years later, the program is humming as it pursues its mission of “fostering the development of a national energy policy that has a place for all energy sources, minimizes environmental impact and promotes economic growth.” Its signature Energy Lecture Series during the school year continues to be popular, drawing near-capacity crowds.
But at a time when the nation is experiencing an energy transformation, so is W&J’s energy center. Stares has left the college to return to law, to return to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, where she worked for nearly 30 years. She left at 5 p.m. Friday and this morning was en route to Harrisburg for her first day back with the DEP.
“I’m on a tight schedule,” Stares said during an interview Friday, laughing as she had done frequently over the past 4 1/2 years. She was enamored of her job, and of the people she met during that time.
“This was a tough decision because I love W&J. They offered me an opportunity, and it’s been a wonderful experience,” said Stares, 60, of Mt. Lebanon. Corey Young, a 2011 W&J grad who worked with her the past three years, will her successor.
Stares said the DEP contacted her last winter about possibly returning and she decided to do so in late February. She did, however, stay on board for two more months.
The allure of returning to her previous profession proved to be overpowering.
“There’s something about going back to your roots and going home,” Stares said.
She will be something of a road warrior with the DEP. Stares is assigned to the main office in Harrisburg, and will typically split her workweek between there and the Pittsburgh office on Washington’s Landing.
Her duties are different in this second stint with the DEP. Stares is coordinating litigation in the agency’s six regional offices across the state. Previously, she managed the Pittsburgh litigation office, overseeing 12 to 17 attorneys “depending on the vagaries of the (state) budget.”
“The agency lost a lot of institutional knowledge with baby boomers retiring,” she said. “There are a lot of younger attorneys who are talented. There will be a lot of monitoring and training going on.”
W&J’s center has lost her institutional knowledge, but is gaining a replacement who is experienced with the school and the CEPM program. Young, 27, is a 2011 W&J graduate (Population and Development Studies) who went on to secure a master’s (City and Regional Planning at Clemson University). He was a Research Fellow at W&J, who worked full-time with Stares over the past year and on a contract basis for two years before that.
“I will do what I can to enrich experiences for students and experiences for the community,” said Young, who came to W&J in 2007 from Pasadena, Md., near Annapolis. “I’m excited about our programs. Someone may not be interested in a program about international energy prices, but may be interested in one on the energy efficiency of a home.”
Stares doesn’t believe he will fumble the baton.
“Corey is extremely capable, more than one would assume for his years,” she said. “We’re kind of separate from the college, kind of like a startup company. We’re involved with a lot of events, meet a lot of people. It’s not easy, but Corey will do a good job. I’m 100 percent confident of that.”
Young, who lives in the North Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh, will first tackle the Energy Lecture Series that will kick off in September. Speakers and dates have not been established for the fifth annual program, which began in the fall of 2012.
For the first time, it will be funded by the West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund. That is a major change from last year, when the lecture series was not. “All of the speakers volunteered their time,” Stares said.
EQT Corp.’s EQT Foundation provided funds for the first three years.
Young starts his new job today and praised his predecessor for preparing him for it.
“Diane has been a fantastic mentor. I’ve learned a great deal and I’m excited about the programs.”
Now he is charged up.