TALI’s Executive Leadership Academy making big impact in Pittsburgh, beyond

CALVIN STOVALL, DR. MARGARET LARKINS-PETTIGREW, EVAN FRAZIER (PHOTOS BY BRIAN COOK SR.) 21 new cohort members in the 2024 graduating class & The Advanced Leadership Institute is a machine. Year after year, TALI, as it’s known, is pumping out the future Black CEOs and other C-Suite Level executives, especially in a region where top Black executives of companies are hard to find. On July 19, TALI and its academic partner, the famed Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business, celebrated its latest graduates of its “Executive Leadership Academy,” 21 distinguished individuals, at an event on the CMU campus. The Executive Leadership Academy is an executive education program uniquely designed to address the challenges faced by Black professionals and help senior-level managers and executives advance in their careers, according to a TALI news release. This year’s ELA graduates are: John (Mamadou) Bah, Procurement Global Finance Director, PPG; Godfrey Bethea, Vice President of Equity, People, and Culture, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank; Lyasha Bishop-Gaines, Executive Director, The Early Excellence Project; Donminika Brown, Chief Financial Officer, Pittsburgh Regional Transit; Brandon Grinage, SVP Regional Manager, PNC; Donny Hamilton, Gateway Project Manager, Federal Railroad Administration; Alyssa Ford Heywood, Director, Performance Management, Pittsburgh Public Schools; Joyce...