OBID Team

Georgia Petropoulos is an accomplished non-profit executive in the fields of economic development and urban place management. At the Oakland Business Improvement District, she leads a dynamic organization representing the business, civic, education and medical sectors of Pittsburgh’s largest hospital and university town. Under her guidance, the organization developed successful public/ private partnerships that invested over $8 million for critical services and improvements in support of Pennsylvania’s third largest economic center.

Drawing on her background in architecture, she spearheads various design-based visionary projects such as Innovation Oakland (focused on 21st century approaches to community place making) and Oakland For All (a collaborative e ffort advocating for accessible communities).

In addition to her executive career, Georgia serves on various advisory committees and boards including Community Human Services, the Oakland Transportation Management Association, the City-County Task Force on Disabilities, and the Urban Land Institute Women’s Leadership Initiative Steering Committee. Georgia completed executive training at the Center for Creative Leadership in San Diego, California, and is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies/French Language & Literature from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters of Architecture from Washington University.

As a bi-lingual daughter of Greek immigrants, Georgia is passionate about all things culture and design and has enjoyed extensive travels throughout North America, Europe, and Africa.

Georgia can be reached at georgia@oaklandbid.org.

After playing a critical role in GLOWLAND as a consultant, Shawn was brought on full-time as our Director of Public Realm Experience. With him, he brings his expertise in visitor experience, customer service, operational planning, project and event management and leadership to our organization after working with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy for a decade.

Book time with Shawn to discuss all-things public spaces via Calendly.

Block By Block, a nationally recognized contractor, provides cleaning and maintenance services for the District. Our crew works seven days per week to ensure that the commercial corridor remains free of litter and debris. We collect more than 24,000 pounds of trash annually!

Of course, litter removal is just the first step in creating an attractive streetscape. Our crew also removes weeds, graffiti, illegal flyers, stickers and staples from our infrastructure. During the fall season, the crew also ensures that the leaf buildup is removed along with the typical litter and debris. The crew also uses a hot-water pressure washer to remove gum, grease, dirt and grime from all of our district’s sidewalks to give our district a special shine.