The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford

The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford strives to fulfill its mission of achieving higher excellence in teaching and learning while remaining committed to the region. Donations from alumni and friends enable Pitt-Bradford to enrich the lives of its community members through scholarships, advanced technology, academic and research programs, and renovations and constructions for buildings across the campus.

Pitt-Bradford is currently focusing on the following fundraising initiatives:

Pitt-Bradford Annual Fund

The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford's Annual Fund offers alumni, faculty, staff and friends of Pitt-Bradford the opportunity to support the University and its mission of providing a new level of excellence for teaching and learning. Annual contributions to the Annual Fund make a tremendous difference in the lives of our students.

Buy a Seat for the Arts

The opening of the Bromeley Family Theater in Blaisdell Hall has created a brand new arts facility at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. The Buy-A-Seat program gives donors an opportunity to contribute to the plays, concerts, art exhibits, lectures and more that Blaisdell Hall now provides for the community. Community arts groups and presenters also offer programs in the Bromeley Family Theater.

All contributions to the Buy-A-Seat program will support the Fine Arts/Communication Arts Endowment. This endowment will support additional programming and events in theatre, music, studio arts and the communication arts and make the best and most contemporary art accessible to Bradford and the surrounding region.

Scholarships

The future of Pitt-Bradford lies in its students, but only through continuing to offer financial support to its students can Pitt-Bradford continue to attract excellent prospects. Endowed scholarships give donors an opportunity to make a direct impact on current and future students at Pitt-Bradford.

Financial aid is an ongoing, critical need at Pitt-Bradford, where the majority of students are the first in their families to attend college. As students struggle to pay for their college educations, they find state and federal support for higher education decreasing. It is donations of private scholarship money that allow Pitt-Bradford to provide financial aid to those most in need. For Pitt-Bradford to remain competitive the number of scholarships must increase. 

Agnes L. and Lewis Lyle Thomas Scholarship Challenge

Agnes L. Thomas, a resident of Bradford for more than 50 years, provided in her will a bequest to the University that will be used to fund the Agnes L. and Lewis Lyle Thomas Scholarship Challenge. For as long as the funds last, the challenge will allow donors to double the amount of gifts between $5,000 and $50,000 to new or existing scholarships. The gifts must be paid within five years to be eligible.

For example, a $5,000 gift pledged over five years will yield a $10,000 gift to endow a scholarship or add to a scholarship fund.

Chapel

A new giving opportunity now exists - an interfaith chapel and center for spirituality, culture, and service learning.

The new nondenominational chapel will be a place for interfaith worship and meditation. It also will provide a site for religious services of all types, weddings, receptions, induction ceremonies, and small choral and musical performances.

The chapel and center for spirituality, culture, and service learning,with its serene location near the stream and nestled among the trees, will be apart for reflection and contemplation– a place with a spiritual sense where students can gather.

In addition, the university is interested in using the chapel andcenter for spirituality, culture, and service learningas a base for its volunteer service programs, expanding its reach beyond the campus perimeter and building on current community and social service.

Donor Spotlight

A Personal Collection

Cindy Gill and Bo Schwerin

The hills of Bradford, Pa., are brushed with autumn hues. Along tree-lined Congress Street, grand old houses drowse in the late-day glow. The sounds of children at play rise from a grassy yard. Not far away, at the head of Main Street, a few people stroll past the gazebo in the town’s public square, much like the town commons of New England villages. Many of Bradford’s early settlers were, in fact, New Englanders.

Jack Campbell grew up in this small Pennsylvania town, where he played baseball in a ragged lot at the end of Clarence Street and fell asleep to the soft wail of train whistles in the distance. The moments of his ordinary days as a small-town boy in post-WWII America could easily have inspired a Norman Rockwell painting.

This fall—many decades later—Campbell (CAS ’71) and his wife, Martha, returned to their hometown and its Pitt campus for an exhibition of their collection of Rockwell’s art. The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford recently hosted Norman Rockwell: A Personal Collection, which displayed 11 of the artworks owned by the Campbells. “It is our hope that this Rockwell exhibition draws a lot of attention to the school,” says Jack Campbell. “It’s a beautiful campus.”

As a young man just out of the U.S. Marines, Campbell enrolled at Pitt-Bradford in 1967 on the GI Bill. The school was a mere four years old and very much a work in progress. At the time, it offered the first two years of education toward an undergraduate degree. There wasn’t a central campus; instead, classes were held all over town—including the old Emery hardware store, the National Guard armory, and even the local bowling alley. Three years later, Martha Mackowski Campbell, a Bradford native, also began taking courses at the campus, which was in the early phase of building new structures on 111 acres of donated land, most of which was once an airport.

Now in its 42nd year, Pitt-Bradford sits on a handsome 170-acre campus, with several classroom buildings, an active student center, an arts and communications complex, a library, residence halls, and plenty of outdoor space in the midst of the Allegheny mountains and national forest. The campus grants four-year degrees, offers more than 40 programs, and enrolls an average of 1,000 full-time students.

The Campbells bought their first Norman Rockwell print in 1975, a few years after they married. Some of Rockwell’s art was vastly undervalued then. They continued to collect his prints as they could, and later they began acquiring original oil paintings. Eventually they gathered a mix of Rockwell pieces that encompass the artist’s career.

For Jack Campbell, the appeal of Rockwell’s work is both universally American and rooted in Bradford and western Pennsylvania. “Rockwell for us was very commonplace,” he says. “His work was on the cover of many magazines while we were growing up. So we came to see a lot of Rockwell art, and it was such a wonderful depiction of our way of life. It wasn’t hard to have favorite pieces of Rockwell that you could relate to.”

Certainly, Campbell has a few favorites from the exhibition. After graduation, he went to work for Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel. “I was transferred to Cleveland, Ohio,” he says, “and when we’d go back to see our family in Bradford, we’d drive right through Sharon, Pennsylvania.”

As it happens, Rockwell created a series of paintings about the steelmaking process for Sharon Steel Corporation, and the Campbells own two of these. “While [these paintings] are not my wife’s favorite pieces of Rockwell art, I imagine they might be mine,” he says.

Chances are that many Americans have a Rockwell favorite. For 60 years, the artist created paintings for everything from magazine covers to advertisements to illustrated books, including more than 300 covers for The Saturday Evening Post. His subjects, from the sleeping child in Night Before Christmas to the steel mill worker in Tube Mill Operator (both part of the exhibition), are indelibly American.

All the more reason the Campbells believe Pitt-Bradford was the right place to display their Rockwell collection. For them, the campus was and is a place of opportunity. “Pitt-Bradford gave us a chance we may never have received,” says Jack Campbell. “It gives a lot of people a chance to go to school, to succeed.” He credits the efforts of former Pitt-Bradford President Richard McDowell and current President Livingston Alexander with providing that chance.

McDowell and Alexander both know Jack and Martha Campbell as steadfast supporters of Pitt-Bradford. “They have a great love for their alma mater,” says Alexander, “which prompted them to lend us their treasured art collection. We are grateful to them for providing to the people of this region the rare opportunity to enjoy the timeless work of Norman Rockwell.”

The campus embraced the Campbell collection and created a series of events to celebrate the exhibit. Pitt faculty in history and art history presented lectures on Rockwell and his times. Soprano Nicole Cabell, the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2005 (the first American to win the competition in 20 years), gave a recital. One of Rockwell’s nephews, artist Richard Rockwell, visited campus to talk about his famous uncle, and Alec Chien, prize-winning pianist, closed the celebration with a performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

For now, the Campbells have returned to their home in Spring, Texas. But they’ll be back in Bradford soon enough, to visit family and keep up with the campus.

As Campbell talks about Pitt-Bradford today, it’s clear that he has assimilated a bit of Rockwell over the years. He mentions the many varieties of trees, how in the fall the leaves of hardwoods glow with colors that would challenge the most daring artist’s palette.

“In October,” he says, “it’s just out of a painting.”

Contact Us

Karen Niemic Buchheit

Executive Director of Institutional Advancement, Managing Direcotr of the Bradford Educational Foundation
Office: Hanley Library, First Floor
Phone: 814-362-5091
E-mail: kpb@pitt.edu

Karen N. Buchheit joined the University in 1990 and currently serves as chief development officer for the college and as a member of the President’s Cabinet. She manages and coordinates the capital campaign and programs for major gifts, planned giving and foundations and supervises alumni relations, annual giving, gift processing/database management, and stewardship. She also serves as the managing director and board member of the Bradford Educational Foundation. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Karen worked as a newspaper reporter and adjunct instructor of journalism. She lives in Bradford with her husband, Pete, who is director of facilities management at Pitt-Bradford; her two daughters; and their Bichon Frise. Outside of work she enjoys attending her daughters’ many school, sport and extracurricular activities and performances. Karen also volunteers her time with a number of organizations, namely the Bradford Creative & Performing Arts Center, the Kiwanis Club of Bradford, Bradford YWCA and YMCA, and booster clubs at Bradford Area High School. She enjoys reading; attending shows, especially Broadway musicals; traveling; shopping; and working out and walking.

Lindsay Hilton Retchless

Director of Alumni Relations
Office: Hanley Library, First Floor
Phone: 814-362-5273
E-mail: lhr2@pitt.edu

Lindsay H. Retchless joined the University to work at her alma mater in 2006. As director of alumni relations, she is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the relationship the University has with its alumni, helping the alumni stay connected to their alma mater, and connecting current students with graduates to create opportunities for mentorships and networking. After graduating from Pitt-Bradford in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in business management, Lindsay began her career in the development and alumni office at Archbishop Walsh High School in Olean, N.Y. She then moved to HomeCareand Hospice as the development manager. In her spare time, Lindsay enjoys cooking, baking, entertaining friends and family, gardening, and spending time with her husband, son and daughter.

Leslie Kallenborn

Assistant Director for Annual Giving Programs
Office: Hanley Library, Second Floor
Phone: 814-362-5145
E-mail: lek@pitt.edu

As assistant director for annual giving programs, Leslie Kallenborn isresponsible for developing and managing a comprehensive program of alumni and non-alumni (including friends, businesses, and faculty/staff) annual giving fund raising.Leslie has a strong background in marketing, project management and fundraising. Before coming to Pitt-Bradford, she workedas director of fund development and community outreach at Charles Cole Memorial Hospital in Coudersport. Prior to that, she worked seven years for Time Warner Cable (formerly Adelphia Communications)in various marketing positions, including competitive marketing project manager and support liaison for the national sales, marketing and retention call center. Leslie received a bachelor’s degree in business management from St. Francis University in 2000. In her spare time, Leslie enjoys cooking, shopping, scrapbooking, golfing, boating on Keuka Lake, and spending time with family and friends. She and her husband, Jim, reside in Port Allegany.

Joelle Warner

Manager of Donor Services
Phone: 814-362-5091
E-mail: jaw104@pitt.edu

Joelle Warner started working at Pitt-Bradford in 2007. As manager of donor services, Joelle is responsible for managing the endowment and scholarship stewardship program. She sends reports to donors and staff members showing the status of endowed funds at Pitt-Bradford. Joelle assists donors with setting up their endowed funds and coordinates a thank you letter program, where student recipients of the scholarships send thank you letters to the donors. In addition, she plans and manages special events such as the Leadership Donor Reception and the Donor Scholarship Event. Joelle graduated from Penn State University in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in recreation and park management with an emphasis in commercial recreation and tourism. She began her career as a program coordinator for Big Brothers Big Sisters of McKean County. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, reading, baking, walking her dog, and spending time with her Little Sister through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.

Michelle Buchholz

Manager of Advancement Services
Office: Hanley Library, First Floor
Phone: 814-362-5091
E-mail: buchholz@pitt.edu

As manager of advancement services, Michelle Buchholz is responsible for maintaining a database, The Raiser’s Edge, of over 15,000 records. She is also responsible for gift processing and reporting. After graduating from Olean Business Institute in 1990 with an associate’s degree in Information Systems, Michelle worked for ten years as the office manager for Avemco Insurance Company, providing aviation insurance for private aircraft owners. She is currently attending Empire State College part-time with an anticipated graduation of December 2009, with a bachelor’s degree in business management. Michelle spends most of her time at sporting events watching her two sons, and also enjoys nature photography, hiking and skiing down the slopes in the winter.

Melissa Stiles

Administrative Assistant
Office: Hanley Library, First Floor
Phone: 814-362-5091
E-mail: mas292@pitt.edu

As administrative assistant, Melissa Stiles is responsible for maintaining the department budgets, preparing correspondence and reports, providing database management support, and assisting with planning and managing special events and programs. Melissa graduated from St. Bonaventure University in 2004 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting. In her spare time she enjoys cooking for her husband and son, watching the Food Network, and enjoying the outdoors with family and her two Boston terriers.