board of directors

Lynn DeLorenzo is a commercial real estate specialist with over 30 years of experience in the industry. Ms. DeLorenzo’s focus is on adding value to land through strategic analysis and repositioning of real estate. She has an extensive background in land, acquisitions and sales; and an understanding of entitlements and the horizontal development process.

Originally from the greater Pittsburgh region, Lynn spent over twenty years in south Florida where she was involved with master-planning large-scale land tracts, business parks with both office and industrial uses and the integration of housing, apartments, office and accessory retail into mixed-use environments. Ms. DeLorenzo continued to commute to Florida for several years before leading an acquisition of vacant commercial land at Parkway Center where it was re-positioned to apartments and sold by TARQUINCoRE, LLC to a national developer in 2012, the project is known as City Vista.

Ms. DeLorenzo has been active in NAIOP Pittsburgh and is a past chapter president. She was inducted into NAIOP Pittsburgh Hall of Fame in 2022.  Lynn is also a member of the ULI Pittsburgh District Council Executive Management Committee and Vice Chair-Emeritus of its Women’s Leadership Initiative.  She is active on municipal and government agency committees in the review of zoning codes, and transportation and economic development initiatives.

Elijah Hughes practices as an urban designer and strategic planner at HDR Inc in Pittsburgh, PA. His award-winning professional work emphasizes prudent, sustainable, and forward-looking investment by public agencies to foster equitable and impactful outcomes. His SW PA transportation work includes transit-oriented communities and corridor planning for Pittsburgh Regional Transit and a 10-county multimodal transportation plan for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.

Elijah was previously a researcher at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History where he published on the evolution of the mammalian brain and inner ear and was an adjunct faculty member of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture. Elijah received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Carnegie Mellon University and is an EcoDistricts Accredited Professional. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Allegheny Land Trust.

Throughout his career, Ken maintained a general real estate practice, with most of his time devoted to zoning, commercial leasing, and low- and mixed-income housing development. Ken’s clients included for- and non-profit developers and housing authorities. He also devoted a substantial amount of time to related pro bono work, including representing tenants faced with eviction and helping form tenants’ and homeowners’ organizations. During his legal career, he also had numerous occasions to assist his nonprofit clients with issues regarding the governance of nonprofit organizations.

Ken currently sits on the Board of the Rail Passengers Association and has been a member of the boards of several organizations, including Children’s International Summer Villages USA, the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, and the Thomas Merton Center. He has also served on the Allegheny County Transit Council, SPC’s Citizen’s Advisory Committee, and was a founding member of Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail.

Ken attended St. John’s College (Annapolis) and the Duquesne University Law School. He was a practicing attorney from 1984 until his retirement in 2016. He has always had an interest in how folks could get around without an automobile and is an extensive user of transit himself.

Passionate about driving change and re-writing narratives about the Black experience, Alyssa Lyon is the Director of the Black Environmental Collective.

Her experience as Sustainable Communities Director at Green Building Alliance helped her recognize the importance of amplifying marginalized voices in the sustainability sector, and that environmental justice is a civil rights issue.

The Black Environmental Collective includes 100+ cross-sectoral organizations, whose mission is to support Black communities’ ability to combat environmental threats to quality of life, food, environment/place, and climate change. Alyssa’s work ensures that through policy and issue advocacy, direct services, coalition building, and region-wide education, this will be achieved.

Alyssa has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Masters in Public Management from CMU Heinz College. She is a board member of Rebuild Together Pittsburgh, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, and Vice Chair for InvestPGH at the Urban Redevelopment Authority.  She has received many honors including Get Involved! Western PA Rising Star Award (2019), Pittsburgh Courier Fab 40 honoree (2019), The Incline: Who’s Next in Pittsburgh Community Leaders & Activists (2019).

In her spare time, Alyssa enjoys traveling with her wife, attending music festivals/concerts, and eating amazing food wherever she goes!

Vincent Valdes moved from Washington, D.C., to take over leadership of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), a federally certified Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) tasked with overseeing transportation projects in the region that use federal funds. Before coming to Pittsburgh, Valdes has extensive experience working in transportation, including most recently as the Associate Administrator for the Office of Research, Demonstration and Innovation with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. where he worked on everything from bus rapid transit development to automation and innovation in transportation.

Valdes was a lead planner with the District of Columbia Office of Planning, and worked for organizations including Inter-American Foundation, The World Bank, ICF Incorporated, and General Dynamics, Northrop, and Pratt & Whitney. He holds a master’s degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University and earned his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Boston University.