Esther L. Bush to retire as President/CEO of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh

by Rob Taylor Jr.
Courier Staff Writer

National Urban League President and CEO Marc M. Morial had nothing but praise for Esther L. Bush, saying “few individuals have done as much to advance racial equity and economic justice in Western Pennsylvania in the last half-century” as her.

Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh Board Chair Alan Trivilino said that Bush “helped transform this important organization, which will have a lasting impact on so many in the Pittsburgh region.”

Bush, highly recognizable, personable, authentic and unabashed, has been President and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh for 27 years. Today, she officially announced that she would be retiring as the leader of one of the top-rated Urban League affiliates in the country.

“I am comfortable retiring at this time because I have experienced highs and challenges that I think have brought us to where the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh is today, and I say that with a great deal of thanks to the entire community,” Bush told the New Pittsburgh Courier in an exclusive interview, June 1. “I honestly feel like it is time for me to pass the baton, and I am so impressed and excited about what I see coming from the younger generation.”
An exact date for Bush’s retirement has not been finalized.

The year 2021 marks 41 years in the Urban League family for Bush, who graduated from Westinghouse High School in 1969. Bush earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Morgan State University and a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Johns Hopkins University. She began her career as a high school teacher and later worked as a college administrator and corporate consultant. She moved progressively up the ladder in the Urban League, a release from the Urban League stated, starting in 1980 with the position of assistant director of the Labor Education Advancement Program for the National Urban League in New York City. From there, she served first as director of the New York Urban League Staten Island Branch, then as director of its Manhattan Branch. Before returning to her hometown of Pittsburgh in December 1994, Bush served as President and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Hartford.

ESTHER L. BUSH has led the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh since 1994.

More than anything else, Bush is a tireless advocate for education. She told the Courier that one of her greatest accomplishments during her tenure as Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh President and CEO was the formation of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh Charter School in 1998.

“I felt like I had a hand in helping African American children develop to their fullest potential,” Bush said. “There is nothing more satisfying than that.”
There were other accomplishments that stood out in Bush’s mind, such as the three trips the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh sponsored to Africa, where participants toured the slave castles in Ghana. And people still talk glowingly about Pittsburgh’s hosting of the National Urban League Conference in 2013, Morial’s first national conference as president.

“I am extremely proud of not only the work of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh in sponsoring that conference, but I’m extremely proud of how the city came together,” Bush told the Courier. “It had been 50 years since Pittsburgh last hosted a National Urban League Conference. Our conference is still looked at as one of the best ever.”

Bush’s profile spans across the nation. In February 2013, Bush was one of 10 Americans recognized at the White House as a Champion of Change in the Educational Excellence for African Americans program. And she told the Courier she was especially proud to serve on the Pennsylvania State Board of Education. In fact, “Education and Youth Empowerment” is the first of the five-point strategy that the Urban League uses in its overall mission to secure economic self-reliance, parity and power, and civil rights for African Americans.

Under Bush’s leadership, the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh has received a “5 out of 5” top rating from the national chapter in its assessment of the Pittsburgh affiliate. Very few affiliates receive a “5” rating, and Bush told the Courier that her staff plays a vital role in that top rating.

“My staff is awesome,” Bush said. “They not only got the ‘5’ ratings, but you talk about being mission-driven, because you cannot do this for the pay. I really do have mission-driven staff and I have mission-driven board members.”

Bush said the Urban League Board of Directors has supported her leadership, and “that is no small statement,” she said.

Television viewers have also been able to find Bush on WQED-TV, as the station airs the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh’s “State of Black Pittsburgh” yearly report in visual form.

“We know that the African American community in Pittsburgh is far from where it should be,” Bush told the Courier.

Bush is unafraid to appear on radio and television programs in the city, holding corporations accountable, or even calling them out, for not committing to a more diverse workforce and other equity-related issues.

“After the George Floyd situation, I believe that there are many more people that are becoming more and more sensitive to just how unfair, unequal it is for Black folks to try to make it,” Bush told the Courier. “The African American community, I have always said; we make it in spite of, not because of. I appreciate every grant I get from the federal government to a local foundation to a corporation. But it’s not enough, because we’re not treated equally. If we were treated equally, do you understand how awesome Pittsburgh would be? How awesome the United States would be?”

A nationwide search for Bush’s successor will be conducted. Trivilino, the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh Board Chair, said that Bush would continue to lead the organization and partner with the incoming CEO during the onboarding transition process.

As Bush steps away from the top chair at the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, she told the Courier it was wonderful to have the opportunity, after joining the National Urban League in 1980, to lead the local affiliate in her hometown. The town where her family moved to from Alabama in the early 1950s as her father searched for better work opportunities. She loved being a cheerleader for the Westinghouse Bulldogs in the late ‘60s, as she recalled how much of a powerhouse the football team was back then.

“I feel fulfilled,” Bush told the Courier exclusively. “I feel fulfilled in the work I have done with the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and everybody who’ve been our partners.”

Morial, the National Urban League President and CEO, added about Bush: “Her enthusiasm, expertise, positive energy, and record of success leave an indelible mark on Pittsburgh and the entire Urban League movement.”

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