The Burgh Diaspora Has Landed

Perusing Chad Hermann's blog, I notice his scathing criticism of a blurb in the Post-Gazette's Bits&Bytes notes. Tim McNulty's "verbiage" aside, I was delighted to see that the Heinz Endowment is earmarking $600,000 for a Burgh Diaspora project, which Donald Bonk will spearhead:

The Heinz Endowments has invested $600,000 into a three-year effort to tap into the skills, connections and perhaps the wallets of the Pittsburgh "diaspora" -- people living and working all over the world with ties to Carnegie Mellon University and a yen for Pittsburgh.

The goal, said Christina Gabriel, the endowment's director of innovation economy programs, is to ignite growth in the local startup sector by linking the startups to the legions of well-connected talent in other locales.

Huzzah! I'm reminded that the Post-Gazette once quoted Dr. Gabriel as saying, "We should look at the Steeler Nation. It says there is a diaspora out there, and if there were jobs, many of those people would come streaming back."

I don't know if they would come streaming back, but I'm delighted to see her follow up on that particular vision. I look forward to reading Mr. Bonk's plan, which is supposed to be done later this month.