Building Community: A Women's History Month Spotlight with Siena Kane

The URA is celebrating Women’s History Month by highlighting a few women who work  on our team. These employee spotlights are a small way of showing our appreciation for the important work they’ve done for the URA, the City of Pittsburgh, and beyond.

Siena Kane, Assistant Director of Commercial Lending at the URA, has lived many lives in Pittsburgh. She said, “Pittsburgh is a small city, and there are communities within the city which make it even smaller. I went to school here, so I know people I went to school with. I worked in the service industry, so I know people from the service industry here. I worked in community development and nonprofits here, so I know people from that scene. Now as a parent in Pittsburgh, I’m meeting other parents in Pittsburgh.”

Siena is a proud, working mom, and the next five years are going to be a balancing act. She said, “The next five years for me are going to be learning how to juggle a professional career and being a parent to two young children. I want to grow my career and develop my skills as a leader, and I want to balance that with being a working mom. It’s not always easy, and we’re not always given the tools to make that easy. I’ve got a lot cut out for me.”

“I love having a career, I love having a life outside of parenthood, and I also love being a parent. I wouldn’t want any of those things to define me individually, but that shift to being a parent is crazy,” she continued. “All those memes of people with socks in their hair and a giant coffee mug is really what it’s like. I had no idea.”

It takes a village to raise kids, and the support systems parents have are critical to keeping working moms going. Siena said, “We have tons of neighbors that I can call on when I need help, and building relationships with people living similar lives has been really helpful too. Having those friends say, ‘I can watch your kid for the night. You should go on a bike ride,’ is a testament to the people and the community in Pittsburgh. It’s like an extended family for us.”

Pittsburgh is a neighborly city, and that’s part and parcel of the work we do every day. “Building strong neighborhoods and strong social connections is imperative to the work we do, and it’s been a savior in my own personal life too,” she said, “The city, the people who live here, the people I will meet in the future, I really appreciate living in a place where lasting connections and friendships are made so easily.”

You can read the rest of Siena’s interview here:

How long have you lived in Pittsburgh?

It’s going on 20 years that I’ve lived in Pittsburgh. I moved from the Philly suburbs, so I grew up in Delaware County and went to the University of Pittsburgh, and I’ve stayed ever since. There have been times that I’ve wanted to leave Pittsburgh, but I find that Pittsburgh has a lot of great opportunities. It’s a very friendly city, and I’ve made a really great community of friends, and I have great friendships that really feel like family here. And my husband is from Northeastern Ohio, so we’re close to his family, so that’s another reason too.

What’s the most memorable part of living here?

When I was younger, I fell in love with biking in Pittsburgh, and it made me fall in love with the city. I love the hills, I love the topography, the city steps. It’s a wonderful place to live. I didn’t learn how to drive until I was 28 years old, so my first experiences here were taking the bus, then riding a bike as my form of transportation. Riding a bike is something I really cherish about my time here. And much like the URA, one of my favorite parts of the city is the people. It’s probably been the reason I love being here the most and the reason I’ve stayed here the longest.

What’s been your most impactful experience at work?

As someone who has worked in neighborhoods, in community development, the people are the ones that have the vision and the drive to revitalize their communities, and it’s been an honor to be a part of their stories. To hear from someone saying “Oh, you helped so much,” when I feel like I really didn’t… I was just doing my job. It’s been humbling to see the culmination of all those experiences. It’s the thing I’m most proud of over the last ten years, to say I’ve supported this person or this initiative and to see what they’ve done.

What’s the legacy you want to leave?

I want to instill that we don’t have all the answers, but working with the community stakeholders to find a solution is the bedrock of our job. Doing things collaboratively, instead of just saying the things that need to be done, is so important. Finding solutions, building relationships on that grassroots, people-based level is something that I try to share with my team, and I think it’s really important to the work that we do. Working together makes it easier to achieve a goal.

What advice would you give yourself when you were younger?

Really, to have more confidence. I was always pretty timid to talk to a boss or a leader and ask them questions. Sometimes you feel like “I can’t do this,” or “I don’t know this,” and maybe, you can and maybe you have a lot to learn. I was often intimidated by leaders, and that really hindered me from the chances I could have learned from. Now, being a leader I’m always happy to share my experiences, or share things that I’ve learned. I didn’t really know that when I was younger in my career. I feel like the lack of confidence is something that a lot of women, unfortunately, have ingrained. A lot of women don’t know what they’re worth when asking for a promotion or a raise, or even being the one to speak up in a meeting, and so you have to challenge that and feel confident enough or convince yourself that you can do it. Talk yourself up! Or think, “What would a man do?”