Building Community: A Women's History Month Spotlight with Terrin Bailey-Belser

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.

Terrin Bailey-Belser, a Real Estate Transaction Support Coordinator with the URA, comes to work most days dressed to impress. “I’m a fashionista,” she said, “I love to style and dress well. I live by the ‘look-good, feel-good’ motto.” It takes time, care, and effort to dress well, and Terrin loves to help others do it too. “I enjoy the work that I do for the City and the URA allows me to do so in style. You never know when someone is taking photos in the office, so I stay ready for picture day!"

“I love encouraging people, and I like to make people feel good about themselves,” she said, “I’m a person that pays attention to other people and strive to help in any way I can. God has blessed me to be giving and understanding in that way. It’s an amazing feeling to know you can be of help to someone else, and for me that’s all the reward I need!”

Most of Terrin’s attention at the URA ends up directed toward property acquisitions and development. “Even just handling City-owned transfers to the URA, there’s communication back and forth with the departments of Planning and Finance, title companies, appraisal companies, developers and the different vendors we work with to acquire and develop land and structures throughout Pittsburgh… It’s literally a 23-step process, and it takes like two years to acquire the deed, and then we can start the steps for disposition.”

Terrin said that her mom has been a driving force throughout her life. “I’ve had a lot of people influence me at different times in my life, but my mother has always been there as my number one,” she said. “My mom, her upbringing was not the best. She went through a lot, and if she had never told me her story, I would have never known that she didn’t have the same stability, structure, guidance, and love she gave me and my brothers.”

Read the rest of Terrin’s interview to learn about her mom’s business and life growing up in Western PA.

How long have you lived in Pittsburgh?

Born and raised in Pittsburgh! I haven’t lived anywhere else, I came up in a suburb of Pittsburgh called McKeesport, but I’ve lived and explored around the city all through my life.

What’s the most memorable part of living here?

There are so many things I can mention but being a kid versus being grown now, the transition of seeing the city change over 30 plus years has been memorable. Coming downtown when I was a kid, it looked completely different than now. There was always something going on. I was part of a well-known drill team called Tthe Black Berets [in McKeesport] growing up, and we were always doing the parades downtown. I remember coming downtown was like an adventure, and we would shop at the big department stores. I even remember seeing the newspaper guy on the corner, and we don’t even have a daily print newspaper now, oh so much has changed. But change is good, we started to gain so much diversity and culture since I was younger. I love the direction we are headed in and our intellectual achievements in Pittsburgh.

As one of my favorite influential soul artists, Sam Cooke, said “A Change is Gonna Come.”

Who is an important mentor in your life?

I’ve had a lot of people influence me at different times in my life, but my mother has always been there. My mom—the background, she came from—her upbringing was not the best. She went through a lot. She was responsible for her and her three brothers at an extremely young age and became a young teen mother. If she had never told me her story, I would have never known that she didn’t have the same stability and structure she gave us.

Now, she has a successful cleaning company on its 29th year, and she started from nothing when I was a kid. She worked hard and had a good work ethic, and she instilled that in all of us [her kids]. My mom is a successful entrepreneur and business owner, with a history in community engagement and non-profits organizations. She’s worked for and been on the boards of several nonprofits like Hosanna House, YMCA, and the local NAACP to name a few.  The way she’s powerful, you would never know today where she came from. She’s a powerful and God-fearing woman who is ordained as a Pastor and continues to spread word and love of God.  

The story she started with is not the one she will end with. She’s gone from trials to triumph. She’s a strong, faithful, and good-hearted woman.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Young-er because I am young.

Really, I’d say don’t hesitate on yourself, your goals, and dreams. Don’t be in the way of yourself, thinking you have time (as we know, that’s the unknown). I’ve always been ambitious but thought that my dreams were too big for the real world, and I’ll have time to get to it. It took me having my back against the wall and becoming a mother to invest in myself, my goals, and my dreams for the sake of my family. Being a mother made it more challenging but worth every ounce of effort. I would sometimes think, “I should have gotten to that a while ago. I should have done this thing before I had my two girls. It would have been easier.”  But I know there is a lesson to be learned, an understanding to achieve, and a journey to be taken that makes it the most fulfilling when accomplished. Don’t let anything hinder you from evolving, so I would say do it all.

“Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” - Madam C.J. Walker