For years, Lynette Lederman authored City of Pittsburgh proclamations. When the Squirrel Hill resident and communications coordinator finally became the subject of such a document — one that colleagues wrote to acknowledge her “remarkable legacy of local involvement” and intention to continue serving the community in the years to come — the experience was “surreal,” she said.
Seeing a near lifetime of efforts detailed and praised in an official record was not only gratifying but surprising and even a bit humorous, Lederman, 78, said. “Lynette Lederman Day is pretty special. I told my friends we’re going to celebrate every year on Sept. 30.”
The proclamation, which coincided with Lederman’s recent retirement from the City of Pittsburgh, articulated Lederman’s history, decades of dedication to regional betterment and an approach to public service — whether through paid efforts or as a volunteer — rooted simply in doing the job.
That mindset, she said, was never driven by a desire for recognition. Instead, the goal was always to contribute to the city and various organizations, including the National Council of Jewish Women, Tree of Life Congregation and the Hebrew Institute.
Lederman’s public service tenure includes more than 15 years as a “trusted colleague and advisor” to Corey O’Connor through his roles as Pittsburgh mayor, Allegheny County controller and as a City Council member.
O’Connor told the Chronicle that he’s known Lederman basically his “whole life.”
She is someone “that I rely on in my professional career, but in my personal life as well. She has always been a friend — somebody you could always rely on. Somebody that always had my back; and whatever the situation was, was always there with support.”
The warm feelings are mutual.
“One of the greatest accomplishments of my life was watching Mayor Corey O’Connor go from a kid, to a college graduate, to a newly elected official, to the mayor of the city of Pittsburgh — a city that his family loves dearly,” Lederman said.
Throughout their years working together, O’Connor said, Lederman consistently demonstrated an unwavering determination, regardless of the position. “She would not shy away from a conversation with anyone, and [also] had a great ability to bring people together from different areas, different walks of life, and connect the dots.”
During her time working with O’Connor and in the years that preceded it, Lederman displayed an uncanny ability to build relationships between individuals and organizations throughout the city.
“I think if you’re going to get stuff done, you need those types of relationships. And she was one that was able to do that all the way throughout her career,” O’Connor said.
Despite Lederman’s knack for creating partnerships, her pathway to public service wasn’t necessarily expected. She grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and then attended Northeastern University School of Nursing.
“I was pretty focused,” she said. “I wanted to be a nurse. I didn’t want to have to do everything at a liberal arts college.”
Early on, Lederman secured several jobs in Bridgeport, but they “didn’t carry the weight and the grit and the kind of gravity I wanted to have in my nursing career,” she said.
Lederman began traveling and eventually ended up in Los Angeles, where she met her future husband, a Pittsburgher.
The couple got married and returned to Pittsburgh, where there was a “glut of nurses — and I couldn’t get a job,” she said.
The former New Englander was finally hired by the Allegheny County Health Department, and spent nearly eight years as a public health nurse making home visits to Terrace Village.
The position afforded Lederman a chance to grow and “kind of see what was out there for me,” she said.
She eventually took a role with the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh and worked as a nurse both at J&R Day Camp and at Emma Kaufmann Camp, while raising two children.
“Around the time when my kids were getting older, I decided to start volunteering — that kind of is where you put your real self,” she said.
Lederman joined the PTA at Community Day School and became the group’s president — she followed the same path at Sterrett Classical and at Taylor Alderdice High School as well.
The positions enabled her to give back to her children’s schools, “but it was NCJW where I got my leadership chops,” she said.
Over the course of 30 years, she worked with talented professionals, including Peggy Outon, the longtime head of Robert Morris University’s Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management, and leaders from NCJW.
“One of my biggest accomplishments was running the children’s playrooms in the courts, and watching that evolve and fall back, and then evolve again. And it is still in operation, and it is a wonderful, wonderful program,” she said. Volunteering with local groups proved that “with the little wind under my wings, I could do more.”
Lederman became president of Tree of Life Congregation — the second woman to do so in the congregation’s more than 100-year history.
“After me came a slew of women who ran that synagogue and that congregation with great skill,” she said.
Her time within the community strengthened her conviction, she continued. “The whole notion of public service and leadership became part of who I am.”
Lederman served on the boards of several organizations, including Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, the Jewish Association on Aging and Riverview Towers, and said that along with meaningful work at the Jewish Women’s Foundation, some of her most valuable experiences occurred at the FISA Foundation, a more than century-old group focused on women, girls and people with disabilities.
Lederman spent four years as president of the group and said its “CEO leadership was second to none.”
Whether as a paid professional or volunteer, working on behalf of others reinforces a singularly Jewish teaching, she explained.
“You may not reach the goal, but you have an obligation to try,” she said. “I think that’s what has driven me.”
Her parents, she said, were “very old-school,” part of a generation whose priorities were largely centered on survival and providing for the next generation. But even as a child, she questioned the limited emphasis on helping people “who have less than you,” and wondered, “how do you deal with that?”
Lederman said she “struggled with that for years.”
Nursing school offered some answers because it “teaches you how to take the compassion that you already have and use it.” But it was through volunteering, and taking other positions rooted in public service, that reinforced “I could get a job done, and I could care about it.”
Lederman said that decades of service yielded a personal transformation and an awareness of what’s possible. She hopes others allow themselves to experience similar journeys.
Pittsburgh is a “very compassionate community. For the most part, people help each other,” she said. “There’s so much need in this community, and if you engage in it, you’re going to feel good about it, and you’ve actually helped somebody.”
Doing for others, “brought something different out in me,” she continued. “That’s what made me the person I am.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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