Hi, folks. My name is Stan Kabala and I am the Associate Director of the Center for Environmental Research and Education (CERE) at Duquesne University, where I have worked since 1996. For 3RQ, I serve as the point person for the 3RQ Lower Allegheny region for our team here made up of Dr. John Stolz, Brady Porter, and Beth Dakin, grad student Oliver Dugas, and undergrad Lauren Drumm. For about 25 years now I have been working on different aspects of environmental affairs. In the context of environmental management in the U.S., I’ve focused on waste minimization, pollution prevention, and energy efficiency; environmental management systems in the public sector; and watershed-based approaches to storm water management, engaging in what has come to be called place-based technical assistance.
My interest in 3RQ stems from my work for the past 10 years or so that has included providing technical outreach programs for municipal government professionals on the use of innovative, upstream-focused storm water best management practices (BMP). Among other things, this led to the creation of the Inter-Municipal Environmental Forum, an informal organization of municipalities, non-profit organizations, watershed associations, county conservation districts, and state agencies that focused on watershed protection in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh on two adjoining counties.
In a parallel effort, this technical outreach to local government, took the form of working with local municipalities to develop GHG emissions inventories and climate action plans for their communities. In the late 1980s and 1990s I spent considerable time working similar issues at the intersection of environment and development in central and Eastern Europe, where I worked under the varied auspices of the World Bank, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and National Academy of Sciences. Recently I’ve extended that work to rural Mexico and Ghana.
Professional things, aside, I the father of four and grandfather of four, a kayaker, and avid—read fanatical—vegetable gardener, whose garden can be made out on Google Earthsatellite photos.