Jeanne B. Berdik

Jeanne Berdik has spent her career in non-profit leadership, coalition building, program development and volunteer management. As President of the Junior League of Pittsburgh, Jeanne oversaw the 1983 National Figure Skating Championship, the League’s most ambitious fundraising event to date and was on the Founding Committee of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. She chaired the AJLI’s Area II Council (1984-85) where she managed the training of regional Presidents-Elect and Presidents. As an AJLI Board member (1986-88), she chaired the Membership Diversification Committee and led the effort to help Leagues throughout the country address their diversity goals. She spearheaded the passage of an AJLI Bylaw that prohibited League meetings/functions at facilities which discriminated in their membership practices. 

In 2003, Jeanne founded the Pittsburgh Chapter of ARCS Foundation (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) whose mission is to strengthen America’s leadership in scientific research. She currently serves as Chair of Development. She was a member of the ARCS National Board 2003-2016 and served as national president 2011-2013. 

Jeanne also serves on the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden Board where she is responsible for the implementation of a Master Plan for this 100-acre property. She is a Trustee of the Orleans Conservation Trust, Orleans MA. She is also immediate Past President of the Nauset Garden Club where she led the creation of a regional ecological restoration initiative - Pollinator Pathway Cape Cod. 

Jeanne has served on numerous local and national Boards including the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, FISA Foundation, YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh, and National Association of Partners in Education. 

In her professional life, she built regional partnerships between business and education across Southwestern Pennsylvania. In 1996, she secured a $1.5 million school-to-work partnership grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support a STW network across nine counties. She served on the Board of the National Association of Partners in Education, the Coalition Learning Team for the National Alliance of Business, the national advisory committee for the GE Foundation’s College Bound project, and the steering committee for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) Manufacturing Industries Careers Alliance (MICA). She retired in 2001 as the Vice President of Workforce Education and Development for the Pittsburgh Technology Council. Jeanne has been married to her high-school sweetheart for 58 years and has three children and six grandchildren. She lives, sails and tends to her garden on Cape Cod.