Faces of the Valley: England native Michelle Thom plays big role in New Kensington’s revitalization

With her English accent, Michelle Thom is a unique voice in the ongoing revitalization of New Kensington.

From growing up in small towns between Manchester and Liverpool in Cheshire County in northwest England, Thom, 44, came to the Alle-Kiski Valley via stays in Germany and California.

She is asked about her accent every day.

“Not everybody picks up where I’m from immediately,” Thom said. “They have a lot of guesses.”

While still possessing a strong sense of wanderlust — she loves to travel and is an avid cave diver — Thom says she has taken root here.

“My whole life, everything I think about, everything I do, is based on New Kensington,” she said. “I think I’m needed here. This is where my passion is. Being involved in the community changes your perspective.”

Since first coming to New Kensington in 2008 to be the chief financial officer for an insulation business, Thom has become a key figure in the city’s recent business growth and many of the events and activities that have been drawing people into its formerly vacant downtown.

“For anybody to deny that she isn’t the primary catalyst for everything that’s good in the town for the last two years, you’d have to put your head in the sand,” said Mike Malcanas, owner of Mito Insulation, Olde Towne Overhaul and Voodoo Brewing New Kensington, all of which Thom has roles with.

In addition to putting in long hours at her jobs with Malcanas, Thom volunteers still more time working with others to plan and stage events and activities for adults and children to enjoy, Malcanas said.

“She goes above and beyond the job description,” he said. “She’s doing this for the love of this town.”

Her efforts have not gone unnoticed.

“Michelle is very creative and energetic. She adds really good ideas that make for successful events in our downtown,” Mayor Tom Guzzo said. “Michelle is focused on bringing people to our downtown to discover all the new businesses and what we have to offer.

“I really enjoy collaborating with her and discussing new ideas to keep our strong momentum going. I really like that we share a real ‘Why not New Kensington?’ attitude,” he said. “She is doing an outstanding job of executing both her business ideas along with entertainment ideas that are contributing so much to our overall revitalization.”

The daughter of a police officer father and a stay-home mother, Thom said she wanted to get out and travel. She was 16 in 1994 when she finished high school and left England for Germany, where she worked and lived in a theme park as a nanny for the family that owned the park.

From Germany, Thom went to Santa Rosa, Calif., in 2001, where she attended Heald College and earned an associate degree in computer business administration in 2003. She worked for a paintball manufacturer until the company closed and moved to Pennsylvania in 2007.

“At the time, it’s where I found work,” she said. “The cost of living is much cheaper here.”

But coming to Pennsylvania from California felt like going a decade into the past.

“Everything seemed behind the times,” she said. “California seemed way more progressive with everything.”

Her first job in Pennsylvania was in human resources for a technology staffing company in Penn Hills, which ended up seeing her working in an office alone. Her home was an apartment in Monroeville.

After losing his chief financial officer in the middle of the 2008 recession, Malcanas said a consultant helped him find Thom from hundreds of applicants for the job.

“I think he chose me because I said, ‘Don’t let me get bored,’ ” she said.

At that, Malcanas said he kept a stoic face while smiling inside.

“She gets bored very easily. It was my job to keep her stimulated,” he said. “That’s one thing I have no problem doing. My mind is going all the time.”

Mito Insulation specializes in large wood-frame apartment buildings. While Malcanas says hiring Thom was a godsend for getting his books in order, working alone apparently had taken a toll on her.

“She was all business at the time,” he said. “She has become much more personable and colorful than when I first met her.”

In 2010, Thom earned a master of business administration in accounting from the University of Phoenix, which she did while working full time at Mito.

Thom became property manager for Deer Creek Rentals, owned by Malcanas’ wife, Susan, and which Thom said was Malcanas’ entry into the real estate market.

After buying residential properties, she said he started looking into commercial properties in New Kensington. Malcanas started buying those in 2018, leading to the opening of Voodoo and the creation of Olde Towne Overhaul in 2020.

With Olde Towne Overhaul repairing buildings to make them ready to house businesses, Voodoo was meant to be an anchor and an example.

“We needed something to show this is what you can do with an old building,” Thom said.

Jamie Parker first met Thom in late 2020 when she was looking for a home for her vegan bakery, Sweet Alchemy Bake Shop. While a tenant of Olde Towne Overhaul, Parker works with Thom on events and Parker considers her a friend.

“The thing I can say about Michelle is people don’t know how to take her. They’re kind of unsure,” she said. “Once you start to know her, she’s actually an amazing person. She works more hours than I can even count in a week.

“She is just a good person,” Parker said. “She is here for the right reasons, too. Michelle has a pretty pure heart. She wants the businesses to succeed.”

Thom has been working with the New Kensington Arts Center and including it in events, said Jamie Smittle, vice president of the arts center. Smittle’s art was featured at Voodoo, and Thom has worked with Smittle on the Art in the Alley project for Ivy Alley.

“She’s a wonderful person. She has a passion and a love for this community,” Smittle said. “She’s a great person to work with who cares a lot about the New Kensington community and wants to see it thrive. I don’t think she ever stops working to make New Kensington better.”

Macy Stopko, the bar manager at Voodoo, said Thom is always coming up with ideas.

“She’s always on it. She always has great ideas and comes up with these incredible events that bring people down into New Kensington and into the area and it’s really working,” she said.

A dual citizen, Thom lives in Export with her boyfriend of 10 years, Leon Boczkowski, who hails from Cambridge in southern England but who she met in Pittsburgh.

Thom says it was unlikely they would have ever met in England. He came to the States the same year she did; they met watching the World Cup at Piper’s Pub on Pittsburgh’s South Side.

Thom hasn’t been back to England since she came to the U.S. She stays in touch with family and friends through social media.

“England is always going to be there. I can go back any time I want to,” she said.

After 14 years, Thom says she is fully invested in the New Kensington community.

“It’s more than just a job I come to,” she said. “My whole life revolves around everything that’s happening in New Kensington. My life is based in New Kensington.”