Westmoreland native tapped to lead county lawyers association

Alahna O’Brien was one of more than 50 people who last summer submitted resumes to replace the Westmoreland Bar Association’s retiring executive director.

“When she came into the room, we knew. What stood out is her energy and her people skills,” Joyce Novotny-Prettiman, president of the bar association board, said in describing the process that led to O’Brien’s hiring in October.

O’Brien, 33, was tabbed to replace Diane Krivoniak, who for 30 years led the Greensburg-based organization that serves as the primary professional association for more than 500 lawyers in the county. O’Brien has spent several weeks training with her predecessor. Starting in mid-December, she will be on her own to pilot the association.

Her charted course will be an increased focus on community outreach and service along with oversight of an ambitious project underway to physically relocate the association from its headquarters on Main Street to a new facility a few blocks away.

“I don’t know if I can replace everything Diane has done. She’s built many of things we are going to keep doing, but I will put my style on how we grow. I am a very energetic person and I like to meet as many people as possible,” O’Brien said.

Like Krivoniak, O’Brien is not a lawyer. She spent the previous nine years working in Pittsburgh as a field director for the Laurel Highlands Council of the Boy Scouts of America, where she was responsible for fundraising, program planning and recruiting volunteers in Allegheny County.

Her position with the Boy Scouts was her first full-time job after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in psychology.

And her new job is a return home. O’Brien grew up in Hempfield and Penn Township and is a Penn-Trafford High School graduate. She lives in Hempfield with her husband and their two dogs.

“My friends and family are all here, and I felt I wanted to use my skills to serve my community. I loved the scouts and I loved working there, but I wanted to be closer to home,” O’Brien said.

She steps in to an organization in transition. Board members this year voted to embark on a $900,000 project to buy and renovate a one-story building at the corner of Maple Avenue and Otterman Street to serve as its new headquarters. Renovations are expected to start soon and the new facility, which will feature meeting rooms and an event space, could be finished in 2020.

O’Brien said she also wants to see the bar association embark on more community outreach as well expand upon charitable endeavors taken up by the bar’s nonprofit foundation that includes legal representation to low-income residents.

She will oversee a staff of three that coordinates continuing legal education classes for lawyers, publication of a monthly legal journal and scheduling of training and social gatherings for members.

Novotny-Prettiman said O’Brien’s vision for the bar association mirrored the direction members wanted the organization to follow.

“She talked about community involvement and we want to be stronger in that area,” Novotny-Prettiman said.

For O’Brien, the challenge will be to integrate the bar association’s current programs with new ideas.

“I will put my style on how we grow,” O’Brien said. “I want to make sure this organization is growing.”