On February 23, 2021 as part of its Civil Rights/Civil Unrest Speaker Series, the FBI Pittsburgh CAAA hosted the Social Justice and Equality in Pittsburgh virtual event, featuring a panel of distinguished speakers.

Speakers:
*       Jay Dworin, Compliance Branch Chief at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
*       Esther Bush, President and CEO of The Urban League of Pittsburgh
*       Ralph Bangs PhD, Former Associate Director of Center on Race and Social Problems at the University of Pittsburgh 
*       FBI Special Agent Amber Leszczynski

Jay Dworin is the Compliance Branch Chief at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  Prior to working for HUD he had an almost 15 year career at the Fair Housing Partnership of Greater Pittsburgh and served as their Executive Director from 2013 to 2020.   

Esther Bush is the President and CEO of The Urban League of Pittsburgh.  A graduate of Pittsburgh's Westinghouse High School, Ms. Bush began her career as a high school teacher.  She also worked as a college administrator and corporate consultant.  She has moved progressively up the ladder of the Urban League movement, starting in 1980 with the position of Assistant Director of the Labor Education Advancement Program for the National Urban League in New York City.  From there, she served first as Director of the New York Urban League Staten Island Branch, then as Director of its Manhattan Branch.  Before returning to her hometown of Pittsburgh in December 1994, Ms. Bush was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Urban League of Greater Hartford.  She is the first female to serve in each of her last four positions in the Urban League movement.

Ms. Bush was appointed by Governors to serve on the: Pennsylvania State Board of Education, PA Commission for Crime and Delinquency, Law Enforcement and Community Relations Task Force, the Governor's Commission on Academic Standards, and the Voting Modernization Task Force.  She served on several committees to establish the new Home Rule Charter form of government for Allegheny County.  She served on the Executive Committee of the National Urban League Association of Executives and is Founder of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh Charter School.  She is a current member of the International Women's Forum, Pittsburgh Chapter and formerly on the International Women's Forum Board of Directors, was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania in 2003, Distinguished Member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Robert Morris University Chapter in 2014, and Distinguished Alumni Awardee, The Johns Hopkins University in 2017.   In addition, Ms. Bush has served as a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Judicial Evaluation Committee, UPMC, and United Way and currently serves on the boards of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Duquesne University, and on many other boards and committees.

She is also an adjunct faculty member in the School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh and is a member of several advisory committees at the University of Pittsburgh and formerly at Carnegie Mellon University.
Ms. Bush holds a BS degree in Education from Morgan State University and an MA in Guidance and Counseling from The Johns Hopkins University.  Ms. Bush has also received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Hartford in 1997, an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Carlow College in 2004, and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Allegheny College in 2009.

Ralph Bangs, PhD,  was the Associate Director of the Center on Race and Social Problems at the University of Pittsburgh  from 2002 to 2014 and research associate at the University Center of Social and Urban Research from 1987 to 2002. His most recent book is Race and Social Problems: Restructuring Inequality.  He received a Race Leadership Award from the Pittsburgh Urban League and a Racial Justice Award from the Pittsburgh YWCA. He has taught race for many years at Pitt and CMU and in study abroad.