Kelly Offner ‘12 is the executive director of Keep Philadelphia Beautiful (KPB), an affiliate of the national Keep America Beautiful initiative. The organization encourages Philadelphians to take a mindful approach to living in the city by keeping it clean and environmentally healthy. Offner is especially interested in having Temple University students join in on the organization’s efforts through internship positions.

Environmental stewardship became a focus in Offner’s life after watching former vice president Al Gore’s documentary film An Inconvenient Truth in high school. She realized that although she was not as interested in the direct arithmetic and science involved in environmental studies, she enjoyed reading about environmental changes and initiatives that helped minimize the harm that those changes can cause. 

Offner, a native of the Philadelphia area, started attending Temple after transferring from the Pennsylvania State University and decided that she wanted to pursue broadcast journalism. She found it was the best way she could combine her loves of writing and of informing the public of pressing societal issues. If not in front of the camera, she wanted to have a hand in seeking out and producing stories that have the potential to make a change and was drawn to alternative news outlets such as Vice News.

Offner’s studies in communication and engagement at Klein College of Media and Communication gave her a solid foundation after graduation, when she worked for the apparel and fashion company United By Blue and eventually became the head of the company’s cleanup department. While the position fulfilled her desire to work closely with the environment and the community for clean-ups, she found that her role was missing some essential components to her philosophy of change: education and outreach that encouraged community members to become preventative forces against the environmental degradation of the city. 

KPB is a partner organization of United By Blue, so when Offner found out about the opening for KPB’s executive director position, she decided to apply. Her selection by the organization’s board of directors gave her the freedom to focus on “community-convening, troubleshooting [and] creating a lasting change.”

“It seemed just like the right time to kind of make that move and kind of focus a little bit on the city that I had pretty much grown up in,” she says.

As executive director of KPB, Offner is expected to keep the organization’s goals—promoting recycling and waste reduction, community beautification and litter prevention and education—at the forefront of her work while building and maintaining relationships with Philadelphians both involved and not yet involved with environmental initiatives in the city. 

Although she is the only full-time staff member at KPB, she receives help from interns. Jess Mihalczo, a senior advertising major at Klein, is this semester’s communications and outreach intern for KPB and works closely with Offner. Mihalczo is in charge of the nonprofit’s online presence and social media accounts, which has given her helpful background in nonprofit communication and has aided her in pursuing other environmentally-centered pursuits. For example, she worked on Earth Day: 50 Years In The Making, a multimedia project she created with fellow Klein student Kerry Shanahan as a part of their fall semester independent study. Additionally, the internship allowed her to attend community meetings about sustainability and make connections with some of Philadelphia’s most active environmental changemakers.

“I think it’s a unique opportunity for any advertising or communication students who are interested in nonprofits and government stuff and are looking to get more connected to the Philadelphia area,” says Mihalczo. 

Offner is excited to work with more Temple students in the future; in fact, the next KPB intern is also a Temple student. Offner recognizes that the drive and talent of Temple students is a major asset to the promotion of KPB and its commitment to making Philadelphia an even more beautiful place to live.