Board of Advisors
Dr. Michael J. Brna is a grant writer, strategic planner, and administrator of diverse, grant funded programs at California University of Pennsylvania. He is currently director of the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources: a grant funded teacher professional development program at the University. Prior to this position, he was the Executive Director of the Mon Valley Renaissance program at California University of Pennsylvania, where he was active in community and economic development, workforce training, and small business start-ups and expansions.
Over a seven year period, he has secured approximately $1.3 million of federal funding to start up and expand the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program. Dr. Brna wrote and received the inaugural Workforce and Economic Development Network job training grant in PA in 1999: a program that continues to annually award millions of dollars of job training grants to PA firms. He has helped local companies secure over $3.3 million of PA job training grants to train over 6,400 employees and has written over 100 business plans for entrepreneurs helping them to secure in excess of $5.5 million for business startups or expansions.
Through the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program, he has involved the university with community and schools. He initiated collaboration with the Library of Congress American Folklife Center by establishing California University of Pennsylvania as a collecting partner for the Veterans History Project. He has overseen the collection and archival of over 100 oral histories of local veterans and conducted an oral history with the late Congressman John P. Murtha. For local schools, he initiated a Cal U Primary Source History Day competition that prepares local students for participation in the regional National History Day competition at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Brna also serves community as Secretary on the Board of Directors of Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services, Inc. (SPHS) and is a member of its Executive and Investment committees. The mission of SPHS, Inc. is to identify and provide for health and social service needs throughout the southwestern Pennsylvania region. The SPHS system includes child care, aging programs, family planning services, primary and pediatric health care, mental health treatment and care, substance abuse treatment, homeless assistance, home health care, nutrition services, and family support services.
Dr. Brna earned his Ph.D. at Penn State University, where he graduated from the Workforce Education and Development doctoral program with an emphasis in Training & Development and Human Resources. He earned both his B.S. Finance and M.B.A. degrees with honors from California University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Brna has appeared before the PA House of Representatives Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee for Workforce Development and also served as a member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s Science and Technology Task Force. Additionally, he co-chaired the Educational Curricula and Digital Collections Program Transitional Advisory Board with responsibility for developing the Library of Congress’s Teaching with Primary Sources program’s current vision, mission statement, and goals. Dr. Brna is also on the editorial board of the TPS Quarterly: an internationally distributed newsletter sponsored by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program.
Dr. Brna is also an accomplished public speaker, small group facilitator, and life coach who works with individuals and small and large groups in various settings. In his spare time, Dr. Brna enjoys golf, billiards, reading, traveling, cooking, music, theater, and the outdoors.
