Building a New Terminal – and Workforce

Megan Michna was in college when she first came on board in January 2022 as part of Pittsburgh International Airport’s new terminal program as an Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator.

Hired full-time last June, she said the 15-week experience was valuable and helped her gain confidence.

“I was going to school during COVID so a lot of stuff was online, and I didn’t get to do anything in person,” Michna said. “When I came onto the construction site, it was a whole different ballgame. It’s a huge project. This will prepare me for any job after this because of how big it is.”

February is National Career Technical Education (CTE) Month, dedicated to raising awareness of how CTE prepares students for success while positively impacting the workforce economically. CTE is indispensable to the TMP year-round, providing students with valuable hands-on training while creating the skilled workforce of tomorrow for projects at PIT and elsewhere.

“We’ve got a lot of local people out there who are doing really important construction work,” said Christina Cassotis, CEO of the Allegheny County Airport Authority (ACAA). “We hope other people get inspired to think, ‘Hey, maybe that is something I’d like to do for a living.’”

As an intern, Michna’s duties included handling incident reports, making field observations of best practices and areas for improvement and documenting those observations. She also assisted during new hire orientations.

In May 2022, Michna graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Safety, Health, and Environmental Applied Science. Today, she is employed full-time by Sheesley, which provides permitting and environmental coordination, program-level quality manag