Newsmaker: Valerie Njie

Valerie Njie

Noteworthy: She runs Bidwell Training Center, which the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges named as one of 17 Schools of Excellence nationwide for 2012.

Age: 62

Residence: Stanton Heights

Occupation: Executive director/senior vice president, Bidwell Training Center in the North Side.

Education: Njie received a bachelor's degree in science and elementary degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971. She received her master's degree in management from the University of Utah in 1973.

Background: Njie started her career at Bidwell in 1981, working her way up from director of counseling, she said. She is also a photographer, a member of the board of trustees at City Charter High School, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and a former volunteer in Pittsburgh Public Schools programs.

Quote: “With that one goal in mind, we were able to institute new values and goals ... just focusing every day on, not training someone to be a cook or a medical coder, but to effect influence in their lives in every aspect so their lives would change.”

— Timothy Puko