Blog

The Children's Institute is pleased to welcome three new members to its 2026-27 Board of Directors. The appointees bring a wealth of expertise to the nonprofit's distinguished board and represent diverse industries across the community.

The board plays a crucial role in guiding and shaping the 124-year-old Institute's mission to heal, to teach, to empower, and to amaze every child and family it serves. Throughout their terms, board members focus on strategy, ensure financial stability, and uphold accountability and transparency. They work to ensure that the Institute continually evolves to meet the community's dynamic needs.
 

Meet the new appointees:

Elizabeth Urish Walton

Elizabeth Urish is founder and managing director of Steel Tower Investments. She’s an industry leader in helping high-net-worth business owners manage their wealth, including by leveraging captive insurance entities to strategically manage risk, cash flow, and tax implications within their portfolios. She is known for her distinctively deep market knowledge and immersive approach to managing clients’ total wealth portfolios.

With over 15 years of experience, Elizabeth brings an institutional viewpoint to investment management. During her tenure as a vice president on the trading floor at Deutsche Bank, she constructed complex investments across asset classes for high-net-worth individuals, wealth management firms, and mutual funds. She offers a nuanced understanding of market signals, trends, color, and operations fed by an extensive network of relationships across the financial world. As a result, her clients gain insight into the on-the-ground reality behind market movements as well as the opportunities facing their portfolios.

At Steel Tower, Elizabeth works in close partnership with the Urish Popeck slate of certified public accountants and estate attorneys as well as a seasoned investment management committee. This collaboration enables Elizabeth to take a uniquely holistic perspective on the performance, tax outlook, and sources of risk within each client portfolio and proactively recommend strategic solutions.

Elizabeth graduated from the Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering and a Master of Business Administration degree from Carnegie Mellon University. She has been a guest lecturer at both Carnegie Mellon and Penn State.

Elizabeth speaks frequently within the industry on topics including the impact of macroeconomic issues on client portfolios as well as best practices for managing captive insurance entities. Outside of work, she loves spending time with her three children and husband.

Rebecca Knoll

Rebecca is a senior healthcare executive with over 20 years of experience helping healthcare organizations turn complex challenges into measurable results. As a strategic advisor, she partners with executive teams to design, implement, and scale programs that improve contract performance, quality outcomes, and payer-provider partnerships across Commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid lines of business.

Rebecca's approach combines analytical depth and practical know-how, leading complex initiatives at the intersection of clinical operations, data infrastructure, and provider engagement. She has a strong track record redesigning operating models, integrating new technology into workflows to improve efficiency and reduce errors, and driving business process improvement to help organizations manage populations and contracts at scale.

She brings particular depth in value-based care, with extensive experience designing incentive programs, building provider-facing reporting tools, and driving performance across HEDIS/STAR, HCC/CDPS risk, and value-based contract adoption. Her work consistently focuses on aligning people, process, and technology to drive improvements that hold up operationally and financially over time.
Rebecca served in a series of progressive roles at UPMC Health Plan, including Senior Director of Clinical Innovation and Director of Quality Provider Performance, where she led quality improvement, provider performance, and enterprise-wide operational initiatives across all lines of business. Before that, she held various performance measurement and consulting roles.

Rebecca holds an M.P.H. in Health Policy & Management from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania.
 

Jeff Paul

Jeff Paul is a commercial real estate executive with extensive experience in development, investment, leasing, and strategic planning. Throughout his career, he has led large-scale shopping center repositioning initiatives, transforming underperforming retail properties into vibrant, high-performing community assets. He has also spearheaded the development of new single-tenant net lease (NNN) assets for nationally recognized brands, including Starbucks, guiding projects from site selection and entitlement through construction, leasing, and long-term investment strategy.

Jeff has worked closely with national retailers, franchisees, developers, brokers, municipalities, and property owners to identify opportunities, negotiate complex transactions, and create lasting value. His expertise spans market analysis, capital planning, asset management, and relationship building, enabling organizations to make thoughtful real estate decisions that strengthen communities and support long term growth. Throughout his career, Jeff has helped lead multimillion-dollar commercial real estate development and redevelopment projects that have generated long-term value for his company, its clients, and the communities they serve.

Known for his collaborative leadership style, strategic mindset, and financial discipline, Jeff brings a forward-looking perspective to every opportunity. He is passionate about giving back to the community and is excited about the opportunity to leverage his professional experience in support of The Children's Institute's mission, helping ensure the organization continues to serve children and families for generations to come.