Our Values
- Providing a natural and beautiful burial ground for all to visit
- Respecting a family’s funeral and other end-of-life choices
- Honoring the need for a “place” to remember loved ones
- Protecting and restoring our environment by planting only native species
- Our Mission is to provide ecologically friendly burial and to restore our 35-acre forest
The People of Penn Forest
Nancy Chubb – Co-Founder
Nancy was born and raised In the Washington DC area and came to Pittsburgh to go to Chatham College. Her love of Western Pennsylvania began in her childhood when she would visit her grandparents’ farm, Hidden Brook, in Coraopolis Heights during the summers.
Before creating Penn Forest Natural Burial Park, Nancy and Pete established a nonprofit, Green Burial Pittsburgh, to educate themselves and others on natural burial and to explore the possibility of launching a green cemetery in Pittsburgh.
In 2021 Nancy retired from a professional practice in psychology to oversee the operational responsibilities of Penn Forest after the retirement of her husband and co-founder, Pete McQuillin. While always involved in Penn Forest, she has found it rewarding to be able to invest more time and energy into the land that she loves.Nancy loves to share this rewarding experience with others, promoting stewardship of the land while offering an earth-friendly burial option to her community. She has immense confidence in her team of dedicated employees and volunteers and believes Penn Forest will thrive in the coming decade.
Pete McQuillin – Co-Founder
(11/22/44 – 1/8/22)
Click here to read Pete’s obituary.
Click here to watch the Zoom recording of Pete’s burial.
Pete dedicated the last 14 years of his life to the creation of Penn Forest Natural Burial Park. His entrepreneurial talents and environmental passions were critical to establishing the first all-green cemetery in Pennsylvania. In May of 2020, Pete began training Laura, the current manager, on all things involved with managing and running a green cemetery, and later retired in early 2021.
Prior to Penn Forest, Pete was a member of local Kiwanis Clubs, Chambers of Commerce, and Community Development Corporations and often on the boards of these groups. He was an active member of several Unitarian Universalist congregations, most recently the Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church on the North Side and Sunnyhill in Mt. Lebanon. Pete’s passion for social justice led to his involvement with Pittsburgh United, Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network, Black and White Reunion, and many political campaigns. He had previous careers with PPG in international sales and product management, at Menasha Packaging in new product development, and as a consultant in executive team building with Fourth River Associates.
Laura Faessel – Manager
In 2012, Laura went back to school for environmental studies at Slippery Rock University. She spent her final semester comparing the burial methods of five different cultures, developing a respect for how other cultures care for and bury their dead. This is also when Laura first learned about green burial and discovered Penn Forest.
Laura approached Penn Forest and was hired in 2017 to assist Pete McQuillin, Manager, and co-founder. She was their first full-time employee. When Pete retired in early 2021, Laura was promoted to the job for which she was a perfect fit, Manager. She has fully embraced all that running a green cemetery requires and has to offer. Laura oversees the cemetery operations including sales, marketing, record-keeping, forest restoration, property maintenance, and the supervision of workers and volunteers. She has been a speaker locally at the Phipps Native Plant and Sustainability Conference (2018) and nationally at the Green Burial Council Conference (2020, 2021 and 2022).
Laura grew up in Allegheny and Butler counties and currently lives in Gibsonia with her two teenage daughters. She enjoys spending time with her family, camping in western Pennsylvania, or playing board games. And cooking and baking too, of course.
Deanna Mance – Operations Assistant
Deanna started her career as an abstract artist, creating works that explore the transmutation of death and rebirth, introspection of personal and ancestral history, and her relationship with spirituality and ritual. Over the years, she gradually applied her artistic practice to arts education and administrative positions at The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Sunburst School of Music, and The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, Illinois.
In 2012, she integrated her passion for the arts with end-of-life care by becoming a life enrichment coordinator for those living with Alzheimer’s and dementia in skilled nursing facilities and rehabilitation centers. In 2014, she became a facilitator for Pittsburgh Death Cafes, building relationships with a rich community of death-positive, end-of-life care advocates. She became a certified death doula through Promise Hospice in 2018 and a founder of Pittsburgh Community Deathcare.
Deanna is passionate about destigmatizing death and dying as a radical form of celebrating life. She enjoys and cares deeply for nature and our impact on the planet. When she’s not working at Penn Forest Natural Burial Park, she’s spending time in her art studio making art alongside her studio mate and child, Violet.
Thom Wood – Grounds Manager
As a lifelong tender of forests and self-described jack-of-all-trades, Thom Wood is very excited to join the team at Penn Forest. Recently, he honed his sustainable agriculture skills with Carbon Compost, a local composting startup. He brings over a decade of expertise in culinary sustainability, and he wears every hat, from pastry cook to restaurant and food truck owner.
When he’s not managing invasive plants or maintaining our equipment, he is probably building something, cooking with his two amazing kids, fermenting something, camping, or messing around with vintage synthesizers.
