Rep. Oberlander appointed to Pennsylvania Small Business Development Center

House Republican leaders recently appointed Rep. Donna Oberlander (R-Clarion/Armstrong/Forest) to be a member of the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Center (PASBDC) Advisory Board.

PASBDC provides no-cost, confidential consulting and low-cost management training to small business owners and potential entrepreneurs. Pennsylvania has 18 PASBDC centers, including one at Clarion University.

Oberlander is a National Development Council-certified finance professional and has earned consecutive “Guardian of Small Business” awards from the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) for her support of pro-business legislation.

One of her bills, which requires the state Department of General Services to establish a process to formally recognize all Pennsylvania-based minority-, woman- and veteran-owned businesses to make it easier for them to compete in the procurement process, was recently signed into law as Act 171 of 2017.

Before her time in the House, Oberlander served on the Clarion County Board of Commissioners and worked as a business outreach manager with Clarion County Economic Development Corporation.

“Who better to understand the challenges and complexities of starting, owning and expanding a small business than someone who has walked in their shoes and worked with our local SBDC with my own venture,” Oberlander said. “I’m appreciative of this opportunity and look forward to working with SBDCs all over the state.”