Two Alums, Two Paths, One Destination
Sally J. Guzik ’14 (left) and Nicole Muise-Kielkucki, MAFS ’12, both ended up as leaders at Fourth Economy Consulting after graduating from Chatham.
Sally J. Guzik ’14 and Nicole Muise-Kielkucki, MAFS ’12, came to Chatham University at different times for different reasons, yet they’ve crossed paths more than once.
As students at Chatham, they interned together at Tree Pittsburgh. And just a few years ago, they ended up at the same place again.
Both Guzik and Muise-Kielkucki work at Fourth Economy Consulting, an economic and community development consulting firm located in Pittsburgh. Guzik, who joined four years ago, became their president last year. In January, Muise-Kielkucki was named vice president.
But for both of them, it all started at Chatham.
Going to Chatham
Sally J. Guzik grew up in the Monongahela River Valley and was encouraged by a high school English teacher to attend Chatham University, where she began her studies in 2007.
In 2011, she had to take a leave of absence following injuries from a car crash and an illness in her family. She returned to Chatham in 2014 to complete her studies.
Chatham’s liberal arts foundations and its identity as a women’s college were important to Guzik, giving her a stronger sense of history and a feeling of comfort on the campus.
“A four-year degree taught me how to think critically,” she said. “It wasn’t necessarily targeted at finding a job, and I think there’s a ton of value and importance in that.”
The small class sizes were also appealing to her. “I never saw a course that was more than 15 to 20 students,” she said, “and that is so different from a bigger university with 200 people in a classroom and nobody having a conversation.”
Jessie Holmquist ’08 and Sally J. Guzik pose for a photo at Power Shift 2007 summit on climate change. (Courtesy of Sally Guzik)
Nicole Muise-Kielkucki, for her part, grew up in Maryland, but after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 2009, she knew she wanted to stay in the Steel City.
“It was a cool time in Pittsburgh,” she said. “It was starting to really blossom and become this place where, if you were a creative person or had a passion of some kind, it’s a small enough place that you could find your tribe and pursue something you’re passionate about.”
As she started looking into graduate schools, her interest was piqued by Chatham’s new Master of Art in Food Studies program.
“I was really interested in sustainability and thinking about food systems in a holistic way,” Muise-Kielkucki said. “The program really appealed to me, and what I found was this great group of interdisciplinary students.”
Working alongside classmates with a variety of backgrounds ranging from agriculture to nutrition to policy, Muise-Kielkucki said she felt lucky to be part of that first cohort of MAFS students.
“We were some of the only students actively doing classes at [Eden Hall],” she said. “It just felt like a really special place. Knowing the history of it and that it was a retreat for women—it just felt magical.”
After Graduating
Muise-Kielkucki finished graduate school at Chatham University and started working at a business incubator called Idea Foundry on Craig Street in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood.
“One of the things I found rewarding and beneficial at Chatham was the degree to which community engagement was part of the program,” she said. “Most of my internships were at small, local food companies, and my concentration in the MAFS program was on food markets and supply chains. … So, that led me to working with a lot of food startups while I was still in school.”
Coincidentally, Guzik, after finishing graduate school in Florida, also worked in the startup space around the same time. She moved to Philadelphia to become the executive director of Cambridge Innovation Center’s location there.
“We focused on supporting startups, venture capital funding and raising, and having shared wet lab facilities and lab bench space available to rent,” Guzik said. This helped companies get their start in biotech and related life sciences while avoiding the high cost of lab space.
She came back to western Pennsylvania in 2021 to work at Fourth Economy, while Muise-Kielkucki had been working there since 2019.
Fourth Economy
Late last year, Guzik rose to the firm’s presidency when the company’s founder, Rich Overmoyer, decided to step into a new role. Muise-Kielkucki became VP in January.
Both say they enjoy working at Fourth Economy because of the values of the organization, the creative and collaborative nature of the company, and their curious and helpful coworkers.
“Everything we do is grounded in the people and communities we work with,” Guzik said. “Unlike large consulting firms, our work is personal, relationship-driven, and focused on real outcomes, not just reports.
“The next phase for me is thinking about how we scale the work, not by growing headcount for its own sake, but by deepening our impact so more communities can benefit from thoughtful, people-centered economic development.”
This story was updated on Feb. 3, 2026
Learn about Chatham’s undergraduate degrees and graduate programs, which span multiple disciplines within the fields of art, business, health, science, and sustainability at chatham.edu.