Crain's Cleveland Business, December 11, 2023

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COMPETING BY COLLABORATING Northeast and Central Ohio have distinct differences, but their economic futures are inextricably linked. PAGE 24

Priced out, burned out and driven out Youth sports loses its way, and parents are pushing back

By Joe Scalzo

Over a decade ago, when Joe Bogdan was an athletic director at tiny East Canton High School in Stark County, he agreed to hold two things.

The first was a travel basketball tournament at his high school gym.

The second was his nose while he was doing it.

“I hated every second of it,” he said.

The tournament was the King James Shooting Stars Classic, which was found-

ed by LeBron James’ high school coach, Dru Joyce, and boasted hundreds of teams across dozens of venues in Northeast Ohio. One of the teams featured a group of 12-year-olds who had flown from Orlando, Florida, to Cleveland Hopkins. After landing, they got a hotel in Independence, drove an hour south to East Canton and played an 8:30 p.m. game.

They lost by 45.

See BURNED OUT on Page 6

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Experts weigh role of AI in health care’s future From filling out forms to creating a treatment plan, professionals are eager to use new technologies

By Paige Bennett

As interest grows around artificial intelligence, experts believe emerging technologies could lead to big changes in health care. Developments in AI could provide assistive tools to busy caregivers and allow for medicine to be tailored to a patient’s specific needs.

Conversations around the potential of AI in health care have gained momentum in recent years, but the con-

cept has been around for some time.

“Everything gets packaged as completely new, but, really, creating algorithms that do more consistent, better medicine has been with us for decades,” Dr. Paul Ford, who works in the Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Neurology.

“It really has ramped up in the last five to 10 years, given our electronic medical record and the increasing abilities of computer hardware to process things faster for large data sets.”

Dr. Daniel Spratt, chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at UH Cleveland Medical Center, said that See HEALTH CARE on Page 34

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The owners of Synchrony’s former call center in Jackson Township will seek to convert the building to mixed use, including coworking space. | DAN SHINGLER

Vacant site in Jackson Township eyed for multi-use Former Synchrony call center is more than 150,000 square feet

By Dan Shingler

The owners of a large, empty office building in Jackson Township will seek to convert the building to a combination of coworking space and mixed-use development, assuming the township delivers a zoning change requested for the site.

The building housed the former offices and call center operation for Synchrony, which vacated the site in late 2022 when it decided to have its employees work remotely.

Since then, the building, which has more than 150,000 square feet of space split between two halves, has been vacant. But it’s been kept in pristine condition and ready to show by its owners, Envision, a

mand,” Monassebian said. “We think the cost of converting it to purely residential isn’t feasible unless there’s some funding available.”

That’s in line with what local developers have predicted, since the building has a large, square footprint that would not enable residential units to have enough windows unless the middle of the buildings were torn out for courtyards or other open space.

Monassebian said her company is still working on how to di— Dalia Monassebian, a founding partner in Envision vide space in the building but said one The firm’s plans are fluid and thing being considered is a livelikely to be determined by the work setting that would enable needs of future tenants, but Envi- people to have their office or persion expects to use the space for haps a retail or light manufacturing business in one part of the multiple purposes, she said.

“We are open to doing a sort of complex while they have a resimixed-use if there’s enough de- dence in another part of the site. real estate investment firm in Great Neck N.Y., township officials said recently.

Envision is the source of a request to rezone the site, an effort currently underway in Jackson Township, so that it can be used for purposes beyond just office space, said Dalia Monassebian, a founding partner in Envision.

“We’re really promoting it as a co-working space. We have an easy space for them to work in three to five days a week. . . . ”

“It could be a live/work building with residences and offices,” Monassebian said.

While major investments in the building probably will be tenant-specific, Envision plans in the meantime to make space in the building available to those who want to rent it for a few days per week.

“We’re really promoting it as a co-working space,” Monassebian said. “We have an easy space for them to work in three to five days a week … that’s happening very soon. Anyone who wants to do that, we can get them into a coworking space.”

Envision plans to devote between 10,000 and 20,000 square feet to coworking space, depending on the demand it sees, and plans to set aside about another 50,000 square feet for retail and other mixed-use purposes, she said.

“We’re not doing work unless

Cardinal Health may boost presence with Walton Hills building Distribution center for would cost more than $30M to build

By Stan Bullard

Cardinal Health, which already has a big presence in Solon, has been identified as the potential occupant of a proposed new building costing more than $30 million to construct on an 18-acre site at Forward Innovation Center East in Walton Hills.

The proposed building of 248,000 square feet could contain more than four football fields under its roof. Drawings for what could be the second structure at the business park were submitted to the Village of Walton Hills for its planning commission meeting on Dec. 7.

Dublin, Ohio-headquartered Cardinal Health distributes pharmaceuticals and manufactures and distributes medical and laboratory products and related services.

Mayor Don Kolograf, who serves on the village planning commission, is excited about the proposed building.

“This is important to the vitality of the village,” Kolograf said in a phone interview. “You can see a modern industrial park taking shape where, just two years ago, a million-squarefoot building that had been expanded over five decades, stood. This will bring a substantial number of jobs, and well-paying ones at that, to the village.”

The village is in talks about incentives for the project that would bring an estimated 100 jobs to the

An aerial view of the massive former Walton Hills stamping plant as it appeared before being sold by Ford Motor Co. | CONTRIBUTED

village. The new structure would go in near a 240,000-square-foot building that the developers of Forward Innovation Center East finished earlier this year on the site. The mayor said it is empty so far, which makes the potential Cardinal deal so valuable.

The village may provide a tax abatement for the structure, according to Tom Jordan, Walton

Hills economic development consultant, under the 1994 version of the Ohio Community Reinvestment Act. Cardinal Health currently occupies a 1980 vintage building at 5260 Naiman Parkway in Solon.

Cardinal Health is the sole tenant in that 125,000-square-foot structure, part of the Raintree Park industrial area in the eastern sub-

we have an agreement in place because it’s in pristine condition already. It doesn’t need work. The only work it needs is if we do renovations or convert it into residential,” Monassebian said.

The building has a large gym and a large kitchen with dining space suitable for big events inside what used to be Synchrony’s cafeteria, which fed its more than 750 employees. Envision says it’s talking to corporate clients, including one that’s considering reversing course from its current work-from-home policies.

“We’re doing OK in terms of momentum and the interest we’re seeing for the building. And another option we’re looking at is some medical space in the building,” Monassebian said. “In its current state, it could be easily converted into medical use. ... It’s a great location for a Cleveland Clinic or another medical provider.” urb. Although Cardinal Health might occupy both properties, that is unlikely given the drive for efficiencies in contemporary logistics properties.

Angee Shaker, Solon’s economic development director, declined comment. Walton Hills is not required to furnish notice until a completed application for incentives is filed with Walton Hills.

Forward Innovation Center East is being developed by a trio of real estate developers, DiGeronimo Development of Independence, Weston Inc. of Warrensville Heights and Scannell Properties of Indianapolis, which has been active in Northeast Ohio for more than a decade. The same trio is also redeveloping a former Ford site south of the Ford plant in Brook Park and dubs it Forward Innovation Center West.

Plans for the proposed building were filed by Independence Construction, a construction company owned by the DiGeronimo family, which also operates Independence Excavating.

None of the developers replied to phone messages or emails by 11 a.m. Dec. 6.

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Cuyahoga County Council approves first microgrids in U.S. run by public utility

By Kim Palmer

Cuyahoga County will be home to a trio of microgrids, the first run by a public utility in the country, after members of the county council approved a 10year contract with the company that will manage the project.

The plan for Los Angeles-based Compass Energy Platform to use federal funds and private capital to develop and finance Cuyahoga Green Energy (CGE), the official name of the county utility, was unanimously approved by council members on Dec. 5.

The first three microgrids are planned for the cities of Euclid, Brooklyn and the Aerozone District adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

Mike Foley, the county’s director of sustainability, said the first phase of design should wrap up by the summer of 2024, followed by construction beginning in the fall of next year. “Electrons could be flowing sometime in late 2025 or 2026,” he said.

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Ronayne supports the microgrid project—one of the last projects spearheaded by former County Executive Armond Budish—calling it an important step in a commitment to policies and strategies that protect the environment while also supporting the economy.

“Cuyahoga County continues to be a leader in innovative government action,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to what Cuyahoga Green Energy will accomplish with Compass Energy Platform as our partner.”

The three microgrids are small-scale local electrical grids that operate independently with a nearly uninterrupted supply of electricity. The design and eventual build-out will be financed in part by $1.8 million in federal funds from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The electricity that will initially be used by the new commercial and industrial microgrid customers will come from local solar arrays and other types of proximate, renewable and clean energy generation, Foley said.

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The philanthropic arm of Detroit-based Rocket Mortgage is expanding its housing stability effort into other Midwest cities with a more than $1 million investment in the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland’s renter right to counsel program.

The Rocket Community Fund at a news conference on Dec. 5 announced it will commit $1.25 million over five years to create the Cleveland Eviction Defense Fund. The grant will help Legal Aid provide attorneys and other support for Cleveland’s Right to Counsel law, passed in 2019, codifying legal representation in eviction cases for low-income renting families.

“We really believe in the power of Midwestern cities and bringing those cities together,” said Laura Grannemann, executive director of the Rocket Community Fund, about the grant, which will help an estimated 100 renter households in 2023, 310 in 2024 and 260 in 2025.

“We believe that in order for our business to be successful, our community has to be strong,” she said. “Our mission is to leverage all of our resources across the family of companies to ensure that every American has access to safe and healthy housing.”

The Rocket Fund, which has been active in Detroit’s under-served community for years, came to Cleveland in 2022 with the rollout of a Neighbor to Neighbor survey.

Partnering with Cleveland Neighborhood Progress and 17 local community development corporations (CDCs), Rocket Fund sought to identify critical housing stability issues by canvassing door-to-door. The survey ultimately connected with 9,314 residents who were in some way at risk of displacement. Those connections, Grannemann said,

helped the organization better understand key experiences around eviction, housing stability and home ownership stress.

The subsequent Neighbor to Neighbor report found that in Cleveland, many renters and homeowners experienced stresses that contributed to housing instability in the past 12 months. In the case of renters, 19% of the respondents reported difficulties paying rent, making them vulnerable to eviction.

“It was the data that came out of that door-to-door outreach effort that showed us a clear path toward investing in the right to counsel as one of the most important efforts we could support in Cleveland,” Grannemann said.

Another factor is the success Legal Aid has had since it launched its program in July 2020.

Before the right to counsel was enacted, less than 2% of renters were represented in court, compared with about 60% of landlords. Since the program began, the percentage of Cleveland residents facing eviction and represented by an attorney has increased eight-fold.

In 2023, about 80% of those eviction cases resulted in the tenant not being forced to make an involuntary move, according to a study conducted for Legal Aid by Case Western Reserve University. Either the eviction is dismissed with the tenant remaining in the home, or the eviction is dismissed and the tenant agrees to voluntarily move out with extra time, said Collen Cotter, executive director of Cleveland’s Legal Aid. Legal Aid provides attorneys, and in some cases law students, to help tenants navigate the system. Cotter said an eviction has significant downstream effects for finding future stable housing, or even credit, in the future.

“Renters are vulnerable be-

cause evictions can happen extremely quickly,” Cotter said.

“Before right to counsel, half of the tenants didn’t show up to court and just defaulted. We think because they believed the system wasn’t going to work for them. Now there is a support system through a very stressful time.

It helps you potentially get connected to other resources.”

Using resources from the Rocket family of companies, Grannemann points out that the Rocket Fund plans to continue to apply the data the company has on how to answer the big housing stability questions “and provide an informed big picture analysis to communities like Cleveland and Detroit where there are critical housing needs.”

The first Rocket fund program focuses on eviction, but renters are not the only group facing housing stability. According to the Cleveland Neighbor to Neighbor report, 16% of homeowners said they had trouble paying property taxes, while 9% struggled with mortgage payments. In addition, homeowners are concerned about making utility payments, with 28% worried about water/sewer payments, 30% about electric utilities and 32% about gas.

Grannemann said the Rocket Fund has a number of programs in Detroit to help renters transition to homeownership and to help homeowners afford taxes, upkeep and other expenses that could work in Cleveland in the near future.

“Rocket is a great partner, and even though housing stability, of course, is a top concern because of what we do, we strongly believe that investing in renters and their stability is an important step to a healthy ecosystem,” she said. “You cannot have a healthy housing system that only revolves around home ownership.”

4 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | DECEMBER 11, 2023

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YOUTH SPORTS

BURNED OUT From Page 1

The team then drove back to their hotel in Independence, slept for a few hours, drove back down to East Canton for a 10 a.m. game . . . and promptly lost again by 45. They were supposed to play again at noon, but when the other team didn’t show up, they trudged back to the airport and flew home.

As this was happening, one question came to Bogdan’s mind: “How many teams did you fly over that could have beaten you by 45?”

“I have no idea how much that cost, but it certainly wasn’t a good use of resources for those kids to say, ‘I played in the LeBron James tournament,’” said Bogdan, now the director of facilities at Canton City Schools. “They were never in a city except in a rental car. They could barely score. They flew in, stayed for a day, and flew back.

“And it happened just because some dad’s kid wanted to play in the LeBron James tournament, so he found four friends and started writing checks.”

If you’re someone who grew up playing sports in the 20th century — or raised your kids in the 20th century — you’re probably thinking, “This is insane.”

But if you’ve had any experience with youth sports over the last 20 years, you’re probably thinking something else: “I’ve got a story that’s WAY worse than that.”

Like Tim Misny billboards or your neighbor’s Halloween display, the youth sports industry began as something fun but has grown into something bigger and more eyebrow-raising than anyone could have expected.

The global youth sports market is projected to balloon from $37.5 billion in 2022 to $69.4 billion in 2030, according to a February report from Markets N Research, a global market research and management consulting company.

That’s bigger than the NFL. And while 20th-century kids

were urged to play multiple sports and peak athletically in their late teens (or later), America is now inundated with kids who start specializing in a single sport as young as 6, peak by 10 and quit by 13.

“We are not maximizing participation at the youngest levels,” Bogdan said. “We need more kids doing more things. We all grew up with somebody that couldn’t hit the ball in sixth grade who was a great player when they were a senior. Or they couldn’t guard anybody in fourth grade because they were too tiny, and all the sudden they grew up and were really good.

“The late bloomers are getting weeded out.”

As for the rest, they’re getting priced out, burned out and driven out.

“Even in Stark County, in our wealthiest places, there are still families saying, ‘This isn’t worth it.

I can’t take you to these places. I can’t spend this money,’” Bogdan said. “Before kids even know if they like it, they don’t have the opportunity to try.”

How it starts Last May, the Holderness family — aka the people who do the “Christmas Jammies” videos — did a video called the “Six Stages of Youth Sports.”

Stage 1: Total Ignorance. (“Let’s not alter our life to accommodate youth sports.”)

Stage 2: Just for Funsies. (“This will be fun. Wait . . . is he good? Is he special? My judgment isn’t clouded at all by the fact that he’s my son!”)

Stage 3: Competitive Curious. (“We have failed as parents! We are behind! We need to drop everything!”)

Stage 4: Drop Everything. (“One thing only from now on, soccer!

My self worth is directly tied to my child’s success!”)

Stage 5: Schedule Shock. (“It looks like tournaments every weekend for the next three months. And practices every

night. And the coach recommends private lessons if you have time.”)

Stage 6: We Forgot Our Kid. (“Oh, you’d rather not do it? But you’re so good! And if you’re so good, you obviously love it as much as we love watching you be good! And then I feel good about myself, because my parents never

did this for me! So, thereby, it makes me feel validated in my experience!”)

The three-minute video satirizes all of America’s youth sports issues — sports specialization, crazy time commitments, inflated expenses, the fear of your kid being “behind” — and it explains why

parents spent an average of $883 per sport, per child in 2022, according to a report from the Aspen Institute.

But $883 is a mere rounding error in sports like ice hockey (where it’s not unusual to spend five figures to compete on a travel team) or gymnastics (where the jacket

As youth sports costs escalate, parents take a fresh approach

By Joe Scalzo

Four years ago, Chad Pado’s 9-year-old son, Jack, wanted to play AAU basketball with a wellknown Cleveland-area organization. Pado even offered to coach.

Then he got the price tag: $750.

For each kid.

“I was like, ‘I’m not comfortable asking the parents of 9-year-olds to pay that,’” said Pado, who lives in Bay Village.

So, Pado started his own AAU team that played a reasonable six-tournament schedule, all in Northeast Ohio. Each tournament had a $300 entry fee, which meant that each player on a nine-player

team would owe $200. Of the six tournaments, Pado’s team won two of them and finished in the Final Four in two more.

“We never traveled. We were like, ‘Why go to Columbus? We can get beat in Avon,’” Pado said, laughing. “I think we’ve tried to create a situation in Bay where our kids can have meaningful, valuable experiences without being over the top or paying millions of dollars to do it.

“We didn’t make a cent off it, and we had people beating our door down to join.”

Like a lot of parents, Pado wishes the old community structure still existed, where the best Bay

Village youth basketball players played each other, then did the same thing in baseball . . . and soccer, and volleyball, and lacrosse.

In some communities, it still does. But in many, there’s too much pressure to play travel ball, preferably one with “All-Star” in the name. Consequently, the kids who do play in the local recreational league can have wildly uneven talent levels, frustrating everyone involved.

“Unfortunately, what travel ball has done — and it’s happened with soccer, too — is that you get kids who want to try baseball and have never swung a bat,” said Neal Hausch, a father of three athletes

The Shaker Youth Hockey Association tries to expand access through fundraisers, said former President Gus Kallergis. Kallergis’ son Marios is second from right. | CONTRIBUTED

“If you have a view of sports that it’s something different than for kids to have fun, you’re part of the problem.”

6 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | DECEMBER 11, 2023

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883 acpen

erhere figam) cket

said

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earn less than $25,000 per year only play sports 30% of the time.

On the flip side, kids whose parents make at least $100,000 play sports 70% of the time, often traveling to Sandusky or Kentucky or (hoo-buddy, is this a big one) Disney World for tournaments.

and the owner and director of performance at Golf Fitness Plus in Akron. “Or maybe you have ‘Daddy Ball,’ where the dad is the coach and his son is terrible, but he’s always playing shortstop and pitching and batting leadoff.

“The recreational model has unfortunately been destroyed by travel ball, so parents want to do what’s best for their kid.

And they’re willing to pay $2,000 for the best coaching.”

Sometimes, those coaches are terrific, boasting a wealth of knowledge, experience and dedication to kids. But there are plenty of shysters who cash in on parents’ insecurities.

Plenty of tournament directors, too.

“We have a close friends ours whose son is the same age as my son, and he was invited to this ‘premier’ baseball tournament in Texas,” Hausch said.

“They got shellacked. They got their rear ends handed to them by these travel teams from Puerto Rico and Mexico and they paid to do it.

“We do travel ball, but we don’t do the out-of-state stuff.

There’s plenty of great talent and great competition in our backyard.”

Pado agreed. While he isn’t opposed to a once-in-a-lifetime trip — his son recently played in a baseball tournament in Cooperstown, an experience Pado called “unforgettable” — he thinks more parents need to push back against the insanity of travel teams.

“I’m not a ‘Get off my lawn’ guy, but I wish we could go back to community sports,” Pado said. “But there are too many guys making too much money. They’ve given kids and parents these options and too

many parents believe the hype.

The word ‘exposure’ p—es me off more than anything. Parents have bought into the word exposure and it’s bull(crap). It means nothing.

“Their kids ought to be out there playing multiple sports with their buddies.”

Gus Kallergis has two sons in the Shaker Heights school system — a senior, Johnathan, and an eighth grader, Marios — and has spent much of his last decade at ice hockey rinks across Northeast Ohio.

But he hasn’t just focused on his own kids. As a former president of the Shaker Youth Hockey Association (SYHA), he’s tried to expand access to a sport whose annual price tag can cost more than your first car. Or your current car.

“Hockey is interesting for a whole bunch of reasons,” he said. “You have a lot of socio-

GETTY IMAGES/CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS ILLUSTRATION

and a leotard can easily chew up most, if not all, of that figure).

While some communities use fundraisers to expand access — the Shaker Youth Hockey Association, for instance, raised more than $15,000 at last year’s skatea-thon — there are limits, which explains why kids whose parents

“We’re really good at pouring money into sport,” said Stacy Warner, a professor of sports management at East Carolina University who wrote a case study on the barriers to youth sports participation. “If someone wants to be a professional athlete in America, we can provide the training and the resources for that. But it’s really geared toward upper and middle-income families.”

Worse, Americans are really bad at playing sports as adults — “If you’re not a professional athlete, it ends after college,” Warner said — so instead of integrating their children’s activities with their own, parents devote their lives (and their credit cards) to their kids’ activities.

“There aren’t that many opportunities for adults to belong, so when you’re traveling as parents for sports, all the sudden you’re part of that group and those parents,” Warner said.

“Even if the kid doesn’t want to do that anymore, your identity starts to become attached to that youth sport.”

Plus, when parents are spending thousands of dollars on sports, they often want to see a return on that investment. In the short term, that means playing time. In the long term, that means a college scholarship, preferably at the Division I level.

“For a lot of parents, a college scholarship is that carrot,” Warner said. “Good people step back and think, ‘I spent that much money on that tournament,’ when they could have put it in an account and had a nice nest egg for college.

“Even the myth of the full ride.

How many of those exist? How many college baseball players legitimately have a full ride? Not as many as you might think.

There’s a limited amount of prestige with being a scholarship athlete, but the actual financial part isn’t always as good.”

Making a difference Bogdan is not afraid to call out youth sports’ worst offenders, whether it’s in speeches, in interviews or on Twitter.

(Quick example: In February, Bogdan retweeted a post advertising the inaugural Ohio Top 25 Combine, an “invitation-only” event designed to “highlight and develop the talent of Ohio’s top fourth and fifth graders.” It’s just as gross as it sounds.)

But Bogdan doesn’t just have a soap box. He has a platform.

Part of the reason he left a great job as the athletic director at Uniontown Lake in 2021 was because Canton City Schools shared his vision for increasing opportunities at the youth level.

“We want to make sure our kids have the chances to compete and chances to train that we can provide for free, or close to free,” he said. “We want to connect our families and our kids to our schools, and the things we’re passionate about.”

To do that, the district has lowered the age at which they get involved in youth sports, overseeing youth programs in football, basketball, baseball and softball.

“We started to take control of our kids,” he said. “We used our resources to make it happen.”

Canton City Schools already benefits from sharing a campus with the Pro Football Hall of Fame and it’s in the process of building a $19 million, 120,000-square-foot indoor facility downtown that will boast an indoor track, volleyball and basketball courts and 60 yards of turf. Bogdan has already started planning its programming.

“There’s no talent gap,” he said, comparing urban schools to suburban schools. “When you look at how our (Canton McKinley) softball teams and baseball teams played, we competed with everybody. There is a training gap, and we’re trying to close

that as best we can.”

Bogdan isn’t necessarily opposed to parents finding alternatives to community sports — “There are some really good people out there doing really good things,” he said — but he thinks it’s gotten out of control.

And he’s very much opposed to early sports specialization, both because of the increased injury risk and because he doesn’t think it’s producing better athletes.

“We’re on our second generation of travel baseball and yearround training and we’re not producing more Major League talent in Stark County,” he said.

“Some of the best baseball players I know never touched a baseball from August to March. Then they picked it up and they were better than everyone else.”

Even better, many college recruiters prefer multi-sport athletes, since they’re more wellrounded, less injury-prone and, often, have higher ceilings than someone who started golfing in the womb.

Besides, if your son or daughter is legitimately a Division I athlete, college recruiters will find them. You can’t hide Arnold Schwarzenegger behind a flag pole.

“Division I athletes look different,” Bogdan said, laughing.

“They walk around differently.

They carry themselves differently. You see it. And you can’t turn yourself into one if you’re not.”

When Bogdan fights the youth sports complex, he sometimes feels like a man recycling a soda can while his neighbor warms up an Escalade.

But he also knows that you’re sometimes measured by the battles you engage, rather than by those you win.

“We’re just trying to fix the part we can,” Bogdan said. “They might be right. I just know I’m not wrong. We need more kids doing more things. The rest will take care of itself.”

economic barriers to entry.

Shaker is a very diverse community, but in hockey, it’s a little less diverse. What we’ve tried to do is ask ourselves, ‘How can we expand who can play hockey?’”

One key way is through fundraising, including SYHA’s annual Skate-A-Thon, which raised $23,000 last year to offset the cost of things like tournament fees, ice time and equipment.

Unlike many parents, Kallergis had no illusions that his sons would eventually be Division I hockey players. But as a self-described “nerd kid,” he admits he totally undervalued the lessons kids can learn through playing team sports — with an emphasis on the plural. Marios, for instance, has played hockey, football, rec baseball, golf and tennis.

“I’m now in the business

world and some of the most successful people are former athletes,” said Kallergis, a partner at the law firm of Calfee, Halter & Griswold. “They’ve learned to deal with adversity.

They understand competition.

They understand sometimes you have to beat someone to get ahead. And they know what it means to be part of a team.”

Are there outliers who earn Division I scholarships or go on to play in the NHL? Of course. But even those success stories can come with a cost, physically and mentally.

“I don’t know that any other country in the world has the view of youth sports that we do,” Kallergis said. “I don’t know if there’s that same kind of pressure on kids who play. If you have a view of sports that it’s something different than for kids to have fun, you’re part of the problem.”

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YOUTH SPORTS

Dominique Moceanu was a gymnastics prodigy. She’s training her son differently.

By Joe Scalzo

Vincent Canales is one of the most talented teen gymnasts in the country, a 2028 Summer Olympic hopeful who has not missed a day of training in more than five years, who appeared on American Ninja Warrior when he was 11 and who boasts more than 120,000 followers on Instagram.

With a resume like that, you’d expect his house to be filled with trophies, medals and ribbons — and you’d be right.

But they belong to his parents: former Olympic gold medalist Dominique Moceanu and Michael Canales, who was a member of Ohio State’s 1996 national championship team.

Vincent, meanwhile, hasn’t competed in six years. He’s just now ready to get back on the stage at age 14 — the same age when his mother peaked.

“My husband interviewed all of our friends who are Olympic champions and world champions and said, ‘What would you have done differently?’” Moceanu said.

“They all were like, ‘I wish I would have spent more time training instead of competing all the time. I didn’t have enough time to put upgrades and skills into my routine because I was always rushing to the next competition.”

Moceanu was no different. She began training as a gymnast at age 3 and, by age 9, it was a full-time, 40-hour-a-week job. Over one five-year stretch, she did not miss a day of training — and that work paid off. By age 12, she was the junior national champion. By 13, she was the youngest gymnast to win the all-around at the USA Gymnastics national championships and the youngest member of the U.S. team at the 1995 World Championships.

And in 1996, despite battling a stress fracture, she helped the Americans win the country’s first gold medal in Olympic team competition as part of the “Magnificent Seven.”

At age 14, she was the youngest gold medalist in U.S. Olympic history.

But by 2000 — while still a teenager — she was out of the sport.

While gymnastics had brought her fame and fortune, her path was littered with injuries, physical and emotional abuse from her coaches and a host of family issues.

“There’s a lot of emphasis on pushing kids too young, too soon,” she said. “We need to have some time off for growth and development. My son is a perfect example

Olympic gold medalist Dominique Moceanu now runs the Dominique Moceanu Gymnastics Center in Medina.

of this. Obviously, his training is unorthodox, because most gyms can’t do that. Parents want the shiny gold medals and they want the glitter and the hair. They want that instant gratification. But sometimes the delayed gratification comes from the daily grind and the hard work.”

Moceanu now runs the Dominique Moceanu Gymnastics Center in Medina, where the official mission statement is “Enhancing children’s lives positively through sport.” While she’s not opposed to competitions at a young age, she worries about athletes who compete so often that they don’t have enough downtime to rest and recover. Her husband — a foot and ankle surgeon at St. Vincent Spine and Orthopedic Institute — feels the same way.

“I’m all for going to competitions, but it’s got to be strategically planned and done in the right way,” she said. “One meet a month is plenty. Because a lot of these

girls don’t make it. They don’t last.

They’re getting hurt and they’re getting surgeries early.

“Why? Because they’re rushing their development.”

That rushed development is endemic in female sports such as gymnastics or figure skating, where athletes peak at an early age and retire early, either because of injuries, changes to their bodies or physical and mental burnout.

While there are plenty of elite female athletes in other sports who have competed into their late 30s and early 40s — Serena Williams (tennis), Megan Rapinoe (soccer), Dara Torres (swimming), Annika Sorenstam (golf ) and Sue Bird (basketball), to name a few — few gymnasts last beyond their late teens or early 20s.

Case in point: Simone Biles recently became the oldest woman to win the all-around title at the U.S. gymnastics championships.

She’s 26.

But gymnasts can’t rush their development just to fit a preconceived timeline, Moceanu said.

She’s seen too many young gymnasts break down physically because they never mastered the sport’s basics.

“People wonder why I spend so much time on basic things, but if you’re trying to build upon skills that children have not mastered yet, especially in our sport, it’s not going to work,” she said. “If there’s no foundation to the house, what happens? It crumbles.

“Sometimes a parent will tell me their daughter wants more and I’m like, ‘Hold on a second; she can barely handle this. Can we take a step back? More is not going to benefit your child.’”

That isn’t to say training with Moceanu is easy. Gymnastics is a year-long commitment and Moceanu asks a lot of her athletes and their parents — physically, mentally and financially — but she also wants to see those athletes get everything they can from the sport.

And that doesn’t necessarily mean medals.

“Our goal is to keep kids in the sport as long as possible,” she said.

“There are so many intangibles that the sport gives you. It helps you develop into the person you are. And I want them to be the best, but not at the expense of burning them out and risking their injury level more than it needs to be. Because more does not equal better.”

“There’s a lot of emphasis on pushing kids too young, too soon.

We need to have some time off for growth and development. ”

Moceanu believes young gymnasts should spend more time training and less time competing. The mission statement of Moceanu Gymnastics Center in Medina is “Enhancing children’s lives positively through sport.”

Dominique Moceanu’s son, Vincent Canales, trains with his father, Michael, (right) at the Dominique Moceanu Gymnastics Center in Medina. | CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

8 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | DECEMBER 11, 2023

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“Hindsight is 20-20, but instead of focusing on my swing and my fundamentals, I would have found a coach to work on my mind.” really good, I burned out. I basically couldn’t swing a golf club.

All the sudden, I couldn’t shoot under 80. You just kind of mentally lose it at that point basically, and I see it happen all the time.”

Meglen ended up taking two months off after his freshman year at Kent — his first break from golf in 2 ½ years — before visiting his swing coach at IMG over spring break. He revamped his game and ended up playing some of the best golf of his life that summer, helping him break into the Golden Flashes’ rotation for a few events that fall. Realizing he needed more opportunities to play, he transferred to Division II Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, for his final two years and then played professionally before beginning his coaching career.

“The main thing I would have done differently is I would have had my parents introduce me to a sports psychologist to try to explain to me that golf doesn’t represent your identity, it’s just a part of who you are,” he said. “Besides a little bit of a pre-shot routine, I didn’t have any skills or coping mechanisms to deal with disappointment on the golf course. The only ones I really understood were anger and frustration. So I would be continually angry and frustrated with myself, not understanding that it was completely normal to be upset when you play badly. Instead, I let it affect the rest of my life.”

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Hall of Famer Arnold Palmer once said golf is “a game of inches — and the most important are the six inches between your ears.”

It took Joe Meglen years to understand that.

Decades before Meglen was named one of Golf Digest’s top young instructors in America, he was just a frustrated amateur who thought the answer to every bad round was to work on his skill set, not his mindset.

“Hindsight is 20-20, but instead of focusing on my swing and my fundamentals, I would have found a coach to work on my mind,” said Meglen, a former Kent State golfer who is now the director of player development at StoneWater Golf Club in Highland Heights.

“I always thought, ‘It must be my golf swing, it must be my golf swing.’ In most instances, it’s not your golf swing. Once you reach a certain level, it’s what’s going on between your ears.”

Professional athletes such as Kevin Love, Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka have shifted the narrative around mental health in recent years, opening up about how the relentless cycle of training, traveling and competing has led to anxiety, depression and burnout.

But those issues can affect college and high school athletes as well, whether that’s due to an overstuffed schedule, outside pressure from parents or coaches or self-imposed expectations.

“From my perspective, a lot of the burnout comes from the frustration of not having success,” Meglen said. “You’re putting in all of this time and effort to get better, and you’re traveling to all these events, and you have a bad day because everybody does. But you don’t have the mental fortitude or capacity to understand why that’s happening. You’re asking why am I working so hard at this — I was often the last kid on the driving range, getting dragged off the range by my mom — and all of these kids are playing better than me?”

A Mentor native, Meglen started playing competitive golf in high school and, after showing some early promise, spent his final two years at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, where he spent four hours a day practicing golf. That dedication elevated his game from above-average to excellent and helped him land a Division I scholarship.

But it also took a mental toll.

“By my freshman year in college, I was totally burned out on golf,” he said. “From age 16 to 18, I played golf year-round and that’s all I did. I got to college and because I had put too much pressure on myself and the kids were

hired him as director of mindset development. He helps athletes deal with their athletic, academic and social pressures, teaching them how to maintain good mental health at a time when they’re spending four hours (or more) on their specific sport.

“We’re trying to hit a number of different domains here that impact all the areas of our lives, not just sport,” said Bruback, who is finishing up his doctorate at the University of Akron. “We’re trying to help them develop a mindset of resiliency where they can push through things, but also keep perspective.

“Sometimes a game feels like it’s life or death, and it’s not.

There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world bigger than this. We’re focused on developing you as a person, then letting that infiltrate your athlete persona as opposed to vice-versa, where you figure out who you are as an athlete and that filters into your life.”

Last year, Bruback worked with a basketball player at SPIRE who had a lot of natural ability, and who was very dedicated to improving his craft, but who also struggled to deal with outsized expectations that followed him throughout his career.

“He felt like he had to perform, that he couldn’t make mistakes and had to be the best player,” Bruback said. “Through the course of a dozen discussions — and it wasn’t just me, but there were other people in life like his coaches and family members — he realized, ‘I really want this to happen, but if it doesn’t, I’m going to be OK.’ “That took away the pressure and he was able to excel. Sometimes it’s about learning how to get out of your head so you can just go perform.”

Sometimes, it takes someone like Bruback to help those athletes get back on track mentally.

But sometimes, athletes might need to step away from their sport. The most famous example is Michael Jordan, who famously retired twice — including once to play professional baseball — and still finished his career as the best player in basketball history.

“Burnout’s a big issue,” Bruback said. “With sports specialization, it’s happening earlier and earlier and it’s something we’re cognizant of. Sometimes to regain your love, you need to step away from it. You don’t know how much you miss something until you don’t have it.

“Student-athletes have to find the right balance and perspective, or they’re going to be looking at some negative things coming from above. When it becomes a burden, you have to find a way to make it become something you look forward to, that’s a reward again and a sanctuary.”

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NOTABLE

NONPROFIT BOARD LEADERS Nonprofit board leaders donate their time, money and energy to these organizations. And they do so on top of everything else going on in their lives, including— often—family, full-time jobs and other volunteering duties. But it’s that dedication that makes these leaders stand out. Not only are they making their mark in the corporate world, they’re also bringing their expertise to organizations of all sizes that help people across a wide spectrum of areas, from civic leadership to education to affordable housing.

These 48 honorees demonstrate a commitment to the public good that inspires and elevates. Their philanthropy stands out in a city filled to the brim with people

Kristen Baird Adams

Cipriano S. Beredo III

Charles A. Bittenbender

Board president City Club of Cleveland

Past board chair

On the clock, Kristen Baird Adams is an 18-year veteran at PNC, where she currently provides counsel and leadership support to PNC’s more than 50 regional presidents and their local market teams and oversees PNC’s Sponsorship and Women’s Business Development teams.

Off the clock, she is the current president of the City Club of Cleveland Board of Directors and co-chair of its $12-million campaign in support of the new Playhouse Square home and the growth of its endowment.

In addition to her service with the City Club, Adams is an active board and executive committee member of the Rock and Roll Fame and Museum and co-chair of its $135 million expansion campaign. She also holds board assignments with College Now Greater Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission.

The Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio aims to mitigate bias and bigotry through youth and workplace programming. As past board chair, Cipriano S. Beredo III led that mission for the last several years.

Alongside 40 other community leaders, Beredo’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion helped extended the organization’s reach to over 4,000 people in eight counties throughout Northeast Ohio.

Beredo, a partner at Squire Patton Boggs, is a member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the American Bar Association and holds board chairs with the Achievement Centers for Children and the Cleveland Leadership Center.

“His leadership during the COVID-19 crisis kept our doors open when others weren’t able to. A true champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Cip’s character shines as a beacon of resilience and compassion,” his nomination said.

Board president Apollo’s Fire: The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra

Christopher Blake

Kathie Brandt

Debbie Brassell

Board president Cleveland International Film Festival

Member, board of directors and executive committee, and immediate past chair Cleveland Rape Crisis Center

Board leader Southwest Community Health Foundation

performing good works that make Northeast Ohio a place to

The Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio

Apollo’s Fire has experienced substantial growth under the capable and passionate leadership of Charles A. Bittenbender, according to the nomination.

Under Bittenbender’s guidance, Cleveland’s internationally renowned baroque orchestra strengthened its financial position and significantly increased its YouTube viewership.

Bittenbender was at the helm when the orchestra increased donor support, won a Grammy Award, debuted at Carnegie Hall and released a documentary about artistic director Jeannette Sorrell.

“Chuck has always had a strong commitment to community engagement,” the nomination said. “At Apollo’s Fire, he combines his passion for Cleveland and for baroque music, carrying the Cleveland banner as AF tours the country and globe.

Since joining the board in 2015, Chuck’s thoughtful, diplomatic leadership style has professionalized and strengthened the organization”

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METHODOLOGY: The honorees did not pay to be included. Their profiles were drawn from the nomination materials submitted. This list is not comprehensive.

It includes only individuals for whom nominations were submitted and accepted after a review by editors. To qualify for the list, nominees must have met certain criteria, including being based in Northeast Ohio, serving with a nonprofit for at least 5 years and must have advanced the cause of a nonprofit organization and raised its profile in the community.

The Cleveland International Film Festival is committed to presenting the newest and best films from around the world.

As board president for the last five years, Christopher Blake has ushered the organization through unprecedented times, according to the nomination.

Blake, a partner at Hahn Loeser and Parks, LLP, stayed at the CIFF offices for a week with laptop in hand during pandemic shutdowns. His work today includes overseeing a 37-member board and a $3 million film festival budget. In 2023, the prominent annual event drew 76,000 patrons for a bevy of local, national and international films.

In 2019, Blake led a team of attorneys in formalizing CIFF’s move to Playhouse Square. As an international traveler with a focus on Latin America, Blake also embraces the value of cultural diversity in building community and driving economic development, the nomination said.

A dedicated fundraiser and staunch champion for survivors of rape and sexual abuse, Brandt, who works as a partner at Thompson Hine, helped the center raise $350,000 for its recent Sing Out! charity benefit.

According to the nomination, Brandt’s strong leadership as a board member and chair was instrumental in navigating the organization through the pandemic. Her previous nonprofit experience includes expanding Make-A-Wish Foundation of Northeast Ohio’s service area from 16 to 80 counties. Brandt also has been an active contributor to The Music Settlement, the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Foundation and the Cleveland chapter of the American Red Cross. “Kathie’s strongest attribute is her ability to effectively lead groups of people in accomplishing shared organizational goals,” the nomination said. “She has been able to adapt her leadership style to most effectively serve each of those organizations.”

Debbie Brassell brings a high level of grassroots organizational skills to her role on the Southwest Community Health Foundation board.

As a nonprofit leader, Brassell has advanced the foundation’s cause via public events and fundraising, said the nomination.

Brassell collaborates with board members and executive leaders on programming that raises $250,000 for the organization each year. A former school administrator, Brassell and her husband, Wayne, have gifted over $400,000 to support nursing, behavioral health and maternity services at Southwest General Health Center.

“Debbie serves as a community ambassador, providing education and awareness for the value that an independent hospital contributes to overall community health,” the nomination said.

“She combines attention to detail with old fashioned chutzpah to get things done, igniting passion and compassion within her fellow board leaders as well as foundation leadership.”

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NOTABLE NONPROFIT BOARD LEADERS

Jeanne Coughlin

Mary Anne Crampton

Jane Cronin

A. Ray Dalton

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Board chair JumpStart Inc.

Board chair Three Arches Foundation

Chairman The Dalton Foundation and relink.org

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Throughout her career, Jeanne Coughlin has managed clients across sectors including healthcare and manufacturing.

Among other accomplishments, Coughlin led the organization through implementation of a Latino/Hispanic small business strategy that helped establish the forthcoming CentroVilla25 marketplace.

Coughlin also played an instrumental role in supporting diverse entrepreneurs, solidifying JumpStart’s reputation as a key player in regional economic development, the nomination said.

Today, she is leading the nonprofit through a major leadership transition following the departure of founding CEO Ray Leach.

Beyond JumpStart, Coughlin has served on the boards of COSE, Team NEO, Greater Cleveland Partnership, National Small Business Association, Leadership Lorain County and United Way of Greater Cleveland.

As chair of the Three Arches Foundation, Mary Anne Crampton leads a volunteer board that connects people, ideas and resources for the well-being of Lakewood and the surrounding community.

In this role, Crampton helps facilitate a $35 million endowment and the dispersal of $2 million in annual grants. Prior to her board chair responsibilities, Crampton, who works as a principal with MACC Partners, served as both Three Arches vice chair and chair of the group’s community advancement committee.

A stalwart community leader, Crampton volunteers with Moms Demand Action for the creation of trauma-informed gun violence prevention. She is also a former board member of the Beck Center for the Arts and the former Lakewood Hospital Foundation.

“Mary Anne embraces new ideas and innovative solutions,” said the nomination. “The key to her effectiveness as a philanthropic and community leader is that she truly believes in people, and that is inspiring.”

Board chair emeritus and chair of governance and external relations committees Providence House

Cleveland entrepreneur A. Ray Dalton launched The Dalton Foundation in 1999 to bring addiction recovery, re-entry and health care services to the community.

Dalton has an intense passion to serve marginalized populations, with women, children, veterans and the formerly incarcerated receiving the bulk of the group’s services, the nomination said.

Under his leadership, the foundation expanded from 20 partners in 2017 to over 300 partners six years later.

Growth of the foundation also allowed Dalton to launch two new nonprofits – relink.org and The Haiti Health Network.

“Whether it’s veterans, individuals leaving incarceration, or individuals coming out of addiction, Mr. Dalton is passionate about helping people re-enter society and reach their potential,” the nomination said. “The re-entry work is extremely impactful and focuses on fair-chance employment opportunities and connecting people to every community resource they need.”

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Jane Cronin has been a Providence House board member since 2012, serving two terms as chair and launching the nonprofit’s DEI and culture-related initiatives.

As board chair emeritus, Cronin manages 30 board members and supports 15 administrative staff. With Cronin’s guidance, Providence House successfully launched an East Campus project developed to meet increasing demand for its services.

A senior vice president and corporate controller of The Sherwin-Williams Co., Cronin creates funding opportunities that support the organization’s mission of keeping kids safe and families together, the nomination said.

“Jane is a dedicated and passionate leader who constantly shows up for us,” said the nomination. “Her impact will be recognized for years to come, and will improve the lives of thousands of children and families in crisis across Northeast Ohio.”

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NOTABLE SPOTLIGHT with Deb Yandala Connecting the community with the wonder of Cuyahoga Valley National Park What have you done to raise the visibility of CVNP within Northeast Ohio and beyond?

As president and CEO of the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP), Deb Yandala has committed her career to helping people connect with CVNP. The Conservancy connects the community with the park through education, cultural arts, volunteer programs and more. Under Yandala’s leadership, the organization has raised more than $45 million for trail projects, environmental education programs, creation of the park’s visitor center, saving the former Brandywine Golf Course property to protect habitat, and community engagement initiatives. Yandala serves as a special adviser with the National Park Foundation, and on the boards of the Near West Theatre and Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry and also plays viola in the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a leader in the National Park Service partnership community, including past president of the National Park Friends Alliance, my career is dedicated to connecting people with Cuyahoga Valley National Park and building the Conservancy for CVNP into one of the most effective friends groups in the country.

A critical role we play for the park is raising funds for key projects such as support for area children to participate in educational programs in the park, trail work, lifting up the Cuyahoga River, as well as arts and culture programs. Support from the Akron and Cleveland communities has helped our park become one of the most visited national parks in the country.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your role?

I have been fortunate to spend much of my professional life working in my dream job. And our mission to enrich people’s lives and enhance our region by inspiring use, preservation and support of Cuyahoga Valley National Park strategically positions the park as one of the great assets of Northeast Ohio — drawing in visitors from around the world.

I enjoy hearing people describe how hiking, biking and kayaking in the park

have been key to improving their mental and physical health. Watching families enjoy time together and knowing that people are making lifelong memories in the park makes our work worthwhile.

National parks are places where all people belong, and I like participating in work that benefits so many people.

How are you inspiring the next generation to fall in love with nature?

Children deserve places that are safe and comfortable to play. When they discover that being outdoors is fun and full of interesting ways to learn, they develop an affinity for natural places.

We co-manage the Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center with the National Park Service and it ensures that every student can explore nature, regardless of family resources. It has served more than 70,000 children in overnight programs and over 200,000 from day programs during my career.

What have you done to make the park more welcoming and inclusive?

As a leader, it has been important for me to be present and engaged in Cleveland and Akron to show our commitment to having a national park that belongs to everyone. We have changed our programming, hired a

more diverse staff, as well as partnered with local grassroots organizations to improve our community engagement and advocacy efforts. We want to make sure that our national park is true to its roots as part of the “parks to the people” movement of the early 1970s when the National Park Service wanted to be more relevant to urban populations.

As a volunteer on the board of Near West Theatre, a founding board member of ArtsNow in Summit County and a violist in the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra and Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra, why are the arts so important to you?

When I attend a theater performance or play a symphony, I can put everything else aside and fully engage in artistic expression as a performer or an audience member. The arts unite us, feed our souls and allow us to express who we are. I especially love the community-based nature of the arts.

I’m so impressed with the quality of arts organizations and artists in Northeast Ohio. We are very fortunate to live in a region where the arts are so vibrant.

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Kristin Erbacher

Hiroyuki Fujita

Board chair YMCA of Greater Cleveland

Board chair The Orange Effect Foundation

Chair of Board of Trustees Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest

Michael Dostal has led the YMCA of Greater Cleveland through a period of significant growth and success, including bringing more services to the residents of inner-city Cleveland, the nomination said.

Dostal, a banking industry veteran who spearheaded economic development planning for the city of Cleveland, including under the administration of former Mayor Michael White, accelerates the organization’s work in an advisory and relationship management role.

“Mike’s deep knowledge of Greater Cleveland - having served in the Mayor White administration and worked for local banks and realty concerns - allows him to bring a broad perspective to our board,” said the nomination. “Although he is a financial expert, it’s not just about the numbers. He is a compassionate and empathetic leader who understands the human side of our work. He has fostered a culture of inclusivity and respect.”

The Orange Effect Foundation (OEF) provides speech therapy and equipment to underserved children. At the forefront of this work is Kristin Erbacher, a key advocate for area families who otherwise could not afford these services, the nomination said.

Erbacher, who works as managing director of Aon’s Middle Market Commercial Risk practice, is the catalyst for foundation fundraising, a role that includes finding the best technology for non-verbal children. A prominent figure in the Cleveland community, Erbacher also fundraises for ALS research and participates in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day walk.

“Without a doubt, Kristin has been the leading board force for OEF,” said the nomination. “Kristin backs up her amazing ideas with thoughtful strategy, organization, and human resources that make her ideas materialize for both our organization and the children who need our services.”

Hiroyuki Fujita has accomplished quite a lot in the corporate world, but he’s been just as active and successful in his philanthropic work, too.

An original member of the board of trustees at Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest, Fujita was appointed to chair the board in January 2020. Fujita’s knowledge and leadership in health care scientific innovation stems from his work in the field of diagnostic imaging technology as the CEO and founder of Quality Electrodynamics (QED) (now a subsidiary of Canon Inc.).

Besides his work with Cleveland Clinic, some of Fujita’s other nonprofit roles include: the board of trustees at The Ohio State University; the board of directors for the Greater Cleveland Partnership and the Cleveland Council on World Affairs; and Honorary Consul of Japan in Cleveland.

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The number of nonprofit organizations in the U.S.

The Dalton Foundation and relink.org are proud to congratulate

A. RAY DALTON and the other Cleveland Notable Non-Profit Board Leaders

Community Commitment.

Congratulations to our partner Michael N. Ungar for being named to the 2023 Crain’s Cleveland Business list of Notable Nonprofit Board Leaders for his service to The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. A passionate civic advocate and volunteer, Mike’s dedication to the community inspires us every day. ®

Our business begins with you.

®

CLEVELAND CINCINNATI COLUMBUS CHICAGO NEW YORK WASHINGTON DC BOCA RATON ULMER.COM

DECEMBER 11, 2023 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 13

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NOTABLE NONPROFIT BOARD LEADERS

James Hardiman

Bruce Hennes

Will Herzberger

Co

Board member Young Men Growing

Board chair Youth Opportunities Unlimited

Board chair Hospice of the Western Reserve

Boa

A 17-year veteran in the Northeast Ohio financial services sector, Wesley Gillespie is responsible for ERIEBANK’s expansion into the Cleveland market, as well as overseeing the start up, management and direction of overall lending activities across the region.

Prior to joining ERIEBANK, Gillespie held management positions at KeyCorp, FirstMerit Bank/ Huntington Bank and U.S. Bank in Cleveland.

Outside of banking, Gillespie consistently shares his insights and expertise on the community level with board commitments at Growth Capital Corp. of Cleveland — where he is loan committee chair — Friends of Breakthrough Schools and Young Men Growing.

He is also a past board member for Shoes and Clothes for Kids and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cleveland.

James Hardiman brings a robust banking background, including his current work as an investment research analyst with Citigroup, to his role with Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U.) a Cleveland-based workforce development organization that assists teens and young adults.

Among Hardiman’s accomplishments is helping the group reach pre-pandemic levels in the number of youth served. He is also a key facet in the organization’s governance and finance efforts, guiding strategic plan processes that lead to improved job readiness and enhanced relationships with local businesses.

“James brings a unique combination of business acumen, deep understanding of the population we serve, and excellent strategic thinking,” the nomination said. “He has guided us through major changes in workforce development in the region, and asks probing questions that raise the level of excellence in our performance.”

Board member Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association

Will Herzberger acts as board chair for the Hospice of the Western Reserve and affiliated entities encompassing Western Reserve Care Solutions, a collaboration that serves an average of 925 patients each day, according to the nomination.

Herzberger helped orchestrate a joint venture with University Hospitals, while leading a transaction that brought Stein Hospice under the organizational umbrella. And he was instrumental in re-opening a Medina-based in-patient hospice facility.

Along with coordinating pro bono services for the community, Herzberger, who works as a partner at Jones Day, serves on the board of 1223 West Sixth Street LLC, which owns and manages the downtown headquarters of the Cleveland Legal Aid Society.

“Will has been an outstanding board chair,” said the nomination. “His sound insight and passionate commitment allowed our program to expand to more counties in northern Ohio while maintaining the best-trained staff.”

A tion Hillend than T Fou initi and mov Add the pres H who Ass hea to h “C Clev doe and nom trem risk Clev

Wesley Gillespie

Bruce Hennes, now in his 15th year with the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, has been instrumental in creation of the group’s strategic plan, as well as its thought leadership and governance committees.

A chief executive of his own communications firm, Hennes is also on the faculty of the Ohio State Bar Association’s leadership academy.

He was named a “go-to thought leader” by the National Law Review and is a preferred crisis communications provider for school boards throughout the country.

“The CMBA is one of very few legal organizations in the country that invites those from the business community to serve on our board,” the nomination said. “Bruce’s insight as a business owner has helped us break out of industry silos to engage the Greater Cleveland community, and we are thankful for his service.”

Cle

HAHN LOESER PROUDLY CONGRATUL ATES OUR PARTNERS ON THEIR RECOGNITION BY CRAIN’S CLEVEL AND BUSINESS AS NOTABLE NONPROFIT BOARD LEADERS

We congratulate our Board Chair Steven A. Karklin on being recognized as a Notable Nonprofit Board Leader!

CHRIS BL AKE

L ARRY OSCAR

SONJA RICE

Cleveland International Film Festival Board President

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland Honorary Director

Asian American Bar Association Board of Trustees

We thank them for their major impacts and advancement of their nonprofit organizations!

Since being named Board Chair in 2019, you have led our Board through the turbulent times of a global pandemic and through the celebratory times of our 25th anniversary.

With your leadership and motivation, the Science Center is exceeding goals and strengthening our position for the next 25 years.

Congratulations, and thank you HAHN LOESER & PARKS LLP | 216 .621.0150 | HAHNL AW.COM 200 PUBLIC SQUARE | SUITE 2800 | CLEVEL AND, OH 44114

for everything you do for us!

CLEVEL AND | CHICAGO | COLUMBUS | FORT MYERS | NAPLES | SAN DIEGO 14 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | DECEMBER 11, 2023

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Constance Hill-Johnson

Alexandria Johnson Boone

Ira C. Kaplan

Steven Karklin

Board chair

Chair and founder

Board chair

Board chair

Cleveland Foundation

Women of Color

Mt. Sinai Health Foundation

Great Lakes Science Center

As chair of the Cleveland Foundation’s board of directors, Constance Hill-Johnson helps disperse a $3 billion endowment and annual grants of more than $130 million.

The first Black woman to serve as the Foundation’s board chair, Hill-Johnson initiates strategic planning processes and oversaw the nonprofit’s historic move to its new MidTown headquarters.

Additionally, Hill-Johnson spearheaded the selection and appointment of new president and CEO Lillian Kuri.

Hill-Johnson is an entrepreneur whose work with Visiting Angels Living Assistance Services brings critical health and human services knowledge to her board role, the nomination said.

“Connie centers her love for the Cleveland community in all that she does – in her business, her philanthropy and her board leadership,” said the nomination. “Connie’s leadership is tremendous. She is not afraid to take risks to make change for Greater Cleveland.”

As an entrepreneur and the founder of a nonprofit, Alexandria Johnson Boone has made it her mission to help put people in a position to succeed.

Boone is the chair and founder of the Women of Color Foundation, an organization that describes itself as being “dedicated to the education, empowerment, training and leadership development of women and girls of all colors.”

Over the years, the foundation says, it has “produced several annual personal and professional development retreats, conferences, awards luncheons and other special events across the region.”

She’s president and CEO of GAP Communications Group, a public relations, advertising, marketing and special events firm based in Cleveland that has worked with local, regional and national clients.

Some of her community involvements have included serving as a board member of the SHINE Foundation, the Urban League of Greater Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

Ira C. Kaplan is a problem solver who uses his skills to improve the lives of Cleveland’s most vulnerable populations, according to the nomination.

As board chair of Mt. Sinai Health Foundation, Kaplan leads the annual distribution of $8.1 million for disease research and other community health efforts. Kaplan also raised $13 million for the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, dedicated to reducing the city’s high lead poisoning rate among children and underserved groups.

Moreover, Kaplan, who works as chairman of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff, is vice chair for United Way of Greater Cleveland and served similar roles with Cleveland Leadership Center and Menorah Park.

“No one really enjoys fund-raising, but Ira understands that philanthropy plays an important role in giving Cleveland’s marginalized and low-income populations a chance to live healthy and successful lives,” the nomination said.

Great Lakes Science Center is renowned for innovative programming that gives patrons a family-friendly museum experience.

Steven Karklin leads the science center’s board, championing a strategic business plan that has grown the organization’s national reputation, according to the nomination. Karklin is currently chairman & CEO of ClearWinds Capital Group and president and founder of CDK Enterprise Investment Holdings, LLC. The museum has more than doubled its donated revenue through a culture that prioritizes philanthropy and a commitment to raising capital funds.

Since Karklin’s installment as chair in late 2019, the center has grown its board from 35 members to 47.

“Steven translates his diverse entrepreneurial background into raising the reputation, visibility, and stature of the center within the community and nationally,” the nomination said.

CON G RATU L AT I O NS

SueAnn Naso BOARD CHAIR

Second Harvest Food Bank PRESIDENT & CEO

Staffing Solutions ENTER PRI SES

for being selected as one of Crain’s Notable Nonprofit Board Leaders

Together, we can thrive

2023 CRAIN’S

NOTABLE NONPROFIT

BOARD LEADERS

PwC is proud to support Lifebanc as part of our commitment to making a meaningful difference in the world and helping others thrive.

Congratulations to Board President and PwC’s Jim Will on being awarded Crain’s Most Notable Non-Profit Board Leader.

TheNewEquation.com

Growing hope in our region by creating pathways to nutritious food.

5510 Baumhart Road | Lorain, OH 44053

www.secondharvestfoodbank.org

© 2023 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership.

All rights reserved.

2105422-2024-Lifebanc 2023 Ad.indd 1

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DECEMBER 11, 2023 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND 11/29/2023 BUSINESS 9:42:52 AM| 15

12/7/23 11:18 AM

NOTABLE NONPROFIT BOARD LEADERS

59,897 The number of nonprofit organizations in Ohio — Independent Sector

Sandra Kiely Kolb Immediate past board chair Ideastream Public Media Ideastream Public Media receives nearly $30 million annually while supporting a 150-person staff. As chair, Sandra Kiely Kolb oversaw a $20 million endowment, a role bolstered by years of board leadership experience along with a deep knowledge of finance, investments and fundraising. Among her accomplishments with Ideastream was an agreement with WKSU that increased the organization’s news and information coverage from 18 to 22 counties.

“Sandra is the best cheerleader Ideastream has ever had,” said the nomination. “Her energy and passion for our products and services is unequaled and her commitment, dedication and devotion to our mission is unmatched.”

During a board position with Saint Luke’s Foundation, Kiely Kolb helped double the nonprofit’s assets. A tenure with the Cleveland Playhouse board, meanwhile, resulted in the renovation of Allen Theatre.

Holly Little

Aa

Board chair

Boa

The Centers

Children’s Museum of Cleveland

Ste

Brinton Lincoln advanced The Centers’ goals through donations from area institutions and residents: an accomplishment that spread the organization’s life-changing mission throughout the region, the nomination said.

The Centers is a local nonprofit that provides healthcare, job training, early childhood education and youth residential services to the community.

Brinton, who previously chaired the group’s development committee, harnesses his deep relationships in greater Cleveland to secure funding for the organization.

Alongside his work with The Centers, Lincoln acts on the board of the Hawken School. He currently works as Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer at Selman Co. “Brinton uses his connections in the community to help The Centers expand our impact,” said the nomination.

Holly Little leads advocacy and fundraising at the Children’s Museum of Cleveland, recently orchestrating a gala that raised $70,000. Little was also part of the team that helped relocate the organization to the former Stager-Beckwith Mansion in Midtown.

Little’s past litigation experience with Thompson Hine assists the museum in its mission, according to the nomination. Moreover, Little is a board member with Old Trail School and a former member of Ingenuity Cleveland’s board.

“Holly is a trusted and reliable board member tremendously respected by her peers,” the nomination said.

“She can be counted on to flex her legal muscles to assist with difficult nonprofit concerns. Holly will not shy away from asking for financial assistance for the organizations she supports.”

F has enc suff trea stig hea H dire orga dep serv gen exp fidu ope In Mar prev Atto Hero spe even co-f two tech

Brinton Lincoln Board vice chair

16 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | DECEMBER 11, 2023

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um ga

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Aaron Marks

Randell McShepard

Teresa Metcalf Beasley

Robyn Minter Smyers

Board president

Board chair

Board vice chair

Board member

Stella Maris Inc.

PolicyBridge

Downtown Cleveland Alliance

For the past 20 years, Aaron Marks has been in recovery. His lived experiences propel him to help others who are suffering, advocate for equal access to treatment and work to remove the stigma for those suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorder.

He serves as president of the board of directors for Stella Maris Inc., an organization that provides chemical dependency and mental health treatment services to anyone regardless of religion, gender or ability to pay. Marks’ financial experiences at Alviere help him fulfill his fiduciary oversight for the board’s annual operating budget of $11.2 million.

In addition to his work with Stella Marris, Marks serves as chair of the education and prevention subcommittee for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio Heroin and Opioid Task Force. He also speaks at schools and various community events about his experiences. He is a co-founder of FutureLAND, a n annual two-day conference celebrating diversity in tech, arts and culture in northeast Ohio.

As the vice president of public affairs and chief talent officer for the chemical coatings and paint company RPM International, Randell McShepard knows his way around public policy. And it’s that experience he’s able to leverage into his role as board chair at PolicyBridge.

McShepard is also the co-founder of PolicyBridge, a “nonpartisan, African-American-led public policy ‘think and action tank.’” The organization conducts and writes research on public policy issues affecting minority communities and underserved populations in Cleveland.

But McShepard’s philanthropic work isn’t limited to just one organization. He’s also active on several other boards, including Destination Cleveland and the Cleveland Foundation. Some of his previous nonprofit work included a role as a board member of the George Gund Foundation.

Seasoned attorney Teresa Metcalf Beasley, chair of the Public Law Practice Group at McDonald Hopkins LLC, has represented individuals, corporations, nonprofits and governmental bodies with all aspects of real estate development, including land assembly, planning, zoning, environmental and finance.

In addition to maintaining her legal practice, Beasley is a dedicated community leader, serving as the vice chair of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. She also sits on the boards of the Playhouse Square Foundation, University Hospitals of Cleveland Medical Center, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where she is also a member of the executive committee and chair of the DEAI Committee.

Additionally, Beasley is the vice chair for Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, chairs the board of In Counsel with Women and is the chapter president of the Western Reserve Chapter of The Links Incorporated.

The Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio

Congratulations on being named a 2023 Notable Nonprofit Board Leader!

Robyn Minter Smyers has provided expertise and counsel to many high-profile projects, including the renovation of Public Square, development of the Downtown Cleveland Hilton and restoration of the West Side Market, but the Thompson Hine partner is just as impactful behind the scenes.

As immediate past president of the City Club of Cleveland, Smyers led the re-design of the forum’s operating model to address the challenges of COVID-19, the launch of its Guardians of Free Speech capital and endowment campaign and the initiation of the move to Playhouse Square.

She’s also a longtime board member of the Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio — which recently honored Smyers as the 2023 Humanitarian of the Year — and has lent her business, legal and leadership skills to numerous other nonprofit boards.

Debbie Brassell Southwest Community Health Foundation Board of Trustees

We are grateful for your unwavering support of Southwest General Health Center.

Your passion, commitment and generous contributions over the past 13 years have made a lasting impact on the health of the communities we serve.

I-71 at Bagley Road | Middleburg Heights | 440-816-8000 | swgeneral.com

DECEMBER 11, 2023 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 17

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NOTABLE NONPROFIT BOARD LEADERS

15,193 The number of nonprofit organizations in the Cleveland metro area

SueAnn Naso

Leta Obertacz

Lawrence E. Oscar

Mi

Board chair

Board president

Honorary director

Boa

Motogo

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland

Gre

Leta Obertacz’s 20 years of fundraising experience make her a force to be reckoned with. In 2022, Obertacz started at The Cleveland Foundation, where she and her team manage over 2,000 funds from generous donors.

Previously, she was director of advancement at the Cleveland Zoological Society.

Obertacz’s passion for outreach and improving her community extends beyond standard business hours. She is an active member for several nonprofits. As board president, she has helped grow Motogo, a nonprofit that uses STEAM curricula to teach children to how to rebuild motorcycles, as well as problem-solving and resilience.

She also serves as co-vice president of the EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute board and a board member of the City Club of Cleveland.

Lawrence E. Oscar’s experience with governance and business law has been a boon to the area’s nonprofits, where he has extensively contributed.

He is an honorary director who has served on the Museum of Contemporary Art (moCa Cleveland) Cleveland’s Board of Trustees for more than 20 years, three of which were as board president (2019-2021).

During his tenure as board president, Oscar helped shape how moCa responded to, and adapted, amid changing COVID-19 conditions. This included: working to integrate DEI- and accessibility-focused work for staff and the board; maintaining board stewardship and direct support; maintaining staff development; and sustaining community engagement and stewardship, even while museum doors were shut.

Oscar’s other leadership roles have included serving with the Cleveland Orchestra’s advisory council, the Cleveland Leadership Center and the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

A Cle Mic num Hab wor Hab exp and new O dep Cen ope help tion fina tax tho Hum wor ers In Ow Brie by t

Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio

— CauseIQ

During the day, SueAnn Naso runs a company focused on recruitment and job placement, ensuring the right person finds the right team. In her free time, Naso helps the Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio do the same thing.

In her eight years as a board member for Second Harvest (her second as board chair), Naso has used her extensive human resources knowledge to help the organization retain and attract top talent, which has seen record-low turnover. She has also made improvements to the Second Harvest’s HR policies and employee benefits, including wage assessments, feedback mechanisms and PTO policies.

Naso is also the co-founder of the Executive HR Women’s Network and board chair of Engage! Cleveland. She’s also involved with the group Counsel With Women, Encore NEO and the Greater Cleveland Partnership’s Middle-Market Initiatives.

TO OUR BOARD CHAIR Eliza Jennings is proud to celebrate Margaret G. Weitzel for being selected as one of Crain’s Cleveland Notable Leaders in Business for 2023.

Congratulations to our partners Katherine D. Brandt and Robyn Minter Smyers, named 2024 Notable Nonprofit Board Leaders

Ms. Weitzel was appointed to the Eliza Jennings Board in 2010. Now retired, she served as executive vice president and partner with Wyse Advertising, and has been involved with numerous Greater Cleveland area not-for-profit organizations.

Eliza Jennings is a not-for-profit organization providing excellent care and services to older adults. We offer a full spectrum of choices including independent and assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation services, hospice and home health, respite care and adult day programming.

Our network of communities includes Eliza Jennings Health Campus, The Renaissance Retirement Campus, Devon Oaks, and Eliza at Chagrin Falls.

ThompsonHine.com

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45,673 Michael Owendoff

David Payne

Brent Pietrafese

Board chair

Governing board member and former governing board chair

Emeritus board member

Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity As board chair of the Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity, Michael Owendoff can be seen at any number of events, from the annual Habitat Walk/Run/Mosey to a worksite. During his chairmanship, Habitat for Humanity also has seen exponential growth, hired a new CEO and started an initiative to build 400 new homes.

Owendoff’s responsibilities as deputy general counsel for SITE Centers, a REIT specializing in open-air shopping centers, have helped him gain experience in acquisitions, joint ventures, commercial financing and general corporate and tax matters. He has, in turn, used those experiences to help Habitat for Humanity navigate the challenges of working with municipalities, developers and real estate attorneys.

In addition to his work with Habitat, Owendoff also volunteers with the Brief Advice and Referral Clinic, run by the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.

Make-A-Wish Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana Since 2014, David Payne has served as a board member and just wrapped up a second term as governing board chair of Make-A-Wish Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana, the largest chapter in the world.

Payne helped the organization grant a record 1,205 wishes in fiscal year 2023.

Thanks to Payne’s efforts, the organization expects to achieve its vision of granting the wishes of every eligible child. The organization also raised a record $12.8 million in FY2023.

Payne’s design and renovations company—Payne & Tompkins, which Payne co-owns—has fulfilled several wishes, and he leverages his network in the building community to secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in in-kind donations to support wishes.

He has recruited several board members, personally donated over $200,000 to the organization and established an endowment for the chapter in memory of a co-worker’s child.

Julie Billiart Schools Brent Pietrafese was in the right place at the right time.

Well, he was the right person at the right time for Julie Billiart Schools, an elementary school for children with mild-to-moderate autism, ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, generalized anxiety and other social or learning differences.

Pietrafese served as board chair when the organization started to open additional campuses to serve more children.

He helped unify the board under a shared vision and provided the leadership to create a sustainable model for growing its footprint, the Julie Billiart Schools Network. The organization now has campuses in Akron, Lyndhurst and Westlake, with another opening in Brecksville in 2024.

Pietrafese continues to serve as an emeritus board member for Julie Billiart Schools, is active with St. Paschal Baylon Catholic School and coaches many youth sports. Over the years, he has volunteered on a variety of boards throughout greater Cleveland.

The number of local employees employed by Cleveland Clinic, the largest nonprofit in the Cleveland area — Crain’s List, as of 2023 Q2

CONGRATULATIONS

TERESA METCALF BEASLEY Named one of Crain’s 2023 Notable Nonprofit Board Leaders Teresa Metcalf Beasley is a leader in the Cleveland community whose civic engagements and dedication to public service are a strong reflection of how McDonald Hopkins strives to lead the way in our approach to community service. In addition to her leadership on nonprofit boards, Teresa has a solid reputation as a real estate development and public finance attorney who builds trust and personal relationships with her clients.

mcdonaldhopkins.com DECEMBER 11, 2023 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 19

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NOTABLE NONPROFIT BOARD LEADERS

$ 499.33B The total amount of charitable donations made in the U.S. in 2022 — Giving USA annual report

Michael Polovick

Sonja C. Rice

Mitchell Schneider

President

Trustee

Member, board of trustees

Hudson Job Search

Asian American Bar Association of Ohio

Western Reserve Land Conservancy

The labor market has experienced quite the shakeup lately. No one knows labor market issues more than Michael Polovick, president of the board of Hudson Job Search, a nonprofit that provides free assistance with resumes, networking, interviewing and salary negotiations.

Polovick has worked to expand the organization’s services beyond Hudson, leverage technology to drive efficiencies, and foster a more diverse and inclusive environment for volunteers and job seekers alike.

To that end, he invests heavily in building a strong volunteer group of advisors and develops their skills so they can provide the best service and support to job seekers.

In addition to Hudson Job Search, Michael has been involved with the University of Akron’s HR advisory board. He is the former vice president of HR at Smithers.

At Hahn Loeser & Parks, Sonja C. Rice represents Fortune 500 companies, privately held businesses and nonprofit organizations in a variety of commercial transactions and construction contract negotiations, chairs the firm’s Women’s Leadership Initiative and serves as a member of its Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Elsewhere, she donates her time and talents to advance the welfare of humans and non-humans alike.

Rice is a 15-year trustee of the Asian American Bar Association of Ohio — which supports the professional growth and advancement of its attorneys and promotes awareness of the issues and concerns facing the Asian Pacific American community at large — and a frequent speaker on xenophobia and racism.

And she also recently provided legal counsel to negotiate contracts for the construction of a much-needed new animal shelter.

Ke

Through his company, First Interstate Properties, Mitchell Schneider has transformed Northeast Ohio’s real estate landscape. Schneider has brought that same energy to his role with the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

Formerly the chair of the conservancy’s board, Schneider is on several board committees. During his tenure, the Conservancy experienced a dramatic growth in funding, staff and impact.

His expertise in complex real estate transactions has aided the Conservancy’s mission while his expertise in organizational development and leadership has improved the organization’s culture.

Schneider’s efforts and networking ability have raised the Conservancy’s profile in Cleveland and beyond. Schneider also volunteers with several area and national nonprofits, including the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, The MetroHealth System and the Center for Population Dynamics at Cleveland State University.

SW 6 Con 911 fide nt Ye ll

ow

TULATION A R G N S CO Brent Pietrafese, Emeritus Board member of Julie Billiart Schools, has been selected as a 2023 Crain's Cleveland Business Notable Nonprofit Board Leader.

On behalf of the JB Schools community, we thank Brent for his dedication and service to our students, families, and mission.

7 lue 680 SW drous B Won

Congratulations!

Sherwin-Williams is proud to celebrate Jane Cronin, Sr. Vice President, Enterprise Finance, for being recognized as a Notable Nonprofit Board Leader for her dedicated service to Providence House.

SW 6318 se Resounding Ro

©2023 The Sherwin-Williams Company

20 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | DECEMBER 11, 2023

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Kevin Smith

Ralph Trecaso

Michael Unger

Chair, community investment

Board chair

United Way of Greater Stark County

St. Vincent-St. Mary High School

Board member and board president emeritus

Kevin Smith knows giving back can’t be confined to a day or even a season. Over the years, he has volunteered with the United Way of Greater Stark County in a number of roles.

Smith started by volunteering with the health impact council and has transitioned to leadership roles on the finance committee, the board of directors and the committee that oversees councils. Along the way, he has shared his knowledge of the community and his institutional knowledge about United Way with new volunteers, committee members and co-chairs.

As a small business owner — PPi Graphics — Smith knows firsthand the importance of leading an organization with compassion and maintaining a highly engaged workforce. He also knows the challenges — and rewards — of running an organization that improves the lives of others.

Ralph Trecaso’s journey with St. Vincent-St. Mary High School has come full circle, first as a student and now as the chair of the board of trustees and as chair of the finance committee.

Trecaso has recently helped St. V-St. M raise approximately $1.5 million to improve the student experience, including the academic and athletic facilities. His professional experience as a managing director at Wells Trecaso Financial Group has been a boon to the school in terms of fundraising, money management and sound fiscal policy.

Trecaso is also a current member and past president of the Italian American Professional Business Club, where he serves as co-chair of the annual Viva La Panza fundraising and networking event. He is also involved with and helps raises funds for the Embrace Clinic & Care Center.

The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland A global pandemic didn’t prevent one of the nation’s top litigators from protecting clients, both inside and outside the courtroom.

Michael Unger focuses on complex litigation, such as commercial and financial matters, with Ulmer & Berne but also serves as a board member and board president emeritus of The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.

Unger advised Legal Aid to go remote in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing the organization to expand services to even more clients today. He also helped the organization navigate complex issues that arose during the pandemic, such as finding new ways to communicate with the client community.

Unger’s commitment to Legal Aid is complete, a regular presence at Legal Aid’s neighborhood clinics, and he represents clients pro bono.

Angela Vannucci Board member and former board president May Dugan Center Angela Vannucci leads multi-functional global teams at Eaton that are responsible for executing Eaton’s inorganic activity, including mergers and acquisitions, as well as corporate strategy. She brings that same business savvy and dynamic energy to the May Dugan Center.

Vannucci joined the center’s board of directors in 2013. Since then, she has played a significant role with the center’s growth. At the May Dugan Center, Vannucci has spent time in many leadership roles. She is a former board president and maintains an active role with four standing committees.

In addition to her leadership responsibilities, she serves as the board liaison to the center’s $7.6 million capital campaign to renovate and expand the building; the campaign was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic and is 96% funded.

She also played a significant role with the development and execution of two strategic plans and expanded the agency’s budget from $1 million to over $3 million.

e

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NOTABLE NONPROFIT BOARD LEADERS

Doug Wang

Margaret Weitzel

Jim Will

William (Bill) Wortzman

De

Board chair

Board chair

Board president

Judson Services Inc.

Eliza Jennings Senior Care Network

Lifebanc

Boa of g

As board chair of Judson Services Inc., Doug Wang helped lead the organization through some of its most challenging days during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wang worked alongside the CEO to manage financials and provide support and encouragement for the staff who care for 450 older adults.

At the same time, Wang used his decades of experience in finance to improve investment policies and practices, as well as revise Judson’s portfolio management. This allowed Judson to boost operational efficiencies and focus on caring for seniors living at one of the three senior living communities and those receiving in-home care.

Since retiring, Wang volunteered with several organizations, including the Higley Fund at The Cleveland Foundation, Policy Matters Ohio, The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and the Cuyahoga County Board of Health.

Beginning in 2010, Margaret Weitzel has served on the board of trustees for the Eliza Jennings Senior Care Network, which has offered a comprehensive spectrum of aging services since its founding in 1888. Presently, Weitzel serves as board chair.

Weitzel is retired but previously held the position of executive vice president and board secretary at Wyse Advertising Inc. She used her marketing and communications expertise to help define, redefine and refine Eliza Jennings’ mission.

Under her guidance, the organization has acquired a senior care campus in Chagrin Falls, which aligns with its strategic plan to broaden quality care throughout northeast Ohio.

In addition to her work with Eliza Jennings, Weitzel serves on the boards of the Beck Center for the Arts and is a life director with Recovery Resources.

At PwC, Jim Will helps clients navigate complex business, financial reporting, governance and regulatory challenges within a dynamic and high-speed environment.

He’s applied those lesson to his work as president of the board of Lifebanc, Northeast Ohio’s sole nonprofit organ and tissue recovery organization. Will has been a board member at Lifebanc since 2013 and president of the board since 2020.

During his tenure, Will, together with management and fellow board members, reevaluated and refined Lifebanc’s strategy: emphasizing data-driven decision-making to transform the organization’s approach to fulfilling its mission of saving and healing lives. The result: consecutive years of record-breaking organ donations with over 1,400 lives saved during his presidency.

In addition to Lifebanc, he volunteers as a member of the Grove City College’s Business School advisory committee, his alma mater.

Life director, endowment committee chair and governance committee co-chair LifeAct Bill Wortzman’s work with LifeAct, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing youth suicide through mental health education, began in 2007. Presently, he is a life director, chair of the endowment committee and co-chair of the governance committee and annual fund subcommittee.

Thanks to Wortzman’s fundraising efforts and advocacy work, LifeAct’s budget grew 99.6% over the past decade, to $1.2 million in fiscal year 2023. What’s more, the organization’s endowment fund, established in 2017, has grown to more than $500,000. He has also led LifeAct’s expansion efforts, increasing the number of students served by 60% in just five years.

In addition to his work with LifeAct, Wortzman manages the accounting firm Wortzman & Gingerich and has served on several boards, including the Jewish Family Service Association of Cleveland, University Hospitals and Hopewell.

Congratulations to

Jeanne Coughlin and the rest of the 2023 Notable Nonprofit Board Leaders.

Jeanne Coughlin

JumpStart Board Leader

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Luth

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$50M Deb Yandala

Mark Yanochko

Sally Zlotnick Sears

Board member and chair of governance

Past ex-officio trustee and past head of the strategic planning initiative

Board chair

Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry Deb Yandala’s deep knowledge of the nonprofit sector, from operations to finances to development to board governance, make her an asset to Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry (LMM), where she currently serves as a board member and chair of governance. For over a decade, Yandala has held various leadership roles with LMM — which helps people find shelter, housing and jobs — including board chair.

Yandala is also president and CEO of Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, managing a budget of $5 million, a membership of 4,000 and a staff of 80. Under Yandala, the CCVNP has fundraised over $7 million, led DEI initiatives and increased engagement with the park’s more than 5,000 volunteers.

Yandala is also a member of the board for Near West Theatre and greatly values the positive way in which art impacts the community.

Seeds of Literacy Since 2005, Mark Yanochko has volunteered more than 2,300 hours as a tutor with Seeds of Literacy, a nonprofit that provides free personalized, one-on-one tutoring for adult basic education and GED prep.

He has also served as ex-officio trustee and vice president of the board, headed the strategic planning initiative, chaired the community relations committee for five years and chaired the marketing committee for seven years.

Yanochko continues to tutor students at least twice a week, both in person and online. These years of tutoring experience bring a critical perspective during committee and board meetings. He also donates his artistic talents to Seeds of Literacy by photographing their events and donating his own work to fundraising auctions.

OVER

Cleveland Museum of Natural History Sally Zlotnick Sears has supported organizations like the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Metroparks and, with her husband, Larry Sears, is the lead benefactor of the Sears think[box] at Case Western Reserve University.

But it’s her hands-on work for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History that makes Zlotnick Sears a Notable.

She is the museum’s first woman to serve as board chair. In her role, she leads 54 active, life and honorary board members; serves on several committees; fundraises for the museum, including donating nearly $10 million with Larry; and contributes to the design and development of the new wings.

In addition to serving as board chair, Zlotnick Sears also serves as co-chair of the museum’s “Transforming the World of Discovery” campaign and has helped raise $131 million for the project.

The amount of the largest donation made in the Cleveland area in 2022. Made by Cleveland Clinic to the United Way to support lead safety.

— Crain’s List

Congratulations Angela Vannucci

OVER

For being recognized

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS 2024

as a Notable Nonprofit

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS Board Leader by Crain’s Cleveland Business!

Know a business leader over the age of 80 who is still working tirelessly to advance Northeast Ohio and its residents?

Nominate them for 8 Over 80.

Thank you for exemplifying Eaton’s longtime commitment to living by our values.

Nominate by February 2 ANGELA VANNUCCI

CrainsCleveland.com/80sNoms

Congratulations!

Director Corporate Planning and Development Eaton

DECEMBER 11, 2023 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 23

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How

LESSONS FROM COLUMBUS

GETTY IMAGES AND UNSPLASH PHOTOS

COMPETING BY

COLLABORATING Northeast and Central Ohio have distinct differences, but their economic futures are inextricably linked

I

By Jay Miller

n January 2022 Intel Corp. announced it would build two new, leading-edge semiconductor fabricating factories — “fabs” — in Licking County in Central Ohio, that would open in 2025. The $20 billion investment, the largest

by a company in the state’s history, is the first step in what could be eight Ohio Intel plants, the company said, calling it “a new epicenter for advanced chipmaking in the U.S.” But the plant would not have gone to Central Ohio — or, likely, Ohio at all — if a Lorain councilwoman hadn’t tried to get her Northeast

Ohio community the attention of several chipmakers’ CEOs in 2021.

The landing of Intel vividly illustrates the sometimes competitive, sometimes collaborative bond between two key economic regions, Central and Northeast Ohio, that have been on different trajectories as both find ways to build their futures.

Central Ohio’s trajectory has been up. It has grown rapidly from a region with a mid-sized state capital city, Columbus, surrounded by farm counties.

After World War II, Columbus began to attract branches of national companies, growing alongside the Ohio State University, which was ballooning with baby boomers from across the state.

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How Central Ohio got noticed “I’m writing this to share with you the reasons that Lorain, Ohio, needs to be considered as the ideal place to manufacture semi-conductor chips necessary for automobile production,” wrote Lorain city councilwoman Mary Springowski. The part-time councilwoman’s full-time job was as an auto worker at the Ford engine plant in Brook Park, where she had seen the impact of the shortage of chips.

She listed 13 reasons Lorain should win a chip plant, including easy access to a transportation system that included railroads, highways and shipping on the St. Lawrence Seaway, and “a city council and Port Authority that will go out of their way to bring this to Lorain and do what is necessary to be of assistance to the venture.”

She got a response. The company was at the tail end of its search for a site and had not considered anywhere in Ohio. The only problem was that the company was now in a hurry and wanted a quick look at what her community, Northeast Ohio, could offer. Springowski got her city’s economic development team involved as well as Team NEO, the regional economic development nonprofit, and its deep-pocket state partner, JobsOhio. While closing any deal this big would require significant instate financing, JobsOhio policy was that it kept hands off the work of its regional partners until it was asked in.

Bill Koehler, Team NEO‘s CEO, connected with an Intel executive.

“They said, ‘Yes, we’re doing a process,’” he was told. “’Ohio’s not on the list, but if you can give us any kind of confidence that you have somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,200 acres with all these different specs, we’ll listen. But we need it in three days.’”

After spending a day and a half looking for sites, Koehler said, JobsOhio asked if Northeast Ohio had a site. “And we said, ‘You know, based on what we’re looking at, we probably don’t.’ And they said, ‘Well, if you don’t, Columbus might,’” Koehler recalled.

So JobsOhio found Intel 1,000 acres in Licking County, land that was flat — something hard to find in Northeast Ohio — and, because making semiconductor chips is delicate work, far enough away from rail lines and freeway interchanges to be vibration-free.

Now, construction is underway for a factory that will bring Central Ohio at least 3,000 permanent jobs expected to pay an average wage of $135,000 a year, in addition to 7,000 construction jobs. JobsOhio would commit $150 million in aid to Intel over time, including a $25 million grant to Intel for workforce development. Intel’s Ohio site is also in the running for some of the $52.7 billion in subsidies available from the $52 billion federal CHIPS, or Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors in America.

It’s not a total loss for the Northeast Ohio region, though. Intel already has lined up 150 suppliers from 38 counties, including Cuyahoga, Geauga, Huron, Lake, Medina, Portage, Stark, Summit, Trumbull and, of course, Lorain in Northeast Ohio.

In addition, Intel is creating the Ohio Semiconductor Education and Research Program, a $50 million fund that will help educate and train students at colleges and universities across the state – including Case Western Reserve, Cleveland State, Kent State universities and Cuyahoga and Lorain County community colleges – in technology skills that support semiconductor fabrication and equipment operations.

Contrasting regions As the center of state government with scores of OSU students remaining to find

that these state capitals also typically have large public universities.”

Different pasts, different futures

President Joe Biden speaks during a ceremony at the Sept. 9, 2022, groundbreaking of the new Intel semiconductor manufacturing facility in Licking County. The factory will bring at least 3,000 permanent jobs. | BLOOMBERG

work and a thriving retail industry — led

by Les Wexner and his Limited, Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works stores; the Big Lots chain; and Wendy’s restaurants — the Columbus metropolitan area grew from 1.14 million people in 2000 to 1.64 million in 2020.

The larger Columbus-Marion-Zanesville Combined Statistical Area had a population of over 2.54 million people in 2020, up from 2.30 million in 2010, the first census to include CSAs. And it is expected to keep growing until at least 2050.

That compares to Northeast Ohio, a struggling, post-industrial area that is trying to rebuild. Still, it holds the largest chunk of Ohio’s economy, producing 40% of the state’s gross domestic product, according to the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

Manufacturing — including steel, automotive and polymers — remains a dominant factor in the regional economy, but the region has also built significant finance, engineering, health care and biotechnology sectors. The diversification, however, has not coincided with more people.

The population of the Cleveland metropolitan area, the heart of the region, declined between 2000 and 2020 from 1.79 million to 1.76 million. The larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area had a population of 3.63 million people in 2020, the same as in 2010.

Finally, while the state as a whole experienced a population gain of 3% from 2000 to 2020, a closer look at the numbers makes a telling point. When looking at Ohio’s population excluding the rapidly growing Columbus metro, the remainder of the state shows a loss of 1% in population.

“State capitals over the last several decades have grown faster than other cities and that’s for a lot of reasons,” said Ben Armstrong, executive director of the Industrial Performance Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Armstrong researches how workers, firms and regions adapt to technological change.

“Columbus being a state capital with a lot of government service deployment has a lower share of manufacturing historically and is naturally more diverse and able to be more resilient in the face of economic changes,” he said. “And I think part of it is

Gross Domestic Product A look at each metropolitan region’s domestic product over time.

Columbus

$140B Cleveland

$120B $100B $80B $60B $40B $20B

2002

2004

2006

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

2008

2010

2012

2014

2016

2018

2020

Because of its historic industrial economy, the Cleveland area, Armstrong said, has been following a different path.

“Another approach is to take what a region is really strong at and then deepen its strength in those industries and a place like Cleveland has historically had strong manufacturing,” Armstrong said. “And the idea of economic development strategy in Cleveland for a long time was to take those strengths and bring them into the 21st century, and that didn’t work.”

In a report for the Carnegie Institute for International Peace, a Washington, D.C., think tank, Edward Hill, a professor of economic development at Ohio State University and a former dean of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, and Fran Stewart, a writer and senior fellow at the Ohio Manufacturing Institute, interviewed political and business leaders in Central and Northeast Ohio as well as the four other sectors across the state, and highlighted some of the stark differences between the two regions.

Though the report focused on foreign policy and international trade, they noted that the Cleveland region has seen a lot of businesses leave or fail, particularly in manufacturing industries paying high wages, with many of those replacing them not paying nearly as well.

“Is there anything that will be the mass employer and the gateway to the middle class that manufacturing once was?” a political observer told them. “I don’t see it.”

On the other hand, the report says, Columbus is prospering as it attracts “young, educated talent and global investors to a modern, diversified twenty-first-century economy.”

A plan for growth To help Northeast Ohio grow, civic and economic development organizations in the region are, without saying it directly, looking at Central Ohio strategies it can emulate. They hope to put the Northeast Ohio region on the same kind of upward arc that Columbus and Central Ohio are on, knowing it won’t be easy because of the dramatic differences between the geographies and politics of the two regions.

That’s because Northeast Ohio is built around a handful of significant metropolitan areas that have grown up, and grown their economies, on their own. Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Lorain and YoungstownWarren each have their own very independent histories, though their economies all focus on oil refining, steel making, automotive supplies and paints and chemicals.

So, too, does nearby Wayne County, home to the J.M. Smucker Co., and Lake County, which has a strong manufacturing base led by the Lubrizol Corp. a $ 6.7 billion business with 2,000 employees in the county that has been there since 1931. With Lake Erie to the north, the region never had a single, central city.

By contrast, in Central Ohio the outlying communities, places like Licking County and Marysville, where Honda now makes cars, were largely agricultural. They have grown in concentric rings around Columbus, said Mark Barbash, director of the Ohio Economic Development Institute of the Ohio Economic Development Association. “So you’re not dealing with the competing interests that you that you get into when you have multiple metropolitan areas,” he said. Barbash is a former chief development officer of the state of Ohio and director of development for Columbus.

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LESSONS FROM COLUMBUS | COMMENTARY

By the numbers

C

O

A look at the two regions in key indicators Cleveland

Columbus 3.51M

3.4M 2.57M

2.61M

Population

1.76M

eco COV grow pan imp Th by m regi inve Hon cle b The ed t nom tral fort C pow natu the role crea and with leav and C as t men tors geo land earl

1.33M

Projected population 2027

1.75M

Labor force

1.33M

Employment

Average earnings per job

$71,300 $74,300 Cleveland

Columbus

% high school graduates

31.3%

29%

Cleveland

Columbus

% with bachelor’s degree

19.1%

22.2%

Cleveland

Columbus

A look at projects landed in 2022 with involvement by regional economic development networks 88 47 New businesses or expansions

8,000 5,673

New jobs

Annual payroll

$304M

$772M

Cleveland

Columbus

Capital investment

$2B

Cleveland

$21.3B* Columbus

*Intel responsible for most of the investment.

Note: Cities are measured as combined statistical areas; Columbus includes Marion and Zanesville and 16 counties in Central Ohio. Cleveland includes Akron and Canton and 12 Northeast Ohio counties.

SOURCE: TEAM NEO

Northeast Ohio has a rich array of assets, from world-class arts and cultural organizations and professional sports teams to our parks, rivers and Lake Erie. | GETTY IMAGES

Cleveland can grow by learning from and sharing with other regions

A

has leveraged its strengths through s we pursue becoming one successive plans, anchored by of the Great Regions in the “The Columbus Way” — an apGreat Lakes, we learn from proach that defines how business, the success of others and apply the civic and elected leaders work tolessons to propel Greater Clevegether on priorities. Each success land’s continued growth. Our strengthens commitment to the strengths and potential are clear. plan and the way, building a culGreater Cleveland (the Cleveture for continued growth. land-Akron combined statistical We have taken that fundamental area), with 3.7 million people and Paul Dolan is learning — along with learnings a $220 billion economy, is the larg- chair of the from Houston, Indianapolis, Cinest region in Ohio, third largest in Greater cinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Philathe Midwest and in the Top 20 in Cleveland delphia and other regions in innothe U.S. The region has over Partnership. vation, talent attraction and 110,000 college students and $3.7 waterfront development — and billion in annual research. adapted these lessons to inform Our region is a global leader in our region’s plan and approach. manufacturing, materials, health Last year, we initiated the All In care and financial services. These Plan for the region. The plan idensectors anchor a well-diversified tifies key priorities, metrics to economy that includes headquarmeasure progress, and most imters for 15 Fortune 1000 firms, portant, an “All In” approach — a globally recognized health and rerestoring of Cleveland’s partnersearch institutions, and major ofship approach — that defines how fices of leading services firms.

Baiju Shah is we must work together to realize We have a rich array of assets president & our potential. that are the envy of many regions, CEO of the Though the plan is still early in from our world-class arts and cul- Greater execution, the region is starting to tural organizations and profes- Cleveland see significant wins: sional sports teams to our parks, Partnership. ◗ In manufacturing and materials, rivers and Lake Erie.

Scale matters to businesses looking at major expansions by Ford, Swagelok, Linsuppliers, customers and talent, and to incoln Electric, Avery Dennison, GM-LG and dividuals looking for jobs, amenities and Sherwin-Williams and others are underdiversity. Our challenge at times has been way, complemented by Case Western and acting as one region and leveraging our Akron being designated as federal innovastrengths and scale to compete and grow. tion hubs in these fields. ◗ In health care, Cleveland Clinic is exIn recent years, the Columbus region’s growth has been admirable. That region panding facilities, University Hospitals is

launching new business ventures, and Canon Healthcare established its U.S. headquarters here; all are growing in our innovation district. ◗ NASA Glenn continues to expand; and our airports have gained new flights, a Frontier crew hub, and new carriers such as Alaska Airlines and Aer Lingus.

These are just a few notable examples.

Successes also are occurring in workforce, equity and inclusion, entrepreneurial and development initiatives. The momentum is growing — driven by an All In approach.

Yet challenges remain. The region needs more ready sites and mega-sites for expansions, more coordination and investment on innovation initiatives, more robust industry-driven talent initiatives and much more inclusion across all sectors. But each of these areas is being worked on together.

Through it all, we continue to learn from other regions and adapt practices for Greater Cleveland. We also continue to share. Other regions have recently studied our approach to downtown development, sustainability-driven growth, inclusion initiatives and our parks and amenities.

While we compete and rank ourselves against other Midwest regions in terms of business, jobs, and income growth — the north stars that guide our plan — the truth is that we learn from each other, often work together and succeed together.

Greater Cleveland Partnership is the region’s leading economic development organization and, with over 12,000 members, the nation’s largest metropolitan chamber of commerce.

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bus with a more straightforward hio is redefining its image path for development. as the quintessential “Rust Infrastructure is crucial for ecoBelt” state with a robust nomic growth. Northeast Ohio’s economic resurgence postaging infrastructure, originally COVID-19. The state boasts job built for industrial growth, now growth that surpasses prepresents challenges and high costs pandemic levels and a steadily for accommodating new growth. improving unemployment rate.

In contrast, Columbus’s more reThis resurgence is highlighted cent development has allowed for by major projects in the Columbus Mark strategic planning and control region, including Intel’s $3 billion Barbash is overgrowth. investment in Licking County and director of the The election of Mayor Maynard Honda’s $3.3 billion electric vehi- Ohio Economic “Jack” Sensenbrenner in 1954 cle battery plant in Fayette County. Development marked a turning point for ColumThese developments have reignit- Institute. bus. His administration’s aggresed the debate comparing the ecosive annexation policy and expansion of nomic trajectories of Northeast and Centhe city’s sewer and water systems effectral Ohio, particularly the contrasting tively put Columbus in the position of fortunes of Cleveland and Columbus. managing the inevitable regional growth Cleveland’s rise as a global economic and influencing the development of surpower in the late 1800s was driven by its rounding suburban areas. natural assets, such as the Great Lakes and the Cuyahoga River. These facilitated its role in global economic growth and wealth Economic development strategies creation. However, the Great Depression and post-WWII deindustrialization, along While the high-level strategies for ecowith suburbanization, led to a decline, nomic development are similar across leaving the city with aging infrastructure communities, their implementation varies and economic challenges. based on local conditions.

Columbus’s growth, beginning modestly as the state capital in 1812, gained mo1. Cohesive corporate and community leadermentum in the 1950s across various secship: Effective leadership is essential, retors. Its central location and lack of quiring a data-driven approach to consengeographical barriers, compared to Clevesus building and action. land’s challenges posed by Lake Erie and early suburban growth, provided Colum2. Streamlined zoning and infrastructure

processes: Adaptability in zoning, planning, and infrastructure is crucial, considering each region’s unique geographical and historical context.

3. Leveraging higher education institutions: Institutions like Ohio State University play a vital role in driving innovation, venture growth, and collaboration.

4. Political collaboration: Fostering collaboration over competition among elected and appointed leaders is key to addressing regional economic development challenges.

5. Community investment and placemaking: Investments in neighborhoods and placemaking are vital to ensure no community is left behind in the economic recovery.

6. Tailored economic development tools: Economic incentives should be customized to address specific regional needs, ensuring transparency and accountability.

7. Robust economic development organizations: Organizations like TeamNEO and OneColumbus need to be well-funded and equipped to respond swiftly to opportunities and workforce challenges.

I have worked in economic development for 40 years and continue to be impressed that the work that Team NEO, the Fund for the Economic Future and the

Greater Cleveland Partnership do for the region. I am particularly impressed with Team NEO’s work bridging critical workforce gaps and the need for development sites that help businesses expand and grow in the region. And the Fund for Our Economic Future’s work to bring equity to the normally traditional site selection.

And all of Ohio benefits from JobsOhio approach to economic development: Targeting support for the state’s primary industries with strategic investments, supporting the work of regional partners like TeamNEO and OneColumbus, and responding to real opportunities. Led ably

by JP Nauseef and staffed by some of the most able professionals in the industry, JobsOhio is a national model.

The economic recovery and growth paths for Cleveland and Columbus, while rooted in different histories and challenges, hold great potential. By embracing innovative strategies and strong collaborative leadership, these regions can set an example for economic development. Understanding and leveraging their distinct historical, geographical, and demographic contexts is crucial in crafting effective, future-focused economic strategies.

Barbash, a former chief economic development officer for the state of Ohio and director of development for the city of Columbus, is an instructor at the Ohio State University John Glenn College of Public Affairs.

Population growth isn’t the path to change the region needs

C

also true that most Shrinking Citleveland belongs to a class ies lie in the Rust Belt, characterof 80 American cities called ized by deindustrialization. The Shrinking or Legacy Cities. loss of industry in the mid-20th Collectively, these cities lost about century opened the valve of 5.6 million residents from 1970 to out-migration. That out-migration 2010. Population trends were was selective, siphoning out mixed in the 2010s, but even so, as younger and more educated worka group these 80 cities lost 28.5% ers. Resultingly, Shrinking Cities’ of their population from 1970 to older populations experience low2020. For many Shrinking Cities, Joanna er growth via fertility, and greater including Cleveland, population Ganning, difficulty in firm development and loss started even earlier. The city of PhD, is an expansion.

Cleveland has lost 60% of its popu- associate The vast majority of economic lation since 1950, and losses con- professor of development incentives are wastetinue. economic Population growth is the wrong development in ful, nationally, but the demographic and economic charactergoal for Cleveland in 2023. For the Levin istics of Shrinking Cities make Cleveland and other Shrinking School of their effectiveness especially diffiCities, improving quality of life for Urban Affairs cult here. When Cleveland is seen the people who have chosen to live at Cleveland as less competitive than cities like here has to take priority.

State In the field of urban planning, University and Columbus or other growing areas, population projections provide a associate dean the public sector has to spend more to attract businesses. Then, foundation for land use and infra- for faculty when firms do build on suburban structure development planning. affairs. greenfield sites, that development The trajectory of population worsens job accessibility for our change informs cities about their central city residents—an outcome that needs for new housing, sewer systems, does not typically occur in cities like Coschools and senior services. Yet, Shrinking lumbus.

Cities exceedingly rarely acknowledge Across Shrinking Cities, subsidies to big population decline in their planning probusinesses and outside firms can often be cesses. directly linked to adverse outcomes for evRather than starting with projections, eryday people. Simultaneously, failures to these cities begin with visions of growth, make relatively modest investments in and based in hope and ideology rather than repolicies for neighborhoods have caused ality. The result? Decades of wasted spendsignificant harm. Closing a neighborhood ing on projects designed to attract outsidelementary school, for example, because a ers, who rarely come and less often stay, larger, combined school can operate more especially if the flow of public subsidies efficiently, can cause deeply damaging stops. ripple effects for neighborhoods.

Various factors contribute to ongoing For Cleveland and other Shrinking Citpopulation losses in Shrinking Cities, and ies, the future of development must center no two such cities experience population on improving quality of life for the people loss in exactly the same way. However, it is

GETTY IMAGES

m

COMMENTARY | LESSONS FROM COLUMBUS

who live here today, while utilizing professionally produced population projections for the future. The logic that attracting big firms or outside investment will help Clevelanders has had 70 years to deliver, but Cuyahoga County’s population has continued to decline, and by almost any measure, Cleveland remains one of America’s poorest cities.

Rather than spending money on outsiders and hoping for ripple effects to locals, the logic has to work the other way: prioritize place-based local development, and, possibly, the improved quality of life will draw people from outside.

Slow the stream of out-migration by fostering and supporting livable, vibrant communities. Repurpose economic development incentives for things like sidewalks, schools and senior facilities. Acknowledge and anticipate ongoing population losses. When incentives must

be offered, give community groups decision-making power in whether and how those incentives are offered.

Planning is not ideology. There is no silver bullet of economic development.

John D. Rockefeller is not going to reappear, and history suggests that that era of city-building had deeply inequitable outcomes anyway. We have given growth goals many decades to bear fruit since deindustrialization. It is time to focus instead on improving economic development from the inside, through entrepreneurship, training, network building, community building and equity-focused investments.

If growth follows, let it be on our terms: of improving quality of life for Clevelanders.

Ganning’s research focuses on the economic development narratives of communities encountering decline.

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LESSONS FROM COLUMBUS

COLUMBUS

Workforce issues are key

From Page 25

To change Northeast Ohio’s trajectory, a number of civic and economic development organizations are working to attract new businesses and expand existing ones to turn Northeast Ohio around.

Team NEO has unveiled “Developing Opportunities,” a program designed to improve its region’s chances of winning new manufacturing businesses and existing business expansions. Team NEO works to build the economy of an 18-county region that stretches from Ashtabula on the east to Sandusky on the west and south to Tuscarawas County.

Koehler laid out the plan in an announcement in November.

“To attract more companies to the Northeast Ohio Region, we must improve the number and quality of manufacturing sites we offer,” he said. “This will expose the attractiveness of our business environment during site visits with interested prospects.”

From 2015 to 2022, Northeast Ohio won only 4% of the potential business attraction opportunities that came across economic development leaders’ desks, Crain’s reported in November, while the statewide average was 20%. The region’s lack of truly ready sites — not just Intel-sized, but even smaller easily developable sites — is a big part of the problem.

For 2022, the region’s economic development network, led by Team NEO, reported that the region had landed 88 new business or business expansion projects that created 5,673 new jobs, $304 million in annual payroll and $2 billion in capital investment. Central Ohio, in the same period, won 47 projects, nearly 8,000 new jobs with an annual payroll of $772 million and $21.3 billion in capital investment, most of which came from Intel.

In another effort, the Cleveland Water Alliance, a nonprofit that works to take better advantage of Lake Erie and its supply of water, is working with other regional groups to broaden the way the region values, manages and capitalizes on Lake Erie to develop innovative water solutions that will create new businesses that locate in Northeast Ohio.

Central Ohio has found a way to retain talent, with OSU students remaining after graduation. | GETTY IMAGES

“People want to be in regions where they’re creating the future. So as a region, I want our region to express what our businesses are doing to create and impact the future.”

— Baiju Shah, Greater Cleveland Partnership CEO Also, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, with over 12,000 members, the largest metropolitan chamber of commerce in the nation, in its 2022 annual report laid out its “All In” plan, a plan for bringing up Northeast Ohio’s standing compared against a group of 10 other Midwest metropolitan areas, including Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and, of course, Columbus, and laying out to those regions.

“People want to be in regions where they’re creating the future,” said Baiju Shah, GCP’s CEO. “So as a region, I want our region to express what our businesses are doing to create and impact the future.”

Intel’s attraction to Licking County is just one example of how the region around Columbus has come to eclipse the Cleveland area as a focal point for growth in the state.

In the last year, Honda, the Japanese carmaker that already has plants in Marysville, north of Columbus, and South Korean battery maker LG Energy said they would invest up to $4.4 billion in a lithium-ion battery plant in Fayette County, southwest of Columbus. Also, Amazon and Google announced earlier this year that they are planning to invest nearly $10 billion between them for data centers in Central Ohio, adding to what they already have.

“One of Columbus’s biggest selling points,” Hill and Stewart wrote, “has been the successful track record of government, businesses, and community leaders working effectively together and across party lines to create an environment conducive for investment.”

Central Ohio has also found a way to attract and retain talent that raises a region’s appeal to today’s growing technology businesses like Intel, Amazon and Google.

“The thing that I see is in Columbus, people come from all over the state to Columbus and Ohio State and stay there,” said Richey Piiparinen, a Cleveland writer and former director of the Center for Population Dynamics at Cleveland State University’s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs. “Whereas in Northeast Ohio, people who are already in Northeast Ohio go to school here, stay here.

That’s not the same thing at all.”

Michael Weidokal, an executive in residence at Baldwin-Wallace University and the president and founder of International Strategic Analysis, a leading provider of economic forecasting and international market analysis, agrees with Piiparinen’s analysis.

“Our region also needs to focus on attracting more young adults from other areas of the United States,” he wrote in a recent Crain’s personal view. “To do this, we need to focus on investments that improve the region’s quality of life from a younger person’s perspective. This means focusing on aspects of life that are important to young people, such as our region’s nightlife, its cultural offerings, its outdoor activities and other lifestyle considerations.

Weidokal also believes part of the answer might be to improve the education and training levels of people who already live in this region, especially in highdemand areas such as information technology and engineering.

And he sees a need to make life easier to attract unskilled people into the labor force. “Our region also suffers from a shortage of unskilled labor, something that can be solved, at least in part, through increasing the labor participation rate among younger men in Northeast Ohio,” he wrote. “Finally, by improving our public services, such as child care and public transportation, we can make it easier for people in our region to find employment while not sacrificing their quality of life.”

How Northeast Ohio can learn from ‘The Columbus Way’

By Jay Miller

The Central Ohio region’s success has a name used by the region’s business organizations – “The Columbus Way.” A 2015 case study by the Harvard Business School found that “cooperation and collaboration is the Columbus way.”

In interviews and conversations, the case study found that business leaders who had moved to Columbus from other cities said that they were more collaborative and civically engaged in Columbus than they had been in their prior locations.

Alex Fischer, at the time CEO of the Columbus Partnership, the region’s leading business organization that is similar to the Greater Cleveland Partnership, expanded on that theme.

“Leaders of all aspects—civic, business, government, community organizers— have an expectation of each other that we put our selfish interest aside, or at least below community interest,” he said. “I think

the Columbus Way has been our way for a long time. I’m not sure we’ve always been introspective enough to actually have recognized it and talked about it.”

It’s a method Northeast Ohio leaders believe has merit.

“I give a lot of credit to the Columbus Way,” said Baiju Shah, CEO of Greater Cleveland Partnership. “Understanding how vital that foundation is continues to lead the success they enjoy has led me to convene people and create the ‘All In’ approach.”

The ‘All In’ plan is hoping to see 25% in economic output growth, a 15% increase in new jobs and 12% in average income growth for the Cleveland region. By comparison, from 2009 to 2019, GCP data showed the economic output for the region grew by 15%, while jobs increased by 6% and average income increased by 9%.

In an interview, Shah said the goal is to build a better foundation or growth.

“Whether it’s business expansion and attraction, talent transformation, major

projects in the downtown and waterfronts areas, air services, all of that takes that foundational system,” he said. “That’s what’s working in other places.”

Both regions benefit from JobsOhio, considered one of the country’s leading economic development agencies. Though it was created in 2013 by the governor and the legislature and offers financial incentives to businesses as state agencies do in other states, it is not a state agency and is not beholden to the state legislature or the governor for money to woo business expansion.

Rather, it is part of a quasi-state entity that acquired the franchise from the state for liquor sales, paying for it with the sale of bonds. So, after paying for liquor and repaying its bondholders from liquor profits, it has a tidy sum left for economic development activities. In fiscal 2023, which ended June 30, that came to $481.2 million.

JobsOhio works in collaboration with six regional economic development organizations, including Team NEO, which covers

18 counties, and One Columbus, which spans 11 counties. The other four regional organizations are the Dayton Development Coalition, the Regional Economic Development Initiative (REDI) Cincinnati, the Regional Growth Partnership of Northwest Ohio and Ohio Southeast.

While JobsOhio is a key funder of all six groups, it typically supports the direction its regional affiliates take.

Of course, as in the case of Intel, it does step in.

“What JobsOhio has done is been a sort of a convening force and a strategic driver for economic development across the state,” Bill Koehler, CEO of Team NEO, said.

“Each of the six partners throughout the state, even though we compete, we collaborate. JobsOhio being a consistent voice for strategy coordination and funding has allowed us to build capabilities within each market with a high level of confidence that the funding will be there over time. So you keep investing.”

28 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | DECEMBER 11, 2023

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12/7/23 11:12 AM

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CRAIN'S LIST | HEALTH CARE NONPROFITS Ranked by 2022 expenses EXPENSES 2022 (MILLIONS)

REVENUE 2022 (MILLIONS)

NET ASSETS OF FUND BALANCES - END OF FY 2022 (THOUSANDS) PURPOSE OF ORGANIZATION

TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE(S)

$723.4

$752.9

$159,918

To glorify God by sharing each others' medical bills

J. Craig Brown II, president, CEO

$106.2

$106.2

—

To end health disparities in our community

Jonathan Lee, president, CEO

$88.0

$85.2

$30,961

Community behavioral health providing community and office-based services to people across the lifespan

Brant Russell, president, CEO

$86.7 MENORAH PARK, Beachwood 4 216-831-6500/menorahpark.org $79.2 WESTERN RESERVE AREA AGENCY ON AGING, Cleveland 5 216-621-0303/areaagingsolutions.org $75.8 HOSPICE OF THE WESTERN RESERVE INC., Cleveland 6 216-383-2222/hospicewr.org $63.7 PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, Kent 7 COLEMAN 330-673-1347/colemanservices.org $60.5 LIFEBANC, Warrensville Heights 8 216-752-5433/lifebanc.org $54.3 SENIOR LIVING, Cleveland 9 JUDSON 216-791-2004/judsonsmartliving.org $47.2 VILLAGE NETWORK, Wooster 10 800-638-3232/thevillagenetwork.org $43.7 AUGUSTINE MANOR, Cleveland 11 ST. 216-634-7400/staugministries.org $36.7 JENNINGS, Olmsted Township 12 ELIZA 216-226-5000/elizajennings.org $34.0 CENTER FOR OLDER ADULTS, Garfield Heights 13 JENNINGS 216-581-2900/jenningsohio.org $33.1 THE CENTERS, Cleveland 14 216-432-7200/thecentersohio.org $32.1 COMMUNITY SUPPORT SERVICES, Akron 15 330-253-9388/cssbh.org FAMILY SERVICE ASSOCIATION OF CLEVELAND, Pepper Pike $29.8 16 JEWISH 216-292-3999/jfsa-cleveland.org $27.7 HEALTH SERVICES FOR HOMELESS PERSONS INC., 17 MENTAL Cleveland

$81.5

$24,690

To provide health care on a residential and community service basis

Diane Liliestedt, president, COO

$79.5

$10,254

To provide choices for people to live independently

E. Douglas Beach, CEO

$83.0

$86,596

To provide hospice, palliative care, caregiver support and bereavement services

William E. Finn, president, CEO

$62.4

$22,263

Behavioral health, crisis, addiction recovery, employment and residential services across Ohio

Hattie Tracy, president, CEO

$62.3

$39,654

To save lives through organ, eye and tissue donation

Gordon Bowen, CEO

$51.3

($400)

A not-for-profit senior living services organization serving northern Ohio

Kendra J. Urdzik, president, CEO

$49.8

$27,741

To work in partnerships empowering youth and families to build brighter futures

Richard Graziano, president, CEO

$49.2

$30,410

Post-acute care network

Rick M. Meserini, president, CEO

$38.1

($9,673)

To offer a spectrum of services and choices for aging well

Richard M. Boyson Jr., president, CEO

$33.4

$21,415

Provide residences, services and compassionate care to adults over 55

Allison Q. Salopeck, president, CEO

$29.8

$24,196

To provide life-changing and innovative health, work and family services

Eric L. Morse, president, CEO

$33.3

$23,772

Supporting people in Summit County with severe and persistent mental illness

Robert Stokes, president, CEO

$34.4

$51,861

To help individuals and families with solutions to face life's challenges with confidence

Susan Bichsel, president, CEO

$29.0

$5,302

To provide solutions that resolve mental health crises and end homelessness

Susan Neth, executive director

$25.1

$26.9

$21,728

To help older adults lead lives filled with meaning, purpose, growth and service

David A. Oster, CEO

$23.9

$26.5

$8,857

To provide health care to all regardless of ability to pay

Domonic Hopson, president, CEO

$23.1

$20.6

$16,098

To provide hope, healing, and health care to everyone Shayna Jackson, president, CEO

$22.9

$21.7

$34,565

Life plan community offering senior services and programs

$22.5

$27.6

$55,266

Continuing-care retirement community that supports Barbara W. Thomas, CEO healthy aging by promoting independence, learning, relationships and wellness

$20.4

$22.9

$11,885

Collaborative care and advocacy through mental health, addiction recovery and social support

Elaine M. Russell Reolfi, CEO

$19.8

$25.6

$6,103

Behavioral health treatment and advocacy in Lorain and Huron counties

Don Schiffbauer, CEO

$18.7

$19.2

$8,289

To provided integrated behavioral and primary health Lawrence J. Moliterno, CEO care services

$15.2

$14.4

$12,423

To provide independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing to residents

David Mannion, CEO, CFO

$14.9

$18.9

$17,469

To provide quality, affordable health care to all

Mark Frisone, executive director

$14.9

$16.3

$8,277

Repurpose and distribute surplus medical supplies as local and global humanitarian aid

Britta Latz, executive director

$13.7

$14.6

$2,809

Comprehensive behavioral health care including mental health and addiction treatment

Tracy Davis Yaeger, president, CEO

$12.6

$12.0

$141,468

To support caregivers and empower all people to age well

Orion H. Bell IV, president, CEO

$12.1

$11.4

$11,545

To serve seniors through nursing, outreach, housing and elder justice

Bridgette Rodgers, interim president, CEO

$12.1

$14.1

$14,131

Provide pediatric therapies, employment and integration for individuals with disabilities

Beth A. Lucas, president, CEO

RANK

ORGANIZATION

CHRISTIAN HEALTHCARE MINISTRIES INC., Barberton 1 800-791-6225/chministries.org SIGNATURE HEALTH INC., Mentor 2 440-578-8200/signaturehealthinc.org OHIOGUIDESTONE, Berea 3 440-260-8300/ohioguidestone.org

216-623-6555/frontlineservice.org

LAKE RETIREMENT COMMUNITY, Hudson 18 LAUREL 330-650-0681/laurellake.org NEIGHBORHOOD HEALTH CARE INC., Cleveland 19 216-281-0872/nfpmedcenter.org CROSSROADS HEALTH, Mentor 20 440-255-1700/crossroadshealth.org ALTENHEIM SENIOR LIVING, Strongsville 21 440-238-3361/altenheim.com KENDAL AT OBERLIN, Oberlin 22 440-775-0094/kao.kendal.org SERVICES INC., Canton 23 COMMQUEST 330-455-0374/commquest.org NORD CENTER, Lorain 24 THE 440-233-7232/nordcenter.org HEALTHCARE, Youngstown 25 MERIDIAN 330-797-0070/meridianhealthcare.net OAKS, Sebring 26 COPELAND 330-938-6126/copelandoaks.com COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER INC., Akron 27 AXESSPOINTE 888-975-9188/axesspointe.org MEDWISH INTERNATIONAL, Cleveland 28 216-692-1685/medwish.org PORTAGE PATH BEHAVIORAL HEALTH, Akron 29 330-253-3100/portagepath.org ROSE INSTITUTE ON AGING, Cleveland 30 BENJAMIN 216-791-8000/benrose.org BRYANT VILLAGE, Cleveland 31 ELIZA 216-361-6141/elizabryant.org OF GREATER CLEVELAND, Cleveland 32 UCP 216-791-8363/ucpcleveland.org

Paul Psota, CEO

The list includes 501(c)3 nonprofits offering health care-related services, excluding hospitals. Some nonprofits also offer other services. Information is from the nonprofits.

Get 41 nonprofits and more executives names in Excel format. Become a Data Member: CrainsCleveland.com/data 30 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | DECEMBER 11, 2023

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12/7/23 10:17 AM

Ulmer & Berne will become UB Greensfelder following merger

By Jeremy Nobile

Cleveland-founded Ulmer & Berne has announced a combination with St. Louis-based Greensfelder Hemker & Gale forming what leaders describe as a “powerhouse” Midwest law firm with expanded practice areas and an increasingly attractive platform for lateral hires.

The combination, which is being framed as a “merger of equals,” will establish a decentralized law firm—that is, with no official single headquarters, which is a model Ulmer had already embraced— under the name UB Greensfelder effective Feb. 1, 2024.

Any financial terms were not disclosed.

With no layoffs of attorneys or staff expected, the combined firm is anticipated to result in an Am Law 200-ranked business (likely no. 181) with approximately 275 attorneys in nine offices and more than $150 million in combined annual revenue, according to the companies.

Ulmer managing partner Scott Kadish and Greensfelder managing partner Kevin McLaughlin will lead the combined firm in tandem as co-managing partners.

Greensfelder chief operating officer Heather Henry will be COO of the combined firm.

All other leadership positions

Ulmer managing partner Scott Kadish (left) and Greensfelder managing partner Kevin McLaughlin will lead the combined firm in tandem as co-managing partners. | CONTRIBUTED

are expected to remain in place as well. Patty Shlonsky, Ulmer’s Cleveland partner-in-charge, for example, will remain in her current role. All practice group leaders will remain in their roles as well, Kadish said, sharing any duties with their respective counterparts.

Kadish said talks of a combination began back in 2019 after both firms were described as “punching above their weight” in a report from BTI Consulting Group.

“We both had growth as a strategic objective and thought maybe we should talk to each other about whether there was a fit,” Kadish

said. “We started having conversations and realized we fit very nicely on all comparative analyses in terms of culture, personality, approach to law, and financial stats. There was an incredible match.”

McLaughlin stepped up as managing partner for his firm in February 2020 following the sudden death of his predecessor in that role. While talks of a combination were pushed to the back burner amid the COVID pandemic, “we kept coming back to one another, and every time we did so, we saw the positive continue to multiply,” he said.

After feeling out the combination a bit more, the firms decided now was a good time to combine as both firms prepare to wrap up their fiscal years: Ulmer’s ends in December and Greensfelder’s in January.

While there have been some ups and downs in the legal market broadly—revenues are up with very large firms but trending down with most others—both Kadish and McLaughlin stress that they’re combining amid positions of strength.

“Both firms were looking to grow Midwest platforms and found compatible and exciting opportunities in firms that had the same strategic vision,” McLaughlin said.

“This was really not a combination driven by fear or necessity but opportunity,” Kadish added. “We both saw great opportunity in bringing these firms together and creating a Midwest powerhouse.”

Kadish highlighted immigration and franchise law as examples of practices that will benefit one another in a combined business.

“Ulmer has a strong immigration practice and Greensfelder has a number of clients that could really use that—they don’t currently have an immigration practice,” Kadish said. “On the flip side, Greensfelder has a strong franchise group, and we at Ulmer don’t really have anyone who

practices in that area, but we have a number of clients who could use that.”

In terms of the footprint, Ulmer has seven offices: Cleveland; Cincinnati; Columbus; New York City; Washington D.C.; Boca Raton, Florida; and Chicago.

Greensfelder has five locations: three in St. Louis—its headquarters and two small satellite locations—and two in the Chicago area.

The firms said their overlapping offices in Chicago are expected to combine at some point in the future.

The firm’s largest offices are expected to be in St. Louis and Cleveland.

Ulmer is the ninth-largest law firm in Northeast Ohio, according to Crain’s research, with approximately 78 in-market attorneys.

The firm’s local presence has shrunk over the years with the firm reporting about 100 attorneys in the Cleveland market in 2013 (and 113 in 2008). Ulmer reported 147 firmwide attorneys as of June 30.

“This has been a thoroughly vetted transaction that from our perspective gives us a lot of confidence and makes us very optimistic that this will be an easy if not enjoyable integration,” Kadish said. “We are looking forward to it.”

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DECEMBER 11, 2023 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | 31 11/30/23 9:41 AM

12/8/23 8:00 AM

Cleveland Play House names new artistic director

By Scott Suttell

A new operational leadership team is now fully in place at the Cleveland Play House.

The Play House, winner of a regional Tony Award in 2015, announced Dec. 6 that it has named New York director, producer and novelist Michael Barakiva as its permanent artistic director, effective immediately.

Barakiva joins an organization that this summer added Rachel L. Fink as its new managing director.

Barakiva has been active at the Play House of late. He just directed the Play House’s Halloween-season production of “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” and he was co-director of its world premiere production last spring of “Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty: A New Sherlock Holmes Adventure.”

Barakiva, the 10th artistic director of the Play House, said in a statement, “I fell in love with Cleveland and CPH last spring, when I first came to work here, and fell in love all over again when I was lucky enough to return and direct ‘Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.’” He said he was “eagerly anticipating working” with Fink, Play House board chair Mike Meehan and the theater’s entire board and staff “to lead this institution into its next chapter.”

Fink in a statement said Barakiva’s “rich artistic experience, boundless enthusiasm, and unwavering commitment to community align seamlessly with our organizational values.”

The Play House noted that Barakiva “has staged new plays,

revivals and classics in New York City and around the country.” In addition to the Play House productions, his work has been seen at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Primary Stages, Syracuse Stage, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz and the Hangar Theatre, where he previously served as artistic director.

He’s a bit of a Renaissance figure who also founded The Upstart Creatures, a theatre company that creates community through performance and food, as well as the Leadership Initiative Project, which equips historically excluded artists with the tools to succeed in leadership positions. Barakiva’s young adult novels have been named to the Rainbow List and the Equality Family Council Reading List.

Barakiva and Fink mark a new team for the Play House, where Mark Cuddy had served as interim artistic and managing director since last year.

In the artistic director role, Cuddy had succeeded Laura Kepley, whose 12-year tenure in that job ended in June 2022.

Before Fink’s hiring, the Play House had been without a permanent managing director since October 2022, when it announced that Collette A. Laisure had “concluded her tenure” in the role. She joined the Play House in February 2021 as interim managing director after the death of longtime managing director Kevin Moore, and later was appointed managing director. She was the first woman and person of color to hold the position.

This Cleveland Play House production of “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” was directed

by Michael Barakiva, the theater’s new artistic director. | CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE

The buildout of new passenger rail service in Ohio will contribute up to $107 million to the gross state product. | BLOOMBERG

Ohio Amtrak growth seen creating up to 1,200 jobs

By Kim Palmer

The city of Cleveland could see between 150 and 240 new jobs generating anywhere from $8 million to $14 million in wages as initial investments in Ohio passenger rail expansion goes forward, according to a study presented by a rail advocacy group.

The “Economic Impact of the 3C+D Corridor Project” study was released during a Dec. 7 All Aboard Ohio press conference. It comes on the heels of a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announcement on Dec. 5 that four Ohio routes, known as “corridors,” were selected as priorities for Amtrak expansion.

Based on the study, commissioned by All Aboard Ohio, investment in the expansion of passenger rail service between Ohio’s four largest metro areas is projected to create anywhere from 1,100 to 1,200 jobs statewide.

Those jobs would generate about $65 million in new wages, bringing in $3.7 in new tax revenue. Once the routes are up and running, the city could expect another 25-44 new jobs which could bring in up to nearly $3 million in additional earnings.

“The projections are based on Amtrak’s initial infrastructure spending,” said Rob Moore, principal at Columbus-based firm Scioto Analysis. “Then after that, we’re going to expect the ticketing and the travel that’s going to happen . . . to have economic impacts year after year that will support jobs into the future.”

The FRA announced Ohio’s four new corridors, two involving Cleveland.

Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati, known as the 3C+D, and Cleveland-To-

ledo-Detroit both include stops at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

The other two corridors are Chicago-Fort Wayne-Lima-Columbus-Pittsburgh (including projected stops at Kenton, Marysville, Dublin, Hilliard, Newark, and Coshocton) and a plan to increase service for the Daily Cardinal between New York and Chicago (including a stop in Cincinnati).

planning phase is funded entirely by the FRA. Subsequent grant rounds will require matching state funds of 10% and 20%.

Ohio’s routes primarily use or will use existing freight rail, said John Easterly, All Aboard Ohio chairman, adding that he did not believe there would be too much physical infrastructure in terms of new track to build out.

More capital expenditure would be needed for new train

“We were very fortunate to get four of the routes here in Ohio. There were 92 applicants and they only chose 40. We got a disproportionately large amount of attention here in the Ohio area.”

— John Easterly, All Aboard Ohio chairman The overall investment in new passenger rail service across Ohio, according to Scioto Analysis principal Rob Moore, will contribute up to $107 million to the gross state product.

After the initial investment, the corridor will continue to contribute $25 million to $47 million to gross state product per year from the economic impact of ridership, Moore said.

He added that ongoing rail ridership in the state will generate between $11 million and $21 million in new wages per year, and from $600,000 to $1.2 million in annual tax revenue.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) provides $500,000 to each corridor for the first planning step. The planning grants are the first of three grant phases to determine feasibility, environmental, infrastructure, and construction needs. The

stations and support facilities, he said.

“We are very early in the process,” Easterly said. “We were very fortunate to get four of the routes here in Ohio. There were 92 applicants and they only chose 40. We got a disproportionately large amount of attention here in the Ohio area.”

The second part of the process will determine if the build-out happens all at once or in phases.

“Potentially, Cleveland to Columbus could be built out first and then Columbus to Cincinnati as the build-out continues,” Easterly said.

All Aboard Ohio will conduct a series of Whistle Stop Tours across the state in January. The Cleveland stop is on Jan. 25, at 1:30 p.m. at the offices of Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) at 1299 Superior Ave.

32 | CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS | DECEMBER 11, 2023

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12/8/23 9:05 AM

Experts have sifted through data to identify common factors

By Paige Bennett

The Social Determinants of Health Innovation Hub is launching a pilot program that aims to prevent and reduce suicides following the release of a report that found that the majority of suicide deaths in Cuyahoga County involve firearms.

The SDoH Hub — which launched earlier this year through a partnership between The Center for Health Affairs and Amazon Web Services — examined data from the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office on suicides from 2017 to 2022. The organization combined its findings with data from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on social vulnerabilities. Kim Byas, the leader of SDoH, said the hub found three factors highly correlated with suicide deaths: lack of transportation, housing insecurity and unemployment.

Now, the SDoH Hub is using the findings to implement short-, mid- and long-term solutions to decrease suicide rates. The program is focusing on three Cleveland ZIP codes that have the highest rates among all populations: 44102, 44105, 44108.

“It’s important to change the narrative about Cleveland being a dangerous place and Northeast Ohio being a dangerous place,” Byas said. “While it is true that there are acts of criminality associated with firearms, when you look at 60%, in some cases 70%, of those firearm deaths being suicide, it must change the narrative about the dangers of being in Cleveland to the acts of desperation, the acts of hopelessness that are leading to firearm deaths in Cleveland.”

Five hundred and thirty-five of the 1,006 suicides that occurred in the county between 2017 and

2022 involved a firearm, according to the SDoH Hub’s analysis of data on suicides from the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The SDoH Hub’s short-term (3-6 months) goal is focused on identifying and coordinating with existing programs and resources for support and intervention and building a collaborative prevention model. The mid-term (6-18 months) centers around improving access to behavioral health providers and changing programs and policy to ensure access to transportation, housing and job opportunities. The long-term (18 months and beyond) is about developing policies to improve economic mobility, reduce suicide rates and eliminate firearm violence.

Byas said the program, which was adopted in September, is geared toward prevention rather than intervention. By focusing on the root causes of suicide, the organization can reach individuals affected by housing insecurity, a lack of transportation and unemployment and connect them with services and resources and ultimately prevent suicide.

The Center for Health Affairs, which represents all 38 hospitals in Northeast Ohio, worked with Amazon Web Services for about 18 months to reach an agreement to create the SDoH Hub, Byas said. The SDoH Hub looks to address structural racism and poverty, which can result in gun violence and behavioral health problems that negatively affect Cleveland residents. Per the agreement, none of the data studied by the SDoH Hub gets used by Amazon Web Services for marketing materials, Byas said.

“We built the relationship to focus on historical under-resourcing of communities that result in health disparities,” Byas said. “The disparities range from lifespan, that can be a 20-year difference between one ZIP code and another. It can be higher rates of infant

mortality and maternal morbidity based on ZIP codes and populations.”

Other social determinants of health, such as employment status, food or housing insecurity, transportation access and exposure to environmental pollution, can significantly affect an individual’s health outcomes.

“We began to work with the intersection of firearm violence and behavioral health, not because behavioral health causes firearm violence, but because the two are so closely intertwined relative to psychological trauma,” Byas said.

In September, the SDoH Hub shared the findings of the report with the Social Determinants of Health Advisory Council, a group of more than 50 individuals representing more than 200 organizations, nonprofits, for-profits and government agencies in Northeast Ohio.

Byas said the most surprising takeaway from the report was that there is a misconception that firearm-related suicides only affect older white men with military backgrounds, but that gunrelated suicides are increasingly affecting young people, women and the Black community.

Nationally, 54% of all gunrelated deaths in the U.S. were suicides in 2021, according to Pew Research Center.

“Northeast Ohio and Cleveland must place a priority in addressing transportation, housing and employment to eliminate high rates of suicide,” Byas said. “Because if we do that, then we’re not a dangerous region in the United States. Then we can attract students to come to these great universities. People to relocate here and buy housing.

Start new jobs and companies. That then benefits economically the entire region.”

If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

UNSPLASH

Center for Health Affairs program aims to prevent, reduce suicides

Moody’s upgrades Ohio’s issuer rating to top tier

By Crain’s Staff

Amid a handful of reports that the business environment in Ohio has a relatively rosy outlook, one of the biggest ratings agencies has given the state another financial boost.

On Dec. 1, the credit rating agency Moody’s announced that the state of Ohio’s issuer rating had been raised from Aa1 to Aaa, the highest rating on its scale.

In a statement announcing the upgrade, Moody’s said the change was based on “a continuing trend of very strong financial management, improving reserves and liquidity, low and declining leverage and a state economy that is poised for diversification and growth despite lagging demographic trends.”

In a press release touting the

changes, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said, “Moody’s decision to upgrade Ohio’s rating to ‘Aaa’ is strong external validation that our strategy is delivering results for Ohio. Ohio is the heart of it all, and I am proud that our record shows we are the best state to live, grow or start a business, and raise a family.”

In August, another one of the major credit ratings agencies, FitchRatings, affirmed Ohio’s long-term issuer default (IDR) rating at AAA, its highest rating.

S&P Global Ratings, the third of the major rating agencies, currently rates Ohio at AA+, one slot below its highest rankings.

In August 2022, the city of Cleveland’s bond issuer rating was upgraded by Moody’s from A1 to Aa3, the first time the city had improved in 12 years.

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Experts believe developments in AI could lead to big changes in health care.

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historically most hardware and software used in health care has been operated by humans, but that certain areas have the potential to be standardized using technology.

“There are aspects of healthcare that should be very evidence-based, very algorithmic, very standardized,” he said.

“That may not be a nuanced clinical decision whether to treat or not, but it may be once you’ve decided to treat or you’ve decided to get a scan or to order, there should be very set processes and standards for some stuff to be done safely and reproducibly and efficiently.”

A lot of the recent buzz has been around generative AI, a type of technology that can produce images, text and audio in seconds. This describes algorithms such as ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot that generates conversation-like responses to user-inputted questions.

Dr. Nicholas Schiltz, an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, said generative AI has the potential to simplify routine processes in health care.

prevention to a specific patient.

Medications are tested based on what works for the average patient, but that doesn’t mean they work for everyone. Precision medicine aims to eliminate that one-size-fits-all approach and get patients the right medicine at the right time.

“In order to do that, you really need large databases and representative databases so you can actually say ‘This particular treatment should work well for this patient because their genetic profile works well with this.

They’re a good metabolizer of this medication, whereas some other patients, because they have this other gene mutation, they cannot metabolize that drug,’” Schiltz said.

The National Institutes of Health has an ongoing research program called “All of Us” that looks to collect and study data from one million people living in the U.S. in an effort to improve health research and individualized prevention, but many groups continue to be underrepresented in this area of research.

There is also concern among experts that biased algorithms could worsen health disparities if not properly addressed. Experts say it’s important for researchers to evaluate their mod-

“I think that where AI and generative AI play a role is in being able to standardize and automate many things that are done inefficiently right now. . . .”

— Dr. Daniel Spratt, chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at UH Cleveland Medical Center “Nurses, doctors, the thing that they’re lacking the most is time,” he said. “And so, I think this technology has a lot of promise to automate some of the tasks that they do in terms of documenting.”

For example, a doctor or nurse could use generative AI to create a lay summary of a patient’s electronic health record.

Rather than having to search through a clunky electronic medical record system, the caregiver would have immediate access to the patient’s important information.

Ford said assistive AI technology could act as a sort of scribe for doctors, filling out electronic forms so they don’t have their faces plastered on computer screens during appointments.

These technologies are the closest to being ready to apply and implement, he said.

“I think that where AI and generative AI play a role is in being able to standardize and automate many things that are done inefficiently right now, in a lot of different people’s hands on various processes, a lot of handoffs,” Spratt said. “That should improve the quality, you know, reduce mistakes.”

Schiltz said one of the key potentials for AI is precision medicine, an emerging model that uses a patient’s genes, environmental factors and lifestyle to curate disease treatment and

els for biases and not assume that a new form of technology will work for an entire population simply because it has worked for one group.

If researchers can develop effective technology, AI may be able to help diagnose rare or hard-to-detect conditions, Schiltz said. Some chronic conditions, like fibromyalgia, can be difficult to diagnose because they can appear as different symptoms. Schiltz said AI may be able to help detect patterns that may otherwise go unnoticed.

In addition, Spratt said trained generative AI chatbots could potentially help patients move their appointment times or answer basic questions about treatments or side effects. The technology could also flag questions that need to be answered by a caregiver.

New forms of AI could serve as effective tools for the health care industry, but experts don’t expect any new technologies to replace or eliminate the need for caregivers.

“I do think AI will be an assist,” Spratt said. “I view it analogous to the typewriter versus Microsoft Word. It’s going to be an assistant for a lot of things to improve efficiency, accuracy. I don’t see it removing physicians, nurses. I think there’s still huge value of the human connection.”

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