COMMUNIT Y // BY LEE F ISHER
Changing of the Guard Cleveland is experiencing a time of change with its leaders. “Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans …” President John F. Kennedy, Jan. 20, 1961
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e are all familiar with the hallowed military tradition of the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and Arlington Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where guards change so that new guards replace the guard before them to take on a new shift. American history is the story of the changing of the guard — a passing of the torch — from one generation to another. In 1980, The Washington Post columnist David Broder wrote one of my favorite books, “Changing of the Guard:
(born 1965 to 1980), generation Y millennials (born 1981 to 1996) of which Mayor Bibb is one, and generation Z (born 1997 to 2016). Generation Z will soon make up more than 20% of the workplace, and generation Y will soon make up 50% of the workforce. At the same time, the U.S. is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, and those patterns are magnified in cities like Cleveland. In the Greater Cleveland public, private and nonprofit sectors, new leaders have emerged or will soon emerge. In the public sector, we’ve seen not only the election of Bibb but also five new members of Cleveland City Council, a new Cleveland City Council President, Blaine Griffin, and a new congresswoman, Shontel Brown. In one year, there will be a new county executive because Armond Budish is not seeking re-election. Community leaders such as Rick Chiricosta, president, CEO and chairman of Medical Mutual, Akram Boutros, president and CEO of the MetroHealth System, Alex Johnson, president of Cuyahoga Community College, Augie Napoli Jr., president and CEO of United Way of Greater Cleveland, and Gina Vernaci, president and CEO of Playhouse Square, have announced that they will be stepping down in the next year.
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20 COMMUNITY LEADER | FEBRUARY 2022
Power and Leadership in America,” portending the shift in power from the generation of leaders molded by the Great Depression and World War II to the baby boomers whose shaping experiences were the Vietnam War, the 1960s civil rights marches and Watergate. Broder told the stories of those new leaders about to take over America’s city halls, state houses and Capitol Hill. The recent election of 34-year-old Justin Bibb as mayor of Cleveland is a strong signal that Cleveland is changing hands from the baby boomers to generations X
