Philanthropy Consultant HEATHER CLAYTON TERRY, Embodies The Art Of Giving

BY SHELLEY SHOCKLEY PWM MANAGING EDITOR

The art of giving was instilled in Heather Clayton Terry as a young child growing up in Cleveland, and today she has the rare distinction of living out Winston Churchill's words, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

As Philanthropy Consultant for Dominion Energy, Heather makes a living and life by improving the lives of thousands in northeast Ohio and beyond through the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation. It is something she witnessed growing up between her parent's Cleveland Heights home and her grandmother's home in Mt. Pleasant. The act of goodwill to fellow members of the human race - was an everyday occurrence, grooming her for a life of service to others.

In sharing the story of her youth, she fondly recalls her father, a veteran of the Viet Nam war, coming home and using the benefits for him and his wife to begin their family in the diverse Eastside suburb. While living in “The Heights” was an advantage, Heather said, “I talk about the duality of being raised in Cleveland Heights, a very diverse community, and living on Angelus every day after school. I was picked up and taken there until my mother got off work at five. We had a ten-house radius, and I could walk to the corner store to play my grandmother's numbers or get some bread or sugar”

This daily dual living offered young Heather a full view of life in Cleveland. She recalls the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood as a tight-knit community where families looked out for one another.

That communal spirit was also present in her parent's home; she said, “I was an only child, and I had cousins that lived on and off with me, but for the most part, I was a solo act.” In addition to her cousins, her godsister was a constant presence in her life. When speaking of her, Heather's face lights up, but the underlying sorrow can be heard in her voice. They were inseparable until her god sister Nneka passed away from multiple sclerosis when they were 34; while it still hurts, she said, “I'm thankful for the time we shared.”

With parents committed to the community and activism, Heather recalls spending time with her mom protesting and working to improve the world around them. These exposures, she said, made speaking the truth a natural occurrence, as well as prepared her to be independent and open to new adventures and challenges.

The spirit of adventure was exhibited as a young student when Heather's mom and dad signed her up as a Foreign Exchange student. At the tender age of ten, she traveled with eleven other students from Boulevard Magnet School to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. While in France, she encountered a new culture and lifestyle starting with the school schedule. She said they attended school MondaySaturday, and Sunday was the day of rest.

This early excursion played a significant role in her life and how she sees the world. She said, “I met different people from different walks of life. I had the privilege of sharing experiences and differences in an environment where discussion of differences was encouraged and met with dialogue and a desire to understand.”

Living with the Blanchers (her French family) was so rewarding that she said, “I highly encourage others to consider living, studying, or traveling abroad to see new ways of thinking and believing in something greater than yourself.” As an observant person, she noted, “All countries have their challenges. I did, however, see firsthand the benefits of universal healthcare, universal access to collegiate education, and parental leave with pay for citizens in France and also during my time in Germany as an adult.”

Heather says she has always been good at trying new things that were a little bit different and testing the waters, and a prime example of that was on full display during her high school days. As a junior at Cleveland Heights High, Heather ventured into the school cafeteria during a recruitment fair for Vocational Training and altered the trajectory of her high school years.

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She says of that fateful day, “I remember at Heights, they would have the cafeteria set up. All the tables were set up, and people would go to each table to see the vocational opportunities available. All the girls were gravitating towards the cosmetology and dental assistant tables.” Not Heather, she continued, “I remember going over to the table for auto mechanics, and it was a whole bunch of boys. I asked them, what are you doing? What's this table? And they shrugged me off like, 'Girl you don't know what you're doing, this is not the place for you to be,' and that for me as a Virgo was an incentive to sign up.”

Her interest in cars was not unusual because, as a young girl growing up with many uncles, she was aware of activities considered for “boys.” Her uncle, lived in the family home on Angelus and shared with his young niece his love and knowledge of cars, making this choice viable.

Leaping into engines, carburetors, and all things automobile, she said, “was a challenge and an awesome time.” Elaborating, Heather said, “I graduated from Cleveland Heights High School with an auto-mechanic's vocational certificate. To my knowledge, I was the first Black woman ever to take the class. I spent my junior and senior years working on cars from the community which visited our shop. I changed a lot of brakes for our principals at the school and participated in a competition with my team members in downtown Cleveland doing tire rotations, putting an engine back together, screwing nuts and bolts together and trying to reach the best time. We didn't win, but the experience was beyond fun.”

As a first-generation college graduate, Heather's auto mechanic certificate allowed her to continue her education. She said, “After high school, I worked for an auto parts shop around the corner from my house in Cleveland Hts. At the time, I worked three jobs, lived with my parents while trying to pay for Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) on a payment plan with my parent's financial help and spent time in Germany pursuing a music career with her band Amraah 8.”

After receiving an associate's degree in liberal arts from Tri-C, she enrolled at Cleveland State University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in education. After graduation, she worked at the Cleveland Public Library while working on her graduate degree. With a desire to change, she said, “I wanted to get a non-profit management certificate which was about five classes. I got it, and my advisor said seven more classes, and you'll have a master's in public administration.” Coming from a family of 'policy junkies,' Heather went on to get the degree. During this time, she was fortunate to have two professors, Dr. Stuart Mendel and the late, Steve Minter, former CEO for the Cleveland Foundation, pushing her toward success.

With her master's degree complete, she found a notice on the career board for a fellowship with the Saint Luke's Foundation, applied for it, received it, spent two years learning about philanthropy and got married while learning the philanthropic profession. As Francis H. Beam Jr. Fellow, she said, “I was providing grants to non-profits while being led by some heavy hitters in Cleveland.” The philanthropy work she realized was something she was familiar with, noting, “My grandmother, Claretta, that's what she pushed into us - taking care of people. I had never heard that word. I knew what philanthropy was, but I didn't know that name.”

When the fellowship ended, she couldn't find work in the philanthropy space, so she took a job at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), beginning in the Nursing School as project manager for an NIH grant focused on self-management, and was later named Associate Director for Women in Pursuit of Science and Engineering Degrees at the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women. In this position, she worked with women helping with retention, engagement, and learning to navigate systems that weren't designed for them.

This work included working with the Women in Science and Engineering Roundtable (WISER) helping them to build community. The development of this community included advising students both as groups and one-onone. Putting in place mentoring opportunities and advising them with programs and activities to enhance their development She also implemented a mentoring program pairing first-year students with sophomores or juniors. If they joined, they were contractually obligated to meet certain goals as members.

Another mentoring program included pairing students with professionals. She said, “I would pair juniors and seniors with someone in the industry that was doing the same work. I did some philanthropy work with them, I would raise money through my job in order to support those students to go through the SOURCE (Support of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors) research program over the summer working in collaboration with the principal investigators in their labs. They would work in the lab, propose a hypothesis, and spend the summer investigating the outcomes potentially having the opportunityto have their research published.”

She left CWRU for a while but came back and asked if she could “do some thoughtful work” with the help of Susan Freimark, the Interim Director for the Women's Center. Of the work, she said, “I put together a Women of Color series to address intersectional feminism because I worked in a center that was white feminism-driven, hired a consultant to carry out my vision, Dr. Shemariah Arki, and then I started collaborating with the LGBT Center and Liz Roccoforte, helping to establish programming to be more inclusive of those members of the LGBT Center who identifiedas women.”

She continued, “Finally, I worked with three amazing women all employed at CWRU; we were all separately going through our own personal infertility challenges, and we spent two years pushing CWRU to now cover In vitro fertilization coverage at fifty percent, and they now cover for foster care parent staff to have the same amount of sick days as faculty.” If that wasn't enough she also noted, “At the same time, I was writing grants I found on-line to cover the cost of IVF and did three rounds of IVF, and had my twins with my husband after ten years of trying. I had gone undiagnosed with endometriosis for seven years out of a ten-year journey.”

Her journey to Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation started with an informational interview with Tracy Oliver, the former Board Chair, and former Director of External Affairs for Dominion Energy. During the interview Heather said she wanted to work with Oliver and three years later the opportunity would present itself. Today she said of Oliver, “She's one of my favorite people. I consider her to be a friend, and a mentor - she's really good people"

Heather's lived experiences and life prepared her for the Philanthropy Consultant position which she said is, “A multi-layered approach to the idea of giving and being of service,” She continued, “I think that those things are very important to me. My mother is a human being who is constantly being of service. My father is a human being who is constantly being of service and so I feel like that is a part of who I am and it's what gives me joy. All of it is centered around trying to give back and leave the world better.”

She has been with Dominion Energy and the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation for five years and describes her role as, “It's really community engagement work, and that's all encompassing. Not only is it providing grants to non-profits here in Ohio, but it is also coordinating volunteer efforts, and providing support for local sponsorships with non-profit organizations in support of the Dominion Energy mission to “safely deliver, reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy; protecting the environment; serving our customers and communities; empowering our people; and creating value for our shareholders.”

Explaining her work she said, “I'm doing volunteer efforts because we really pride ourselves at Dominion Energy on creating space and opportunity for our employees to give back. I make sure it's in the system, hours are logged, we have t-shirts, and they go out and get dirty Our employees love to get dirty. They are some of the most giving people in the respect that when I put up anything saying I have a volunteer opportunity, it is very rare that people aren't jumping at the opportunity to be there. I think that says something about the culture.”

The success of her work locally prompted an expansion of responsibilities. She said, “My work has been doing about $1.2 million here in Ohio annually as the sole philanthropist for the state of Ohio. On top of that when George Floyd was murdered and countless before and after, Dominion Energy launched a $40 million pledge to address social justice, $25 million to HBCUs through HBCU Promise , $10 million for an Educational Equity SM Scholarship Program where if you self-identified as African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinos, Indigenous, Asian American or Pacific Islander you could receive an educational scholarship and another $5 million for social justice grants across our 15 state footprint.”

To execute this commitment Heather said, “I was leading our pledge of spending $5 million over 24 months to support Black-led, Black-serving organizations with the help of the newly formed Social Justice Review Committee (SJRC). My job was to convene SJRC, establish a rubric and eligibility criteria through discussions with SJRC members, meet with non profits to learn more about their work, establish recommendations and advocate recommendations to our Executive Dominion Energy Team in Virginia for potential funding.” The process was made easier she said with the help of administrative assistant Jennifer Grandstaff and her leader Paulin Cheatham. The experience she said allowed her to “meet people doing amazing work in North Carolina, South Carolina, Connecticut, Utah, Virginia and here in Ohio.”

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Locally they provided grants to The Village of Healing, Birthing Beautiful Communities, Pregnant with Possibilities, the Urban League of Greater Cleveland, United Black Fund, and Women of Color Foundation to name a few. Heather said of these opportunities, “It was really rewarding because philanthropy feels good to me. It feels like I'm doing what I can to give back and to help the most vulnerable.” The work she said was more special because, “it's aligned with my own personal self-identify as a Black woman that was like unheard of, it was a lot of hard but important work.”

Heather continued, “I'm still working through it because some of those grants are still ongoing. With HBCU Promise we did work with Central State University and SM, Wilberforce University; so they both got $500,000 a piece, it's very rewarding. I didn't have the privilege of going to a black college. My parents who did everything for me, it was something they just could not afford, so I stayed at home and worked three odd jobs to go to Tri-C, to Cleveland State University and back to Cleveland State University So, to be able to give back to a black collegiate level institution, we did some great work with Central State to help establish an endowment that they will be able to withdraw from annually. It's named as a Dominion Energy scholarship, it is prettycool.”

PHENOMENAL FACTS:

When she's not working to make the world a better place by helping others, Heather is focused on spending quality time with those closest to her She said, “My parents are older now and trying to create spaces where we are all together because they are my biggest cheerleaders. They are constant for me, they show up for me it is such a gift, such a blessing to have show-up parents.” In addition to capturing and nurturing the time with her parents she said, “My biggest accomplishment, however, has been becoming a mother after ten years of trying,” so watching their growth and being a wife are her biggest joys.

Aside from family, she nurtures some longstanding friendships and finds time to do what she does bestgiving. She explained, “I am part of Our Hope Our Future Giving Circle. LaToya Smith leads us, and we pull together $500 from our personal bank accounts every year we make the investment through the Cleveland Foundation and give to an organization. This past year we gave to Village of Healing. We were going to give them $1,000 and LaToya reached out to the United Black Fund. Our gift was matched allowing us to provide a gift for $2,000. The gift was even more meaningful she said because one of the cofounders, Da'Na Langford said in accepting it, “This is the most meaningful grant we've ever received because we received it from Black women.” <

Served as Board Development Committee Member

Girl Scouts of North East Ohio

Chair

Family Equity Committee for Case Western Reserve University

Published Song Writer & Performer (Songstress)

ASCAP

Philanthropist

Our Hope, Our Future Giving Circle

2022 Miracle Honoree

Birthing Beautiful Communities

Emerging Philanthropist Award 2021

Philanthropy Ohio

Lady of Legacy 2020

Limitless Ambition

Women of Distinction Award 2018

Girl Scouts of North East Ohio

Women's Centers Outstanding Achievement Award 2017 National Women's Studies Association

MPA, Master of Public Administration

Cleveland State University

BA, Bachelor of Science in Education

Cleveland State University

Associate of Liberal Arts

Cuyahoga Community College (CCC)

Inclusion and Diversity Staff Leadership Award 2017

Office for Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunity, Case Western Reserve University

NEO 25 Under 35 Movers and Shakers Award 2009

The Cleveland Professional 20/30 Club & Inside Business Magazine