Civic Innovation Lab names new mentors

Seven community leaders step up to assist local entrepreneurs

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

CLEVELAND, Ohio

CLEVELAND– The Civic Innovation Lab, which provides grants and mentorship to individuals with ideas for improving Greater Cleveland, has added seven leaders to its mentor panel.

Lab mentors evaluate applications and choose to work one-on-one with grant recipients, whom the Lab calls “champions.”

Jennifer Thomas, director of Civic Innovation Lab, said its newest mentors boast expertise in starting new companies, fundraising, corporate diversity, and nonprofit turnarounds. Though the Lab’s $30,000 grants are key start-up funding for entrepreneurs, they often claim that Lab mentors are the most attractive and valuable part of the program.

 “Mentors provide components critical for success — guidance and momentum needed for start-ups to get off the ground,” Thomas said.  “Lab mentors help the champions lay a foundation of networks that otherwise might take years to develop.”

The Lab’s new mentors are:

Marsha Dobrzynski

Executive director

Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio (YANEO)

A chapter of National Young Audiences Inc., YANEO serves 18 counties with educational arts programs that enhance learning.  Dobrzynski joined the organization in 1994, when it was a struggling financially.  Since then she has dramatically increased programming and embarked on a new direction of long-term, integrated partnerships with schools.  Working closely and successfully with local, regional and national funders, YANEO has leveraged resources to help more than 250 schools integrate arts into their core curriculum to improve overall student achievement. Dobrzynski received the 2007 Ohio Governor’s Award for Arts. 

Colleen Gilson

Executive director

Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition (CNDC)

CNDC coordinates programs, communicates critical information, helps develop public policy, mounts advocacy campaigns and offers customized training to its members, including Cleveland-area community development corporations, financial and educational institutions, private sector businesses and agencies whose missions parallel CNDC’s objectives. Gilson has worked in the field of community development for 14 years and previously held positions at Detroit Shoreway Community Development and Tremont West Development Corp., where she served as executive director. In 2006, Gilson was honored as one of Crain’s Cleveland Business Forty Under 40.

Andres Gonzalez

Director

Office of Diversity, Cleveland Clinic

Gonzalez has worked in the non-profit sector for over 14 years and was instrumental in creating culturally and linguistically competent programs for Hispanic/Latino serving agencies including the Hispanic Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach Program and El Barrio, a workforce development agency that serves the Hispanic/Latino community in the Near West Side of Cleveland. In his current role, he oversees cultural competence and diversity training for the Clinic’s 37,000 employees. He is a 2004 German Marshall Fund Fellowship recipient and a graduate of Cleveland Bridge Builder’s flagship program and Leadership Cleveland.

Rockette “Rocky” Richardson

Vice president/director of community development

Charter One

Richardson leads Charter One’s strategic efforts in Ohio surrounding the Community Reinvestment Act and works to support community-based business development efforts. She has worked in the financial services industry for more than 20 years, most recently as vice president and manager of community development sales for Sky Financial Group.  Prior to joining Sky, she was corporate relations manager for Bank One’s Northeast Ohio region.  She is a graduate of Leadership Cleveland and in 2000 was selected for inclusion in Kaleidoscope Magazine’s 40/40 Club, which annually recognizes forty emerging minority leaders.

Joy Roller

Executive director

Gordon Square Arts District.

Roller is leading a $30 million capital campaign to revitalize the Detroit Avenue neighborhood into a thriving arts district on Cleveland’s west side. Roller started her television production career at WJW in Cleveland and later managed the creative and financial development of numerous television programs in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.  Her television credits include Dream House, a 13-part reality series for the Home and Garden Television Network; Bill Clinton: Rock and Roll President for VH1; and numerous national cable network and syndicated talk shows, series, and specials. 

Kevin B. Shaw

Founder, PromiseONE

Chairman, Fathom SEO

Prior to forming PromiseONE, which invests in private companies, Shaw served as president and chief executive officer of NCS Healthcare, a publicly traded institutional pharmacy. He co-founded NCS in 1986, led its public offering and ran the company until its sale in 2003. Prior to NCS Shaw was employed by McKinsey & Company and Owens Corning.

Wendell E. Turner

President

Diversified Services Corp

Founded by Turner in 1981, Diversified Services has evolved from a wholesale distributor of building maintenance supplies and equipment to a major supplier of institutional and retail food products. The company’s Heritage Fare brand is sold nationwide. Before founding Diversified Services, Turner held human resources positions at several Fortune 500 companies. He is a 1986 graduate of Leadership Cleveland. 

Civic Innovation Lab, a project funded by the Cleveland Foundation, fuels innovation by providing mentorship, training, and funding of up to $30,000 for ideas that have a measurable economic impact on Greater Cleveland. Since its launch in September 2003, the Lab has provided more than $1.2 million in grants to 43 initiatives and trained more than 500 entrepreneurs. For more information on Civic Innovation Lab, please visit www.civicinnovationlab.org.

Established in 1914, the Cleveland Foundation is the world's first community foundation and the nation’s third-largest today, with assets of $2.2 billion and 2007 grants nearing $85 million. The foundation improves the lives of Greater Clevelanders by building community endowment, addressing needs through grantmaking, and providing leadership on vital issues. Currently the foundation proactively directs two-thirds of its flexible grant dollars to the community's greatest needs: economic transformation (including advanced energy and globalization), public school improvement, early childhood and youth development, neighborhoods and housing, and arts advancement.
 
For more information on the Cleveland Foundation, please visit www.clevelandfoundation.org.

 <BACK TO NEWS AND EVENTS