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Cleveland's new leaders - growing our own
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BY: SUSAN H. KAHN, Assistant Editor
Leaders may be born not made, but even those with innate ability can benefit from mentoring and hands-on skill-building experiences.
For a select group of talented and highly motivated potential civic leaders, The Cleveland Executive Fellowship program is designed to provide just the kind of training they need.
Launched by The Cleveland Foundation in 2005, the aim of the executive fellowship is to provide Northeast Ohio with a “pipeline of civic leaders capable of problem-solving across traditional boundaries.” Participants in the immersion program gain hands-on experience through executive level temporary placements in Greater Cleveland's business, nonprofit and public sectors where they address issues such as economic development, health care, education and regionalism.
During their rotations, fellows gain insight into how the public and private sectors intersect, how decisions are made, and what people and institutions guide Cleveland's civic agenda. They are also charged with generating new ideas by conducting interviews with citizens and leaders, designing workshops on major regional issues, and participating in professional development seminars.
Chief executive of The Cleveland Foundation Ronald B. Richard says, “The goal of the Fellowship is to cultivate home-grown leaders who can contribute to our region and who are eager to do so. Their success is paramount to our city's future.”
The program uses the training model of Coro, a national nonpartisan organization whose mission is to strengthen the democratic structure of government and the communities in which it operates. However, the Cleveland program has several distinctions. Coro is aimed at recent college graduates, but Cleveland fellows range in age from their 20s to their low 40s. Instead of Coro's nine-month program, the Cleveland fellowship runs a full year. Coro provides no stipend but Cleveland Fellows receive $40,000 for the year. They also agree to stay in Cleveland for at least two years after completing the program.
Shaker Heights native Rachael Zinn, 26, was part of the Cleveland Executive Fellows inaugural class. Prior to that, she worked for four years at The Toledo Blade, first as a reporter, then as a suburban bureau chief.
“I began to have reservations about staying in the newspaper business and I wanted to explore other career options,” says Zinn, an Amherst graduate who now lives in Lakewood.
From a pool of 80 applicants, she was one of 24 finalists who competed for the eight fellowships during a rigorous selection day. About 50 judges, drawn from the local community and Coro, interviewed and evaluated the candidates.
“We were assigned on-the-spot-tasks designed to test our grasp of basic urban planning concepts, and our ability to apply these in unique ways,” says Zinn. “The selection committee was looking for creative-problem solvers, risk-takers who could perform under pressure.”
Her first placement was in the communications department of MetroHealth System, where her primary assignment was to develop a youth outreach program for Hispanic youth.
“It was aimed at teaching Latino kids about health topics and to encourage them to consider careers in health care,” says Zinn, who developed a series of programs and spoke with leaders of the Hispanic community as well as members of Metro's professional staff.
Zinn's public sector experience was in the Cuyahoga County Treasurer's office working with the Foreclosure Prevention Program. There she created a foreclosure database that revealed the dimensions of the problem and examined its root cause.
“Ohio has the highest rate of foreclosure and we have the worst state foreclosure laws,” says Zinn.
Her corporate placement was with a marketing agency that does web design and branding. “I gained an important understanding of how rapidly technology is changing our whole economic landscape,” she says.
For insight into city government, Cleveland fellows staffed Mayor Frank Jackson's transition committees. They also joined Coro fellows for a week in Washington D.C., during which they interviewed national figures like Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Washington Post investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.
Zinn is now employed by the Northeast Ohio Council of Higher Education where she coordinates College 360, a program that fosters community involvement by students; its ultimate goal is increasing the number of graduates who will stay in the area.
Amy Lazarus, 23, who also grew up in Shaker Heights, completed a Coro fellowship in Pittsburgh in June. A 2005 graduate of Duke University, she created and lead several large-scale campus programs addressing diversity. She also co-founded Duke's Center for Race Relations.
Two of Lazarus's Coro placements, one at the YWCA Center for Center for Race Relations and the other in the diversity department of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Northwest Pennsylvania, allowed her to build on her college experience.
Her experience at a small consulting firm that serves nonprofits introduced Lazarus to the corporate world. While there, she researched innovative mechanisms for registering young voters and wrote website content to support the Help America Vote Act.
Group projects are also part of the Coro program. Lazarus and her colleagues collaborated on research for a foundation that funds programs in a South Pittsburgh Latino neighborhood. They also worked on the Pittsburgh mayoral campaign and spent a week in Harrisburg, learning about state government. Lazarus calls the week she spent in Washington meeting national leaders like Senator Barak Obama “a highlight of the year.”
“Coro was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” says Lazarus, now pursuing a master's degree in public policy and management at The University of Pittsburgh. “ It showed me how important access and networking are.”
Jeff Epstein, 31, has just begun the 2006-2007 Cleveland Executive Fellowship. The Shaker Heights High school graduate majored in public policy at Duke then headed to Washington, where he worked for a polling organization and did management consulting. Law school at Georgetown University followed.
Epstein then landed a clerkship for a federal judge in Cleveland, so he and his wife Leah settled in Cleveland Heights. But as his clerkship was nearing completion, he was uncertain about practicing law. Surviving an “intense but fun,” selection process, Epstein, landed a spot in this year's Fellowship class, a racially diverse group comprised of five men and three women.
This week, Epstein began his first executive placement with Building Cleveland by Design, a consortium of local nonprofits who work with builders and developers to create more “green” buildings and sustainable developments.
“The fellowship program will be a great way for me to transition back into Cleveland and into a public-interest oriented job,” says Epstein. “Ultimately, I want to work in neighborhood development. The fellowship will plug me into a network of movers and shakers.”
skahn@cjn.org
For a select group of talented and highly motivated potential civic leaders, The Cleveland Executive Fellowship program is designed to provide just the kind of training they need.
Launched by The Cleveland Foundation in 2005, the aim of the executive fellowship is to provide Northeast Ohio with a “pipeline of civic leaders capable of problem-solving across traditional boundaries.” Participants in the immersion program gain hands-on experience through executive level temporary placements in Greater Cleveland's business, nonprofit and public sectors where they address issues such as economic development, health care, education and regionalism.
During their rotations, fellows gain insight into how the public and private sectors intersect, how decisions are made, and what people and institutions guide Cleveland's civic agenda. They are also charged with generating new ideas by conducting interviews with citizens and leaders, designing workshops on major regional issues, and participating in professional development seminars.
Chief executive of The Cleveland Foundation Ronald B. Richard says, “The goal of the Fellowship is to cultivate home-grown leaders who can contribute to our region and who are eager to do so. Their success is paramount to our city's future.”
The program uses the training model of Coro, a national nonpartisan organization whose mission is to strengthen the democratic structure of government and the communities in which it operates. However, the Cleveland program has several distinctions. Coro is aimed at recent college graduates, but Cleveland fellows range in age from their 20s to their low 40s. Instead of Coro's nine-month program, the Cleveland fellowship runs a full year. Coro provides no stipend but Cleveland Fellows receive $40,000 for the year. They also agree to stay in Cleveland for at least two years after completing the program.
Shaker Heights native Rachael Zinn, 26, was part of the Cleveland Executive Fellows inaugural class. Prior to that, she worked for four years at The Toledo Blade, first as a reporter, then as a suburban bureau chief.
“I began to have reservations about staying in the newspaper business and I wanted to explore other career options,” says Zinn, an Amherst graduate who now lives in Lakewood.
From a pool of 80 applicants, she was one of 24 finalists who competed for the eight fellowships during a rigorous selection day. About 50 judges, drawn from the local community and Coro, interviewed and evaluated the candidates.
“We were assigned on-the-spot-tasks designed to test our grasp of basic urban planning concepts, and our ability to apply these in unique ways,” says Zinn. “The selection committee was looking for creative-problem solvers, risk-takers who could perform under pressure.”
Her first placement was in the communications department of MetroHealth System, where her primary assignment was to develop a youth outreach program for Hispanic youth.
“It was aimed at teaching Latino kids about health topics and to encourage them to consider careers in health care,” says Zinn, who developed a series of programs and spoke with leaders of the Hispanic community as well as members of Metro's professional staff.
Zinn's public sector experience was in the Cuyahoga County Treasurer's office working with the Foreclosure Prevention Program. There she created a foreclosure database that revealed the dimensions of the problem and examined its root cause.
“Ohio has the highest rate of foreclosure and we have the worst state foreclosure laws,” says Zinn.
Her corporate placement was with a marketing agency that does web design and branding. “I gained an important understanding of how rapidly technology is changing our whole economic landscape,” she says.
For insight into city government, Cleveland fellows staffed Mayor Frank Jackson's transition committees. They also joined Coro fellows for a week in Washington D.C., during which they interviewed national figures like Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Washington Post investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.
Zinn is now employed by the Northeast Ohio Council of Higher Education where she coordinates College 360, a program that fosters community involvement by students; its ultimate goal is increasing the number of graduates who will stay in the area.
Amy Lazarus, 23, who also grew up in Shaker Heights, completed a Coro fellowship in Pittsburgh in June. A 2005 graduate of Duke University, she created and lead several large-scale campus programs addressing diversity. She also co-founded Duke's Center for Race Relations.
Two of Lazarus's Coro placements, one at the YWCA Center for Center for Race Relations and the other in the diversity department of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Northwest Pennsylvania, allowed her to build on her college experience.
Her experience at a small consulting firm that serves nonprofits introduced Lazarus to the corporate world. While there, she researched innovative mechanisms for registering young voters and wrote website content to support the Help America Vote Act.
Group projects are also part of the Coro program. Lazarus and her colleagues collaborated on research for a foundation that funds programs in a South Pittsburgh Latino neighborhood. They also worked on the Pittsburgh mayoral campaign and spent a week in Harrisburg, learning about state government. Lazarus calls the week she spent in Washington meeting national leaders like Senator Barak Obama “a highlight of the year.”
“Coro was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” says Lazarus, now pursuing a master's degree in public policy and management at The University of Pittsburgh. “ It showed me how important access and networking are.”
Jeff Epstein, 31, has just begun the 2006-2007 Cleveland Executive Fellowship. The Shaker Heights High school graduate majored in public policy at Duke then headed to Washington, where he worked for a polling organization and did management consulting. Law school at Georgetown University followed.
Epstein then landed a clerkship for a federal judge in Cleveland, so he and his wife Leah settled in Cleveland Heights. But as his clerkship was nearing completion, he was uncertain about practicing law. Surviving an “intense but fun,” selection process, Epstein, landed a spot in this year's Fellowship class, a racially diverse group comprised of five men and three women.
This week, Epstein began his first executive placement with Building Cleveland by Design, a consortium of local nonprofits who work with builders and developers to create more “green” buildings and sustainable developments.
“The fellowship program will be a great way for me to transition back into Cleveland and into a public-interest oriented job,” says Epstein. “Ultimately, I want to work in neighborhood development. The fellowship will plug me into a network of movers and shakers.”
skahn@cjn.org
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