Elese Daniel Is Superstar Writer
If you have ever reached out to Cincinnati Vice Mayor David Mann, you more than likely have come in contact with Elese Daniel. As his community liaison and office aide, she is his bridge to Cincinnati residents – answering calls and emails, scheduling community council meetings (there are 50 councils in Cincinnati), managing his calendar, and even updating his Facebook page.
“This is the coolest way to learn about the city,” she told me.
Her path to City Hall began in South Bend, Indiana, where she remembers her love for writing evolving since the third grade. That was when a story she wrote (and illustrated) placed in a scholastic book challenge, giving her the opportunity to read her it out loud before a gymnasium filled with people. Standing in front of a microphone to words you molded into creative expression was a REALLY big deal for a little girl. Since then, Elese said, “I thought of myself as a superstar writer.”
But, for awhile anyway, that superstar was more known for her skills on the basketball court than on paper. After all, her older brother played the sport and he was super cool. She wanted to be just as cool so she would follow him to the pa
rks. She played in amateur leagues, in elementary, middle and high school; and ultimately landed a full scholarship to the University of Cincinnati where she studied journalism.
Ironically it was basketball that afforded her the ability to go to college, and it was a career ending ACL tear that gave her reason to refocus on her original love. She especially enjoyed writing about stories of other people and soon found herself doing assignments for online publications such as Soapbox Media.
Last year, through her volunteer involvement with Chase Public, a collaborative space for art and gatherings, she became a major contributor to the city-wide initiative of ArtWorks called ‘Ink Your Love.’ She also won third place in a poetry contest of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra about the meaning of freedom. This is her poem.
These days people have forgotten about her basketball history and she doesn’t even enjoy most sports much any more; but she is a big fan of bicycles. She rides her bike to work most days, likes bike polo, and hangs out with other bike fans.
Elese credits her U.C. professors and administrators for much of her career success. And it was Journalism Director of Undergraduate Studies, Jenny Wohlfarth, who helped Elese get her job at City Hall.
What is Elese’s advice to others on pursuing life? “Just do it,” she said.
You can read more about Elese in this U.C. article.
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Words And Actions Impact
Carolyn Dickerson Focuses On Strengths
Carolyn Dickerson and I first through a volunteer leadership role I had with the American Marketing Association a few years ago.
Little did I know at the time how her presence in my life would impact me personally and professionally. We quickly became friends. If your life has been lucky enough to have crossed paths with hers, you more than likely have grown as a result also.
Carolyn is brilliant when it comes to business leadership and marketing. Always studying to remain up-to-date on technology advances, she has successfully managed projects ranging from $100K to $2.5M; and conducted presentations and trainings in sales and social media; and consulted with many organizations to help them to be more productive and successful.
What really sets Carolyn apart is her rare and genuinely caring nature, and how she flawlessly knows how to bring out the best in those around her. Carolyn so naturally motivates people by focusing on their strengths. She goes out of her way to help others find their inner spark, when sometimes they can’t find it themselves. And she is always looking for opportunities to give back.
If ever I find myself having self-doubts, I can count on her to tell me to ‘quit it’ as she will go on to remind me of my accomplishments and my abilities.
Carolyn is one of five children born in rural Kentucky. “When you grow up in a very poor family, your parents give you what they can. Mine didn’t have money to give, but they gave me my values,” she said.
“I have known my purpose since I was a small child. I was raised to serve thanks to my mother,” Carolyn went on to tell me. Her mother was a petite woman, with a frame no taller than 4 feet 9 inches. But Carolyn’s mother had immeasurable wisdom. “She was an aide at St. Elizabeth Hospital working in the psychiatric ward before the medical profession understood what Alzheimer’s and dementia were. One day she came home and I saw a large bruise on her back as she took off her uniform. When I asked what happened, she said someone was upset and threw her up against a wall before some could pull him off of her. When I asked why she did what she did for a living, she told me, ‘Honey, someone has to care!’
“This is why I am who I am and my younger sister is a nurse, my nephew is a certified nursing assistance and the family legacy goes on! Her legacy is that she taught that caring is important.
My dad always taught us to dream big because he wanted a better life for us than he had. He always encouraged us to get an education. He told us, ‘To Show THEM what you are made of! You can do anything if you want to do it bad enough. Dream big!'”
What Carolyn’s parents gave her is something far more valuable than money. Carolyn is someone I admire so much in the way she leads and manages. She demonstrates every day that organizations, teams, and people are the most successful when they encouraged to see the big picture and the finer points of their strengths. But also I admire Carolyn as a human being who models integrity and compassion.
And I am glad to be able to call her my friend!
Linda Neenan Inspires Exploration
I can remember so many years ago, first meeting with Linda Neenan in an office of her home talking about a small nonprofit organization called iSPACE of which she was its volunteer director and its driving impetus to open young minds.
I was initially brought on board to help her and her small group of dedicated volunteers in announcing plans for the region’s very first (and ONLY) space & 
aeronautical learning center, and the region’s most unique solution to fostering an interest among young students in learning science, math and technology.
And have assisted them in promoting several of its Space Day, interactive learning events.
She used to have a sign hanging on one of her walls that read, “Serving 7000 people a year. Imagine what it would be like if we had a real space.” Years later, Linda now answers her phone from her office space in iSPACE’s 15,000 sq ft of fun-to-the-max learning as its salaried executive director leading a team of staff, volunteers, community leaders and educators. And that small organization that began in a den, now serves nearly 26,000 kids and over 5,000 adults annually, outgrowing its current space.
If you are unfamiliar, iSPACE programs are aligned with national and state educational standards and are designed to fill the region’s future workforce in manufacturing, technology, research, health care and other STEM-related fields. Its participants explore robotics, rocketry and more; engaging in active, hands-on problem solving and team-based projects using space as its theme.
Where it all began
Linda told me the story of how her parents, immigrants from Italy, never had the opportunity of college that she had. Her dad was a factory worker for General Motors in Detroit when he saw upon a flyer about a scholarship opportunity and brought it home to his daughter. What happened next has been permanently imprinted on Linda’s memory.
Bringing that flyer to her school, Linda’s counselor threw it on the desk, looked at her student in disgust and said, “but this is an engineering school.”
That incident, Linda told me, is why she ended up becoming a math teacher instead of an engineer. And, in the back of her mind, she thought, “Someday I will do 
something so that kids won’t have obstacles thrown into their face like I had when they want to pursue a dream.”
When iSPACE was founded in 2001, one of its core values was to provide access to all. “We make sure that in everything we do, it is available to all students. If a student has a physical disability, we make accommodations. We provide lots of support for young women and underserved students to encourage them. We have a partnership with juvenile court to include troubled youth,” Linda said. “It was all spurred on by my own experience early on when I was told I cannot do this.”
I asked Linda a few more questions.
Lisa: Tell us about someone in your life who has influenced you.
Linda: My biology teacher, Mr. Boxer, in high school was the first person who showed me that science could be fun and exciting. I used to look forward to his lectures. His passion for the subject was infectious. Today, when I am hiring educators, I look for them to have that same kind of passion as Mr. Boxer. The kids feed off of them just like I did back then.
Lisa: Do you remember your first job?
Linda: I do. When I was 15, I worked in a flower shop. Through high school, I worked in three different ones actually and then I had my own flower shop in college. I got a lot of business from the sororities and fraternities. I always had the prettiest corsage because I made it myself.
Lisa: What is something that people may be surprised to learn about you?
Linda: When people meet me, I am very outgoing. They may not realize that I do not have a lot of confidence. I am always so surprised and not expecting it when something good happens. When I got a call about the Enquirer’s Women of the Year Awards, I assumed it was about a nomination letter. The other night I gave a pitch for a grant in a competition with other nonprofits who had heartfelt missions. I was not expecting to win, but we did. It is all very validating for me.
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Melvin Grier Shares His Journey
For so many years as a public relations professional has spent a lot of time working in and around the media, I have met and been impressed with so many gifted photo journalists. Their lens is their eye to the world, capturing scenes with vivid images no words could do justice.
Award winning photographer Melvin Grier has been top on my list. In the days when Cincinnati was home to two daily newspapers, Melvin enjoyed a 33 year career at The Cincinnati Post. His images compellingly took us to places we would never have been exposed otherwise. They shared raw human emotions. They celebrated life. They shared kindness, ugliness, grief and joy.
Revisit Melvin’s journey in a very special new exhibit called White People: A Retrospective at the Cincinnati Art Beyond Boundaries Exhibit Venue (1410 Main Street in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine) running from this Friday through May 13, 2016. There will be a FREE opening reception on Friday (March 25) from 6 to 9 pm with wine and hors d’oeuvres.
White People: A Retrospective
The photography exhibit is an encore show that was first shown in 2011 at the Kennedy Heights Arts Center. It is a forerunning installation of FOTOFOCUS 2016.
One of Melvin Grier’s photographs that will be on exhibit at the Cincinnati Art Beyond Boundaries Gallery art exhibition venue in Over-the-Rhine.
Melvin told me the idea for the show evolved from a conversation he had with his daughter, photographer Samantha Grier. She was working for the Hamilton Journal at the time and made an observation. She noticed that at many of her assignments, she was the only black person there. It got Melvin thinking, and actually he had the same experiences.
The exhibition will highlight a collection of photos that were taken during his career at The Cincinnati Post. You may recognize some. You may recognize their story. You probably will be moved.
Let’s get to know Melvin.
Lisa: Where did your love for photography come from?
Melvin: I was in the air force stationed in England, about an hour train ride from London. I remember going to London to take pictures when I could, and develop them in a hobby shop with a dark room. I entered a military photography contest called Stars and Stripes, and won first place. I taught myself. My first love was fashion photography but I discovered journalism photography and later decided to make it a career.
Lisa: Tell us about one of your experiences as a photojournalist that moved you.
Melvin: One of my assignments at The Post was going to Africa with a local group during a civil war. I went with Reporter Lisa Rose Cardillo. I remember getting on the flight and seeing the entire crew was black, and getting to Nairobi and feeling like everyone looks like me when I got off the plane.
The whole experience was very meaningful. I saw people running around with automatic rifles. When we went to a clinic, I saw children who were skin and bones. You have to be a professional and not let your emotions get involved. I wished I could have done more. I went to an orphanage, and there were so many beautiful babies. I remember picking one up and thinking I wanted to take it back to Cincinnati.
I knew that my job there was to create the best photographs I could so that people here could see what I saw. I wanted the reader to see things that were accurate. It was my obligation.
Lisa: Your daughter, Samantha Grier, is also a very talented photographer. How do you feel about your daughter following your path?
Melvin: Samantha reminds me that I was very lucky. I came to work at a newspaper when they were sort of thriving. There was a downward trend during my career. Young people today face a whole different set of circumstances up to and including that there are no jobs. For anyone who aspires to be a journalist, I know you don’t get into it to get rich. It is something you do out of a sense of wanting to contribute.
Lisa: What is the best advice you have ever received?
Melvin: Ben Klein, one of the owners of a printing company I had worked for, had one standard. That was excellence. I remember how he would say that everything we did represented his company, whether it was a free job or not. I learned a lot from him. I know that everything that I shoot as a photographer is far from perfect but I try to make everything as good as I can make it.
Lisa: There is a poem that you read to people a lot. Tell us about it.
Melvin: It is a poem by James Baldwin from a book called Nothing Personal that has a lot of meaning to me. For me, it reminds me that my job as a photographer is to witness things so that people who could not be there for future generations would have a record of it. That was my responsibility, to document things and people.
For nothing is fixed
Forever and forever and forever
It is not fixed
The Earth is always shifting
The light is always changing
The sea does not cease
to grind down rock
Generations do not cease
to be born
and we are responsible to them because
We are the only witnesses they have
– James Baldwin
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