James Conlon, music director of May Festival, is among nine winners selected to receive 2016 Governor’s Awards for the Arts in Ohio. Conlon, one of two individual artists chosen, will be presented the Irma Lazarus Award during a noon luncheon Wednesday, May 18, at the Columbus Athenaeum in downtown Columbus. The selection committee reviewed 88 nominations submitted from across Ohio.
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Alicia Culman has been named the first executive director of the Great Parks Foundation. She becomes the first staff person for the foundation. Culman was most recently deputy director of the Carnegie in Covington and has three years’ experience with the Cincinnati Parks Foundation.
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Maryanne Zeleznik, news director of 91.7 WVXU for the past 10 years, was chosen as communicator of the year by the Salesian Guild. Named for St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of writers, the guild holds an annual gathering of Greater Cincinnati Catholics working in communication fields. Before joining WVXU in 2005, Zeleznik served as news and public affairs director at WNKU for 20 years.
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The Tristate Veterans Community Alliance has appointed Dan Knowles president and CEO.
A co-founder of the nonprofit, Knowles is a West Point graduate who served seven years on active duty before going on to a business career that included Procter & Gamble, Reynolds & Reynolds and his own business consulting firm.
The TVCA coordinates access to, and improves the effectiveness of, services provided to veterans by over 85 Tri-State organizations. Key partners include the USO, the local VA, United Way, the Red Cross, Interact for Change, universities and large employers. With the help of the Cincinnati Reds and Major League Baseball, the TVCA built and opened its Veteran In-Processing (VIP) & Welcome Center in mid-July at CityLink in the West End.
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Jerome Wright of the Reds Community Foundation has joined the board of the Cincinnati ToolBank. Wright has partnered with the Toolbank through his involvement with the foundation’s Reds Community Makeover projects. The nonprofit Toolbank lends tools to charitable organizations so volunteers can use high-quality tools for projects such as planting trees, repairing seniors’ roofs and landscaping public spaces.
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Hamilton County Commissioners appointed Monica Donath Kohnen to a seven-year term on the board of The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. She is a partner in the law firm of Graydon Head & Ritchey LLP, where she practices business, real estate, construction and banking law. Kohnen currently holds leadership roles on the boards of the Cincinnati Sight Restoration Foundation, Inc. and The Junior League of Cincinnati and is a member of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Planned Giving Committee.
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Kevonyah Edwards, a Cincinnati Woman’s Club scholarship holder, received special recognition at the University of Cincinnati’s December graduation ceremony. She graduated in 3-1/2 years, magna cum laude, and was one of 12 Distinguished University Honors Scholars who graduated in December. There was an additional surprise at the ceremony, however. She was one of three graduating seniors singled out by UC president Santa Ono in his remarks.
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The GreenLight Fund has selected Tara Noland as first executive director of the new GreenLight Cincinnati. Noland most recently was director of development for 4C for Children. The GreenLight Fund, which was begun in Boston, has a long-standing partnership with Boston’s entrepreneurial business, private equity and venture capital sectors, and aims to attract a similar level of leadership, guidance and support from members of these communities in Cincinnati.
Lead funding is by the Deaconess Associations Foundation, the Cincinnati Regional Business Committee, Interact for Health, Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati Children’s, United Way Greater Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Business Committee. It will support expansion of nonprofit programs that can make a significant and measurable difference for Cincinnati’s low-income, urban children and families in key areas such as youth development, education, health and workforce development.