At their final meeting of 2022, The Center for Community Solutions Board of Directors voted to elect Kyle Miller to a two-year term as chair of the board of directors beginning January, 2023.
Miller serves as External Affairs Manager for Dominion Energy. In this role, he is the forward-facing representative in communities Dominion Energy serves. He works with local officials, municipalities, and community and business leaders to cover a wide range of utility issues. Trained as an attorney, Miller previously worked in government affairs for the Sisters of Charity Health System and on the prestigious U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. During his time as Counsel for the Senate EPW Committee, he was the lead Republican negotiator for an economic development bill and key provisions of a $105 billion surface transportation bill. Twice-elected to serve on his local city council, he is civically engaged through various boards and committees. Kyle is a graduate of The Ohio State University and the University of Tulsa College of Law.
We are so pleased to welcome such an impressive group of community minded leaders to our board of directors.
New Board Members
The board also voted to approve the nomination of four new members to the board. They are Chris Alvarado, Andrea Stanard Lyons, Jill Paulsen, and Michelle Rose. Incoming Board President, Kyle Miller commented “we are so pleased to welcome such an impressive group of community-minded leaders to our board of directors; they bring deep experience in community development, DEI, philanthropy, government, and communications”.
Chris Alvarado has been the Executive Director of the Slavic Village Development Corporation for 8 years. Prior to joining Slavic Village, he was a Strong Cities Strong Communities Fellow with the German Marshall Fund. A two-year fellowship initiated by the White House Office of Urban Affairs and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and managed by the German Marshall Fund, Cleveland State University, and Virginia Tech. He was embedded at the City of Cleveland's Department of Community Development. He currently serves on the board of Bike Cleveland and the Advisory Board of Central Catholic High School.
Andrea Stanard Lyons is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Neighborhood Family Practice. She is responsible for amplifying and marketing the work of Neighborhood Family Practice to increase healthcare access and equity for the populations served by the organization. This includes a diverse mix of various racial and ethnic groups including, Hispanic/Latinx, Black and newcomers/refugees who speak over 40 languages. Prior to this she was the Director of Race, Equity and Inclusion for United Way of Greater Cleveland and directed the organization’s DEI work. She has held several marketing leadership roles in private corporations and has an MBA from the New York University School of Business. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Deaconess Foundation and Great Lakes Theater. Andrea is also an active member in The Links Inc., Western Reserve Chapter, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Alpha Omega Chapter.
Jill Paulsen is the Executive Director of Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and has worked at the organization for nearly 12 years. Prior to that, she was Program Officer at the Cleveland Foundation and a Fellow at the George Gund Foundation. She serves on the board of the AIDS Funding Collaborative (immediate past chair) and is a former board member of Care Alliance Health Center. Prior to coming to Cleveland, she had also worked at the Minnesota AIDS Project, now Rainbow Health.
Michelle Rose is the Executive Director of Ohio Means Jobs Cleveland-Cuyahoga County. In this role, she serves as Chief Executive Officer for all Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) activities in the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, with a dual customer approach serving jobseekers searching for good jobs and training opportunities, and employers looking to fill job openings and grow their business. Prior to that, she worked for the U.S. Department of Labor, serving in various roles, most recently as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs. She also worked as Director of Talent Initiatives for the Cleveland Innovation Project an alliance of the Cleveland Foundation, Fund for Our Economic Future, Greater Cleveland Partnership, JumpStart, and TeamNEO.
Community Solutions is grateful to outgoing Board Chair, David Miller
Outgoing board chair, David Miller, Ph.D., with the Jack, Joseph & Morton Mandel School Applied Social Science. Case Western Reserve University was saluted for his extraordinary leadership during the pandemic. Leading the board and the staff with grace and courage. Genesis Brown of Hyland Software, Seth Reimer of Stanford Road Advisors, and Tana Peckham of the Cleveland Public Library were elected as Vice-Presidents. Heather Stoll, Sisters of Charity Health System was re-elected as Treasurer, and Jenice Contreras, Hispanic Business Center and the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce was re-elected as Secretary.
