The Change-Makers: stories that inspire

The heart of our mission is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our communities. In the recent weeks, we’ve had the privilege to connect with some incredible artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and rabble rousers and we can’t begin to express how impressed we are with the incredible group below. Check out our favorite stories from across the Voyage family.

Jude Brown

This whole idea started when COVID hit. I had to figure out some way to occupy my time during the lockdown. I had just gotten a new phone. It was the (at the time) brand new iPhone X. I was amazed by the camera quality on it, and wanted to know what I could do with it. Read more>>

Dedrick Lynch

I started my business in November 2023 at just 20 years old with the goal of building something of my own. During my first year, I worked in the business full time. We were able to stay busy and keep things moving, but I quickly learned how challenging it was to grow a young company and make it fully sustainable. Read more>>

Toyia Montgomery

My last corporate stop was at the Kroger company leading Talent Attraction, Employment Branding and Vendor Partnerships. During the pandemic, I was challenged to leave my corporate job and develop a business that would help more people start and sustain businesses by providing consulting, media and brokerage services. Read more>>

Amanda Cook

My journey as an artist started incredibly early. Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, where my father made his living as a self-employed fine artist. Because of that environment, choosing to become an artist myself was completely natural and accepted as a real profession from day one. Read more>>

Access S2C Samantha Paros & LeeAnn DiTomaso

Access S2C started with a shared passion for supporting nonspeaking individuals and their families and a belief that everyone deserves access to meaningful communication. We saw a tremendous need for Spelling to Communicate (S2C) services in Ohio and knew we wanted to create a space where individuals and families could receive support, build connections, and feel part of a community. Read more>>

Steven Williams Jr.

KOZMIC KINGDOM really began with my own journey of self-discovery. About a decade ago, I entered a period where almost everything I thought defined me began to change. I reached a point where I had to question not only what I wanted from life, but who I actually was underneath the identities and expectations I had accumulated. Read more>>

BuShania Salaam

My journey with Melanated Magic began unexpectedly in 2020 during the height of COVID-19. Like so many people, I was forced to slow down when my salon temporarily closed. I had spent years behind the salon chair, but that pause gave me something I didn’t realize I needed: time to create, experiment, and explore an idea that had been sitting inside of me for years. Read more>>

Rhea Adkins

My story has really been built around resilience, service, and a willingness to keep evolving. I became a mother at a young age, which taught me responsibility, determination, and perseverance very early in life. Those experiences shaped the way I approach both business and community today. Read more>>

Lucretia Stenson

In the friendly words of Biggie Smalls, “It was all a dream.” I had a dream about myself flying through the sky, and it felt so real that I knew I had to make that dream a reality. So in 2018, I signed up for my very first aerial class, and I haven’t stopped since. Aerial arts completely changed my life. Read more>>

Tiffany Mosinski

I started Planned Elegance Weddings because I’ve always loved weddings, design, and bringing all of the little details together. What began as something small quickly grew as I gained experience, built relationships with amazing couples and vendors, and learned more about the kind of business I wanted to create. Read more>>

Hassan Qureshi

The journey into art started with the natural world around me. I felt this pull, this obligation to capture what I was seeing in nature and bring it onto a canvas. Wildlife became my first subject, my first obsession. Arabic calligraphy came through my faith and culture. Read more>>

David Spasic

Back in 2013 we had a live/work studio space where we would make art and run a screen printing business. We started collecting pinball machines and fixing them up in our down time and would open up the space once a month for people to check out the art and play the pinball machines. Read more>>

Maureen Walsh

I went to the Savannah College of Art and Design and studied fibers. After graduating, I moved to Brooklyn and after a couple years of random artist assistant jobs and retail, a friend from school and I started a successful design studio. It was a wild and fun time… lots of work, expansive creation and also a lot of partying. Read more>>

Lisha Navarro

My journey into the event industry grew naturally from my background in brand marketing and advertising. Working in that industry gave me an early understanding of how creativity, storytelling, presentation, and experience all work together to shape how people connect with a brand. Read more>>

Daniel Gorman

At an early age, I knew I would have a career as an artist in some way. I always loved to draw and had a lot of support from both family and teachers who recognized and encouraged my ability. I graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1999 with my BFA in Medical Illustration. Read more>>

Sara Recker

The boutique started over 16 years ago in a 1000 square foot studio in the heart of Medinas historic square. We have now built our boutique to be over 4000 feet catering solely to bridal attire and accessories. What started as a concept of something I wanted to do back in January of 2010, turned into a reality come April of 2010. Read more>>

Tammy Duke-Feltz

I started my career in the mental health field working as a drug and alcohol counselor in an intensive outpatient setting. Supporting individuals through recovery taught me the power of resilience, empathy and meet-people-where-they’re-at care. Over time, I transitioned into school-based mental health, where I now work directly with students and families to provide early intervention, emotional support, and behavioral health resources. Read more>>

Jovoni Trollinger

My career has been a bit of a jungle gym, and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. For nearly a decade, I’ve moved across industries as an HR leader, following opportunities to build, solve, create, and learn. My work sits at the intersection of people and business—leading diverse teams, improving operations, and creating inclusive cultures where people and ideas can thrive. Read more>>

Brandon Faris

I’ve always been a storyteller. The medium has just changed depending on where I was in my life. Music was probably the first version of that for me. I grew up writing songs, playing in bands, recording, and imagining that music would somehow become my career. But I came of age right as the music industry was being completely disrupted. Read more>> 

Greg Jankowski

My story has always centered around one question: **How can we help people become more confident, capable, connected, and purposeful human beings?** My professional journey began in fitness, movement, and human performance. Over the years, that work evolved into my identity as **The Balance Professor™** and the development of **BACE™ — Balance Awareness Cognitive Engagement**. Read more>>

Donovan Howard Sr.

I’m a self-taught artist who faced significant financial struggles early on, especially while raising young children in my early 20s. Pursuing a career in art didn’t seem realistic at the time. Despite juggling multiple jobs, I was determined to improve my craft. At 25, I was introduced to the idea of hosting a Paint & Sip. Read more>>

Sarah Slack

My love of art goes all the way back to childhood, but to save everyone some time, I’ll fast-forward to high school. That’s when my art teacher recognized my natural artistic talent and encouraged me to continue pursuing it. After loving art class all through high school, I decided to minor in Studio Art at The Ohio State University alongside my business degree. Read more>>

Joe Kowalski

You could say that my journey with film started when I was a kid. I was always using the family video camera at a young age and dragging my siblings and friends into starring in our backyard productions. Read more>>

Ashley Liptak

I have always been very interested in creating and fell in love with large scale artwork while working as a graphic lettering artist at Giant Eagle Market District. I was eventually asked to paint a logo for a freelance mural project and that opened up the world of mural work for me. Read more>>

Monique Ward

I am an entrepreneur, radio personality, journalist, and businesswoman originally from Brooklyn, New York. At 18 years old, I moved to Toledo, Ohio, where I immediately recognized a void in the urban arts and entertainment community. Seeing an opportunity to create a platform for local talent, I founded Pozativ ProMotions, LLC, which began managing and showcasing talented youth and adults throughout the city. Read more>>

Aminah Louise

I first discovered belly dance in college, when I took a class as a prerequisite. I was immediately hooked. I ended up repeating the class the following year. From there, I began studying with another teacher who invited me to perform in her student choreography project. That experience really opened the door to performing, and I’ve been dancing ever since. Read more>>

Rakim Davis

What started as a hobby, quickly became something that I would enjoy a lot and then some. As far as I can remember, my mom can tell you that as a kid, I would always mess around with all of the deposable cameras during the 90s, you know, the ones you get from your local walgreens with a same day turnaround. Read more>>

idayat sambo

My story is not a straight-line story. It is a story of starting over many times, using what I had, and refusing to allow where I came from to decide where I was going. I came to America from Nigeria with my husband, three little children, and only $85. Read more>>

Mel Hamilton

For as long as I can remember, movies have been a huge part of my life. When I was around 12 or 13, I decided I wanted to become an actor. Read more>>

Ashley

When I would travel and people would ask where I was from, I would proudly tell them Cleveland. More often than not, they would give me a hard time—whether it was saying there was “nothing to do” in Cleveland or making some negative comment about the city. Read more>>

Gabriella Sullivan

Manitou Candle Co. is entering its 10th year and we’re so excited to celebrate this milestone later this year. We began pouring candles for a wedding as a creative hobby. Friends loved them and asked for more, so we started inviting people over to help us pour. We quickly realized candle making was a meaningful way to bring people together. Read more>>

Crystal Caudill

I grew up in a small, southern Kentucky town, raised by my grandparents, where my Mammy Ann (Momma) as I referred to her, taught me how to cook, keep a home, love Jesus, and love our neighbors. As a child, our home was always filled with people. Read more>>