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.

A Jay Pullen

I usually tell people that my career started long before I ever had a job title. I didn’t wake up one day and decide to work in community health or youth advocacy — I grew into it. I was the person people called when they needed help, guidance, or someone who could see past the surface and understand what was really going on. Read more>>

Sarah Mitschke

Started in high-school making chainmail armor. Because I had the chains I started making chainmail jewelry. Started an Etsy shop. Moved to color wire. Then Because I had the new wire I started wire wrapping. I was able to open a physical storefront that was originally a medieval themed gift shop with dragons and fairies. Read more>>

Kat Francis Keomany

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kat Francis. Hi Kat, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story. I knew I wanted to be an artist since I was very young. I always enjoyed drawing and wanted to be a cartoonist originally. The art room in school was my sanctuary. Read more>>

Sherita Carthon

My journey really started with me understanding the power of bringing people, ideas, and opportunities together. I’ve always been able to look at something and see beyond what it is right now—I see what it could become. Read more>>

Nataliya Krekhovetska

My name is Nataliya. I’m originally from Ukraine, and I have been living in the United States for 15 years. My journey in America started in New York, where I studied Fashion Marketing and spent many years working in sales, management, and visual merchandising. In 2020, my family and I moved to Ohio, and that move opened a completely new chapter in my life. Read more>>

Meghan McNamara MA, LPCC-S

The plan has always been to be a therapist. I went to Xavier University for undergrad and majored in psychology with the hope of moving on to grad school immediately. I am so grateful that I did not choose that path. I thought I understood what therapy was when I was younger – give people advice (I was so good at that! Read more>>

Kate Bennis

I grew up writing feature stories in Ohio, and eventually studied journalism and film at Colorado State. As soon as I graduated, I moved to New York City, where I played in punk bands and had no professional connections like a lot of the film school kids there. Read more>>

Anam Khalid Khan

My love for makeup started when I was just a little girl. I was always captivated by women who carried themselves with beautiful makeup, carefully observing their looks and techniques. During festivals, I would save all the money I received as gifts just to buy makeup. That passion led me to complete my first professional makeup certification at just 14 years old. Read more>>

Laura M Regna

I began my full-time career as a personal trainer unexpectedly. I have an MFA in dance and spent many years performing with contemporary dance companies, continuing into my mid-40s. My interest in personal training grew during my late 20s and 30s, alongside a longstanding curiosity about dance science and kinesiology. When I was 27, I ruptured my Achilles tendon and was diagnosed with RSD. Read more>>

Angela Rivers-Harper

The vision for Ohio Kurvy Fashion Weekend and the I Love Me Women’s Empowerment Conference came from the same place: a desire to create spaces where people felt seen, valued, celebrated, and empowered. Ohio Kurvy Fashion Weekend began with a vision I could not ignore. Read more>>

Jessie Richmond

Maggie’s Farm & Aromatics started in my kitchen in 2020, when I began making bath bombs during the pandemic. I had spent years working in social services and juvenile probation, and I didn’t set out with a plan to open a store. I just loved making things that might give someone a little moment of comfort. Read more>>

Haylie Scheben

I started tattooing in my mom’s garage and in my bedroom with a rotary tattoo machine that I had gotten off of Amazon when I was 15. I struggled alot with mental health growing up and one of my first tattoos was a semi-colon tattoo for suicide prevention. Read more>>

David Whitehouse

I’ve always loved laughing & making people laugh, so I was drawn to comedy early on. I grew up in Steubenville, Ohio steeped in sports, music & academics, but the friends I surrounded myself with were those who shared my love of classic comedic films, Saturday Night Live, Monty Python, & standup comedy. Read more>>

JohnnyCannabis Lutz

I launched OhioCannabis.com in 2016, focused on the new legal medical market. I created a lot of content around this industry, but the legal, licensed market never embraced me like I hope they would. So when we were getting close to home grow being a reality in Ohio, I focused on that. Read more>>

Micaela ‘Cae’ Thomas

My journey began long before I ever considered myself an author, entrepreneur, or community advocate. It began with motherhood. I became a mother at a young age, and over the years, my journey as a mother of seven has challenged, stretched, and transformed me in ways I never imagined. Read more>>

Daj’za Demmings

My story really started in Dayton, Ohio, where I grew up learning the importance of community, service, and showing up for people. I’m a proud Dayton Public Schools graduate and a two-time HBCU graduate. I studied Manufacturing Engineering at Central State University and later earned a degree in Management Information Systems from Wilberforce University. Read more>>

Carla Davis

Carla Davis Communications was officially launched in 2020, but I have been a strategic communications consultant for over two decades. My business, CJ Davis Enterprises LLC, founded in 2015, is the umbrella for my two brands, including the communications arm of the business, and Carla Davis Music. Read more>>

Anika Luna Wild

I’ve always been an artist. Long before I had language for what I was doing, I was making, collecting, observing, and turning the world around me into something I could hold onto. Today, I work as an artist, grower, herbalist, and community-based creative in Akron, Ohio, and my work lives at the intersection of art, nature, memory, and place. Read more>>

Ami Vitale

My journey into photography really began with a desire to understand the world. I started my career covering conflict and working in places where people were living through war, displacement, and tremendous uncertainty. Over time, I began to realize that the stories I was covering were not separate from the natural world. Scarcity of water and resources, climate instability, displacement, and conflict were all connected. Read more>>

Kassandra Jackson

My story is really about learning how to keep building even when life doesn’t unfold in a straight line. I’m Kassandra Jackson, an entrepreneur, author, and the founder of Kassandra Berry Nail and Beauty Spa. What started with my love for beauty, creativity, and nails eventually grew into something much bigger. Read more>>

Matthew Myro Rothman

My journey into medical cannabis began during my second year of graduate school at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, when a doctoral student offered me a job as the third employee at her nursery, growing medical cannabis clones for local dispensaries. That opportunity led to 15 years of entrepreneurship in California’s medical cannabis industry. Read more>>

Jessica Ebsch

We started TCB Maids with a simple goal: to build a cleaning company that people could truly trust and depend on. What began small has grown over the past four years through hard work, consistency, word of mouth, and the support of our amazing clients and community. Building a business hasn’t always been easy. Read more>>

Andrew Moore

I grew up playing music in church. After high school and some college, I began mining coal in Kentucky, and West Virginia. After coal took a dive in 2008 I moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where I became a Commercial Diver and underwater welder. After a near death experience underwater, I moved to the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York, where I managed a hospitality company. Read more>>

Meshach Malley

For as long as I can remember I wanted to make movies. I started filming stories with friends when I was a little kid, running around my parent’s backyard with an old JVC camcorder from the 1990s. My parents did not let me watch a lot of television and so my act of rebellion was saying that I would make it myself. Read more>>

Kelly Earnest

First, thank you so much for having me! I’m Kelly J Earnest, better known online as Kelly J the BAM. BAM stands for “Bad Ass Mama.” For me, the “Bad” has always been a bit of a stance. Read more>>

Alexa Lowery

I was born and raised in Ohio, and my journey into theatre and entertainment started at a young age. My mom was a pageant queen and encouraged me to get on stage and try community theatre, and I quickly fell in love with performing. Read more>>

Sam Flaten

In 2010, a friend of mine finished an internship at Viamedia, a cable advertising company in Lexington KY, and couldn’t stop talking about how much she enjoyed her time there. I had no career plan at the time, but I needed an internship, and wanted to work somewhere interesting and with a great culture. Read more>>

Alicia Spurlock

My acting career started as a background extra on Fast 8. I kept showing up, studied at First Team Acting Studio, and I’m now represented by The Talent Group in Cleveland and Heyman Talent Agency in Columbus. Read more>>

Autumn Theodore

My photography career started pretty organically. I was taking creative photos for fun, and eventually people started asking if they could pay me to take photos for them. What began as a creative outlet slowly grew into a business, and after four and a half years of balancing photography with my career in marketing, I took the leap into full-time self-employment. Read more>>

Shaunda Ridgell

My loc business came into my life at a time when I wasn’t expecting it at all. In 2021, while pregnant with my fourth child, I decided to get microlocs of my own. Shortly afterward, my son, Jream, was born stillborn. Read more>>

Emily Akil

Prior to working at FotoFocus, I spent 10 years working in Higher Education. After completing an MBA while working at Miami University, I was ready to go in a new direction and came across the job posting for my current role, Communications and Outreach Manager at FotoFocus. Read more>>

Aubrey Ways

Brown Sugar Fashion Gala was birthed in 2018 in Greensboro, NC by me, our CEO and Head Curatore, Aubrey Ways. The fashion world consumed my life after I did my first 3-4 years as a fashion week participant as a Press, Media and Photo for NYFW Shows. Read more>>

Beki Ryan

In 2002 my father, Kent was offered to house a Kent brand dealership for existing customers of the community. The line had been located in the fertilizer plant that was in town and had been sold. The manager offered the dealership to local farmers that may be interested in helping the people of the community that had been using the feed. Read more>>