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Young, Gifted and BLACK

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, D.Min.
The Truth Contributor

Who can be born black and not exult!
                -  Marie Evans, Poet

 

 

Rev. Donald L. Perryman, D.Min.

Saturday was a night of jubilation. At least two dozen members of Toledo’s African-American community partied with the public at the mayor’s inauguration ball until nearly midnight. Yet, it was a party with a purpose!

Whether they had publicly backed the mayor from the beginning of his campaign, been undercover supporters or were latecomers or newly-won converts, those African Americans present had the opportunity to “dance the night away” up close and personal with Catherine (Katy) Crosby, who just a day earlier, had been announced as Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz’ new chief of staff.

“She is a very substantial person. A true national leader on issues pertaining to economic justice, she is also a part of the national coalition of community groups dedicated to getting banks to invest more money in neighborhoods,” Kapszukiewicz informed me. “A grand slam home run for Toledo and as far from the ‘old white guy’ status quo as you can possibly get,” he emphasized.

Crosby, a Gen Xer will lead a management team that also includes youthful deputy chiefs of staff Abby Arnold and Karen Poore. The young, gifted and black urban professional took time to chat with me during her whirlwind visit to Toledo this past weekend.

Perryman: Welcome to Toledo. People here are very excited about you being selected to lead Mayor Kapszukiewicz’ administration. Please tell us a bit about your history.

Crosby:  So I’m originally from Cleveland, Ohio.  I went to Wilberforce University and graduated with a BS in accounting.  Out of school, I worked for Champion Paper Company in Hamilton, Ohio as an internal auditor.  The company was sold and so I went back to Dayton and did volunteer work with the Urban League and also worked as a graduate student and earned my Masters in Public administration degree.

Perryman: And, from there?

Crosby:  As a graduate student I did a lot of work around community organizing and community development by fully engaging and trying to help empower neighborhoods to revitalize or to do some improvement.  And when I got ready to graduate I was offered a job as the assistant director for the Center of Public Affairs, in the same department where I was getting my graduate degree. 

So I worked there for about three years as the assistant director, managed the budget for various projects that we were doing.  We did a lot of work around strategic planning for cities and community development projects, and then I also was responsible for the internship program and that’s where I met Willie Walker who was the president and CEO of the Dayton Urban League. Through that relationship he connected me with the National Urban League Young Professionals and I started the chapter in Dayton and did a lot of work with the local as well as the National Urban League. 

I also managed some political campaigns for commissioners and state representatives and then got involved with the city through the Community Reinvestment Institute and Commissioner Lovelace, who is one of the commissioners whose campaign I worked on. From there, I spent 12 years at the Human Relations Council (HRC), six years as the assistant director and the last six years as the executive director.  I’m also on the national board for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and so our work is really centered around working with banks around the Community Reinvestment Act and making sure that they’re providing mortgage lending, access to capital for small business, philanthropic dollars and community development dollars in low to moderate income communities.

The work that we do at the HRC is around civil rights enforcement. So we do that in the areas of housing, public accommodations, credit and employment. We investigate on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and also handle the city’s fair housing action plan or assessment, and that’s a part of the consolidated plan looking at barriers to fair housing and determining what are some of those barriers and then we’re responsible for developing a plan of action to remove those barriers. 

We also provide business and technical assistance.  We’re the certifying agency for the Minority, Women, and Disadvantaged Business Program on behalf of the city.  We also certify on behalf of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program and manage the city’s HUD Section 3 Program.  We have a Minority Business Assistant Center that’s funded by the State of Ohio, I think the University of Toledo has it here locally.  And then we also manage the city’s Affirmative Action Program to ensure that our vendors have a diverse workforce. 

Then additionally, we also have the Welcome Dayton Program, which is an immigrant integration program in the City of Dayton. And then, we also have community police relations and the community initiative to reduce gun violence.  And, in addition to that, a lot of our work is really about reducing inter group tension, so when there are issues that arise that would create those tensions, we try to work with other city leaders to help figure out a plan to address that and go into a crisis management process to reduce the likelihood of an occurrence.

 But then, we also are moving into this space around creating equity plans, a racial equity plan for the city and making sure that we have equitable development, equitable access to education, equitable access to jobs and things like that and so really looking at that through a racial equity lens and beginning to develop a plan around that, which of course I hope to continue in Toledo.

Perryman: We certainly hope so.  You seem to be just what the doctor ordered for Toledo. With your extensive civil rights background, what has contributed to your overall worldview?

Crosby: You know, that’s interesting because growing up I don’t know that I even realized that this world existed.  I think when I got to Dayton and started working with Commissioner Lovelace and Dr. Jack Dustin at Wright State University, I think that the different projects that I worked on exposed me to the disparities that exist in communities and so every opportunity that I had has built my experience and allowed me to work in spaces where it’s about really removing barriers and creating access. I’ve just been very fortunate.  I always tell people its divine intervention, there’s like something that’s just like ‘go here, go there, and then go here’ and I just follow.

Perryman: So we’ve talked extensively about work.  What about Katy Crosby away from the job? What types of activities do you enjoy, personally?

Crosby:  Well first, I have to start off by saying I have an 18-year-old daughter, she’s a senior in high school, graduates in May and she’ll be going off to college in the fall and I’m very, very proud of her and so I try to spend as much time as I can with her that she will allow. 

It’s funny because I have a very poor work/life balance so a lot of times my work bleeds into my personal life.  I do like to travel when I can and most of that is through my National Community Reinvestment Coalition work because we always go to great places.  I like concerts when I can get to them and I try to work out.  I have months where I fall off, but I always tend to go back.

Perryman: Favorite foods?

Crosby: I’m really flexible.  I like sushi.  I try to eat healthy as much as possible. When I fall off, I like a burger. You know what?  My favorite food is probably fried chicken, some really good fried chicken that I don’t get often and that’s probably because I can’t make it.

Perryman: Favorite music artists?

Crosby:  So my favorite music is probably hip-hop and R & B.  I would say Jay-Z is probably one of my favorite hip-hop artists.  In terms of R & B, I don’t know that I really have a favorite artist.  I will tell you that what I listen to most often on Pandora is the Bryson Tiller station.

Perryman: Okay, so what particular cut comes up most often on your playlist? 

Crosby:  So there’s this one song by Kanye West that I can’t think of off the top of my head, but this morning I listened to “Long Lived the Chief” by Jidenna, is that how you pronounce his name? 

Perryman: Ahh, keep it real now! “(Blanks) fighting over rings; (Blanks) wanna be the king, but Long Live the Chief. For a lil’ ol’ thang lil’ boys bang bang!” That one?

Crosby: And that was probably like to get me, to calm me down for today. I’m kind of like whatever puts me in a mood.  I will say this, I love music and I love a good beat. I love to dance.

Perryman: So what is it about Toledo and Mayor Kapszukiewicz that persuaded you to come here? 

Crosby: My mayor in Dayton recommended a few people to him and we met late December and I liked his energy, I felt like he was sincere.  I feel like we have similar values in that we’re going to make mistakes, but we’re going to learn from those mistakes and move forward.  He’s about change and trying new things and I really believe that he wants to make things better.

What I like about Toledo, even though it’s bigger, is that it has a lot of similar challenges that Dayton has and I feel like there are probably some things that I’ve learned in Dayton that I can bring to Toledo and then I probably can learn a lot from Toledo.

What attracted me to the position?  A couple of different things.  The first is that I was very transparent with HCR that when my daughter graduated I would probably be looking for other opportunities because I wanted to be challenged and I wanted to continue to develop my skillset, but I was looking for the right position because I was very happy at the commission. Toledo gives me the opportunity to take everything that I’ve done at the Human Relations Council and to apply it across the entire city. 

And so to be in a position where you’re always promoting equity and trying to figure out how do you stabilize communities from a director level and then being able to apply that at this (mayoral chief of staff) level, not only is a huge opportunity to really effect change and be a leader in that movement, but it’s also a way to add to my experience.  As I’m working with other communities across the country, that experience ensures that I’m really able to help them navigate how to work with their local government to create change.

Perryman: Finally, with an expected start date in March, what questions or initial areas will you look to address as you begin?

Crosby:  I would probably focus the first few months on finding out who I should be talking to in order to get the real story about Toledo and what it is that people want to see from this administration.  I think, not just long-term and strategically, but on a day-to-day basis what are the challenges at the neighborhood level?  So my priority is really wanting to connect with the community in order to get as much information as I can in making decisions or in talking with the team about how we want to move the city forward. 

Right now, everybody’s been so welcoming and supportive, from social media to just my interactions in the city, all I’ve received is positive feedback. So I’m just kind of an open book and really wanting to learn from the community.

Perryman: Alright, Katy, thank you!

Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org

 

 
  

Copyright © 2018 by [The Sojourner's Truth]. All rights reserved.
Revised: 08/16/18 14:12:12 -0700.

 

 


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