Board of Directors

Melissa Cropper (she/her), Chair

President
Ohio Federation of Teachers, Ohio AFL-CIO

Melissa Cropper was elected President of the Ohio Federation of Teachers in February 2012 and is Secretary-Treasurer of the Ohio AFL-CIO. She hails from Georgetown in southwest Ohio, east of Cincinnati, where she served as a library media specialist in the Georgetown Exempted Village Schools for 14 years.

She brings a strong history of leadership to OFT having served as president of the Georgetown Federation of Teachers, as a member of the OFT Executive Committee, and as chair of the OFT Retirement Committee. She was also an active leader in the Ohio Appalachian Collaborative, a comprehensive approach for transformational change in rural education.

She is Secretary-Treasurer of We Are Ohio, a state coalition of community and labor groups formed to preserve workers' rights, a member of the Board for UHCAN (United Healthcare Action Network), Progress Ohio and Policy Matters Ohio. At the national level, Cropper is an AFT Vice President, a member of the AFT Human Rights and Community Relations committee, and chair of AFT's State Federation President’s Advisory Committee.

As President of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, Cropper continues to develop collaborative relationships with leaders and organizations across the state to fulfill the OFT mission of advocating for issues that affect not only OFT members but also the children, families and communities that our members serve.

Cropper believes that public employees are the fabric of our communities. OFT members, ranging from teachers to bus drivers to college professors to children services employees, and many others, make a difference in the lives of the children and families they serve every day. As president, her focus is on supporting and empowering OFT members by carrying out their vision and placing an important emphasis on increasing member voice.

Teleangé Thomas (she/her), Vice Chair

Chief Advancement and Relationships Officer
JumpStart Inc.

Teleangé Thomas is Chief Advancement and Relationships Officer with JumpStart Inc., a nationally recognized investing, entrepreneurial support and economic development organization dedicated to unlocking entrepreneurship to transform entire communities. She leads the organization's strategic fundraising initiatives, strengthening partnerships and spearheading JumpStart's involvement in civic initiatives including the Cleveland Innovation Project and the MidTown Innovation District.

Before joining JumpStart, Teleangé was the Director of the Foundation Center Midwest, deepening the organization’s impact in thirteen Midwestern states through comprehensive data, training and insights on the social sector to help non-profit professionals, grant seekers and the philanthropic organizations that fund them be the catalyst for change in their communities.

Prior, Teleangé Thomas served for 7-years as the Program Director, Health for the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland; overseeing strategies to reduce health disparities among vulnerable populations through strategic grant-making, systems and policy change.

She has more than 15 –years’ experience as a professional with deep expertise in philanthropy, non-profit management, grant-writing, fundraising, systems change work, community engagement, health, policy, community development, social innovation and equity.

Thomas earned a bachelor’s of business management and entrepreneurial studies from Case Western Reserve University. She is a board of director for Health Policy Institute of Ohio, Green City Growers, The Conservancy of Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Cleveland Public Library Foundation. She is a Fellow of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a Community Impact Volunteer of the United Way of Greater Cleveland, is a member of Zeta-Phi-Beta Sorority Inc., (Inactive) is published in numerous professional journals and academic publications and has earned a host of awards and honors.

Roland Anglin (he/him)

Dean & Professor
Cleveland State University, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs

Dr. Roland V. Anglin is dean of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. Immediately prior to this position, Anglin was the senior advisor to the chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark and director of the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies. Dr. Anglin began his academic career at Rutgers University in the late 1980s. In 1991, he began work at the Ford Foundation, where he served first as the program officer responsible for community development, and subsequently, the deputy director for community and resource development. In 1999, Dr. Anglin joined the Structured Employment Economic Development Corporation (Seedco), a national community development intermediary, where he served as the senior vice president responsible for building the capacity of community-based housing organizations in 23 cities. After returning to academia in 2000, Dr. Anglin published three books: Promoting Sustainable Local and Community Development, Katrina's Imprint: Race and Vulnerability in America (with colleagues), and Resilience and Opportunity (with colleagues). Anglin received his doctorate from the University of Chicago, a master's degree from Northwestern, and a bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College (City University of New York).

Emily Brown

Visiting Assistant Professor of Law; Director of Immigration Clinic
Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

Emily Brown is a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and the Director of the Immigration Clinic at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. She supervises students representing immigrants in their applications for humanitarian relief, with a focus on immigrants in removal proceedings in the Cleveland Immigration Court.

Prior to joining Ohio State, Emily was a Skadden Fellow and then a senior attorney at Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) in the Agricultural Worker and Immigrant Rights Practice Group. She represented individual clients and community organizations in immigration and civil-rights matters before federal courts and administrative agencies. She clerked for the Honorable R. Guy Cole, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the Honorable Algenon L. Marbley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Emily earned her JD from Yale Law School, where she was a member of the Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic. Prior to law school, she worked for several years as a union organizer for the Service Employees International Union. Emily earned her BA in English Literature from Swarthmore College.

Claudia Cortez (she/ella)

Director of Programs and Administration
Central Ohio Worker Center

Claudia is a long-time advocate and community/labor organizer for immigrants and low-wage workers. She has worked with organizations such as the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Dayton Building Trades, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and Latinos Unidos. Claudia is proud of her deep experience in workers' rights campaigns like the Living Wage Campaign in New Mexico. She holds Master's in Government in Latin America and the Caribbean from Georgetown University.

Leonard DiCosimo (he/him), Treasurer

Executive Secretary
North Shore Federation of Labor

Leonard DiCosimo is Executive Secretary of the North Shore Federation of Labor, the central labor council of Northeast Ohio and the organized voice of over 85,000 working people from 150 affiliated unions. He also serves as President of the Cleveland Federation of Musicians, Local 4 AFM representing artists such as the Musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra and Playhouse Square Foundation. Local 4 also owns and operates two subsidiaries: Music Talent of Cleveland, a booking agency for live musicians, and The Music Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educational programs and live music concerts free and open to the public.

Leonard was appointed choral director at Lakeland Community College for six years and was an adjunct professor of conducting at Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music for eight years. He directed choral ensembles, music directed stage productions and taught conducting classes. As a singer he performed as an associate artist for Cleveland Opera on Tour, a chorister for Cleveland Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. As a bassist he played for productions at Playhouse Square Foundation, Cleveland Playhouse and Great Lakes Theatre Festival, and supported a wide array of talent ranging from Phyllis Diller to The Fat Boys.

Kamla Lewis (she/her)

Director of Neighborhood Revitalization
Cuyahoga Land Bank

Kamla Lewis is the Senior Housing Development Program Manager for the Cuyahoga Land Bank. She has also worked for the city of Shaker Heights, Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, for the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners, for a city and food bank in California, and for the United Nations, working in Jamaica where she grew up. Kamla serves as co-chair of the First Suburbs Consortium housing committee and as a member of the vacant and abandoned properties action committee. She has a BA from Princeton and a graduate diploma from Cambridge University in England.

Sarah Lowry (she/her)

Director, Healthy Community Partnership
Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley

Sarah Lowry is a Mahoning Valley native and lifelong learner, nature-lover, and questioner.

Starting with learning: She earned a BA in English and Linguistics and a MA in American Studies with concentrations in Professional and Technical Writing and Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Youngstown State University. Between her undergraduate and graduate education, she completed a semester abroad in Taiwan, R.O.C., where she had the opportunity to work directly with top administrators at Lunghwa University of Science and Technology as a consultant on written and oral presentations to multiple professional audiences. In 2022, she completed coursework to become an Ohio Volunteer Certified Naturalist.

True learning always leads to questioning—Ms. Lowry has always had a curiosity for how and why things work (or don’t work). This has led her down a professional path towards understanding how systems are built, how they function, and how they can be improved.

After graduation, she worked for US Senator Sherrod Brown from 2012-2018 as the office’s Northeast Ohio representative serving constituents across a seven county district in the region. In this position, Ms. Lowry worked with community leaders at multiple levels to engage with Senator Brown’s policy priorities, to connect individuals with constituent services, and to identify solutions to complex challenges. In early 2018, she accepted a position as the Director of the Healthy Community Partnership at the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley. The mission and vision of the Healthy Community Partnership is to improve health, wellbeing, and health equity for residents in Mahoning and Trumbull Counties by improving environmental and social conditions that impact quality of life.

Leading a life guided by learning and questioning has also resulted in a desire to volunteer and be an active member in her local community. Ms. Lowry has been active at her church, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown and has served on the boards for community-focused organizations such as the YWCA of the Mahoning Valley, the League of Women Voters of Greater Youngstown, and most recently Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens and Policy Matters Ohio.

Ms. Lowry tries to balance professional and volunteer activities with outdoor recreational activities: she regularly walks, hikes, bikes, and bird watches in Ohio’s First Park District, Mill Creek MetroParks in Youngstown. She also enjoys reading and writing and is a Community Columnist with Mahoning Matters, contributing a monthly column titled, “For the Health of It.”

Jeff Rechenbach (he/him)

Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus
Communications Workers of America

Jeff Rechenbach is the retired Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Jeff was responsible for managing the finances and physical facilities of 750,000 member CWA. He served on the union’s three-member executive committee and chaired the strategic planning and budget committee, which allocated CWA’s resources and set program goals.

Jeff has been a leader in the union since 1973, when he was elected president of the 2,000 member Local 4309 in Cleveland at age 19. He joined the CWA staff in 1981, and in 1994 became vice president of CWA for District 4 – Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. As vice president, Jeff coordinated all bargaining within the district, which included contracts covering workers in telecommunications, manufacturing, higher education, health care, media, airlines and other sectors. He served as vice president for the Midwest district until his election as CWA executive vice president in 2005 and then Secretary Treasurer in 2008.

Jeff served on Federal Communications Commission Consumer Advisory Council, and on the boards of the United Way of America, the Faith & Politics Institute and the International Labor Rights Fund, which works for humane workplaces around the world and to end child labor, forced labor and other abusive practices. He is currently the chairman of the board of the North Coast Credit Union. Jeff is a native of Cleveland, Ohio.

Ashwini  Sehgal, MD (he/him)

Center for Reducing Health Disparities, Co-Director

Dr. Ashwini Sehgal is the Duncan Neuhauser Professor of Community Health Improvement and co-director of the Center for Reducing Health Disparities at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He is also professor of medicine, biomedical ethics, and epidemiology and biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University. In addition, he is a nephrologist at MetroHealth Medical Center. Dr. Sehgal is the principal investigator of several grants funded by the National Institutes of Health to understand and address health disparities related to hypertension, kidney disease, and organ transplantation. He has published over 120 journal articles. Dr. Sehgal also developed an innovative course on medical activism for which he received a national teaching award from the American Medical Student Association. From 2006-2012, he was co-medical director of the City of Cleveland Department of Public Health. Dr. Sehgal received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics, summa cum laude, from the University of Rochester, and his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School. He then completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a nephrology fellowship while participating in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of California, San Francisco.

Katrice Williams (she/her)

Legal Director
Freedom to Learn Advocates

Katrice Williams is the Justice for All Legal Fellow with Ohio Legal Help and the Legal Director of Freedom to Learn Advocates (FTLA). Prior to joining Ohio Legal Help and FTLA, Katrice worked in government, philanthropy, policy, community building and international women’s rights. Most recently, she was the Senior Criminal Justice Fellow for the Cleveland Foundation, the country’s first philanthropic community foundation, and developed its criminal legal reform grantmaking strategy to help combat structural inequities in Cuyahoga County’s criminal legal system.

Apart from serving in philanthropy, she previously served as a Program Officer with the Cuyahoga County Office of Reentry, a county government agency coordinating reintegration services for currently and formerly incarcerated individuals, and she worked as a policy associate with the ACLU of Ohio. At the ACLU, she focused on mass incarceration, criminal legal reform and voting rights for individuals with disabilities and/or criminal convictions. The jail voting toolkit she published during her time at the ACLU of Ohio is still being used today. Finally, she has expertise in women's rights, women's empowerment and human rights from her time with FORGE, a former international nonprofit agency that worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Mwange Refugee Camp, Zambia, and by conducting humanitarian projects in Guizhou Province, China, and Johannesburg, South Africa. Having traveled to 28 countries, Katrice enjoys furthering civil and human rights.

Katrice earned her Juris Doctorate from Cleveland State University College of Law, her master’s degrees in social work and nonprofit management from Case Western Reserve University, and her bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University, California. She passed the Ohio Bar Exam in October of 2023.