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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
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