Community Catalyst

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
D. Lee Scott (00:12):
Hello, ladies and gents, welcome to Sound United
Presents, a diverse andinclusive podcast focused on
local entrepreneurs,professionals and unsung
community heroes.
Within each episode, our guestswill candidly share their
stories filled with triumph,failures, humor, lessons learned
, insight and some nuggets ofwisdom.
I'm very excited about this andI hope you are too.

(00:34):
Let's get started.
Good morning, good afternoon,good evening, whatever time it
is.
Thank you for hitting the playbutton on this episode of Sound
United Presents.
We are in the comfyconversational confines of Sound
United Podcast Studio and I'myour host, d Lee Scott, and
today we have a wonderful guest.
I will say this We've beentalking about getting her on the

(00:57):
show.
I want to say 2020, like early2020, maybe late 2019.
And then it was all set up forseason three and, of course, if
you hear the trailer, you'llunderstand all that stuff.
But we have her here for seasonfour and I'm ecstatic about
that.
And so y'all know I like to kindof give introduction on how I

(01:18):
met this person or descriptivesof that person in some way, and
with this person here, I have tosay there's certain words that
you think of, that, that youknow, flash in front of your
mind and when you think aboutpeople and I will have to say
that community collaboration,fairness, commitment a lot of

(01:43):
C's going on here in my introand just all around good people
connecting fairness, and I don'tthink I've ever seen her mad,
like even pissed.
You know now that I think aboutit.
I don't think I've ever, andthose are the ones that you know
.
If they get pissed, it's athing, but I've never, never,

(02:04):
seen her angry, but just allaround good people.
And if there's somethinghappening in the community that
is impactful to the community asa whole, there's a chance that
you have seen her or in some way, some part of it, she was a
part of it, and so, ladies andgentlemen, I'm ecstatic to do
this introduction.
Sound United presents SarahLaurie Welcome.

Sarah Lowry (02:26):
Yes, thank you so much for inviting me and having
patience through all of thechallenges of the last several
years and we're finally here.
We're here, and I can assureyou I do get angry.
I've just learned over theyears how to channel that anger
into some of those other wordsthat you used as descriptors.

Yeah, I was like.
I don't think I've ever seenher pissed or angry.
Huh, Okay.

I would say that you know, maybe someday you will
, but I'm going to try to keepthat in check.
We'll see how it goes.

I could imagine it may come out in some of the
questions, like asking you, like, how do you not get you know?
But let's take a second for youto you know.
Just tell the audience aboutyourself, Introduce or
reintroduce yourself to ouraudience.

Sure, so I'm from the Mahoning Valley, from you
know, grew up, live in, educated, supported by the Mahoning
Valley.
So I grew up in Hubbard inTrumbull County and I live now
in Youngstown and have for quitea few years now lived in the
city of Youngstown andthroughout my time in community

(03:37):
service have had the pleasure ofworking and serving and
supporting both counties.
So I have dual citizenship,since I'm from Trumbull and my
family's still there and I livein Youngstown, now in Mahoning.
So you know can go back andforth.
They allow me to pass.

You got your Valley passport?

Yeah, I got my stamp several times and, you
know, just really am gratefulfor what we have here and we do
have quite a lot of good thingshere and I'll probably touch on
this a little more later butreally am always very fond when
traveling elsewhere.
Coming back to the valley,because we have such beautiful

(04:16):
scenery and green spaces whichreally, to you know, maybe this
will be the running themethroughout.
You know, how do you not getmad Dealing with all of the

(04:37):
challenges that we deal withhere and I do think it is coming
back to those spaces that arebeautiful, open, public spaces,
to be open and available to morepeople, because these are
challenging times and we shouldhave ways, healthy ways, you
know to deal with those things.
So lots of my out of workactivities tend to center around

(05:01):
the outdoors.

So hikingwatching, biking, I was going to say
don't forget biking.

No, I didn't want to lead with that because I'm
sure it will come up quite a fewother times.
But doing those sorts of thingsoutside in the sunshine, even
when it is 90 degrees with 90%humidity?
Angry weather, as I call itAngry weather, because there's
angry winter weather and youwish for the other when you're
in you know the opposite so takeadvantage.

So how was life growing up in Hubbard or the
Mahoney Valley?

You know, I feel like this is true and probably
not unique to Hubbard andcertainly not unique, you know,
even to small towns in Ohio.
But when you're younger andyou're growing up you have a
countdown when you graduate highschool and get out, and to some
degree I guess that I did butdidn't get super far.

(05:57):
You know living in Youngstown,so you know a 20-minute bike
ride from the north side ofYoungstown to Hubbard I have
found recently side ofYoungstown to Hubbard I have
found recently Sundays duringbike riding season, I've started
riding from the north side ofYoungstown to the Hubbard
Farmer's Market on.
Sundays, which is delightful.
I've seen that on your Insta.
Yeah, you know motivated.

(06:18):
There's reward at the end,right.
So even when it's you know hotand it's a bit of an incline to
ride, right.
So even when it's you know hotand it's a bit of an incline to

(06:41):
ride, there's good, healthy foodat do things like the farmer's
market and they have a kind of ashop, small thing that they do
around the holidays and there'sa lot of you know very creative
people doing you know reallygood things.
You know they are running theirown businesses in some
instances and just seeing,especially within the last few

(07:05):
years, you know these kinds ofsmall, small business or
entrepreneur centered markets.
You know where people aremaking things, whether that's
you know food or you know somekind of craft.
Just seeing those smallcommunities because they are
small, they can create that kindof intimate atmosphere that
really supports those you knowsmall businesses in a way that

(07:28):
brings others from nearby intothose spaces.
So and of course, you know, witha little bit of distance you
start to realize the things thatyou had that you just assumed
would always be there and didn'treally recognize the
significance of.
So when I was a kid going toHarding Park in Hubbard all the

(07:50):
time and it was just.
You know we have nothing elseto do, so I guess we'll go to
Harding Park.
But as an adult, you know,having a friend who's recently
moved to Hubbard and they gowith their child to the woods
and just, and they go with theirchild to the woods and just
seeing all of the differentkinds of plants and wildlife
that are in you know these woods, in this, you know little park

(08:11):
in Hubbard, like I didn't noticethat when I was a kid.
So coming back to you knowthese spaces as an adult, you
see and experience them indifferent ways.
So while I was youngercertainly like many, you know
teenagers have the countdown toget out.
But then you realize, you know,maybe it wasn't so bad and you
know, maybe that's why I didn'trun super far away.

That's a very tight knit community, too Quite.
I got a few friends shout outto Mike Kajari and the Foxes and
Chris and Michelle Fox and yeah, it's very, very, very tight
knit.
I used to go out therefrequently because there was um
progressive printing.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

With Mike Padenich and I would go out there and,
uh, they had a golf scramble orwhatever it was, and they always
, um, and now I know why theywanted me there because it
wasn't for the golf, it wasprobably for the comedy.

Oh well, you know you need a little, you need to
add some things into golf.

Yeah, it definitely wasn't that.
So there's video footage frommany years ago of me golfing for
the first time.
But for what I made up in poorgolfing, I excelled at comedy.

Hey, so everybody was getting something that they
needed.

Right, right, right.
So growing up in Humber youtalked about wanting to get out.
Did you have a?
Was there a career or somethingyou wanted to get into?

So it's funny, I was drawn to the sciences as a
kid, which, as we continuetalking, will be kind of how did
that happen then?
So very much, you know one ofmy early you know kind of
childhood role models, I guess,was Dana Scully from the X-Files
, and so there is a thread thatmakes sense later.

(09:51):
But you know she was very youknow science and evidence based
and very rational and verymatter of fact, and you know she
was the foil to, you know DavidDuchovny's, you know Fox Mulder
, who was very.
You know lots of creativethinking and you know so had a
real interest you know in thesciences and you know I remember

(10:14):
you know going through kind ofthe usual phases of interests
that kids go through, sodinosaurs and archaeology and
paleontology and then space, andyou know astronomy and you know
wanting to be an astronaut.
And then you know middle schoolhappened and you know growing
up happens and there's still,you know, some discouraging of,

(10:37):
you know, girls and young womencontinuing to pursue the
sciences.
You know as a career pathway,continuing to pursue the
sciences you know as a careerpathway.
So there's a little bit of Iwouldn't say overt saying this
is not for you, but you just yougot that sense that you didn't
belong here.
Yeah, so started to drift awayfrom that.
And you know middle school,high school, sometimes your

(11:02):
focus is less on the academicsand more on relationships of
various kinds.
And so, while I would say Inever completely left behind,
you know that wanting to be theDana Scully, you know very, very
rational, very like let'sinvestigate, let's learn more,

(11:23):
let's figure this out, let'sproblem solve.
Those things I think carriedthrough but certainly did not
continue to pursue the hardsciences in the way that, as a
kid, my interest in my bookshelfwould have you think.

You grew up and you went to Hubbard High.

Yep.

Is it Hubbard High School?

Yeah, Is it Hubbard High School, or is there?
Yeah, it's.

Hubbard High School Eagles.
Okay, okay, I just wanted tomake sure.
So you do that and your timethere was wonderful, I presume.
Right, it was all right, yeah,all right, okay, yeah.

Found.
Found some you knowextracurriculars.
Interestingly.
Spent some time in my senioryear doing video productions,
which was fun and interesting.

Okay, Did you know yeah yeah, and marching band.

you know which is his own interesting little
subculture.

What'd you play?

So I started out playing the clarinet.
I knew it.

I just had a pick.

Well, so when you know in middle school there's a
lot of choices, right.
So when you know in middleschool there's a lot of choices,
right.
So the first kind of separationwas are you doing choir, Are
you doing band?
So I'm going to do band.
What are you going to playClarinet?
Okay, so take lessons doclarinet, become pretty okay at
clarinet.
Now it's high school, so areyou going to continue Marching

(12:39):
band?
Yes, Okay.
And then you realize you're ona large open field with this
woodwind instrument, even thoughthere are many of us, like you,
can't really hear it.
So a friend of mine, that's sotrue well, right, the flutes,
you can hear the clarinets.
I mean, I guess they provideyou know kind of that, um, like

(12:59):
a musical bass not like a layer,but like a layer yeah, an
undertone, um, but she said well, you know, have you considered
the trombone?
and I'm like, well, that's notanything like a clarinet.
There's no keys, it's.
It's a brass instrument, youknow, not not a woodwind, but
sure, why not?

(13:20):
So switch to trombone.
Um, and it was a lot of funeach continuing.
You know the kind of subgroupsin high school, so marching band
is its own thing, but thenwithin marching band, like the
clarinets have a little miniculture and so on and so forth,
and the trombones were just alittle rowdy and fun my uh, my

(13:42):
son played the trombone okay um,and I actually played the trump
.

They wouldn't let me play the drums.
Okay, because I didn't have the, the patience, because in a
baptist church, you know, I want, I want to do all of it.
So you know you're looking at,I wanted to speed things up or
slow down.
It's like you should play thetrombone.
So I did play the trombone,okay, and you know, the most the
funnest thing I liked about thetrombone was just doing it.

Oh, yeah, for sure, that was it.
Yeah, all the time, but youcould hear the trombones.

Very important, yes yeah, what did you so?
Was there any other groupshoots or band?
Yeah, so some science stuff.

You seem like so interestingly, no, so by high
school it was, you know,becoming more interested to some
degree in, I guess, like civics, a little bit of history and
languages.

(14:51):
There was a French club thatdidn't do a whole heck of a lot
but met and still keep in touchwith a lot of the people that
were also involved in that kindof language learning space,
which I think is connected, youknow, at present to a continued
interest in language learningand linguistics.
You know, the study of language,which is does have a certainly
a science and scientificcomponent to it, but also just a
curiosity about the rest of theworld and why things are the

(15:12):
way they are and how peoplecommunicate successfully or
through challenging situations.
You know, if you're learning alanguage and you know bits and
pieces of it and you're tryingto speak to somebody else, you
know who might have bits andpieces of it and you're trying
to speak to somebody else youknow who might have bits and
pieces of your native language,like you find a way, and that
kind of creative problem solvingis very interesting to me.

(15:33):
So learning French, like I knowyou know enough French where I
could survive if I was, you know, dropped in France and oh nice,

(16:00):
I'd be dead in the space whereyou should practice.
But very often when folks in myexperience anyway, and I don't
think I'm unique here like theyfigure out, oh, you're not a
native French speaker, they willswitch and try to accommodate.
in a lot of cases you knowEnglish, so I was like oh, I
really wanted to practice myFrench, but I understand like

(16:21):
the goal of communication is thesuccessful, you know,
communicating of information.
So if I'm a business owner andyou are trying to buy something
from me, this is not languagelearning time.
This is I want to sell yousomething.
Or, you know, if you were thebuyer, I want to buy something.
So, the goal is to facilitatethat transaction, not
necessarily to have languagelearning time, so I understand.

French.
I took French in high school.
No intentions of traveling.
There was Chinese, spanish andFrench and Deshawn chose French
so I could talk romantically tofemales in school.

That was the only reason I did it and I kicked
myself.

When my daughter signed up, she had a chance to
take, you know, some classes Isaid take.
I wish I would have known, then, right, spanish.
But I totally took Frenchbecause you know, je t'aime,
right, je t'aime.

Je t'aime.

Je t'aime, je t'aime, je t'aime, je t'aime Je
school.
You know, you having theseideas about university, college,
right, what as you?
Where'd you go to college?

YSU twice.

YSU.
Okay, and as you're goingthrough, you know you're about
to exit the high school years.
What I mean?
What was the plan?
What'd you sign up for?

Well, you know and I again don't think this is
unique to me, but there was apanic moment.
So you're graduating highschool and the world is now open
in ways that it wasn't.
I understand that that's notnecessarily true for all people,
but you know, there is this.
You get to the end of the roadthat you're currently on and
there's, like, all of thesechoices, you know, do you stay

(18:02):
on the same path?
You know, do you choose?
You know, somewhere else, howdo you make that choice?
If you go one way, who's comingwith you?
Who's who are you leavingbehind?
Like it?
You know, it's a lot at 18 yearsold, but I knew, and when I was
growing up, my mom went back toschool to finish her degree in
English.
So I was exposed to and aroundEnglish literature, linguistics

(18:27):
and language learning and all ofthese different things.
So, more or less figured out.
Well, if I can't think ofanything else because, again, at
this point, it did not seem asthough my path was going to take
me down a road towards physicsor astronomy or anything like
that.

(18:49):
Though, yeah, forensic scienceswere big when I was entering
college because of all the CSIyou know crime scene
investigator spinoff shows.
Everybody was going to be aforensic scientist.
Did not go down that roadeither, but figured, having a
good foundation in communicationand I'd like to read.

(19:09):
But beyond just liking to read,you know, as a hobby, more or
less reading was of interestbecause you got to see and learn
other people's stories and youknow, again, that curiosity
about you know how do otherpeople in other places like you
know what else is out there?

(19:30):
So ended up at YSU studyingEnglish with a minor in
linguistics, again that you know, having an understanding about
how do we put all these soundstogether to make words that
allow for us to successfullycommunicate very complex ideas
Like how does that happen?
And there's all of thesedifferent languages, that people

(19:52):
do the exact same thing.
And yet you know, unless youtake the time to study, say,
french or Chinese or whateverelse, like you can't have
successful communication, elselike you can't have successful
communication.
So it was just lots of you know, questions and curiosity about
how do humans interact with eachother.
So that, I guess, is how Iended up making the decision and

(20:16):
the fact that they want you todeclare a major.
So like there's a verypractical part of this like you
need to make a decision.
So I'm like, all right, well,this is easy, we'll just do this
.
And I'm really glad that I didum, because you know, I, I there
are you know kind of popularculture jokes.
You know, if you major in um,you know social sciences or

(20:37):
humanities, um, or you knowenglish majors end up at
starbucks um oh god, I rememberthat at Borders.

Yeah that was a running joke at Borders.

Yeah, or a bookstore.
You know Starbucks or bookstore.
But I will tell you, you know,in my, you know time since
graduating with my master's fromYSU, I've met English majors
doing all sorts of differentthings.
So don't believe what they, youknow.
What you see on the internet,you know, question you, question

(21:07):
.
Be a little skeptical, but thatfoundation in communications,
both written and verbalcommunication.
I'm really glad that I ended upchoosing English and linguistics
as a major because it reallyhelped me understand how good
communication happens.
And part of that also led me to, you know, near the end of my

(21:35):
undergraduate and beginning mygraduate degree, having that
panic moment.
You're going to graduate againand then you're going to have to
, you know, find a job and, likeyou know, support yourself.
So, trying to think a littlemore practically and using that
interest in communication andhuman interaction to spend some
time taking classes to learn howto teach English to speakers of

(21:57):
other languages, which is, youknow, can be a very practical
and interesting way to make aliving and also, you know,
travel the world, meet newpeople, do a whole bunch of neat
stuff.
So there was at, you know, atsome point, learning and wanting
to think about how to use thesekind of quick decisions,

(22:21):
declaring a major towardssomething that is going to lead
to something else after a point.

And make you very diverse and a nice skill set.
Yeah, to be able to adapt todifferent opportunities.

Yeah, and I will say I don't know that I spent
the time really thinking abouthow all of those dots connected
until just now, so I'm glad thatwe're doing this.

Yeah, see, there's always something going on here.
How do you?
Okay Cause?
My next question is this isn'tlike you didn't take a political
science or anything like that,you just you, just.
Next question that now I'm veryinterested in.

I was interested.

but I'm very interested in this Because
you've had some public policy,community impact.
I'm sorry, and so that's kindof the realm of where you are
now, and then I think back asyou talk about navigating
through.
What was the catalyst to moveinto that?

So that's an excellent question, and I
hesitate to say this because Iknow this is now public, but I
took not one political scienceclass my entire time.

Get out of here.

When I was at YSU.

So there was no sprinkle of.

Not, so I did take classes that certainly talked
about public policy and socialimpact.
That certainly talked aboutpublic policy and social impact
but did not, through thepolitical science department or
program, take a class, which isvery ironic given the fact that
for six years I worked forUnited States Senator Sherrod
Brown, his representative inNortheast Ohio, and continuing

(24:07):
on now with the CommunityFoundation.
That my role includes, you know, civic engagement and education
and advocacy, and yeah, so itis a very valid question to ask.
So how did this happen?
So I will say you know, kind ofgoing back to you know, growing
up in Hubbard In you know K-12,you learn about the water
tables and you know how thewater cycle and like all of

(24:30):
these natural cycles and systemsyou know as a part of your
basic science education.
And I don't remember this, butmy mom tells the story that one
day I came home and scolded myparents because they were using
fertilizer on the lawn anddidn't they know that that
fertilizer is terrible for thewater tables and the plant and

(24:51):
animal life?
And how could you do this?
And this is terrible.
So having an awareness early onof the impact of the actions
that we take and the decisionsthat we make on ourselves and
others that we don't know, butalso life, you know, even beyond
human life.
So you know how are thosedecisions impacting everything

(25:14):
is, you know, small as alightning bug to you know, as
large as a, you know, an owl ora hawk, because of what we are
doing and choosing to do, andour you know little square space
of lawn, you know, is impactingall of these other creatures.
So had an awareness of.
I think you use the wordfairness as one of the non-sea

(25:38):
starting words.

Yeah, there's a lot of them in here.

Adjectives and so just had that awareness about
fairness and how, you know again, interactions between and
decisions made by people impactother people and other life and
how can we make better decisionsfor ourselves and others.
So from a very, very early age,you know, kind of had that
awareness age, you know, kind ofhad that awareness.

(26:08):
I will say, when I was sograduated with my undergraduate
and had a panic moment becausethe way, a lot of the framing,
so you have an English degree,you know, even if you, you know,
also study linguistics and say,you know, teaching English as a
foreign language teaching waskind of the central piece to
that and I didn't know that Iwanted to, you know, go be a

(26:30):
teacher.
I did not go through, like, allthe certifications to do that,
so I wasn't, you know, I didn'treally want that to be the path,
but I didn't know what otherpath there was Right, because
they really kind of focused inon that as the path so kind of
stumbled across again because ofmy mom had a similar like now,
what do I do?

(26:50):
Moment.
And there was a program at YSUcalled American Studies.
It was interdisciplinary, so itincluded English and history
and business and art.
You know lots of differentkinds of disciplines and really
looked at how do all of theseelements come together to make

(27:11):
American society and culture andidentity and how do all of
these elements come together tocreate the society that we are
living in.
You can imagine, in the courseof those two years, lots of
examination of you know, currentAmerican culture, challenges,

(27:32):
history and a lot of you knowkind of looking at social impact
and challenges throughouthistory.
And at that time it was, youknow, 2010, 11.
And there was a lot of shiftingpolitically in Ohio and the
country that's the AffordableCare Act.

(27:55):
You know lots of you knowdiscussions and debates about.
You know what kind of countryand society do we want to be?
So it was actually a good timeto be studying this kind of
stuff because it's happeninglive in front of you.
So, having that as the backdropto this, you know, opportunity

(28:15):
to be a student but also,through that time, as a graduate
student, I was a graduateteaching assistant.
So I taught an undergraduatecourse called American Identity,
which really looked at how dowe understand ourselves as
Americans in relationship toother Americans, but then as
Americans in relationship, youknow, to others in you know

(28:37):
other places across the world,and it was really fascinating
because we had classes.
They were fairly large, like 40students.
There were general educationclasses and there were students
who were, you know, like 16 inYoungstown Early College with
students who were 60, you knowcoming back or auditing the

(28:58):
class.
And so as we're talking about,say, you know the civil rights
movement in the United Statesand you know students are asking
questions like people movementin the United States and you
know students are askingquestions like people are in the
class who actually livedthrough it yeah, you could talk
about and share that experienceand that it was just it was.
It was a really beautiful thingto be able to see and, you know,
to support that kind ofdialogue and deepening of

(29:21):
understanding in a way, you know, that might have made a light
bulb or two go off about like,hey, you know, these things
happened.
However, many years ago beforeyou know, the 16 year mean led
me to wanting to be moreinvolved in some kind of you

(29:51):
know career that helped serveand support communities to.
You know, build on those goodthings that happened over time.
While we are seeing thecontinuation of challenges and
the you know shifting of youknow who is in charge and who
can make decisions and how doesthat impact other people?

Wow.
So when did?
When did the opportunity withthe Senator come?
Was this, was this a naturalflow into that?
So we're, talking to SenatorSherrod Brown yeah.

So this is um, this is this is a fun story.
So while I was finishing mymaster's work, um, the, there
was a class it was calledhumanities in the community.
Um, and I actually, many yearslater, had the opportunity to
teach the class as a part-timeinstructor and I'm heartbroken

(30:48):
for all sorts of reasons thatthe American Studies program is
no longer active at theuniversity, because that class
really helped me see andunderstand how the humanities
you know, so you know all ofthose different disciplines like
show up in the world and notjust as, not just on college
campuses, like there's realapplication for poetry and art,

(31:11):
and you know political scienceand philosophy.
You know all of these, all ofthese different disciplines,
english of course.
And during that class, and youknow, finishing up that program,
there was expectation for thesuccessful planning, development
and implementation of projects.
So that's how I got thrown into.

(31:33):
How do you do event planning?

How do?

you engage with all of these different stakeholders
, you know how do you putsomething together, how do you
evaluate and all of the stuffthat still drives me kind of
crazy, but you know it gets alittle bit better each time.
But, like you were saying, Iremember you know planning some
of those early events andfeeling similarly, the

(31:57):
butterflies and needing to kindof take a minute because you
know all of that energy leavesyou feeling a little swimmy,
needing to kind of take a minutebecause you know all of that
energy leaves you feeling alittle swimmy.
So during that time met someonewho was working with the
university in the city ofYoungstown and you know, had a,
you know connections inCleveland and what I say to

(32:20):
folks you know who ask, you know, career advice.
I don't completely believe thatit is one or the other, what
you do or who you know.
I think it's both and if youare doing good work, people take
note of it and will tell othersand help open doors and to

(32:41):
offer support.

Absolutely.

So it's kind of a meritocrat is who you know.
So it's a blending of the two.

What's the saying?
It's not who you know is whatwho you know knows, right yeah.

It's that.
So somebody you know the personI was mentioning who has all
those connections.
You know I got to know themthrough this process or, you
know, finishing up schoolbecause my academic mentor was
good friends with them and thisindividual is having their I
believe it was their kitchenremodeled and was trying to get

(33:15):
a hold of their contractor.
You know whose name was John,and kept calling and not getting
a response, calling and notgetting a response, and then
finally got a response and itturns out he was calling the
wrong John and the John he wascalling worked for Senator Brown
and happened to say to thisperson like you know, we're
really looking for a newoutreach person in Northeast

(33:36):
Ohio and we would love for themto be from Youngstown.
Do you know anybody?
So that's how that happened.

And.

I remember very distinctly two moments in those
kind of getting connected tothat job, pacing around Wick
Park on the phone, you know,kind of talking about why am I
interested?
So that question, you know how,you know why are you interested
in this position?
What do you know about SenatorBrown?

(34:04):
What do you know about publicpolicy?
And just you know, pacing offthat nervous energy.
You know, walking around WickPark in the summer in my

(34:26):
graduate work, you know,learning more about and getting
more involved in trying to makethe world a better place.
There was a communityorganizing group here and you
know, got connected with themand you know they had a training
program week long.
They called it.
So I, you know, was graduatedand didn't really have anything
else to do and I'm like, well,maybe you know, I'll learn
something or meet someone.
You know, you never know.

(34:46):
So go, you know, to this weeklong training program.
And you know one of the issuesthat they were really looking at
was, you know, consequences of,like the big banks, you know,
and how they take advantage ofthis.
You know they take advantage offolks, you know, through home

(35:08):
loans, student loans, you knowall of these different things
where you're saddling peoplewith debt in ways that they
can't really, you know, climbout of because of, you know,
fees and all sorts of otherthings.

Oh yeah, Like that predatory lending stuff.

Yep.
So you know it was.
You know this is 2012.
So not you know, too faroutside of.
You know 2008 and the, you knowfinancial recession and all of
that.
So we did an action at a bank inthe Columbus area and you know

(35:43):
we were very quickly escortedout of the bank itself.
So we had a little rally outout front and I was asked to
speak about my experience as arecent graduate now with like
1000s of dollars of debt andwhat does that mean to me and my
you know future prospects for,like buying a house, you know.
You know having us, you knowbeing being a successful.
You know young adult starting acareer very quickly got

(36:03):
escorted away.
You know being a successful.
You know young adult starting acareer very quickly got
escorted away.
You know we kind of climbedback onto the bus and, you know
hightailed it back to wherewe're having our training and
we're, all you know, veryenergized and you know talking
about, you know what thatexperience was like.
And I get a phone call and itwas Senator Brown's office and
they said well, you know, we'revery interested, would you be

(36:25):
interested in, you know, takingthe job?
And I'm like, well, I just gotkicked out of a bank.
For you know telling my storyabout student loans and student
debt and they're like oh no, no,that's fine.
Currently, the ranking memberon the banking committee has
been working for years to try towork with financial

(36:47):
institutions to be more fair andequitable in their policies and
practices for folks and causingless harm in the way that we
have seen with the predatorylending and piling on of fees
and different things that makeit very difficult for people to
work and raise a family and buya house and do.

(37:09):
All these things that you know,we know are milestones and a
part of what is expected, as youknow the American dream really.

So give me so you're doing this working in
Senator Sherrod Brown's office.
I'm sure it was eye-opening ina lot of different ways.

Kind of briefly tell me like, what was that
experience like?
It was very difficult at first,and the most important thing
that I learned in that processis it is not my responsibility
to know the answer to all thequestions.
It is my responsibility to knowwho to ask for the answers,

(37:56):
which is difficult in atransition from.
So, if you, as you move on, youknow, especially in an academic
field of study, you become moreof an expert in an area, so
there is an expectation that youknow the answers.
You become more of an expert inan area, so there is an
expectation that you know theanswers.
And I guess, to some degree,like that might be a flawed line
of thinking, but anyway, thereyou feel like, as you become

(38:18):
more deeply invested insomething that you are then
responsible for knowing, so tovery quickly be thrown into a
space where you know I'mlistening to the concerns of
dairy farmers, but also you knowmilitary personnel like and you
know local governments fromplaces I've never been to before
, like it's a lot and there's noway for me to know the answer
to all of these different things, especially the degree of

(38:41):
detail and nuance that isnecessary to actually address
the problems that are beingdescribed to you.
So it was very overwhelming,you know, as a 20 something to
be put into these places.
But that's the other interestingthing I learned in this process
is there's a lot of 20somethings that are kind of, you
know, making things happen.
So there's that.

(39:03):
But yeah, it was veryoverwhelming, but I learned a
lot about how you know.
Again, it's not myresponsibility to know all the
answers.
It's okay to say I don't know.
Let me get back to you and findthe right person who does know
the answer, to successfullyanswer that question, that
question.
So, like that shift of thinking, I still use it Because, as you

(39:25):
kind of mentioned, my careerhas, you know, as the
representative for SenatorBrown's office, like there's no
way for me to know everythingabout everything.
Ohio is a very diverse state.
Similarly, at the CommunityFoundation there's no way for me
to know everything abouteverything.
The community foundationthere's no way for me to know

(39:48):
everything about everything.
So just knowing and having anunderstanding that my somebody,
I think, flippantly said that oh, you're like the fairy dot
connector you just have a magicwand and you walk around, you
know, making all theseconnections um.
I just thought that was cute.
But it is like my job isn'tnecessarily in, you know
throughout, you knowpostgraduate, you know what I've

(40:09):
done so far isn't tonecessarily know all the answers
, but to help whoever it is I'mtalking to and working with get
the answer that is actuallygoing to help solve the problem.

Okay, so three words to describe your
experience with Senator Brown'soffice.
That's a surprise question.

(40:42):
I just I'm like, no, some timein there, but you become part of
the.
When did the communityfoundation?
Because originally I was goingto say, hey, the healthy, but
that's a part of the communityfoundation, so I want to be
perfectly clear that you come tothe community foundation of
Mahoney Valley.
I'm going to put that in there,yes, Was this well after, or
did you just?

Yeah, was this well after, or did you just?
Yeah?
So it was late 2017, early 2018, you know that.
You know the CommunityFoundation was looking for

(41:24):
someone to lead this newinitiative, the Healthy
Community Partnership, and atthe time you know I'd been with
Senator Brown's office.

You know they kept me around for almost six years,
oh wow.

Okay, yeah, so 2012 to 2018.
So I had that itch, like youknow, wanted to do something
else, and the thing that reallygot me thinking is and while I
value and I think that this isreally important and it's funny
because I'm actually going backto wanting to do more of this
working with Senator Brown'soffice, I had the opportunity,

(41:53):
through covering seven countiesin Northeast Ohio, to see how
other communities are comingtogether to solve problems and
tackle challenges that, whilethey are different than what we
are experiencing here, in someways there's a lot of common
threads.
So seeing how other places areaddressing things, say, like
food security, helped me get abetter understanding of what

(42:15):
could we try here, based on whatyou know I'm seeing elsewhere.
But the challenge was inworking with you know my
responsibilities with SenatorBrown's office.
You know, having seven countieswith many you know different
cities and townships like it'svery difficult to develop the

(42:36):
kinds of relationships that letyou get deep into an issue.
So it was very much like tryingto put out fires, solve
problems, do the best that youcan to really lean into
supporting you know thatcommunity or you know that group
as best you can, butunderstanding that you have all
of these others that you need toget to.

(42:57):
So wanting to shift from kindof a pebble skipping across the
pond, you know being verysurface level, to wanting to go
deep and reading and getting abetter understanding of the
healthy community partnershipand really focusing on the two
counties that I grew up in.
I went to school in where all ofmy friends and family are.

(43:18):
You know, somebody said and Ithink that this is very true
that it was kind of a call tocome home.
So I listened to the call.

So you were at the community foundation and then,
through all your talent andskills and personality and all
that, they formed this healthycommunity partnership to address
some things that we'll talkabout in a little bit, and you
were selected as the one to leadthat.
Yes, which actually brought meon as part of it too, with all

(43:47):
our other wonderful partners yes.
So I'm going to move ahead justa little bit and talk about HCP
.
So what are the initiatives?

Because I want to make sure we get that to bring
the community together to godeeper into some of these
challenges to people's healthand well-being.
Data collected through thecounty and city health

(44:28):
departments and Mercy Health,their community health
assessment process, the threeareas that kind of rose to the
top where a community responseseemed appropriate are healthy
food access, parks and greenspaces and active transportation
.
So with each of those threeareas we want to see folks
having more regular and reliableaccess to affordable, healthy

(44:49):
foods, more regular and reliableaccess to welcoming and
well-maintained parks and greenspaces, and regular access to
transportation options that fitindividuals' needs and they can
do safely.
So how do we design thephysical environment so that,

(45:10):
whether you are walking orrolling or cycling or riding the
bus or driving a car, likehowever you are traveling, you
should be able to do so safelyand like, really putting people
at the center of design ratherthan efficiency?

people at the center of design rather than
efficiency.
And how long?
Because I want to talk aboutthe role change a little bit.
You've brought a lot of peopletogether during your time.
There are a lot of people, alot of partners and even those
who aren't partners, right?
Just, you've done that.
How long did you that timeframe of doing that until you
took on your new role, which I'mgoing to ask you a question

(45:45):
about?

Sure, so um, I started with the healthy
community partnership and thecommunity foundation, um.
So in that role in uh Februaryof 2018, um continued um until
last November, exclusivelysupporting um the work of the
healthy community partnership asits director.
So November of 2023 was theofficial role shift.

(46:10):
Now, you know, as I have saidto others, it's not as though I
have completely let go of theHealthy Community Partnership,
but it's just as I have said,you know, to various different
partnership affiliated groups.
It's like HCP plus.
So we're bundling more things into help support the work of the

(46:32):
partnership with the rolechange.

And then this role change.

Yeah.
So the community foundation hada lot of shifting and changes
happen.
Last year, with theannouncement of Sherry Harrell's
retirement, who served as theleader of the Community
Foundation for 10 years, Ibelieve, and Casey Krell, who
was the director of donorservices and supporting

(46:56):
organizations, kind of steppedinto that role as president as
Sherry was retiring and withthat brought eight or so years
of grant making and you knowcommunity connections and
experience.
So it's always nice whenleadership has experience doing
the work of others on staff sothey know what it's like and can

(47:22):
help you.
You know it's not the.
You know you don't have to knowall the answers, but you have
to know who to ask, and Casey isgreat because she has all of
that experience.
So my new role is to make surethe community foundation is
walking the walk and not justtalking the talk, and what I
mean by that is, and to useanother cliche, that we are

(47:44):
putting our money where ourmouth is.
And, to use another cliche,that we are putting our money
where our mouth is.
So if we are saying health isimportant, our investments,
following are the grants that weare issuing to community
partners, following up with whatwe are saying is a community
priority and then working andwe've been in the middle of and
are really putting into practicerecommendations through a
rather rigorous strategicplanning process you know,

(48:08):
really making sure, as we areidentifying and listening to the
community about otherpriorities that are coming out,
are we then also being a truecommunity partner?
And, of course, you know,making sure that our investments
show that these things areimportant, because, you know, we
want to fund the organizationsthat are doing that work.
But are we doing more?

(48:29):
And we want to be more than justa check writer.
We want to be a partner,because the community foundation
, like we all, live here.
You know we have, you know wehave a stake in the success of
the Mahoning Valley in ways thatyou know other organizations
and residents do.
So we want to be more than justa check writer.
We want to be a partner.

(48:52):
We want to, you know, walk withpeople who are doing, you know,
this work.
We want to support them, wewant to show up, we want to be
present, we want to be visibleBeyond just, you know, here's a
grant to do the work.

What's your vision , since you've been doing this
for quite some time?
You know as far as the.
Since you've been doing thisfor quite some time, you know as
far as the how do you envisionthe Mahoney Valley's health
landscape in the next 10 years?
I won't be hard on you sayingthe next year, because I know
it's a lot of work.
Yeah, in the next 10 years,what's your vision Like?
What do you see?

So what we learned fairly early on with the Healthy
Community Partnership is thiskind of intense, trust-based
community work takes time.
So I think 10 years isrealistic to see change.
And I will say certainly thepartnership and the community
foundation and all of ourpartners want to see change

(49:39):
result in better health outcomes.
So our blood pressure, fewerinstances of chronic illness.
You know, we want to see peoplebeing healthier.
We want to see not just betterphysical health but mental
health too.

Yeah.

Um, both of those things are really important in
making sure that people are, youknow, we're not just talking
about absence of illness, butwe're talking about people's
just talking about absence ofillness, but we're talking about
people's feeling as though theyare, you know, living a
purpose-filled and prosperouslife, which means that they are
physically and mentally feelingfulfilled.

(50:16):
So certainly want to see thosethings.
But I think the other thingthat makes a partnership
different from some otherefforts is we are also measuring
how we are working together.
So a couple of those adjectivesyou threw out in the beginning,
you know, community connection,collaboration.
We want to see more of that innot just the work of the
partnership but other kinds ofefforts that are coming together

(50:39):
around large systemic communitychallenges.
Health is one of those things.
But we also know, you know,employment, education, housing.
You know all of these otherthings are kind of larger issues
that not any one organizationcan solve or, you know, address
in a meaningful way to affectthe number of people who are

(51:00):
currently being impacted bythese things.
But we need a more collective,collaborative, connected
approach.

Yeah yeah, change gears a little bit.
So, with with community andcommunity change, there's a lot
of systems and a lot of systemsthat you know.
We'll just say in your spacethere's a lot of systems and a
lot of things to do, a lot ofdemands right, a lot of meetings
and a lot of this.
How do you balance all thatwith your personal life, like

(51:29):
the demands of the career andjust your personal life?

Well, we talked about biking.

Which I'm all for.

Yeah.
So I will say a word that Istruggle with, that I think is
an important one, is boundaries.
This kind of work can, and in alot of ways does, become
all-consuming because, like Isaid, we, myself included at the
community foundation are doingthis work in service to the

(51:58):
community, but we're notseparate from the community.
We are the community too, so, aswe're talking about these
things like we're impacted by itall, you know, in the same way
I shouldn about these thingslike we're impacted by it all.
You know in the same way, Ishouldn't say the same way we
are impacted also by the systemsand the injustices and you know
the imbalances that we aretrying to correct.
You know through the work ofthe partnership and other

(52:20):
efforts, and we know that and Ido want to kind of clarify like
not every person is experiencingthese how these systems work in
the same way and there's a verycritical part, you know in what
does the valley look like in 10years?
And I do think we need to spendmore time really thinking about

(52:42):
equitable approaches toaddressing these issues.
I'm really thinking aboutequitable approaches to
addressing these issues.
There's a graphic of a baseballfield with people standing on
boxes and talking about equalityis giving everybody the same
number of boxes, but you stillhave people who can't see the
game.

(53:07):
Equity is recognizing that noteverybody's starting at the same
place and addressing that bygiving them more, you know, more
, more height to stand on toactually see what's going on,
and there's a version of thatthat I really like that takes
the fence away so that everybodyactually has access, and that's
what I want to see.
We need to take the fence awayso that everybody has access to
what they need to thrive in theway that they should and how
they choose to thrive.

That's a lot of boundaries, though the
boundaries so happen inboundaries.

So, as I'm talking about taking away fences, we're
talking about boundaries, notallowing you know so these
things, because it is life,right, like what we're talking
about, these systems, you knowthis, this is life, we're all
you know in this mix together.
But understanding that you knowthe you know oxygen mask

(53:48):
approach, like you have to helpyourself first so that you can
help others, and that's a verydifficult thing, I'll say, for
myself to internalize.
It's easy for me to say it toother people.
Oh yeah, but it's very difficultto internalize because you know
again throughout this wholeconversation, like just having
an awareness of the decisionsthat I make or anyone makes or

(54:09):
doesn't make impacts others.
So like really wanting to serveand support others, is this very
central tenant to how I operateand just becoming more clear,
especially as I get older andhave, you know, more aches and
pains and less energy you haveto take care of yourself if
you're going to actually do thework to support others.
So, as I was saying very earlyon, we are very fortunate to

(54:34):
have these kinds of green spaces, these little oases where we
can go to recharge.
Not everyone has the accessthat they should to these spaces
and you know the partnership isworking on that, but there are
some of those spaces and reallymaking sure your question about
boundaries, to set aside onpurpose time to go to those

(54:57):
spaces, not as a part of a workfunction, but just to be there
and to be present and not tofill up every night and weekend
with community events, becauseyou can very easily oh, yeah,
sometimes you try not to and upevery night and weekend with
community events because you canvery easily, oh yeah.
Whether you I mean, sometimesyou try not to and you still do
it anyway.
But it's really important, Ithink, for anyone who's doing
this kind of you know work with,and for a community to make

(55:19):
sure you take care of yourselfas you are taking care of others
.

What nugget of wisdom would you give the 18
year old Sarah Lowry?

Take a political science class, maybe an
economics class.
Joking aside, I would say Iactually don't really have any
regrets.
I think, because I didn't walkinto post high school with a
clear I'm going to do X, that Iwas going to be disappointed

(55:53):
because I didn't have.
In some ways, you know, folkshave like I'm going to be.
you know, this very specificcareer path is where I'm going
and then things happen and youhave to deviate or delay and
there's disappointment Because Ididn't have that.
I really allowed myself to kindof let the river carry me.

(56:13):
And you know, when there was aopportunity to jump out of the
kayak and onto the shore, likedo it, um, but and I mean using
the river analogy, like gettingbetter at seeing where it's
going and knowing where I wantto go and being able to steer a
little more clearly, but like inthe in when I was 18, I do

(56:36):
think I guess the nugget ofwisdom is just, you know, be
comfortable with the unknown andexplore because you don't know
where you're going to end up.
And that's part of, I think,the beauty of you know life.
When you have the ability and Iagain I recognize that not
everybody does, but when youhave the ability to, you know,

(56:59):
use that time to figure thingsout, like really use it.

Okay, you ready for another challenging question
?
Yeah, use it.
Okay, you ready for anotherchallenging question?
Yeah, it is a classic here andI always explain it that I feel
like everyone has that one wordthat you know closely defines
them or something that theystand on or or clearly defines
them, and it can.
It's fluid.
One year it could be this, oneyear it could be that, but as of
now, what is your one word?

I would say today, my one word is partnership.

Interesting Explain that.

And I say that because someone yesterday was
saying something about lookingat definitions and a couple of
the definitions that they werelooking at was one was
collaborate and one waspartnership.
And they said I don'tunderstand why they're separate.
And they are separate becausethey're different.
You can collaborate withsomebody and not be partners.
To be a partner, I think, isyou are going to stick together

(58:04):
through the difficult things.
There is a shared understandingof where you're going and why.
There are shared values andcommitment.
And I think that for the valleyto do what it needs to do in a
lot of different respects, morepartnerships need to happen that

(58:25):
are based on and have anunderstanding of the need for
partnerships to really truly beauthentic, with shared values
and a vision and anunderstanding that that
partnership, like anyrelationship, may change over
time, but as long as there isthat core commitment and that

(58:47):
partnership is understood inthat way, that is how we see the
progress that we need.

That's probably one of the most diverse.
That's an interesting one, theone where, like you know,
sometimes you empower or you seeresilience and bam, that's good
.

I think what I've learned, and I think what others
are learning, is, in thismoment in time and in
communities like ours, if wedon't come together I just heard
somebody say it Last week atGrace AME hosted Amaha Salisi

(59:31):
Sorry if I got that name wrongfrom Gem City Market in Dayton
and you know they're having adiscussion about.
You know, a similar communityled co-op opportunity here and
you know the if you want to gofast, go alone.
If you want to go far, gotogether.
Like that.
Just I've heard it a milliontimes, but I think it's really
important in this moment that weinternalize that.

(59:55):
And there's a lot of urgencyand wanting to act out of a
sense of urgency which leads usto wanting to continue to go
alone.
And we can't do that becausewe're going to go alone and stay
disconnected and that doesn'thelp in the way that we need.
We need to be together and weneed to go together.

D. Lee Scott (01:00:12):
Okay, hmm, I got some more hard questions for you
.
Very brief, though.
These aren't long at all.
This is the random questionthing.
These are ones that you have noidea that I just sit and
randomly think of all right.
So if you could have onefictional character as a best

(01:00:32):
friend, who would it be?

Sarah Lowry (01:00:34):
oh man, that's a very good question, you know.
So another kind of childhoodalways looked up to thought she
was super cool was miss frizzlefrom the Magic School Bus and I
have actually had the pleasureof meeting some real life Miss
Frizzles.
So I think that she is somebodywho is comfortable in being

(01:00:59):
herself and inspiring otheryoung learners to be comfortable
being themselves and explorewithout fear is somebody I'd
want to hang out with.

D. Lee Scott (01:01:10):
Okay, if you could have one superpower, but it can
only happen while you sing it.
Oh man, what would thatsuperpower be?

This is an interesting twist on the
superpower question.
I mean, without thinking veryhard, I'm tempted to say
invisibility, because if I'msinging I want to be invisible,
because I don't want people toknow that that's me doing that.

D. Lee Scott (01:01:35):
Right right.

I can do a lot of things.
Singing is not one of them.
So the icebreaker questionwhat's a skill or talent that
you wish you had?
That's one, but I guess I I'mgonna stay with, you know,
invisibility, so that you cancarry a message, um, and have
the message be heard without theperson behind it being seen,

(01:02:01):
because sometimes the personwho's saying it influences the
message and the message isn'theard in the same way.

D. Lee Scott (01:02:08):
All right, Every woman should own a.

A bike.

D. Lee Scott (01:02:16):
Three words that would describe your younger self
.

Ambitious, curious, and I feel like I need another
word that ends with an O-U-SImaginative.

D. Lee Scott (01:02:31):
Okay, last one If you could be a fly on the wall,
I like to say if you could be aladybug on the wall.

I like that better.

D. Lee Scott (01:02:37):
If you could be a ladybug on the wall of any
historical event.

Oh man.

D. Lee Scott (01:02:41):
Just one.
What event would it be?

The March on Washington with Reverend Dr
Martin Luther King.
I want to be a ladybug on oneof the signs that they were
carrying when they were marchingon Washington.

D. Lee Scott (01:02:53):
And because it's a ladybug, nobody would kind of
shoo you off or nothing.
It'd be like a good luck thing,ladybug's a good luck.

Right.

D. Lee Scott (01:03:00):
So how can people stay connected with you or HCP
or the community foundation?

Yeah, so um the community foundation, I mean, uh
, the foundation's number and myemail there is all over the
place.
Um so phone is probably lessgood cause.
You know, in order to docommunity impact work uh,
impactfully, you can't be in theoffice all the time.

(01:03:26):
So I'm going to say email isprobably best.
So my email address is, youknow, very easy to find on the
Community Foundation's website.
The foundation has a Facebook.
The partnership also has aFacebook and an Instagram.
So I know many of us areconnected to social media, so
that's an easy place, um, butfor direct connection, um, email

(01:03:49):
is best and it's very easy tofind.
It's um slaury at cfmvorg.
Okay.

D. Lee Scott (01:03:55):
You got a lot of love in the community, including
over here in this chair.
You do amazing work and um I'mglad we finally made this happen
.
I really, truly am.

I'm so excited Folks.

D. Lee Scott (01:04:06):
I hope that you enjoyed this episode and, again,
on behalf of Kimberly Gonzalez,who is my co-producer and
making this thing sound nice andcrispy, thank you for hitting
the play button and thank youfor listening in to Sound United
Presents Signing out.
This episode was produced bythe Sound United Podcast Studio,

(01:04:27):
led by Kimberly Gonzalez.
Photography and video contentproduced by the D5 Group, and be
sure to visit our website,soundunitedpresentscom, where
you can catch up on all theepisodes and get some behind the
scenes content.
I'm Deshaun Scott.
Thank you for listening.
Ready to launch a podcast orcreate standout audio content?

(01:04:58):
Sound United Podcast Studio haseverything you need Studio
rental, consulting, contentdevelopment, marketing support
and we even offer remote editingservices.
And we can help you whetheryou're local or nationwide.
So book your discovery.
Call at wwwthesounducom.

(01:05:18):
That is wwwthesounducom.
Or do it the old-fashioned wayand call 330-238-7157.
That is 330-238-7157.
It's time for you to empowerwith sound.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Community Catalyst

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

All Episodes

Community Catalyst

Stuff You Should Know