Leadership Stark County

Part of the Spotlight experience is getting outside of your everyday role to better understand the community around you, the people doing the work, the challenges our neighbors face, and the resources that are making a difference.

Session 3 took our class to the Ken Weber Community Campus at Goodwill for an evening focused on health and wellness in Stark County.

No organization operates in a vacuum. What happens in our community impacts our coworkers, customers, families, and organizations. The more we understand what's happening around us, the better equipped we are to connect people to resources, build partnerships, and recognize where we can contribute.

Throughout the evening, our class experienced that from several different perspectives.

Alex Yoskey and Colleen Porter kicked us off with an interactive Jeopardy game that challenged what we knew about Goodwill and showed how their impact extends far beyond the retail store, including their work in recycling and sustainability.

Elena Aslanides Kandis from StarkMHAR gave us a closer look at mental health in Stark County and reminded us that leadership also means checking in on ourselves and the people around us.

Traci Skipper and Jada McElroy from Canton for All People shared how affordable housing, Shorb Market, and neighborhood investment can help create lasting, generational change.

Then we took the learning beyond the room!

Instead of our usual optional networking, our class volunteered with the Stark County Hunger Task Force. After a tour from Stephanie Sweany, the group packed 210 meals for Massillon East and discovered that serving together can be a pretty great way to build relationships, too.

That's Spotlight: learning more about yourself as a leader, meeting the people shaping Stark County, experiencing our community from new perspectives, and finding ways to make an impact within it.

Thank you to Alex, Colleen, Elena, Traci, Jada, and Stephanie for investing in the next generation of Stark County leaders!

Same Mission. Sharper Look.

For four decades, Leadership Stark County has empowered, developed, and inspired leaders who make our community stronger. Our mission hasn’t changed, but how we share it has.

Our new website is live! Explore programs like the Signature, Youth Leadership Academy, Spotlight, and Next Level Leaders, and reconnect with alumni across Stark County.

Our Annual Campaign is open, too. Your gift helps develop the next generation of leaders and keep our programs strong for years to come.

👉 Explore the new site and make your gift: https://www.leadershipstarkcounty.org/

Give them the tools to lead. 7 weeks. 7 experts. One stronger team.

The Supervisory Training Program, presented in collaboration with Walsh University, covers what it really takes to lead: motivating, training, planning, teamwork, effective communication, resolving conflicts, problem solving, process improvement, adjusting your methods to the personality of your employees, employment law, and more.

No tests. No lectures. Just workshop-style training that sticks.

Mondays, Oct 5 – Nov 16 | 2–5 PM
$850 Chamber Members | $1,200 Public

Register now: https://business.cantonchamber.org/ap/Events/Register/AnF48Y4UVCdCN

Coffee tastes better with good company. ☕️

Reconnect with familiar faces and meet fellow Leadership Stark County alumni at our next Caffeinated Connections meetup!

Friday, Sept. 11, 2026
7:15–9:15 AM
UnionPark Coffee & Cocktails

Stop in before the workday for coffee, fresh conversation, and meaningful connections with leaders from across Stark County.

This gathering is exclusively for Leadership Stark County alumni. We hope to see you there!

📣Welcome your Fall 2026 Spotlight cohort!

The Fall 2026 Spotlight class officially kicked off yesterday with an evening centered around connection, perspective, and trust.

Participants got to know their fellow cohort members, reflected on what they hope to gain from their experience, and started exploring what it takes to build meaningful trust with the people around them.

A big thank you to Mike Regimbal for leading our conversation on the 4 Ways to Build Trust and challenging the class to think about how trust shows up in their relationships, teams, and leadership.

Thank you as well to the ONE Center for Leadership for hosting our first session and providing a great space to kick off this year’s program!

We’re excited to see the connections made, the growth that happens, and the leaders they become over the next 12 weeks.

Welcome to Spotlight, Fall 2026!

Seats are filling up for this fall’s Supervisory Leadership Program, presented in collaboration with Walsh University.

Designed for emerging supervisors and managers, this seven-week program provides practical tools for motivating teams, strengthening communication, resolving conflict, navigating employment law and leading more effectively.

Mondays from 2:00–5:00 p.m.
October 5, 12, 19 and 26
November 2, 9 and 16

$850 for Chamber members | $1,200 for the public

Invest in the people who lead your organization every day.
View program details & register: https://shorturl.at/JxpPT

Supervisory Training Program - Event Registration THE PROGRAM:Developing talent from within your workforce is the best way of supplying leadership to your people. Your people see opportunity instead of stagnation.You identify better leaders from within than you do from an external interview. Your leaders are better respected when they have come up....