Our Approach

The Leadership Ohio experience is typically comprised of eight 1 ½ day sessions. Spring through fall, we traverse the state—engaging with some of the most influential business, community, and elected officials in Ohio.

Our experiences are in-depth and often unexpected interactions and explorations of critical questions, challenges and opportunities facing Ohio and its people. We uniquely blend experiences and dialogue with influential leaders, dreamers, movers and shakers, often with an eye toward disrupting outdated mindsets and challenging the status quo. Our approach produces a class of leaders with statewide knowledge, perspective and connections, who are inspired to a higher level of service. Leadership Ohio graduates are a highly select body of leaders with a very unique state-wide grounding.

In any given year, our Fellows may spend the day behind the walls of a women’s reformatory exploring the issue of restored citizenship with inmates, Warden, and staff. Next, our Fellows may grapple with our nation’s fractured civic discourse - with the Ohio Secretary of State - exploring “How might we regain our ability to engage in respectful and civil conversations as a bedrock of democracy?” Later, Fellows may be immersed in a homeless drop-in center, unpacking issues of affordable housing and humanity alongside city residents who were experiencing homelessness. From artificial intelligence to human trafficking to business innovations in the Appalachian foothills, the list of touchpoints and experiences is unique and powerful. No other journey would put you at the same table as an Ohio Supreme Court Justice and a seven-time mission commander/U.S. Air Force Colonel in the same way it brings you face-to-face, for instance, with a formerly incarcerated citizen now helping to restore the citizenship of others, or a survivor of human trafficking.