Join us at the Keenan Center for Entrepreneurship for a workshop around how we can strengthen communities. Bob Leighty and Kip Holley will facilitate a workshop helping students better understand how we can make a difference in the world around us.
Maximum of 30 spots available.
Biographies:
Bob Leighty:
Bob Leighty is a 32-year South Columbus community activist, and for 26 years was a corporate communications executive for AT&T Bell Laboratories. Bob holds an MS in Technical Communications from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a BS in Technical Writing and Editing from Carnegie Mellon University.
Bob is Executive Director of Steelton Rising, a new nonprofit 501c3 Community Development Corporation affiliated with Steelton Village and The Fort. He provides vision and leadership, and is establishing and growing operations capacity for Steelton Rising. He is planning to offer business support in South Columbus. Bob is establishing and growing collaborative relations with Entrepreneur Support Organizations and other South Side stakeholders.
Bob has been an advisor, community liaison, and mentor in the Denison Edge summer immersion program since 2023, helping students make progress on issues such as the lack of affordable housing and the abundance of persistent poverty, working to address hunger and develop innovative local food systems, and promote and support entrepreneurship, especially with youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Bob advises the Southside STAY Board of Directors, and South Side Family Farms. He also advises Columbus food entrepreneurs and other businesses, especially in South Columbus, and he led the ECDI team that created the Growing Entrepreneurs Initiative and the Food Fort Kitchen Incubator.
Bob previously was an advisor for OSU’s Urban GEMS youth aeroponics program, a community liaison for the OSU Buckeye ISA Kellogg Foundation program, and a consultant for foodNEST. Bob was an advisor for the Columbus Small Business Agenda, was the Executive Director of the Parsons Area Merchants Association. Bob oversaw all training programs while at ECDI. Bob was president of the Merion Village Association for 20 years.
Bob helped envision and raise $12.5M to create the Reeb Avenue Center, and he partnered with the OSU Wexner Center for the Arts to create the nearby South Side Fruit Park.
Kip Holley:
Kip Holley is an Independent Consultant and sole proprietor of K Holley Consulting, LLC. Kip works to consult non-profit, for-profit, and governmental organizations on issues related to racial equity within organizational operations and activities, as well as facilitating dialogues and learning opportunities related to racial equity and community engagement. Kip works with people and organizations across communities, occupational fields, and cultural traditions.
Before working independently, Kip was a Research Associate at The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University for 12 years where he primarily focuses on evaluation and assessment research and practice with a lens of racial equity, as well as designing and facilitating organizational assessment and community engagement practice informed by racial equity research. Kip is a graduate of The Ohio State University, having received a MSW from the College of Social Work and a B.S in City and Regional Planning from the Knowlton School of Architecture.
