Smart Living Awards

The Judson Smart Living Awards honor individuals of all ages who are dedicated to the dynamic atmosphere of University Circle. Winners are recognized in the categories of Arts, Education, Healthcare, Philanthropy, and Volunteerism.

The 2012 Judson Smart Living Award Winners

Brent Kee Young, Arts

It started with a rat's nest of rogue rebar piled up in front of an abandoned, broken-down factory, the old Ward Bakery that was torn down in 1979. The property was near Brent Kee Young's glass studio on Perkins Avenue.

The pile of metal looked like a nest of linear forms to Young, professor of glass and the head of the glass department at Cleveland Institute of Art. The virtual junkyard inspired his Matrix series, which is modeled after tangled forms in nature: tumbleweed, for example. "I try to find ways to bring the technique to the concept," says Young, who says he starts with the idea, then figures out a process to manipulate the glass.

In the classroom, he passes this approach of "learning to learn" to students so they can expand on their abilities at any stage in their careers.

Young began his glass career at CIA in 1973; he was invited to start the glass program. "Glass is such a magical thing-it hooks everyone who gets started," he says.

Young's "hook" is creating intricate webs of glass-imagine cutting a cube out of a nest of tumbleweed-and then using the structure to form something recognizable like chairs and ladders. The clear glass ("I'm using only clear now as part of a strategy to concentrate on form") is formed in a process Young invented called flame-working. "I try to define form with line and light," he says of the effect.

Young's work is featured in museums and galleries around the world, including The Smithsonian, The Museum of Fine Art in Boston and close to home at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Young has helped University Circle become a renowned location for excellence in glass art and art education. "This community is very nurturing for students and faculty," he says.

Beth Glas, Healthcare

There's not enough accessible housing available, and not enough awareness about why safety and convenience features are beneficial to everyone. "People don't realize how important accessibility is," says Beth Glas, assistant executive director of Maximum Accessible Housing of Ohio (MAHO).

The waiting list for some of MAHO's five properties is as long as four years. "Most of our tenants who move in don't leave unless they go to a nursing home, because they love their homes and also because there are no other options for them," says Glas, relating that there's a lack of affordable accessible housing supply.

MAHO fills that gap, and Glas is the driving force in the development of the New Circle Vistas housing project for people with mobility disabilities. The project is a 36-unit apartment with state-of-the-art accessibility features and a training suite that will work as a show-and-tell museum of accessibility options.

Glas moved to Cleveland in 2007, and embraces the University Circle area as home. She earned her masters of nonprofit organization degree from the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations, earning top honors for her academic achievement.

Glas says the most challenging part of the New Circle Vistas project was filing the application for almost $5 million in state tax credit funds. Here, she recognized the importance of telling "the accessibility story." "We need to explain why these features are important for people with disabilities and why they are useful for everyone," she says, speaking of lever door handles, ramps and curb cuts. "Accessibility features are great for everyone, and they are safer."

Meanwhile, in her role, Glas, 30, has increased the public awareness of MAHO in University Circle and beyond. Her nominating sponsor notes how she is a model of smart living for a younger generation.

John A. Yankey, Ph.D., Education

University Circle is a laboratory for learning if you ask John Yankey, Ph.D., the Leonard W. Mayo Professor Emeritus at Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School for Applied Social Sciences.

"The best thing about teaching is learning," says Yankey, who tells students this: "Education is so much more than what happens in the classroom. School prepares you, but life gives you your finals, and passion about what you do is an important part of what contributes to that success."

Yankey came to CWRU in 1973 from a position as deputy commissioner of the State of West Virginia Department of Welfare, where he had an opportunity to make changes during a period of governmental transition. Yankey has been president of the Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers and selected as the Outstanding Social Worker of the Year in Cleveland, and Ohio Social Worker of the Year. After being selected numerous years as Outstanding Teacher of the Year at the Mandel School, the award was endowed in his name.

Yankey developed and administered the Center for Public Sector Leadership and Service, and he's nationally recognized in the field of strategic planning and partnerships for nonprofits. This is increasingly important today as the number of nonprofits climbs. "The consequence is a need for being able to more effectively manage them," Yankey says, adding that declining government funding for nonprofits puts more responsibility on society.

His two-semester strategic planning course involves accepting proposals from local community organizations that are assigned teams of students who help. All told, the hours given through this course over the years adds up to over $3 million in community service to more than 100 local organizations.

Yankey believes that community service-the simple act of giving back-is just the right thing to do, and he has dedicated his career to these efforts. "It's a wonderful way in which young people can learn and grow, develop professionally and simultaneously be paying back the community in which they are a part," he says.

vic gelb, Volunteerism

"The greatest gift we have is to give of ourselves," says Vic Gelb, recognized in Cleveland for his activism and philanthropic work. Specifically, he is speaking of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cleveland, where he became a father figure to three young boys over the years. "Being there for a young boy or a young girl…it's no doubt the difference you make in that person's life," he says.

Gelb has made that difference in the lives of many. He calls himself a closet social worker, noting that "the volunteer always gets more out of it than he or she puts into it." Gelb has a long-term relationship with the social network of Greater Cleveland's organizations, focusing his involvement on those involving children and healthcare.

Gelb was the final chairman of the board of the Mt. Sinai Medical Center and helped establish the Mt. Sinai Health Care foundation. And, he was founding chair of the Citizen's Committee on HIV/AIDS and is active in organizations serving people with HIV/AIDS. Gelb says that giving time and talent is more valuable than any cash donation, and he has spread his riches serving as chair, officer and/or director of organizations including: Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Playhouse Square Foundation, United Way of Greater Cleveland, The Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, Chautauqua Institution and Vocational Guidance Service among others.

Gelb is recipient of the Jewish Community Federation's highest honor, the Charles Eisenman Award. "There is no reason why someone can't give back to the community, and there are so many opportunities to do so in so many ways," he says.

Paul Clark, Philanthropy

Paul Clark is a champion for Cleveland, and his commitment to the community runs deep. Clark, regional president of Northern Ohio and Cleveland PNC Bank, says that philanthropy at PNC starts with everything that employees do close to home-Little League, PTA, church volunteer work. "That is the start of our philanthropy, and it's huge," says Clark, who grew up in Cleveland and spent 35 years here building his career at National City Bank.

Over the years, Clark says his life has been enriched by the opportunity to be engaged in the community at a civic level. And he's part of a significant initiative by PNC to support children's education as co-chair of Invest in Children's partnership committee. PNC pledged more than $4 million toward children's educational efforts, as part of its childhood education and development program, Grow Up Great.

"One of the values at PNC is to be community-focused, so we try to do that as best as we can," Clark says. "We do it locally. The local team here makes decisions about what we do in the community. Philanthropy is important to us as a company-it's part of our DNA."

Clark is proud to head an organization that makes a significant impact on the community by supporting its growth - including the University Circle neighborhood - enhancing its growing appeal as both a destination, as well as a place to live and work.

Hermione Malone, Volunteerism

For Hermione Malone (her name means noble lady in Greek), one good work led to another in how she found the Junior League of Cleveland, and how it found her. Malone was volunteering for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and the interim executive director there at the time suggested to Malone that she get to know the "neighbor." That is, the organization housed next door: The League.

That was 2005, and today Malone is president of the Junior League of Cleveland, which is charged with promoting volunteerism, the development of women and community improvement. The League has been around for 100 years, and located in University Circle since 1980. "I'm proud of the way we make a difference by working with community partners to create programs that will have sustainability above and beyond an initiative," says Malone, relating how Susan G. Komen is the League's hallmark project, raising funds and serving the needs of women who need access to mammograms and survivorship programs.

Malone, who spreads her volunteer spirit to many organizations, says time is her greatest obstacle. But her leadership style as president of the league, and as community outreach manager for the University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, is to focus on collaboration and tapping the talent pool.

"I believe that good ideas can come from anywhere, and that leadership is not synonymous with titles and positions," she says, explaining how she instituted a Speak Out portion of the meeting for the League, where members can express anything on their minds. She also brought this concept to patient and advisory council meetings at work. "It provides an opportunity for people to feel like they are being heard," she says.

Malone gives voice in other ways through community involvement. She sits on the taskforce to develop a young affiliate program for the Cleveland Museum of Art, volunteered at the Hawken School's Gries Center to help fifth graders explore issues around healthcare, and participates in Case Western Reserve University's Bridge Back program to increase the number of African-American and Hispanic American students who pursue graduate business education.

"If only this [volunteering] were my fulltime job," she muses.

Jerold S. Goldberg, D.D.S., Healthcare

More than 70,000 people gain access to affordable dental care in the University Circle area thanks to the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and its long-time dean, Jerold Goldberg, D.D.S. Goldberg is credited with raising the dental school from a modest Midwest program to an internationally prominent, highly selective school that can accept only 75 of the 3,000-plus applicants each year who seek an education there.

"We have developed a real curriculum that is relevant, experiential and truly innovative," says Goldberg, who takes great pride in the oral maxillofacial surgery department and the school's expanded research enterprise, focusing on important areas like cancer aid and healthcare disparities. "Our students come from all over the country, and from other countries, and I think we bring a vibrancy to the area."

Goldberg pushes the borders on care. He has been involved with surgical missions to Mexico, Ecuador and Nepal, including an ongoing commitment to the craniofacial center he co-founded in Klaipeda, Lithuania. "Over the years, we have given them equipment, instruments, creating a modern operating room and trained their local doctors and nurses," he says. Now, the center operates independently.

Meanwhile, at the school's University Circle base, the faculty has grown from 23 to 60 over the years, and now the dental school is in the midst of a construction project. The new School of Dental Medicine building may be the first major construction project on the University Circle campus that comes out of the CWRU Forward Thinking effort.

"It will give us visual representation that a program of our quality deserves and it will increase capacity," Goldberg says, adding that the facility will accommodate an expanded and upgraded clinical facility. "We'll be able to provide more care in an atmosphere that I think our patients will want," he says.

"My commitment is a function of the accountability I have to give back as someone who has benefited from this community over a long period of time," Clark says.

Catherine C. Whitehouse, Ph.D., Education

Imagine a school where age doesn't matter-where mixing generations is part of the lesson plan. That's exactly what Cathy Whitehouse did 12 years ago when she started The Intergenerational School with her husband, Dr. Peter Whitehouse.

The Intergenerational School partners with organizations like Judson, where older volunteers can work on projects with children.

The model is a win-win. Students benefit from mentor relationships, and seniors stay active, healthy and engaged with young people. "It broadens everyone's perspective," Whitehouse says. "Our students are comfortable interacting with adults-when they go for interviews, they are well-spoken and confident. That is from developing these relationships."

And older adults stay involved with the outside community and build friendships with young people from different backgrounds. "We have a strong need to keep people connected with the community, even as they get older; and we have a strong need to provide children with as many role models and positive relationships as we possibly can, especially children who live in poverty," says Whitehouse, whose Ph.D. is in child development. She originally worked in the area of reading disability, visiting schools to evaluate students. "I became very interested in why schools are set up the way they are," she says.

Whitehouse loves being in the classroom-but she wanted to design a different way to help children learn. That's when she and her husband began to discuss the plan for what became The Intergenerational School. "We imagined a school that eliminated age as the predominate organizing structure, got rid of grade levels, and welcomed people of all ages to participate together," she says.

The Intergenerational School is a model for learning a new way, bringing the older generation together with young people to provide vibrant, new experiences in the classroom. "At Judson, everyone is so willing to participate and jump in with both feet," Whitehouse adds. "That is what we need to make these programs powerful."

Geralyn Presti, Arts

Her love affair with music started at age six in University Circle. Geralyn Presti took piano lessons and found her passion in the first grade. "Music feeds my soul," says Forest City Enterprise's general counsel and corporate secretary. Presti is chair of the board of directors at the Cleveland Music School Settlement, where she started a career in music therapy 33 years ago. She left in 1984 to pursue a law degree, promising that she would return and continue her work there some how, some way.

"I am pleased that I kept that promise," says Presti, who came back as a trustee and has served the Settlement's board for more than 12 years. She's also acting as co-chair of the centennial celebration.

"The arts are so vital to our communities," Presti says. "We need art. We need music. The arts attract other creative, thoughtful individuals to our communities-they stimulate creativity, they are stress-reducing and they can bring beauty and individuality. The arts create a universal language that people all over the world can speak."

That's what drew Presti to earn her music therapy degree from Ohio University in the 1970s, when the specialty was relatively new. "What really hit my heart was having the ability to help people reach their potential," she says. "And recognizing that no matter a person's physical, emotional or intellectual challenges, we all have the capacity to learn through music, to be joyful."