Jowan SmithBorn and raised in Cleveland, Jowan Smith has a big heart for the city. After graduating from John Hay High School, she started a career in event planning and earned degrees in business and marketing from Bryant and Stratton College and Cleveland Stae University. Smith's "Getting Our Babies to College 101" proposal won the Education category in the Cleveland Leadership Center's Accelerate 2017 competition. In 2019, Smith created an event for young men ages 6-21 called "1,000 Ties." That event inspired Smith to create the 1,000 Ties Etiquette Program, which won the Accelerate 2020 competition and a 2021 Stiletto Boss Award. Smith has been recognized with several other recent awards, including Future History Maker 2019, the 2019 NCNW Trailblazer Award, CPL Drum Major of Change 2020 & 2022 and a 2020 & 2023 Phenomenal Woman Award, and the 15th & 16th Edition of Who's Who in Black Cleveland. She was also honored as an Emerging Philanthropist by Soul of Philanthropy Cleveland in 2019. She is the author of seven children's books, that feature characters of color. Jowan was honored to be the Keynote Speaker at the Cuyahoga Community College 32nd Annual Frances M. Franklin Scholarship and Protégé Luncheon and the WGBH Ed Forum and was inducted into the John Hay High School Hall of Fame in 2022. She is proud mom of two and grandmother of two. "My pain point became my purpose but was always my mission!" Read More Read Less