Cynthia Connolly

Cynthia Connolly joined the City Club in 2021 and has nearly 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. Before the City Club, Cynthia spent six years as the Development Director at Policy Matters Ohio, and also spent time at other notable organizations like Ohio City Incorporated, and the Center for Nonprofit Policy & Practice at Cleveland State University, where she earned a Master of Public Administration degree. She received a BA in American Culture with a focus in Native American Studies from the University of Michigan.

A citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, she began her civic work at an early age, serving as a youth tribal representative at the National Congress of American Indians located in Washington DC, which advocates for government policies to help Indigenous people. Today, she is Board Chair for the Lake Erie Native American Council and teaches the Native American Studies course at Kent State University. She also serves on the Community Advisory Board at Ideastream Public Media; and the boards of University Settlement in Cleveland’s Broadway-Slavic Village neighborhood and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, DC.

In 2021, Cynthia was named a Native American Top 40 Under 40 by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise and Development; as well as a 2021 Crain's Cleveland Business 40 Under Forty awardee.