Ms. Cruz Blair has served with Leadership Lorain County for seven years, currently as the President & CEO. Born in the city of Lorain, she has embraced her passion for providing individuals the resources and initiatives necessary to meet their personal goals by investing in their community. We are rich with people full of energy, desire, and compassion for others. We need to channel this energy in a positive way.
As a graduate of Cleveland State University through the Lorain County Community College partnership, she was introduced to opportunities regarding being an active community member. She currently serves on the Board for the Elyria YWCA, as the Vice-Chair, Good Knights and is a member of the Elyria Sunrise Rotary Club. She is the mother of three ambitious children, who make her proud and drive her nuts all at once. They have each taught her unique lessons in life.
“When one finds their passion, they find the time.” Each day, she witnesses the connection between people and community through outreach. Leadership is genuinely about bringing people together for the better of all – leaving things better than how they were found. Improving things is not always about changing someone or something, sometimes it is about opening your mind to a better understanding of why it is.
Adrienne Dziak joined the Nature Conservancy-OH as its government relations director in 2010 and retired in January 2016. At TNC she focused on achieving state and federal policy and legislative goals through a well-developed understanding of conservation and environmental policy and by effectively articulating that understanding within the conservation/environmental community and to government, corporate, civic, and community leaders. At TNC she served on the Ohio Leadership Team; TNC US Government Relations Cabinet; Steering Committee for the Coalition of Ohio Land Trusts; Public Policy Advisory Committee for the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission; and coordinator for the Clean
Jeanine is a founding Trustee of Leadership Lorain County, past member of the Mercy Hospital Board of Trustees and is a past president of the Elyria Rotary Club. She is a Life Member of the Lorain NAACP and is the recipient of a 10 year pin for board service from the Lorain County Urban League. She is the recipient of two Sojourner Truth Awards, one from the Negro Business and Professional Women Elyria Club and the other from the YWCA of the USA. She is also the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from Oberlin College.
Jeanine served for three terms on the Lorain Board of Education. In 2002, she was appointment to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission by Governor Bob Taft, and in 2007 was designated the first female chair of the Commission (since its inception in 1949) by Governor Ted Strickland.
She is currently the Chairperson for Rotary District 6600 Peace & DEI Committee; an Advocate for The Ohio State University Office of Government Affairs and Vice President of the League of Women Voters Oberlin Area.
She is leading the effort to create a Racial Equity Center in Lorain County to dismantle systemic racism.
and Gabriel (Sandra), and 4 grandchildren: Elijah, Tiana, Nicholas II and Raphael
