John M. Williams is best described as a Servant Leader who uses education and advocacy to ameliorate social inequity. He graduated from Morehouse College, earning a B.A. in Business Administration with a concentration in Banking and Finance. His corporate career includes serving as President and CEO of the Akron Urban League, Habitat for Humanity of Michigan, Interim Executive Director with Summit Education Initiative, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer with Alpha Phi Alpha Homes, Ford Motor Company, and 20 years with Nissan North America. During his time at Nissan, he created Nissan North America’s Minority Dealer Development Initiative, which significantly increased minority dealer representation.
John is a highly regarded local, regional, and national community leader with a wealth of experience in board development, parliamentary procedure and protocol, organizational development, and strategic planning and system change. His expertise extends to organizational transformation, fiscal management, and plan implementation. He has a proven track record in preparing organization governance documents and is well-versed in corporate and Christian leadership, education, and ecumenical organizational structures. Though John's leadership roles include serving on boards, you can often find him serving the youth of our community, reading to kindergartners, registering voters, and training teenagers to become community leaders.
John is an Executive Producer of the Emmy Award-winning documentary An Answer From Akron, a PBS documentary on the history of Alpha Phi Alpha Homes, Inc. John has served on many boards including Board Chair, Fair Lending Services, Board Member, Affiliate Mortgage Services; Former President, Akron Summit Community Redevelopment Coalition; Former Board Chair, Akron-Canton Airport Board; graduate and Former Board Secretary of Leadership Akron and Former Chair of the Steering Committee for Diversity on Board; Former Board Chair, County of Summit Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health (ADM) Board; Former President, Akron Roundtable; Former Board Vice-Chair, Summit Education Initiative (SEI); Secretary, Western Reserve Community Fund; and former board member of Ronald McDonald House of Northeast Ohio.
Location: Open M 941 Princeton Street, Akron, OH 44311
You can sign up directly on the Rotary Club of Akron website by clicking here. We appreciate your participation and look forward to making this a great event together!
The Honorable Emilia Sykes, U.S. Representative (OH-13) took time from your very busy schedule to spend time talking with Rotarians and guests on April 15th.
She discussed some of her current projects, initiatives and shared many interesting stories and insights about serving as a U.S. Congresswoman.
Photo: Club President Nathanael Billow and Congresswoman Sykes
About Congresswoman Sykes:
Born and raised in Akron, Ohio, Congresswoman Emilia Strong Sykes grew up on the city’s west side and has dedicated her career to strengthening her community.
For 8 years, Emilia served as the State Representative for Ohio House District 34, otherwise known as the “Birthplace of Champions.” During that time, she served for four years in Democratic leadership, including three years as the House Minority Leader. In her first year as the leader of the House Democratic caucus, despite serving in the minority, the percentage of bipartisan bills passed in the Ohio House was nearly double each of the previous four years combined.
In 2022, Congresswoman Sykes became the first Black person elected to represent Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, where she has committed to fighting for economic opportunity, safer communities and affordable healthcare for Northeast Ohioans, bringing along a spirit of bipartisan cooperation to get things done for those she serves.
Congresswoman Sykes has received numerous awards for her advocacy, including the EMILY’s List national Rising Star award, Legislator of the Year from the Ohio Minority Business Enterprise, the Champion for Children award from Summit County Children’s Services, and 30 for the Future award from the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce. Outside of elected office she engages her community as a lifelong member of her church, a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and a life member of the NAACP.
Congresswoman Sykes graduated with high honors from Kent State University with a B.A. in Psychology and later went on to the University of Florida, where she earned a Juris Doctor with a Certificate in Family Law and a Master of Public Health.
Congresswoman Sykes is a newlywed, married to Kevin Boyce and enjoys spending time with family, engaging in the arts, and enjoying the many blessings of life.
Happy New Year! I hope that each of you and your families had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season overall!
It's that time of year again where I send out everyone's favorite email - plus, you will get to hear my voice even more than usual at club meetings (cue the eyerolls and groans - I know you can't wait!) as I announce the need for volunteers to assist with the following roles at our club meetings for the 1st half of 2025: Greeter (& "Daily Lotto" sales), Invocation Speaker, & Meeting/Technology Set-Up.
My most sincere appreciation and gratitude goes out to the faithful “regulars” I have been able to consistently count on to help fill the respective roles or jump in last minute to cover an empty slot (you know who you are). I also appreciate the handful of "newcomers" (both established and newer members) who helped throughout the course of last year or expressed a willingness to do so moving forward.
I would like to encourage anyone that has either never served as Greeter or Invocator (or who has only done so sparingly) to consider volunteering for a few slots during this 1st half of 2025 - I'd be immensely thankful to see my list of "regulars" grow. Not only are these roles a much appreciated and valued service to the club, but they also present an excellent opportunity to immerse oneself in the weekly meetings.
If you need help signing up, please let me know and I can direct you to the appropriate location on the Rotary Club of Akron website, or I will gladly fill in your name for whatever date(s) you are able and willing to volunteer. For convenience, here is the public URL to the relevant volunteer sign-up page:
For Greeters, please plan to arrive by 11:40ish (if possible) and be prepared to help sell Daily Lotto raffle tickets and have the speaker pull the winning ticket at the end of the meeting.
For Invocation Speakers, I have provided some links with sample invocations below. You are quite welcome to create your own invocation, of course, but please know that custom content is not a requirement! I am happy to assist with this too. In fact, I'll even provide an invocation for you to read if that's what it will take for you to sign up. I assure you, this need not be an intimidating volunteer role for the meeting!
For Meeting/Technology Set-Up, the duties currently require:
Ensuring the computer, projector, and microphones are all up and running smoothly before the start of the meeting. NOTE: Brian Kosarko, Michael Gladysz, or I can/will help train new volunteers - we would certainly appreciate expanding the rotation for this role.
If necessary, correcting the flag positioning so that when viewed from the audience, the U.S./American Flag is to the left of the speaker/podium and the Ohio Flag is on the right.
Thank you in advance for volunteering!
Yours in service,
CJ
Connor G. Jarvis, CFP®
Sergeant of Arms
Rotary Club of Akron
Some links with sample invocations (if needed/desired):
President Nathanael Billow inducted Greg Skinner at our April 15, 2025 meeting. Greg was sponsored by Mella Caster.
Sandy Naragon, Chair
The Honorable Emilia Sykes, U.S. Representative (OH-13) took time from your very busy schedule to spend time talking with Rotarians and guests on April 15th. 
Yours in service,
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