Friday, June 27, 2025
The City Club of Cleveland Announces New Series Celebrating Spirit and Mission of Kathryn J. Lincoln and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
The City Club of Cleveland is pleased to announce a new multi-year
series including an annual forum and deep dive educational opportunities focused
on effective urban planning, inclusive community development, and investment in
ethical leadership. This series is made possible thanks to research funded by the
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and will be named in honor of its board chair and the
founder’s granddaughter, Kathryn J. Lincoln. The first forum and accompanying
educational engagement will take place in late fall 2025.
“I’m honored to play a role in advancing these much-needed discussions around
land policy solutions, which I see as a wonderful extension of the Lincoln Institute’s
commitment to finding answers in land,” said Kathryn J. Lincoln, chair of the board
for the Lincoln Institute. “I look forward to seeing the series unfold and witnessing
the positive impact these educational engagements have on communities.”
Our community, like our nation, is at a critical moment. Not only are political
headwinds creating immediate and long-term challenges for our cities, but a
generational turnover at multiple levels of leadership is creating a vacuum in
institutional memory. As ambitious as new and emerging leaders are, many simply
do not know the relevant history of our region, its civic institutions, or the many
initiatives and efforts community leaders have pulled together to stem population
decline, build support for cohesive regional visions, or create a shared vision of the
future.
Amidst this uncertainty and competing trends and priorities, this series seeks to
meet a need for a focused, long-range series of forums and related educational
programs highlighting solutions to shared challenges that can be found in land use
policy, its connections to the support of thriving communities, and ethical, values-
based leadership. Focused attention over multiple years will allow our community to
hold itself and its leaders accountable for meaningful progress.
“There is an evident need for ongoing conversation, collaboratively planned and
widely shared, to help our diverse communities chart a path toward a future we
share, a future we could, if so inclined, collectively and collaboratively build,”
explains City Club CEO Dan Moulthrop.
“The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is recognized globally as the pre-eminent think
tank concerning the stewardship of land to support public finance and improve the
quality of life,” explains Tony Coyne, “I utilized Lincoln Institute research in guiding
much of my decision making while serving on the Cleveland City Planning
Commission. I was blessed to serve on the Board and can attest to the Institute’s
mission of positively influencing public policy concerning land.”
This past spring the City Club conducted half a dozen listening sessions with more
than 30 community leaders, neighbors, elected officials, and advocates and has
established an advisory committee that will build the programs in this series. This
committee includes:
Freddy Collier: Senior Vice President of Strategy and New Initiatives at the Greater
Cleveland Partnership (GCP), Freddy works to drive GCP’s ALL IN Plan designed to
provide strategic direction for GCP as an organization and foster regional
coordination between the many agencies that continue to play a role in our region’s
competitiveness.
Tony Coyne: President and Managing Partner of Mansour Gavin and Chairman of
the Board at St. Vincent Charity Community Health Center in Cleveland, Ohio,Tony
previously served on the board of the Lincoln Institute, the Ohio Canal Corridor, and
the Planning Commission for the City of Cleveland, and chaired the Group Plan
Commission of the City of Cleveland.
Ayonna Blue Donald: Vice President of the Ohio market for Enterprise Community
Partners, Ayonna leads Enterprise’s work across the state, advancing housing-
based programs and creative policy solutions that help Ohioans achieve housing
stability and economic mobility. She previously served as director of the City’s
Department of Building and Housing and as the Chief of Commercial Services and
Governmental Affairs for the Department of Port Control.
Steve Hedlund: President and Chief Executive Officer of Lincoln Electric Holdings,
Inc.—the world’s leading welding company to this day—Steve also serves as Chair
of its Board of Directors. Prior to Lincoln Electric, he held various executive
leadership roles at Fortune Brands, Inc. and served as principal with the
management consulting firm Booz Allen & Hamilton.
Joyce Huang: Cleveland Foundation’s first Chief Impact Officer, Joyce served as the
former Planning Director for the City of Cleveland, where she oversaw the creation
of the waterfront development group, advocated for pedestrian-friendly planning,
and worked to pass 15-minute city legislation. At the Foundation, she will lead
efforts to create a unified vision and direction that will elevate the Foundation as a
trusted partner and catalyst for transformative change in Cleveland.
Ben Starrett: Director of the partnerships and business development team at the
Lincoln Institute, Ben served for more than 18 years as the founding president and
CEO of the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities and as
chief planning officer for the Florida Department of Community Affairs—Florida’s
state land planning agency.
Background:
David Lincoln was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and studied electrical engineering at the
California Institute of Technology. His father, John C. Lincoln, was the founder of the
Lincoln Electric Company in 1895. David’s true passion was the family set of
businesses, and in 1957 he moved his family back to Ohio. Beyond its many
innovations in electrical engineering, Lincoln Electric broke ground with its focus on
an ethical corporate culture, which included guaranteed employment, an employee
advisory board, life and health insurance plans that few companies offered at the
time, and a generous annual cash bonus. "Good ethics is good business, and ethics
is its own reward," David Lincoln wrote of the company. "One does not have to
sacrifice to be ethical. It is doing the right thing."
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy seeks to improve quality of life through the
effective use, taxation, and stewardship of land. A nonprofit, private operating
foundation whose origins date to 1946, the Lincoln Institute researches and
recommends creative approaches to land as a solution to economic, social, and
environmental challenges. Through education, training, publications, and events, we
integrate theory and practice to inform public policy decisions worldwide. We
organize our work around three impact areas: land and water; land and fiscal
systems; and land and communities. We envision a world where cities and regions
prosper and benefit from coordinated land use planning and public finance; where
communities thrive from efficient and equitable allocation of limited land resources;
and where stewardship of land and water resources ensures a livable future. We
work globally, with locations in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Washington, DC;
Phoenix, Arizona; and Beijing, China. www.lincolninst.edu
The City Club of Cleveland creates conversations of consequence that help
democracy thrive. For more than 100 years, our speakers – more than 7,000 in
total, from sitting heads of state to local community activists – have answered
unfiltered, unrehearsed questions directly from the audience. We are the place
where speakers and ideas are challenged and tested, where citizen voice is prized,
and where our community grows stronger. In the midst of declining civic
engagement, we remain committed to being a “citadel of free speech” and to
ensuring there will always be a home for civil, civic dialogue. More info:
www.cityclub.org
