Professional Bio

Cross-Sector Executive
and Founder Leadership

Partner, Forward Impact Solutions
Senior Vice President of New Economies, Bitwise Industries
Executive Director, White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Executive Office of the President
Advisor, Domestic Policy Council, Executive Office of the President
Senior Advisor, Office of the Under Secretary, U.S. Department of Education
Co-Founder, ScaleUp Partners
Vice President of Inclusive Competitiveness, NorTech
Founder, Trim Tab System, LLC
President and Chief Executive Officer, Cleveland Urban League
President and Chief Executive Officer, Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy
Executive Vice President, Council for World-Class Communities
Founding Vice President of New Economy Enterprise, Cincinnati USA Chamber
Founding Executive Director, CincyTech
First Vice President, Cincinnati NAACP

Wide-ranging Policymaking,
Competitiveness, Innovation,
Education, Capital, Entrepreneurship,
and Community Impact

Appointed by President Trump to align HBCUs with U.S. competitiveness priorities; advised the President, the Executive Office of the President, cabinet secretaries, and federal agencies; and helped deliver billions in federal support.
Ignited and led bipartisan action, making the HBCU PARTNERS Act law and codifying economic inclusion and competitiveness at the federal level.
Convened the Regional Technology Initiative; guided 300 leaders from Fortune 500 firms, universities, government, and innovation sectors through 100 days of strategic planning, resulting in the creation of CincyTech.
Designed an early-stage capital growth strategy, raising a $40M venture capital fund of funds that catalyzed a $250M regional early-stage investment network.
Authored community benefits strategies for $900M of development projects, driving small business contracting and workforce participation.
Created the legal and programmatic framework for the county government’s Small Business Program for Sports Stadia, establishing a new county department.
Directed expansion strategy for a tech workforce company, doubling its footprint and enabling a successful private capital raise.
Conceived and executed the first Federal HBCU Competitiveness Strategy, guiding actions across 32 federal agencies.
Co-led the Innovation and Entrepreneurship team of the Federal 5-Year STEM Education Strategic Plan with the National Science and Technology Council.
Built cross-agency relationships in the federal government to drive record investment and create sustainable impact ecosystems.
Secured private investment to develop a $252M urban parks system maintenance and restoration strategic plan.
Gubernatorial appointment to Ohio’s Joint Commission on High-Tech Business, shaping a $1.6B innovation policy and $100M early-stage capital program.
Gubernatorial appointment to the Midwest Governors’ Association Knowledge Economy Project, co-chairing the Research and Commercialization team to advance Midwest tech growth policy.
Partnered with the U.S. Department of Commerce NTIA to create the Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives, providing $285M in grants for broadband access nationwide.
Secured a $5M state appropriation with the Ohio Academy of Science and Board of Regents to launch Ohio’s first statewide STEM education, commercialization, and entrepreneurship program for high school students.
Founded the region’s first technology-focused public high schools, uniting public and private leadership to create pioneering programs in information, design, and health technologies.

Book Authorship

Author, The Future Economy and Inclusive Competitiveness®: How Demographic Trends and Innovation Can Create Economic Prosperity for All Americans
Author, The Champion’s Way™: Win Yourself, Then Everything Else, January 2026

Selected Thought Leadership
Reports, Briefs, and Articles

Author, Socializing, Adopting, and Implementing the Federal HBCU Initiative, ED Now Feature, International Economic Development Council
Author, Revitalizing America Post COVID-19: A national roadmap activating institutions and ecosystems to serve the national economic recovery, White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Author, Inclusive Competitiveness: Empowering Underrepresented Ohioans to Compete in the Innovation Economy, Statewide Report, Ohio Board of Regents
Co-author, Technology-Based Economic Development: A Collaborative, Regional Approach to Expanding High-Growth, High-Potential Industry, Economic Development Journal, International Economic Development Council
Co-author, Inclusive Clusters: Embedding Inclusiveness in Cluster Policy and Practice, Economic Development Journal, International Economic Development Council

Honors, Recognitions, and Citations

Member, Federal Senior Executive Service (SES)
Ebenezer Bassett Award (SES), African American Federal Executive Association
National Institutes of Health Industry Day
National HBCU Colors Day, recognized by the President of the United States
National Black History Month Celebration, U.S. Department of Energy
21 to Watch in the 21st Century, The Cincinnati Enquirer
Setting the Standard Award, Cincinnati Public Schools
People to Watch, Cincinnati Business Courier
President’s Award, Black Data Processing Associates
Forty Under 40, Cincinnati Business Courier
Mayoral Citation, “CincyTech Day in Cincinnati,” City of Cincinnati
Ohio Senatorial Citation, High-Technology Start-Up Business Commission
Ohio Gubernatorial Citation, Innovation and Technology Economic Development

For more of Johnathan's Professional Bio, visit LinkedIn here.

Built From the Inside Out

Johnathan doesn’t chase applause. His path proves that discipline, joyful grit, and focused execution aligned with purpose turn potential into performance across teams, organizations, and communities. Johnathan’s specialty is building systems that deliver quality output. That output creates the right conditions for meaningful outcomes, helping clients and communities move from intention to achievement.

His roots are in a blue-collar neighborhood of Romulus, Michigan, where he grew up in his grandfather’s house, a place where accountability was the rule. His divorced mother, sharp and unflinching, enforced it while his father was behind bars. In 1920, the family’s Detroit story opened with his grandfather’s journey from Tuskegee, Alabama, as part of the First Great Migration. The progeny of freedmen and freedwomen and a disciple of Booker T. Washington, he was both a Baptist preacher and a factory man, spending nearly forty years with Ford Motor Company. He showed that strength isn’t gifted. It’s earned, day in and day out.

Backyard football was more than just a game. It was preparation. Every snap, win or lose, sharpened Johnathan’s competitive spirit. From a winless high school team, he walked on at West Virginia University, earned a scholarship, became team captain, and fought his way onto an NFL roster.

That culminated in a Super Bowl appearance with the Cincinnati Bengals. No shortcuts. No gimmicks. Only internal coherence, high-agency commitment, and a standard.

Drawing on his experience as a lawyer and leading civic organizations, driving government reform and advancing public development, Johnathan launched the Regional Technology Initiative. He brought together more than 300 leaders, including Fortune 500 CEOs, elected officials, and grassroots innovators, to shape the region’s innovation strategy. That blueprint led to the founding of CincyTech, where Johnathan served as the first executive director.

Johnathan’s commitment to output over optics and outcomes over politics carried seamlessly into public service. Appointed by President Trump to lead the White House Initiative on HBCUs, he advanced education, innovation, and investment, embedding inclusion in federal law as a pillar of national competitiveness. His post-partisan credibility, recognized earlier by President Obama’s White House during the Tech Inclusion Summit, reflects a career defined not by partisanship but by the pursuit of national strength through improved local performance, innovation, inclusion, and competitiveness.

ABOUT JOHNATHAN

Win yourself first, then everything else.

LevelUp America™ was born in the Valley neighborhood of Romulus, Michigan, where identity came from effort, grit opened doors, and doing something real was the path forward.

TRAILBLAZE WITH JOHNATHAN