The 2022 Celebration of Changemakers and Best Class, Ever! Campaign

Join Leadership Columbus on Friday, September 9 for the Celebration of Changemakers as we gather to honor the people who uplift our communities!

Event Details

Date: Friday, September 9

Time: 6 p.m. – 10 p.m.

Location: COSI – Atrium
333 W. Broad St.
Columbus, OH 43215

Attire: Business or Cocktail attire

Keynote Address: Dr. Amy Acton, MD, MPH
President/CEO, RAPID 5

Amy Acton, MD, MPH, is a physician and community leader who has spent over 30 years pursuing her passion for public health and wellness.

Whether as director of the Ohio Department of Health during early days of the COVID pandemic or as vice president of Human:Kind at the Columbus Foundation, Acton has worked to create community conditions that encourage people to flourish toward their full potential. Acton now carries her unique ability to inspire people to live their best lives as director of a new nonprofit being created to champion RAPID 5, a movement dedicated to connecting central Ohioans to nature and one another through the region’s five major waterways and the parks and trails along them. Acton’s widely acclaimed leadership and inspiring guidance was seen in daily news conferences as COVID exploded in the spring of 2020, earning her a Profile in COVID Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in 2021. In 2022 she was named Woman of the Year for Ohio by USA Today for the significant impact she has had.

A native of Youngstown in northeast Ohio, Acton received her master’s degree in public health from Ohio State University and her medical degree from Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine. She completed internships in pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and residency in preventive medicine at OSU. Acton has taught in the OSU College of Medicine and Public Health and the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. She previously directed Project L.O.V.E. in Columbus, an initiative of local hospitals to Love Our Kids, Vaccinate Early. She also worked for the Columbus Foundation as a community research and grants management officer. Under her leadership as state health director, Ohio created the first ODH deputy director position focused on mobilizing federal and state resources to promote health equity, inclusion and opportunity for all Ohioans. Acton lives in Bexley with her husband, Eric, who has coached and taught in Bexley City Schools since 1987.

The 2022 Best Class, Ever! Campaign has begun and this year, it’s bigger than ever!

Check out the campaign launch message from LC Executive Director, Shannon Lee.

Every year, Leadership Columbus alums come together to give back and support Leadership Columbus in carrying out its mission “to develop, connect, and inspire, diverse leaders who serve as catalysts in building a strong and vibrant community. The class that raises the most money is bestowed the coveted title of Best Class, Ever! Over the last year, Leadership Columbus has quadrupled its programs. That means that each graduating class has not one but four classes in each graduating year to combine fundraising forces! Additionally, if you get your company to purchase a table at or sponsor the Celebration of Changemakers, that counts toward your class’s total!

The campaign has closed and the winning Class will be announced at the Celebration of Changemakers on September 9!

Your generous gifts:

Fund tuition assistance and scholarships for Signature Program, NxGen, ExecGen, and workshops
Help keep the Central Ohio Leadership Academy, a leadership intensive for high school juniors and seniors, completely free of charge for students.
Support high-quality programming to develop our community’s leaders.

Thank you to our generous sponsors:

Corporate Sponsors