Staff

Kirk Noden

Executive Director

Kirk Noden has worked as a professional organizer for twelve years. Kirk began his organizing career in Chicago first working for a neighborhood based community organization on the west side tackling issues such as abandoned buildings, school overcrowding, crime and safety, and quality of public parks.

Kirk graduated from Kent State University in 1997 with a degree in Philosophy and completed an Honor's Thesis examining black liberation theology and the growing radicalization of Martin Luther King Jr.'s politics in the latter stages of his life. Kirk is married to Rosa and has two sons named Roberto and Emiliano.

Tammy L. Thomas

Community Organizer

Tammy has been a resident of the Youngstown community all her life. She is the proud parent of 3 adult children and a grandson. She grew up on the East side of town and graduated from East High School. She treasures many memories of growing up in Youngstown, including shopping downtown; helping her great-grandmother with day work for prominent families; and the comfort of a mixed neighborhood where everyone cared and looked out for each other. She is grateful to have experienced this city when it was still thriving yet, she is just as heartbroken by the experiences of hard times riddled with crime here too.

Becoming a community organizer has given Tammy the opportunity to empower individuals and organizations to institute real change within the community. To create a shift that promotes accountability and responsibility that will help restore Youngstown to a viable community that is "for the people and by the people" who are proud to call it home. She has had successful public meetings along with several neighborhood organizations, faith based organizations and SEIU Local 1199.

Phil Kidd

Community Organizer

Phil is a Class of 2008 Leadership Mahoning Valley graduate and participant in the Class of 2009 Mahoning Valley Government Leadership Academy. He is also a two time “Top 40 under 40” recipient, receiving recognition as “Most Valuable Professional” in 2008 and was named a “Champion of Change” in the Valley by WYTV Channel 33.

While serving in Youngstown, Phil has completed graduate level course work in Criminal Justice at Youngstown State maintaining a 4.0 grade point average. His thesis research focuses on a 21st century crime reduction and community development strategy for the city. Phil currently resides on the city’s North Side.

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Chris McKee

Community Organizer

Christopher McKee, Jr. began organizing with MVOC in June of 2009 as an organizing fellow working primarily with clergy and faith-based organizations within the Valley.   A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Christopher was reared in the Valley and graduated from Youngstown State University in 2006 with a B.A. in History with a minor course of study in Religion.   

Licensed as a Baptist minister in 2003, and ordained to the Christian Ministry in 2007, Christopher began graduate theological education at Yale University in the fall of 2006 and graduated with a Master of Divinity degree in the spring of 2009; Christopher's research interest focused on Systematic Theology and Church History.  During his time at Yale Christopher served multiple congregations in Connecticut, ministered throughout the East coast, and spent a term in Cambridge, England examining inter-denominational dialogue within an Anglican seminary.

Adam Keck

Community Organizer

Adam Keck grew up in rural North Jackson, Ohio, but his family’s history is deeply ingrained in the boom and bust of the Mahoning Valley’s industrial economy: his great-grandfather was a coal miner, his grandfather worked at and then owned Reliable Source of Metalworks on Hogue Street in Youngstown, and his father saved for college by working summers at Republic Steel and his dad’s shop. Adam considers any advantage that he has had in life a result of the hard work his family put into the rich industrial history of the Valley and envisions a future in which it will return to economic stability and prosperity.

Lea Dotson

Community Organizer

Lea is a lifelong resident of the city of Warren.   A Warren G. Harding High School grad, she credits her parents’ diligence in shaping her outspoken character.  Throughout her childhood, her parents made it mandatory that she and her two older brothers sit as a family every night to watch the evening news. 
The regular debates on the content between her parents and eldest brother impacted her opinions and made her keenly aware of the world’s injustices at a young age.

Her mother raised her under the model of “put up or shut up”, compelling her to become not just aware of but involved in her community. After high school, she took a job at the then Rebecca Williams Community Center, which provided her a deeper understanding of the systemic conditions hindering inner-city youth from reaching their potential. The lessons she learned from RWCC still have a profound impact on Lea to this day.

Beth Ann Tabak

Communications and Business Manager

Beth Ann Tabak began 2010 as the newest addition to the MVOC staff, a realization of her goal to merge her two passions in a professional capacity: writing and reenergizing Youngstown.  A lifelong resident of the Mahoning Valley, Beth Ann was impacted from a very early age by her Grandmother’s stories of growing up on Youngstown’s South Side.  Her Grandmother loved the city and constantly contributed to her community’s well-being. It is largely because of this example that Beth Ann has pursued a work environment that is dedicated to rejuvenating the Valley.

Alaina Gilchrist

Organizer

A Valley native and graduate of Niles McKinley High School, Alaina Gilchrist attended Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania where she majored in Communications and Political Science. Upon graduating in May 2009, Alaina returned to the Valley and began interning for the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative where she eventually obtained a fellowship. 

Eric Jordan

Fellow and Community Organizer

Born and raised in Youngstown, Eric Jordan, Jr. began working for the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative as an intern during the Summer of 2009.  Eric’s first focus was on the organization’s vacant property campaign, in which he played a major role.  This experience has led Eric to seize an opportunity to create change and help build leadership within the communities he has watched slowly deteriorate since his childhood. These efforts, coupled with his belief in accountability and building capacity, made his decision to move into his role as Fellow and East Side Community Organizer an easy one. 

Carrington Moore

Organizing Fellow

Carrington Moore grew up on the south side of Youngstown and experienced the best of what Youngstown has to offer as he was nurtured by his family, church and the Youngstown City School system. Carrington attributes his success thus far to the people and organizations within Youngstown that invested into his life. Carrington understands the disparities that exist within his community and desires to help eradicate the social ills that plague the community.
 
A graduate with Honors from Chaney High school in 2005, Carrington matriculated to Youngstown State University earning a B.A. in Political Science & Philosophy with a minor course of study in history.