University Circle Inc.University Circle Inc. ForwardTogether
Strategic Plan 2018-2022

Appreciation

60 years of progress thanks to engaged citizens and partners

University Circle is an extraordinary neighborhood of people of all backgrounds and interests. They come from around the world to live, work, study and enjoy the rich diversity of experiences found in this spectacular square mile. Anchored in this hub of Cleveland’s education, medical, arts and cultural institutions, University Circle Inc. has led a remarkable evolution of the neighborhood over the last 60 years.

About University Circle Inc.

University Circle Inc. is the community service corporation responsible for developing, serving and advocating for University Circle as a vibrant and complete neighborhood.

Our Mission

Building a community experience that connects all people with Cleveland’s center of culture, healing and learning.

A Model Approach to Place Making in Cleveland

It began with a good idea from one of Cleveland’s most spirited civic leaders. In 1957, Mrs. Elizabeth Ring Mather envisioned a plan that would develop University Circle and its institutions. An 18-month study produced the University Circle Master Plan that would guide the Circle’s growth in its first 10 years. The organization’s first president, Neil Carothers, would later say, “We made fifteen years of progress in our first ten years.”

Emerging from the 1957 plan was the University Circle Development Foundation (UCDF) which was endowed as a land bank for the strategic growth of Circle institutions. UCDF later became University Circle Inc. (UCI) with a broadened portfolio of place-based services including community education, police, land development, marketing, landscaping and maintenance, transportation, public events, and architectural review. Over the last 60 years, UCI has functioned as a nonprofit community service corporation and dramatically enhanced base city services for its 40 member institutions and the millions of people who have worked, studied, visited, and called University Circle home over the years.

UCI President Chris Ronayne

In one spectacular square mile, University Circle is Ohio’s most diverse urban neighborhood, a center of innovation, and a cultural hub. At UCI, we work every day to continue to enhance the Circle through our unique community service model of partnerships and collaborative leadership. Sixty years in the making, nowhere in the country is there a place or an organization quite like this. We owe our success to a great civic idea that has been sustained over six decades by the UCI board members, staff members and community partners.

Chris Ronayne
President, UCI

In Winter 2017, we set out to create UCI’s next strategic plan. We committed to building on the past plans’ foundations and to identify the priorities most compelling to the diverse array of people who are a part of this vibrant neighborhood. I’m honored to have worked alongside the strategic plan committee members and UCI staff leaders, and I thank them for their deep commitment to exploring the opportunities of the years ahead.

Paul Clark
Regional President, Northern Ohio, PNC Bank
Chairman, UCI Strategic Planning Committee

Paul Clark

Committee Members

Amy Starr Redwine
Pastor and Head of Staff
The Church of the Covenant

André Gremillet
Executive Director
The Cleveland Orchestra

Barbara R. Snyder
President
Case Western University

Craig Martahus
Partner
Thompson Hine LLP

Cynthia Dunn
President
Judson Services Inc.

Dan Simon, MD
President
UH Cleveland Medical Center

Evalyn Gates
Former Executive Director and CEO
Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Felton Thomas
Director
Cleveland Public Library

Jennell Vick
Executive Director
Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center

Michele Connell
Managing Partner - Cleveland
Squire Patton Boggs

Ndeda Letson
Vice President
Citizens Bank

Victoria Broer
Special Initiatives Officer
Burton D. Morgan Foundation

Paul Clark
Regional President
PNC Bank

Bill Seelbach
Senior Advisor
The Riverside Company

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Our Shared Accomplishments