Tia Toles remembers staring out the window of her office on Courthouse Square at the Wean Foundation building and thinking, “I’m not fulfilling my purpose, but one day I will.”

That feeling had been gnawing at Toles, who was then a caseworker for Trumbull County, for some time.

She felt it when having conversations with her two high school-age daughters about the importance of going to college. She took her own advice and enrolled at Kent State University Trumbull, where she pursued and received degrees in Communications and Media Studies and Nonprofit Management. 

She felt it again when she learned about the Wean Foundation’s Emerging Leaders program, which was established to create a pathway to decision-making tables by immersing Warren and Youngstown grassroots leaders in intentional, practical and relevant leadership development experiences. While going to college, working fulltime and raising two daughters on her own, Toles applied for the program. She was accepted and credits the program as being one of the most important experiences of her life. “It helped me to discover my purpose,” she said.

“I always want to be more involved in supporting people. I love people. I love engaging.” 

The program equipped Toles with an understanding of community building and resident-led engagement but also helped her learn about herself. She was able to identify her strengths and what kind of leader she was—and wanted to become. Most importantly, the experience gave her the confidence to make a career leap. She joined the Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI), supporting minority-owned businesses with their growth. 

But the gnawing feeling didn’t go away. “That first leap is really hard,” she said. “I still had this nudge, like this is OK but I still want to do more. … I know something else is on the horizon.” 

While at YBI, she connected with an individual who was using the organization’s coworking space who worked for a company called gener8tor, a nationally ranked venture capital firm and accelerator that brings together startup founders, investors, corporations, job seekers, universities, musicians and artists. The company was about to start a new pilot program with Microsoft and was expanding its team. Toles applied and—three interviews later—was hired. 

“That was my second leap,” she said. “It was much easier. I felt confident in the way I was interviewing and in the experience I had combined with my education.”

In under five years, Toles has progressed from manager to associate vice president at gener8tor. She leads a team of individuals across the country who assist job seekers with career coaching and job placement. 

“I’m supporting the supporters,” she said. It’s exactly the kind of role she was always meant to have. 

“My strength is my supportiveness,” she said. “I have an amazing team of people who I feel respect me because I’m intentional in how I lead and manage them. I learned a lot of that from the Emerging Leaders program.” 

Indeed, she was known by her colleagues in that program as “the encourager.”

These days, outside of her work at gener8tor, Toles is focused on a new role: grandmother. But she isn’t stopping there — and there is surely more on the horizon for Toles. 

“I always want to be more involved in supporting people,” she said. “I love people. I love engaging.”