Melinda Swan launched The Collective Genius to marry an expertise in strategy and marketing to a lifelong commitment to the greater good. She has more than three decades experience as a marketer, innovator and entrepreneur. Her previous roles include serving as associate vice president for university communications and marketing at The Ohio State University, leading a comprehensive market research effort and helping craft the university’s new advancement strategy.
As chief operating officer of the YWCA Columbus, Ms. Swan helped the agency earn additional grants of more than $1 million and turned a low-performing facility into a highly rated shelter. She undertook similarly successful public-private initiatives as chief of staff for the Columbus City Council, most notably leading a public education and training effort on sudden cardiac arrest that has saved more than 30 lives and coordinating the enactment and campaign to preserve Columbus‘s clean indoor air law on smoking.
She began her career in private sector public relations, first entering the public policy arena as an aide to a state senator and then heading media relations for Ohio’s attorney general. As part of a public affairs firm in 1990, Swan worked with Children’s Defense Fund on a policy initiative that won public recognition from newspaper editorial boards and ensured that both gubernatorial candidates invested in children’s programs. After serving as the first woman to run a U.S. Senate primary campaign in 1994, she returned to Columbus and launched her first company, working extensively with clients such as Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio, Children’s Hunger Alliance, Jobs for Columbus Graduates and Jobs for Ohio Graduates, and Voices for Children, among others.
Most recently, she and TCG won 74% of the vote for the 2015 Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health levy, increased public awareness and brought more problem gamblers in for treatment at Maryhaven, helped secure $3 million and counting for the anti-poverty work of the Columbus Urban League and successfully launched a private foundation dedicated to affordable excellence in public higher education.
Her work has won numerous recognitions and awards, including from the Columbus Marketing Association and The Ohio State University Board of Trustees.
Ms. Swan was one of the original advisors to the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, helping them to win support from the Ohio General Assembly and close a major loophole in Ohio’s family violence laws. She is one of three co-founders of the Greater Common Good and won the Corcoran Award for Social Justice Advocacy in 2011. She has served on numerous boards including Jobs for Columbus Graduates, the Mid-Ohio Board for an Independent Living Environment, and Equality Ohio. She has volunteered extensively, with an emphasis on advocating for low-income families. As a current member of the Star House Advisory Board, Ms. Swan contributes her time to serving homeless youth.
