Wednesday, May 27, 2020, CINCINNATI: The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati (TCT) is proud to welcome four new members to its Board of Directors: Jeanette M. Altenau, Director of Community Relations for TriHealth; Toyia Montgomery, HR: Vendor Partnerships & Employment Branding at Kroger and Executive Director of Relate Marketing; Ryan L. Messer, Regional Business Director at Johnson & Johnson and Vice President of the Cincinnati School Board, and Paul Griscom, interim Chief Accounting Officer at Macy’s, Inc.
Kim Kern, TCT’s Managing Director and CEO, said: “We feel incredibly fortunate and honored that these talented community leaders have chosen to join our Board of Directors. In these challenging times, positivity and forward momentum are not to be taken for granted, and we appreciate and celebrate all that these individuals we add to our mission and focus.”
About TCT’s New Board Members:
Jeanette M. Altenau
Jeanette M. Altenau
Jeanette Altenau currently serves as the Director of Community Relations for TriHealth, one of Cincinnati’s largest healthcare organizations and the fourth largest employer within the city. In this role, she has responsibility for all community collaborations and engagement across extensive geographic areas in which TriHealth physicians practice and their patients live, work and enjoy life. Prior to her current role, she was Director of Strategic Community Initiatives for Local 12, WKRC Television in Cincinnati, Ohio, one of the nation’s top CBS affiliates and #1 local station in the tri-state area.
Jeanette has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Dedication Award by the Northern Kentucky Branch of NAACP; the Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau Spirit of Cincinnati Champion Award; and the Silver Crime Stopper Challenge Coin (the second highest award given by the organization) in recognition of her work with the non-profit organization. She is also a two-time Emmy nominee and in 2012, she was recognized as one of the “100 Minds – Thought Leaders in the Greater Cincinnati Region”, recognizing individuals who excelled in thought leadership within their industry, their ideas/personality as an individual and/or their involvement within the community. In 2019, she was named a Health Care Heroes finalist by the Cincinnati Business Courier. In 2018, she was honored by Healthy Moms and Babes for her commitment to pregnant women and their children. In 2017, she received the Ovarian Cancer Alliance Teal Power Caring Community Champion Award, recognizing an individual or group from the community who has stepped up to help in the fight against ovarian cancer. In 2016, she was awarded the Friars Award in recognition of her leadership and assistance to the organization in an exceptional manner while exemplifying her life in the Franciscan tradition of service to others. In 2013, she received the Cincinnatus Award, in recognition of civic virtue, service to community, family values and ongoing support of the tri-state community.
Toyia Montgomery
Toyia Montgomery
Toyia Montgomery has a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from Ohio University (OU), where she majored in advertising. In her sophomore year of college, she studied Sociology and Mass Communications at the University of Leicester in England. After graduation from OU, she earned her MBA and founded a non-profit organization called Relate Marketing while working for Cincinnati Public Schools. Relate Marketing was established to expose children from single parent homes to a world outside of their communities through educational trips and community events. Toyia has done work for several organizations including, but not limited to: Cintas, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, The E.W. Scripps Company, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce and most recently the Kroger Company. Additionally, she has taught marketing and sales courses as an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati, the University of Phoenix and Mount St. Joseph University.
Ryan L. Messer
Ryan L. Messer
Ryan Messer is a Region Business Director with Johnson & Johnson leading sales in the Midwest. He is known at J&J for leading diverse, high-performing teams as well as his strategic mindset and his ability to work collaboratively throughout the organization over the past 23 years. Throughout his career, he has had access to some of the best training available in the business world in areas such as financial management, strategic planning and organizational development.
Ryan is a graduate of Purdue University. He currently serves at the Vice President of the Cincinnati School Board and also is a member of the Cincinnati Opera Board. In the past, Ryan served as a two-term president of the Over-the-Rhine Community Council, a Board member of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a founder of the Cincinnati Human Rights Campaign and is a graduate of C-Change and Leadership Cincinnati through the Chamber of Commerce. Ryan & husband Jimmy are residents of North Avondale and they have four children who all love The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati.
Paul Griscom
Paul Griscom
Paul is currently the interim Chief Accounting Officer at Macy’s, Inc. and previously led the company’s financial reporting, accounting services and capital administrative teams. Prior to joining Macy’s, Inc. in 2016, Paul worked at a small boutique accounting advisory firm, GAAP Dynamics, where he advised public companies and smaller accounting firms on the economic and financial reporting impact of significant corporate activity and transactions. Paul began his career at KPMG LLP in their financial services audit practice after graduating with a B.B.A in Accounting from Chicago’s Loyola University.
A Cincinnati transplant, Paul currently lives in Madeira with his wife and three children. He began working with TCT in 2019 as a member of the Audit Committee and got a first-hand look at the importance of Cincinnati’s art organizations when chairing Macy’s 2019 ArtsWave Workplace Giving Campaign and co-chairing their 2018 campaign. He is a committee member on the Board of Managers of Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) and previously served on the 3CDC Board of Managers’ Investment Committee.
About The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati:
For 100 years, The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati has provided education and entertainment for children and the young at heart through the art of stage performance. TCT is the oldest children’s theatre in the nation, and the only professional theater in the region that devotes its entire MainStage season to children. TCT directly impacts the lives of nearly 200,000 families and children annually, through Broadway-quality TCT MainStage performances as well as TCT on Tour touring productions and TCT Academy performing arts instruction for children ages 18 months to 18 years.
In March of 2020, in response to COVID-19 and school closures, The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati launched TCT EVERYWHERE — an online resource for parents, teachers and students featuring crafts, acting and vocal exercises and contests from the professional artistic staff of TCT Academy; along with study guides, podcasts, videos of past productions, and more.
For more information about the TCT mission, check out our website or enjoy our programming through TCT EVERYWHERE.
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