Angelica Diaz grew up inside the halls of OCCHA long before she led the organization.
As a child, she accompanied her mother to English classes at the Youngstown nonprofit, watching Latino leaders serve families navigating language barriers and economic hardship.
Today, Diaz is executive director of the 53-year-old agency and one of the inaugural honorees of the EmpowerUS Awards.
“I’m a product of the agency,” she said. “I’m not ashamed to say it.”
OCCHA, formally known as Organizacion Cívica y Cultural Hispana Americana, was founded in 1972 after Hispanic families who had come to the Mahoning Valley for mill jobs recognized the need for community support. Diaz’s own family was part of that migration story.
Her great-grandparents came from Puerto Rico in the early 1950s, and her mother later returned to Youngstown with limited English skills, seeking opportunity and family support.
Diaz remembers sitting in the building on Fruit Street while her mother attended classes. She remembers seeing Latino leaders serving the community and realizing that representation mattered.
“I remember seeing the leaders of the agency just walking around and them being a Latina, just like me,” she said.
Diaz said OCCHA serves about 1,000 families each year through its food pantry, clothing room, workforce programming and youth initiatives. The agency has expanded staffing and increased its budget during her tenure. For Diaz, the mission remains deeply personal.
“If it means putting OCCHA in the spotlight, I’m all for it,” she said. “It’s humbling; it’s exciting.”
The organization’s current building also carries emotional weight. A painting in the lobby reminds Diaz of summers spent in Puerto Rico visiting her grandfather, who owned a small corner store.
“Those pictures, they remind me of my childhood when I would go back to Puerto Rico,” she said.
OCCHA will receive the Community Impact Award at the inaugural EmpowerUS Awards ceremony, set for 10:45 a.m. Feb. 26 at Stambaugh Auditorium. The recognition program was launched by YBI and its Minority Business Assistance Center to highlight women- and minority-owned businesses and organizations whose work often goes unnoticed.
‘Talent Became a Passion’
Ryan Gilchrist did not set out to build a legacy. He set out to support his family.
“I never thought of myself as doing anything special,” he said. “I was just trying to feed my family.”
Gilchrist, owner of Ryan’s Chair, has been a licensed barber in Ohio for 30 years. He began cutting hair in his mother’s basement before opening his first storefront in the mid-1990s. The shop later moved to Glenwood Avenue, where it has operated for 27 years.
“God gave me a talent and a gift in my hands,” he said. “The talent became a passion.”
Over the decades, Ryan’s Chair evolved from a single barber’s station into a hub that helped launch other careers. Several barbers and stylists who trained or worked there have gone on to open their own shops in Youngstown and beyond. Gilchrist sees that ripple effect as part of the shop’s legacy.
“I have young people that move away, that come back home and say, ‘I remember when I was a kid, I used to come to this place,’” he said. “That’s incredible.”
Gilchrist said minority-owned businesses face distinct challenges, particularly when it comes to generational continuity.
“The challenge is to try to, firstly, stay open,” he said. “The second challenge is to really have a succession plan.”
“It’s hard for Black business in our city to think beyond our generation,” he added.
Ryan’s Chair, established in 1995, has endured economic downturns, neighborhood changes and shifting industry trends. Gilchrist attributes the longevity of the business to faith, consistency and mastering his craft.
“Be good at what you do and don’t try to be like someone else,” he said. “Be you.”
He will receive the Legacy Award at the Feb. 26 ceremony, recognition he said makes him reflect on the shop’s place in the community.
“It really makes me feel good, to be acknowledged, to be noticed, to be somewhat a staple in the community,” he said.
Resilience Paid Off
Rhonda Bowser’s path into the stone fabrication industry began with rejection.
Owner of BCI Granite, Bowser initially worked behind the scenes in her husband’s construction company, Bowser Construction Inc. Searching for a role that fit her skills, she identified an opportunity in granite fabrication and decided to open a supplier account herself.
She walked into a supply warehouse ready to start a business.
Instead, she was dismissed.
“You might want to go home and tell your boss to give us a call,” she was told.
The comment stung.
“The hardest part, it was a woman that told me this,” Bowser said. “So it was a really tough time for me because I thought, ‘Oh my God. What makes me think I can do that?’”
Sitting in her car afterward, she questioned herself.
“I didn’t know anything,” she said. “I didn’t know enough about it to do it.”
For a moment, it felt like a scene from “Pretty Woman,” the kind where someone is told they don’t belong. But unlike Julia Roberts’ character, Bowser did not return triumphantly to deliver a dramatic “big mistake” speech.
“I’m not that person at all,” she said, laughing.
Instead, she chose a different response: She educated herself.
Bowser immersed herself in learning stone fabrication from the ground up. She studied mineral composition, sourcing, equipment and tooling. She ordered a slab of stone and had her husband weld an A-frame trailer to transport it.
“I had to know everything about stone, down to the minerals, where it’s coming from, how it’s sourced,” she said. “I got to make it all connect in my brain so I understand it.”
What began as an idea turned into BCI Granite in 2012, an extension of the construction company she and her husband incorporated years earlier. The business now primarily serves residential customers across Ohio and employs five people. Growth has come steadily, largely through referrals.
“Our results speak for themselves,” Bowser said.
Working in a male-dominated industry required resilience.
“I’ve learned that you have to have tough skin in business, period,” she said.
Bowser said she still occasionally places orders with the same supplier who once dismissed her, though there is no confrontation, just business.
Receiving the Small Business Award initially made her uncomfortable.
“Some people love the spotlight,” she said. “I’ve never had that.”
But she now sees the recognition as an opportunity not only for her company, but for other women in the trades.
“This is going to be the best thing that I ever did for the business,” she said. “We’re a local, small family business. We’re here. We’re just like you. We grind. We work hard.”
Commitment to Community
Jeff Green sees Jazz in the Park as both a cultural institution and a commitment to community.
The free summer jazz series at Wick Park began 33 years ago when his sister-in-law was asked to create youth programming during a period when Youngstown was experiencing a high murder rate.
What began as a youth initiative evolved into an eight- to nine-week summer concert series featuring local and national artists.
Green took over the series in 2001 after his brother was killed.
“That’s absolutely part of the motivation to keep it going,” he said.
Each summer, attendance ranges from hundreds to thousands. The concerts are free and funded through sponsorships and fundraising efforts by the organization, a 501(c)(3).
Green said sometimes the impact becomes most visible in unexpected places.
“You have people putting in obituaries, and I’m not talking about just one or two, that their loved ones loved coming to Jazz in the Park.”
He hopes receiving the Trailblazer Award will strengthen partnerships and open new doors.
“I fight for this to happen and to keep this happening,” he said.
Born From Tragedy
Jasmine Neal’s business was born from tragedy.
Owner of Healing Hearts CPR Training, Neal opened her Ashtabula-based company in 2022 after her infant daughter died at 3 months old.
“I did not know CPR at the time,” she said. “We were unable to save my daughter.”
Neal became certified through the American Heart Association and launched her business to provide CPR training and other medical classes locally and nationwide. She operates independently while partnering with the American Heart Association and teaches across multiple states.
“Saving lives is really important, especially if it’s a loved one,” she said.
Since opening, the company has grown each year. Neal said the On the Rise Award affirms the work she has invested into building the business and serving the community.
“I just feel I put in so much work,” she said. “Sometimes you get discouraged. You keep going.
“It just means so much to me that people actually recognize my business and they recognize me and what I’m doing.”
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Pictured at top: Angelica Diaz, executive director of OCCHA, stands in front of a painting in the lobby that reminds her of her grandfather’s shop in Puerto Rico.