Allyson V. James’ professional experience spans over two decades with a concentration in early childhood education and various essential family services. She is currently the Director for Head Start/Early Head Start and has previously worked as a Deputy Director for the Summit County Department of Job and Family Services. 

Allyson began serving on the Summit DD Board in 2017. She is also a Board Member for the Ohio Head Start Association and a committee member for both the First Things First Early Childhood Project and Summit’s Family and Children First Council.  

Allyson graduated from Cleveland public schools and went on to earn her MS and BS in Sociology from the University of Akron.  

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Randy Briggs, former Deputy Mayor for Labor Relations for the City, was appointed to fulfill an unexpired term on the Board. Briggs has served in numerous roles for the City of Akron including Assistant to the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, Labor Relations, as well as General Counsel for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office and is a graduate of the University of Akron School of Law.

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Gregg Cramer serves at the Greater Akron Chamber as the Vice President of Economic Development. Prior to joining the Greater Akron Chamber in 2007, Mr. Cramer held a number of positions with the Summit County Department of Community & Economic Development from 2003-2006 including Loan Officer, Enterprise Zone Administrator and Assistant Director for Economic Development.

In his role as Vice President of Economic Development, Mr. Cramer manages the day-to-day operations of the Greater Akron Chamber’s Department of Development. Along with business attraction, his primary focus is coordinating retention and expansion efforts and acting as a liaison with regional and statewide economic development partners in both the public and private sectors. Mr. Cramer oversees elements of the Elevate Greater Akron business retention and expansion program including proactive outreach to targeted scale up, mid-market and large companies in the County of Summit, with an emphasis on minority-owned and the rubber/plastics/polymer cluster.

Mr. Cramer co-chairs “Akron, USA’s” participation in both domestic trade shows such as National Plastics Exposition (NPE), International Tire & Exposition Conference (ITEC) and the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) and international trade shows such as the Hannover Messe, K Show, MEDICA and Fakuma in Germany. Mr. Cramer also coordinates inbound delegations, site visits and trade missions for the Greater Akron Chamber.
Mr. Cramer is a certified Economic Development Finance Professional (EDFP), and he earned a BSBA from John Carroll University in Cleveland and attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

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In July 2008, Youssef started Zane’s, Inc. This non-profit organization helps families who have children and adults with special needs who live in Northeast Ohio. They provide educational opportunities for parents to become better advocates for their children and provide quarterly funding resources for various therapies, camps, assistive technology, adaptive equipment, respite care, some medical expenses, etc. Youssef currently serves on this Board of Directors as a volunteer CFO.

By day, Stacy is the Business Manager for American Testing Technologies and she is a retired teacher.

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