Welcome to Community Spotlight, featuring members of our Creative Mornings Community! We are so grateful to our community, and love learning more about our members’ creative life and what makes them tick.

This month’s Spotlight Feature is Leslie Battle (she/her)...

Q. Where are you from? If not Columbus, how did you land here?
I grew up in East Texas (Tyler) joined the Army, met a dude from Ohio, ended up in Columbus.

Q. Growing up, what was your family like? Any siblings?
I have an older brother I was raised with but I have 3 younger siblings who I recently connected with.

Q. Where do you live now?
Columbus, near Ohio Dominican University.

Q. Who do you consider your family today?
My adult children, my husband Mike and my step puppy Rocky.

Q. How do you spend your days? What’s your area of expertise?
I'm semi-retired so my days are typically spent working on personal projects or walking out in nature.

Q. What’s the first creative thing you remember making?
Mud pies in my mom's living room. Seemed like a good idea.

Q. What’s a tool—creative or otherwise—you can’t live without?
My imagination. All the physical stuff can be replaced.

Q. What's a creative pursuit you'd love to try but haven't yet?
I want to learn to work with sound therapy. I really enjoy sound baths.

Q. What's your favorite way to spend a Saturday morning?
Hanging out with hubby.

Q. What's one thing you're secretly good at?
Making lasagna (it's on a short list of dishes I cook well).

Q. What's your favorite life lesson or piece of advice?
Always eat your dessert first cause you never know when the world will end.

Q. Where do you go when you need inspiration?
I check my emails for one of the billion newsletters about creativity I subscribe to.

Q. Why do you choose to be part of the Creative Mornings Columbus community?
I really enjoy seeing people that I don't often see otherwise. I always feel safe and welcome here.

Q. What’s the most unexpected thing you’ve learned at a Creative Mornings event?
I am, in fact, creative. I fought with this idea for decades in spite of all the performing and writing I have done. It took being in community to give myself permission to accept it.

Q. Tell us about a meaningful connection you’ve made through Creative Mornings?
I have to say meeting the wonderful and one and only La Baker has really helped me to be my own cheerleader and embrace my energetic self.

Q. How has Creative Mornings inspired you to think differently about something?
Each speaker has given me something specific to ponder. I think the most important take away for me is that our differences make us work as community. We can't all do the same thing. Bringing varied talents and experiences together makes for a stronger collective.

Q. How has being part of the community shaped you and your creativity?
I am empowered to embrace my creativity and I feel more comfortable sharing my work with others.

Welcome to Community Spotlight, featuring members of our Creative Mornings Community! We are so grateful to our community, and love learning more about our members’ creative life and what makes them tick.

This month’s Spotlight Feature is Amy Linville (she/her)...

Where are you from? If not Columbus, how did you land here?
Cleveland suburb. A scholarship to Capital University.

Growing up, what was your family like? Any siblings?
Idyllic on the outside but a story of anxious attachment on the inside.

How do you spend your days? What’s your area of expertise? 
Between two Victorian homes in the Brewery district. 1. Treatment room for esthetics and craniosacral therapy, 2. Bookkeeping office for a real estate/property management company.

What’s the first creative thing you remember making?
Plugging the drain on the basement floor to make a swimming pool for my dolls.

What’s a tool—creative or otherwise—you can’t live without?
My soaking bathtub.

What's a creative pursuit you'd love to try but haven't yet?
A Blue Walk art vacation in Europe. Sketching backstage at a Fashion Show.

What's your favorite way to spend a Saturday morning?
Having the day off and enjoying coffee. I’m sensitive and can't get too revved up on the days I have my hands on people.

What's one thing you're secretly good at?
Pumpkin carving.

What's your favorite life lesson or piece of advice?
Keep showing up. Improvements will come in spite of yourself.

Where do you go when you need inspiration?
Thrift stores.

Why do you choose to be part of the Creative Mornings Columbus community? 
It felt so great to be invited and the community is warm and welcoming.

What’s the most unexpected thing you’ve learned at a Creative Mornings event?
That introverts can be great speakers.

Tell us about a meaningful connection you’ve made through Creative Mornings?
Countless small connections during small group time.

Anything else you want to share with the Creative Mornings Columbus community?
My current favorite public spaces are “The Link” Pedestrian Bridge in Dublin and Quarry Trails Park.

SEPTEMBER EVENT PHOTOS

September’s global theme: Blossom

Columbus speaker: Kate Sweeney

Kate Sweeney is a self-taught photographer from Columbus, Ohio, who has described her process as therapy. “Taking self-portraits and photographing other women has been the most transformative part of my life,” she explains — “to see our bodies as art made autonomously and authentically instead of objects to be owned and desired.” Working collaboratively with her subjects, Sweeney strives to make honest, vulnerable portraits that are simultaneously defiant and inviting. Her photographs are a celebration of the human form, color, and our connection to nature, bearing witness to her subjects, and to them witnessing themselves. Her lifelong inspiration with the natural world, by our bodies and the connection they have to nature and how they mimic and reflect one another, is investigated in intimate interactions between figures and their surrounding environments. They are enveloped, being one with the earth that surrounds them resulting from spontaneous, unplanned moments. Kate has shown her photographs in numerous group and solo exhibitions across the United States. She is represented by Sarah Gormley Gallery, and her work has appeared in numerous photo books and magazines such as Billboard, Glamour Magazine, and Teen Vogue. Whether she is working with a big commercial client or a peer from her community, she hopes to maintain the same integrity in her approach to celebrate everyone’s unique, inner beauty.

See more photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCwESs

AUGUST EVENT PHOTOS

August’s global theme: Nomad

Columbus speaker: Brian Kaiser

Brian Kaiser is a stylized documentary photographer and the founder of the commercial photo studio Wonder & Wander. His work highlights and celebrates people, culture, and politics across America, with a special focus on the Midwest. His projects have covered the found family of trans Juggalos, spear-wielding ice fishers, the diversity of the bull-riding community, the aftermath of the East Palestine train derailment, adaptive trail runners conquering some of America’s highest peaks, and aspiring presidents and their most devoted supporters. His documentary practice is built on the belief that we have the most to learn from those whose stories are rarely told.

See more photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCrDga

JULY EVENT PHOTOS

July’s global theme: Mentor

Columbus speaker: Rachel Joy Barehl

Rachel has been winning creativity awards since first grade and throwing legendary gatherings since she was tall enough to reach the counter to make snack boards. In her 20s and 30s, Rachel became a foster parent, a visual anthropologist, and a celebrated wedding photographer—bearing witness to the tender, imperfect ways humans choose one another.

Whether behind the camera or at the heart of a community, she’s spent her career seeing and celebrating people, their choices, and their bold, intentional moves toward love.

Today, Rachel is crowdsourcing love—literally. She’s the founder of a matchmaking movement based in Columbus, Ohio (and beyond), inviting people into brave, neighborly, honest connection with playful, mindful energy. Her work tackles loneliness, disconnection, and scarcity with creativity, innovation, and deep care.

See more photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCpunS

JUNE EVENT PHOTOS

June’s global theme: Punk

Columbus speaker: Joyce Chen

Joyce Chen is a recovering economist. She has a Bachelors degree in economics from Brown University and earned her PhD at Harvard University. After spending 15 years in an economics department, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed Joyce to re-evaluate her work… and pivot. 

After a brief leave doing research at Amazon, she is now a Professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at THE Ohio State University. Her research has addressed climate vulnerability, migration, women’s empowerment, and inequality. 

Joyce is a five year member of Governor Dewine’s Economic Roundtable and serves on the boards for Action for Children, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, and Matriots Education Fund, as well as the advisory council for Children’s Defense Fund of Ohio.

See more photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCkW11

MAY EVENT PHOTOS

May’s global theme: Revival

Columbus speaker: Marisa Sheldon

Marisa Sheldon (she/her), MSW, LISW-S is the Director of the Age-Friendly Innovation Center and Age-Friendly Columbus and Franklin County. 

After completing her undergrad and graduate program at the Ohio State University College of Social Work, Marisa spent the start of her career with a focus on clinical services to older adults and caregivers. Marisa then moved towards more macro focused social work, joining the Ohio State University College of Social Work Office of Field Education, expanding her knowledge beyond the aging network and identified her interest in working with students.

She joined the Age-Friendly Columbus and Franklin County team in 2018, allowing her to engage her passion for working with older adults, students, and community organizations. At Age-Friendly, she acknowledges what a privilege it is to have the opportunity to inspire the next generation of those working in aging.

See more photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCgjtU

APRIL EVENT PHOTOS

April’s global theme: Crossroads

Columbus speaker: Ukeme Awakessien Jeter

Ukeme Awakessien Jeter currently serves as Mayor & Council President of the City of Upper Arlington, Ohio, and is the first person of color to hold this role in the city’s 107-year history.

After living in 8 cities across 4 countries, in 2018 Ukeme chose Upper Arlington as the community to raise her children. Her commitment to the community led to service on the City’s Financial Review Taskforce and its inaugural Community Relations Committee, paving the way for her history-making election to City Council in 2021 and appointment as Mayor & Council President in 2024.

Professionally, Ukeme has over two decades of experience working within Fortune 500 companies, national law firms, universities, local governments, and specialized agencies of the United Nations. Born in Nigeria, she earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maine, an MBA from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and a Juris Doctor (JD) from Case Western Reserve University School of Law. A recognized trailblazer, Ukeme has been named by Columbus CEO magazine as a Future 50 leader.

See more photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCbz51

MARCH EVENT PHOTOS

March’s global theme: Parallel

Columbus speaker: Stefan T.Wong

Stefan T.Wong is a Columbus, Ohio native. He has had the fortune to experience life through the lenses of entrepreneur, attorney, artist, professor, strategist, and author. He has been recognized as a Future History Maker by UrbanOne Radio, has worked with GRAMMY-nominated and Billboard charting producers and musicians, has been a TedxKLB speaker, and has been recognized for his legal endeavors by the likes of SuperLawyers and Mahogany Magazine. Stefan T.Wong is a co-owner of Thomas Ingram Law Group and Chief Listening Officer of his strategy firm, Six K. He has been an adjunct professor at Capital University Law School and Otterbein University. And signed to Rockrose Publishing, his book, Talking to Crows, was honored in Visionary Fiction by the NYC Big Book Award.

See more photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjC7dG8

FEBRUARY EVENT PHOTOS

February’s global theme: Layers

Columbus speaker: Emily Krichbaum

Emily Krichbaum is a historian of American women and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University, where she studied modern American social movements. Her dissertation, which received the Jane and Cecil Lyman Prize for Best Ph.D. Dissertation and was recently featured by the Smithsonian’s flagship podcast, Sidedoor, explores the intersection of feminism, ageism, and advocacy through the lives of Maggie Kuhn and Tish Sommers. She serves as the Assistant Director of Strategic Programs and Education at the National Women’s History Museum, where she leads and oversees a range of innovative educational programs and strategic initiatives while collaborating with external partners to create impactful programs and exhibitions. She is also a lecturer at The Ohio State University and a lead facilitator for Lean In Girls.

See more photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjC3HVM