board of directors

Heather is the CEO & President of Clothed In Strength, a 501 c3 whose mission is to bridge the gap between financial freedom and government assistance for low to moderate income single mothers. She is a native South Carolinian and a graduate of Youngstown State University. Heather is no stranger to the nonprofit world. During her 15-year career in corporate banking, she served on the board of Junior Achievement, Rotary Club of Austintown and a spokesperson for Dream Catchers of Mahoning Valley. She has served with various organizations across the Mahoning Valley and state of Ohio such as Salvation Army, United Way, Rescue Mission, Hope Foundation, 

Operation Warm, Second Harvest Food Bank & more. 

Empowering women is a passion of Heathers. As a former Mrs. Ohio America 2016, her whole mission was helping women across the state realize their worth and help them learn how to step into their own greatness through the gifts God has given them. She was able to continue with this mission as the director of the Mrs. Ohio America circuit from 2017-2022.

Heather launched Clothed In Strength in March of 2023. Her greatest prayer through the mission is for every woman to feel the love of Jesus when they walk through the doors, meet them right where they are and realize what a masterpiece they are. Heather resides in Poland with her husband of 13 years, Steve, has 2 daughters, Taylor & Brooklyn and the sweetest labradoodle, Harley. 

 Steve Fronk is the Owner and Executive Director of a Residential Care Facility in Lisbon, Ohio. Personal Touch Retirement is licensed by the State of Ohio Mental Health & Addiction Services Board. Steve is affiliated with the Ohio Adult Care Facilities Association and is a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Prior to his experience in Mental Health, Steve was in the financial industry for nearly fifteen years. Steve is married to his wife, Heather Fronk, of 13 years and has two children, Taylor and Brooklyn.

Tanisha Wheeler, Youngstown resident, is the Regional Director for the Minority Business Assistance Center - Youngstown region. The MBAC currently serves entrepreneurs in seven regions throughout Ohio. Prior to taking the role of Regional Director, Wheeler served as the Business Advisor for the MBAC assisting clients in growing their businesses through funding, procurement, and strategic partnerships. 

Tanisha earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Youngstown State University in 2017, and went on to complete her Master’s of Business Administration in Leadership from Youngstown State University in 2022. Wheeler, also the owner of Birthright Consulting, a consulting company in Youngstown working to close the gap between families and educators.

Tanisha currently serves on the Board of Directors for MYCAP (Mahoning Youngstown Community Action Partnership), Advisory Committee for Choffin Career & Technical Center and Board of Directors for United Way of Youngstown and The Mahoning Valley as well as Board of Directors for Gateways to Better Living.

In addition to her professional work, Tanisha lives in Mahoning Valley and has one daughter, A’nya. Tanisha is committed to working in the Youngstown area and looks forward to continuing to assist in economic growth through entrepreneurship.

Delaney has a passion for helping and supporting others in any way she can. She works for Alta Head Start where she gets to make a difference every day in many children’s lives. Delaney lives in Austintown with her husband Jarrod and 2 daughters, Lily & Zoey.  

Amy Commesso Abruzere has always had a passion for making women feel their best self in their own skin. With over 26 years experience in fashion beginning in a corporate setting to present day being the owner of Grey Boutique, a Women’s Clothing store. Outside of her professional career she is the mother of two young boys, Antonio & Luca and the wife to Nicholas Abruzere. She enjoys networking, traveling and giving back to the community in anyway she can. 

 In 2016, founder Marisa Sergi was driving store to store across Ohio selling bottles of wine by hand with hopes someone would give her a chance, in 2017 she had the opportunity to pitch her brand at Walmart Open call, they said yes, not to shelf placement, but to authorize the brand to be sold in store by store, something Marisa already had great experience doing. At the time, Marisa had her wine label produced by a winery her family started back in 2006 which produced wines for the local market. By mid-2018 Marisa had gotten her label into most regional stores, but it was challenging just selling one label, one SKU at a time. When the opportunity came up to manage the family’s distribution business where she would be able to manage not only her brand, but the rest of her family’s wine portfolio she jumped at it. It wasn’t long before the distribution business became the predominant growth vehicle for the company, but by then her parents were looking at retirement and not reinvestment. In 2019, Marisa teamed up with her husband, Evan Schumann, who had a background in operations, finance, and M&A to put together a plan to buy her parents out of the company and in May of 2020 the winery officially changed hands over to Marisa and Evan. The plan was simple, strip out the product lines that were not making money and aggressively grow the brands with the best chance of national success. Over the past 3 years, Marisa and Evan have been able to scale the business from a local winery selling products across Northeast Ohio, to a multistate regional winery on a fast-track plan to national expansion. The winery's goals still remain the same, and the priorities are aligned with the continuation of national expiration as we continue to grab the attention of wine consumers new to the space, intimidated by the selection, or just our right looking for a more modern wine that better aligns with today’s adult beverage consumer. Marisa and Evan were recently recognized in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2023.