Antioch College is pleased to announce Shannon TL Isom will be the Commencement 2019 speaker. Commencement will be held Saturday, June 22, 2019 at 10:00 AM.
Shannon TL Isom is the President and CEO of YWCA Dayton. Isom is responsible for the executive and administrative leadership of the YWCA Dayton, which strives to eliminate racism and empower women. Likewise, she is responsible to ensure high-quality outcomes, financial sustainability, organizational viability, and exceptional program service delivery. The YWCA Dayton has played a pivotal role in shaping the Dayton region; Isom’s priority is to carry the mission and to ensure it is both a catalyst and a disrupter for issues that affect women, especially those most acutely felt through the lens of intersectionality. She served as a YWCA Dayton board member, as well as Board Chair before taking the helm and ushering the YWCA Dayton into a $17+M renovation and capital campaign project.
Isom began her professional career with the YWCA Columbus; hired as a program manager of a pilot program, she solidified her commitment to women, and her passion for medicine and community health into a realized professional focus. With over 20 years engaged within a myriad of health industries, she has worked for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Women’s Health Division, Miami Valley Hospital, Premier Health Partners, and CareSource in areas of Sales, Business Development, Systems Integration, and Business and Clinical Integration, respectively. She brings her skill set of visioning, strategic planning, and profitable business focus to every position.
Isom has had extensive Post-Baccalaureate education from The Ohio State University School of Medicine and Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. She has a BS of Pre-Medicine/Biology from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, and an MBA in Healthcare Administration from Northeastern D’Amore-McKim School of Business in Boston, MA. Awards bestowed include: Dayton Business Journal Forty under 40, Leadership Dayton, Dayton Business Journal 50 Most Powerful Women, Better Business Bureau WiBN Top 25 Women to Watch, Antioch College Coretta Scott King Justice Award, and Dayton Business Journal Forty under 40 Hall of Fame.
She has spoken in a wide range of venues, including TEDx, TEDx Salons, YWCA USA, United Theological Seminary, Antioch College, Central State University, Girls on the Run, and Power Rising Summit—always addressing the issues that disparate women of race and class. Through board service on the YWCA USA Board of Directors as well as President of the Ohio Council of YWCAs, her focus strives for both political advocacy, mission, and collective voice within national, state, and local platforms.
Likewise, she lends her voice, time, and energy in the same vein to community through participation on innumerable boards, committees, task forces, and personal and professional mentoring.
In 2017, Isom was presented with the Coretta Scott King Justice Award at the Annual Coretta Scott King Center Legacy Luncheon. She also spoke at the Freedom to Vote Rally here on campus in the fall of 2018.
