Catherine “Katy” Crosby is the Executive Director of the City of Dayton’s Human Relations Council. The Council conducts civil rights enforcement by investigating and adjudicating discrimination complaints in the areas of housing, employment, public accommodation and credit; provides business and technical assistance including certifying minority, women and small disadvantaged companies, administering the City’s HUD Section 3 program, ensuring diversity and inclusion on City funded projects, and hosting the Minority Business Assistance Center to build the capacity of small disadvantaged companies; and administers community relations programs and projects to include the Welcome Dayton initiative to make Dayton more immigrant friendly, initiatives to improve community-police relations and the Community Initiative to Reduce Gun Violence (CIRGV). Most recently, Katy has been involved with negotiating public benefit agreements with financial institutions on behalf of low-to-moderate income communities and communities of color totaling over $62 billion combined.
Ms. Crosby has served as a leader on issues related to cultural, economic, racial and social justice issues. She has played a lead role in establishing the City’s Community Police Council and overseeing staff responsible for developing strategies to increase trust including establishing processes for reviewing and reporting data on police interactions with the community, educating community members on strategies to engage with police and report concerns, establish and implement strategies to reduce gun violence and provide services to high risk individuals
Katy’s community involvement has earned her a number of recognitions including an appointment to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Ohio Advisory Committee, 2015 & 2016 Dayton Business Journals Power 50 and 2016 40 Under 40, Southwest Ohio Urban League’s 2015 Inaugural Journey Award recipient and many others.
She is currently a board or committee member for the Ohio Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Miami Valley Urban League, and The Dayton Foundation’s Minority Inclusion Committee. In addition, she has previously served as a board or committee member for the Montgomery County Drug Taskforce, Montgomery County Re-Entry Policy Board, Unified Health Solutions (UHS), Dayton Dialogue on Race Relations (DDRR), Wright State University’s (WSU) Foundation Board of Trustees, Ohio American Civil Liberties Union, Miami Valley Child Development Center (MVCDC), Parity, Inc., House of Bread, Omega Community Development Corporation (OCDC), Parents Advancing Choice in Education (PACE), Innerwest Community Development Corporation, the Dayton Urban League and the Miami Valley Teen Council.
She is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. She has a beautiful, energetic, hardworking, compassionate daughter named Eryn. She has a BS in Accounting from Wilberforce University and a Master of Public Administration from Wright State University.
