Mychal Greenwood, President and Co-Founder
Mychal Greenwood is the president and co-founder of Humble Beginnings, a mentoring program founded in 2009, that offers mentoring and educational support with a strong emphasis on financial literacy to youth of underserved communities. Since implementation, he has been charged with shaping the program’s curriculum and methodically growing it throughout urban communities. Humble Beginnings has experienced growth from a word-of-mouth organization to partnering with one of the largest school districts in Tennessee, Metro Nashville Public Schools. As a result of the collaboration, HB currently holds a 100% high school graduation rate with over 70% having pursued some form of higher education immediately after.
While experiencing success with Humble Beginnings, Mychal decided to create Humble Beginnings Academy realizing a deeper need of educational support for all ages throughout urban communities.
Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio life experiences, successes and shortcomings all have contributed to who Mychal Greenwood is today. Education is not only his profession, but it is his passion and a part of his everyday living. When not directly working on HB initiatives, he’s spending time with family, interacting with the community as a Master Barber, and coaching or traveling the world to experience other cultures.
“Time is our most valuable resource. Understanding this, I made a decision to surround myself with only two types of people. Those I can LEARN from & those I can TEACH. Everything else is a waste of my time and I can’t AFFORD to do that.”
-Mychal Greenwood
Dr. LaShonda R. Greenwood, Parent Advocate and Executive Board Member
Dr. LaShonda R. Greenwood obtained her Doctorate in 2004. She is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Dr. Greenwood serves as the treasurer of The Pyramid Foundation of Tennessee, which focuses on eliminating the stigma of mental health in the African-American community, particularly among females of color. She is also the co-founder of Purposeful Life Counseling and Psychological Services, LLC. One of Dr. Greenwood’s passions is empowering teenagers and helping them work through challenges, developing independence, and becoming more comfortable in creating their own “unique” journey.
“I am excited to serve on the Executive Board of Humble Beginnings as it provides the opportunity to engage and witness both educational and mental/emotional growth in our youth.”
Dr. Greenwood will also serve as our Parent Advocate to help address parental concerns and assist parents with becoming more involved in their children’s education.
Dr. Greenwood is a wife and proud mother of 5 amazing children.
Steve Herron, Board Member
Mr. Steve Herron serves as the Chief, Safety and Health at the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) John H. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
As Chief, he is responsible for the overall management and implementation of Institutional Safety and Occupational Health efforts to ensure program success, health, and safety.
Steve has a strong professional background in quality engineering, operational safety, and as a supervisor in the federal government. Steve has lead multiple government agency level teams and has supervised local personnel as well as geographically dispersed staff based in other states and countries. Steve’s engineering background includes component, materials and manufacturing technology development for low-volume, aerospace applications, high-reliability applications in military and civilian aircraft, complex gearing systems used across a variety of applications, engineered materials, and high-volume US currency production. Steve is also a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt and has applied a wide variety of project management and quality engineering techniques for problem-solving and driving toward intended outcomes including root cause analysis, Lean Six Sigma events using 5 S’s, Kaizen, and Value Stream Mapping, process safety management, laboratory characterization and evaluation testing, corrective and preventative actions, cost estimating and modeling, developing and deploying training programs, auditing, customer feedback, supply chain management and statistical process control.
Steve helped the Bureau of Printing and Engraving implement a new Quality Engineering function and developed their five-year strategic quality plan. The Treasurer of the United States, Rosie Rios, presented Steve with the 2015 Bureau of Engraving and Printing Director’s Award for his contributions to the organizational mission and goals and as a representative of the Bureau’s core values of Performance, Integrity, Fairness and Respect. Steve has won numerous Leadership and Supervisory awards at NASA Goddard Space Flight and Glenn Research Centers and DuPont.
Steve graduated from the University of Akron in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology and he earned his master’s degree industrial engineering at Cleveland State University in 2009.
Steve and his wife, Keyasha are the proud parents of two sons, Steve Jr and Drew, and a daughter, BrookLynn, and they reside in Twinsburg, Ohio.
William Conwell, Branding and Marketing
William Conwell was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee and attended Tennessee State University. He is the owner of William Conwell Janitorial and co-owner of Juggernaut 24 Entertainment.
“My reason for wanting to work with kids is because I am that kid. I come from the same environment, I’ve been through similar experiences and I’ve faced some of the same obstacles. I’ve been blessed to be a blessing and I want to make a difference.”
Chavel Glover, Lead Mentoring
My name is Chavel (pronounced like the car, Chevelle) but a lot of people call me Chevy. I’m originally from the eastside of Chicago but I’ve been residing in the Middle Tennessee area for some years. I’m a former college basketball player, but now I work with the mentoring program, invest in real estate, and create music.
What made me want to get involved with the Humble Beginnings program and work with youth is my understanding of how the youth control the future and run the world as we know it. I was raised by a single parent where I also grew up the only child and even though my mom did a phenomenal job raising me, the older I got the more I understood the importance of having a positive male figures in the lives of the youth. So, I want to prevent as many young people as I can from going through that experience. God willing