Leah D. Hudnall is a nonprofit strategist, storyteller, writer, and creative committed to building racially just and deeply connected communities. She believes story is not decoration, it is infrastructure. Through civic engagement, immersive programming, and narrative power, she works to amplify voices, strengthen relationships, and nurture belonging.

Her story begins in a small yellow house on Cleveland’s southeast side. It was the same house where her mother, aunts, and uncle were raised, surrounded by neighbors who chose to do life together, carrying joy and grief side by side for decades. It was there that Leah learned community is built through consistency, love, and responsibility. Those early lessons shaped her confidence and instilled a lifelong devotion to community building.

She carried those values into a career spanning philanthropy, government, and civic leadership, with roles at the KeyBank Foundation, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, the George Gund Foundation, and the Saint Luke’s Foundation of Cleveland. Across these spaces, Leah became known for her ability to blend strategy with story, data with lived experience, and vision with action.

In 2020, Leah founded The Legacy Perspective, a civic consulting firm dedicated to telling honest stories and designing engagement that honors community voice. The firm provides strategic writing, community engagement, and project management, partnering with grassroots organizations, regional collaboratives, and national foundations. Her work includes Legacy LIVE, a storytelling series celebrating Black joy and resilience; #mystoryisrealBlack: The Trolley Tour, an immersive experience through Cleveland’s neighborhoods that centers and uplifts Black history; and Relay Cleveland, a public history campaign bringing more than 200 years of school desegregation history to life through film and public exhibition.

Leah’s commitments reflect the causes she holds closest: quality education and access, HBCU advocacy, civic leadership, and storytelling that preserves culture. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and Culture from Howard University and a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from John Carroll University. Beyond consulting, she has taught urban affairs at Cleveland State University and served in leadership roles across the city, including Vice-Chair of the Cleveland Board of Education and Chair of the Board for Cleveland VOTES. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

A proud third-generation Clevelander, Leah remains rooted on the southeast side, where she lives with her husband and their two children. She grounds her work in family and legacy, using it to give back to the neighborhoods that raised her, honoring the village and the yellow house that taught her what community means.