Annie DePerro, Project Manager

I’m a lifelong Ohio girl and have loved calling Northeast Ohio my adult home since the 1990s. I grew up in Clintonville, an urban, walkable neighborhood in the city of Columbus, just a short two-hour drive from my current neighborhood in Akron, Ohio. I love historic neighborhoods and have spent the past two years managing the renovation of my childhood home (built in the 1920s, so it’s nearly a century old!) and updating the house I live in, a 1940s era house in Fairlawn Heights. Three dogs and two teenagers share my home with me. Someone wisely advised me that parents of teens should have a dog so that someone is happy to see you when you arrive home. Truer words have never been spoken.

Fitness and health have always given me a way to connect to the broader Cleveland community. For newcomers here, there are plenty of ways to be physically active in CLE. In my 20s I was the coxswain for my rowing team in the Flats (still an active club today), in my 30s I ran races including the Cleveland Half Marathon and the Akron Spring Classic, and in the early 2000s I took up tennis, which I still play recreationally at clubs across Akron and Cleveland. As a mom, I cheer on my son at baseball and basketball games and encourage my daughter at horse shows in the country. In the winter, you’ll find us warming up our ski legs at Boston Mills and Brandywine and putting our skills to the test on the slopes of New York or Colorado.

I love to read and have been an active member of my book club for years (started by a friend who had relocated to Canton when her kids were little and the club is still going strong!). Happiness, to me, is being part of a team of amazing, supportive, encouraging co-workers who are the best in the world at attracting and welcoming newcomers to Cleveland.