About FreshWater

FreshWater is a daily e-magazine and website that reports on What's Next in and around Cleveland. Each week, we offer up a fresh wave of stories covering Northeast Ohio's most creative people, businesses, organizations, and neighborhood developments. Our focus areas include technology, innovation, diversity, local food, and entrepreneurship. We speak to creative, highly mobile, and curious people who are interested in where the growing companies are, where innovation is taking place, and where unique neighborhood transformations are taking root.

Look for us every Monday through Thursday. Get FreshWater free in your e-mailbox each week. Please subscribe, and also follow us on social media on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Managing Editor: Karin Connelly Rice

Karin Connelly enjoys telling people's stories, whether it's a successful business or one's life passion. She has written for FreshWater for 12 years and has spent more than 25 years reporting on the business community and interesting people doing interesting work in Northeast Ohio for publications such as Inside Business magazine, Cleveland Magazine and Lake Erie Living. She was editor of the Rocky River and Lakewood edition of In the Neighborhood and was a general assignment reporter and photographer for the Amherst News-Times in Lorain County. At FreshWater she enjoys telling the stories of Clevelanders who are shaping and embracing the business and research climate in Cleveland.

Managing Photographer: Bob Perkoski

In addition to his work for FreshWater, Bob Perkoski is the official photographer for LAND Studio and Holden Forests & Gardens. He also works freelance with many Northeast Ohio orginizitions such as The Cleveland Foundation, Playhouse Square, MetroHealth, Medical Mutual, Canalway Partners, to name a few. His photography is featured in Rust Belt Chic: The Cleveland Anthology and was co-founder/art director for Balanced Living magazine (through 2008). His substantial portfolio includes news coverage, portraiture, commercial imagery and fine art. His book Rust Belt Burlesque debuted in July 2019 with co-author Erin O'Brien. Perkoski's first solo show, These Walks of Life premiered in December 2016 in Negative Space Gallery. Visit Perkoski Photography for complete profile information. Originally from Conneaut, Ohio, Perkoski now calls Cleveland home. He has been FreshWater's managing photographer since the publication's September 2010 inception.

Senior Contributing Editor: Douglas J. Guth

Douglas J. Guth is a Cleveland Heights-based freelance writer and journalist. In addition to being senior contributing editor at FreshWater, his work has been published by Crain's Cleveland Business, Ideastream, and Middle Market Growth. At FreshWater, he contributes regularly to the news and features departments, as well as works on regular sponsored series features.

Special Projects Editor: Rhonda Crowder

Rhonda Crowder worked as a general assignment reporter for the Call and Post Newspaper for 11 years and has served as associate publisher of "Who's Who in Black Cleveland" since 2013. She currently runs a creative services agency, is VP of print for the Greater Cleveland Association of Black Journalists, and coordinates Hough Reads literacy initiative. Her debut novel is titled "Riddles." At FreshWater, she leads the Black Environmental Leaders' series on Environmental Justice.

Contributing Editor: Grant Segall

Grant Segall is a national-prizewinning journalist who spent 44 years at daily papers, mostly The Plain Dealer. He has freelanced for The Washington Post, Oxford University Press, Time, The Daily Beast, and many other outlets.

Contributing Writer: Katie McMenamin

Katie McMenamin has written across a range of platforms, from broadcast news and published novels to promotional brochures and back cover blurbs. With her sister, she created a home organization business that transformed into a blog, a website, and then the book, "Organize Your Way: Simple Strategies for Every Personality." With her dad, she has published three historical thrillers, most recently "The Prussian Memorandum". She is a proud Cleveland native who returned home after 25 years and is now happily ensconced back in The Land of Champions.