Alissa Paolella is used to asking the questions. Their first career was as a journalist, and even after moving into a second career in marketing and communications, the local resident was still typically on the giving end of queries.

This month, though, sitting in the News office for an interview about their newly launched business, Springs Content Studio, Paolella acknowledged the role reversal with a laugh.

“I’ve interviewed professionally for a long time, right?” they said. “But talking about myself is a totally different thing.”

Paolella’s comment hit at the center of the work they said they aim to do via Springs Content Studio. Most people and organizations have stories to tell, Paolella said, but they don’t always know how to articulate those stories to the world at large, or at least the portion of the world they want to reach.

Though Paolella has already been offering marketing and communications consulting work under their own name for a while, they said the official launch of Springs Content Studio last month formalizes that work and puts a structure around it — and potentially solves a pragmatic issue.

“Nobody can spell [Paolella] — or, you know, say it,” they said. “I’ve got to think about search engines and how people are finding companies that do the kind of work I do.”

Paolella described their work as “ethical marketing,” an approach they said is shaped by their years in journalism, and later sharpened by time spent in organizational work.

“I don’t lie or mislead, but I do message things in a certain way,” they said.

Marketing, they said, is selective by nature; so is storytelling — and so, in its way, is journalism, for that matter. The work of ethical marketing is all about shining a light on a person’s body of work, the services a business offers or the mission of a nonprofit so it’s visible to the folks who might need it — without bending the truth. 

“That’s what you lead with, it’s what you’re focusing your attention on — you’re telling the truth, but in a way that makes you look good,” they said. “When we talk about transparency, that doesn’t just mean that everyone knows everything all the time — it’s the right information at the right time, and that might not be everything all at once.”

What to say, when to say it and who needs to hear it, Paolella said, are skills they first learned as a journalist — and still use as a frequent freelance reporter for the News. Growing up in Northwest Ohio, they knew early on that they wanted to write for a living, and by high school, Paolella was editing the school newspaper. They later attended Ohio University’s Scripps School of Journalism and worked as a community reporter for more than a decade.

Paolella said they loved newspaper reporting, but the political climate for journalists in 2016 — “I was in a very conservative area, and I wasn’t feeling super safe in that newsroom,” they said — combined with long hours and low pay, pushed them to look for work outside the field.

The movement from journalism into broader communications wasn’t immediate, particularly as Paolella pitched potential employers on the idea that the skills they had built as a reporter — interviewing, listening, organizing information and understanding audiences — were valuable beyond the newsroom.

“I tried to convince people that my skills were transferable,” they said. “That can be difficult.”

Eventually, Paolella moved into marketing and communications work, first in nonprofit senior living, later at marketing agencies and most recently at Central State University in Wilberforce. Across those roles, they said, they developed a number of skills — media relations, design and promotion, social media messaging and copywriting and editing, among others — and found themselves helping fill gaps where they arose.

“PR is not the same as communications, is not the same as marketing, but I’ve done all three,” they said. “Because my skill-set is wide, and I’m a helper, I would say, ‘Oh, I can help out with that until someone fills the role,’ and then often, it would become part of my job.”

Transitioning into consulting work, then, was a way to corral all the various kinds of work Paolella had amassed into a defined stream of offerings. It also offered a way to keep doing the work they knew they were good at, but with more autonomy than they had found in some traditional workplaces. After experiencing workplaces that trusted them to manage their own time, they said, it was hard to imagine stepping back into any environment that valued how many hours were logged versus the quality and efficiency of their work.

“I enjoy working for myself,” they said.

Through Springs Content Studio, Paolella focuses on strategy, writing, design and public relations storytelling — or, as they put it, “how you get your story out there.” That’s where the journalist still remains visible within the consultant, they said: they’re listening for the details that, they hope, will make a story land, especially for those who may be too close to their own work to know how to describe it.

“Small businesses are sometimes just the owner, and articulating who you are, and then actually getting that out into the public, can be a challenge,” Paolella said.

Working as a kind of translator between values and public expression fits the way Paolella self-identifies as a consultant; they noted that a workplace assessment once determined their two primary traits as “creator” and “connector.”

“It’s not just connecting people,” they said. “It’s also connecting ideas,”

The creator and connector roles, Paolella said, also shape the way they aim to move through the Yellow Springs community, including its local business community. Paolella, who also co-owns Elysium Massage, said they have tried through both businesses to support and promote other local businesses; they pointed to a February local business campaign, for which they created and shared graphics highlighting other participating businesses.

“I want us all to succeed, and I believe in this town and in the people in it,” Paolella said. “I’m so lucky to be here; there’s no place like Yellow Springs.”

Paolella moved to the village about three and a half years ago, after years of feeling isolated elsewhere in Ohio. They said they came to the village intentionally, after realizing that the way they felt when they visited Yellow Springs might be reason enough to put down roots.

“I say it all the time: I feel like I belong here in ways that I’ve not belonged in other places,” they said. “There’s no perfect place — but this place is perfect for me.”

Paolella said they jumped right into getting involved in the community, becoming part of planning annual Pride events and the community Thanksgiving meal. Now they’re a double business owner, member of the Chamber of Commerce and, by one particular metric they mentioned, woven into the tapestry of village life.

“Pretty shortly after I moved here, the first time someone yelled ‘Alissa!’ out their car window as I was walking down the street, I thought, ‘I’m a local,’” they said.

For more on Springs Content Studio, go to http://www.springscontentstudio.com

The 2026 installment of the annual Yellow Springs Pride Festival and Pride Parade will take place Saturday, June 27, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., on South Walnut and Short streets. Lineup for the parade will begin at 10 a.m. on the Railroad Street gravel lot.

The festival will include vendors, musical performances, community resources, a beer garden, food trucks, dancing, Pride merchandise and community.

The schedule of events includes:

11 a.m. — Pride Parade begins, stepping off from the gravel lot on Railroad Street and proceeding through downtown Yellow Springs. The parade is open to individuals, organizations and businesses, and float entries are welcome. To participate, visit http://www.yspride.com/ys-pride-parade to sign up and learn more.

11 a.m. — Ohio Brass & Electric opens the festival with the official welcome and a danceable mix spanning musical genres and eras.

1 p.m. — Scarlett Moon & Friends, Dayton-based drag group, performs.

2 p.m. — Egyptian Breeze Belly Dancers, an eclectic group of women from across the Miami Valley, performs.

2:30 p.m. — Scarlett Moon & Friends, second performance.

3:30 p.m. — !PUFF!, a musical fairytale and art collective, performs.

9 p.m. — Afterparty at Peach’s Grill, with live music, dancing and drag performances for ages 21 and older.

For more information about YS Pride and the annual festival, visit http://www.yspride.com or email volunteers@yspride.com

Last year, when local artist Iden Crockett launched “Gender X,” the art exhibition — which aimed to highlight the work and stories of trans and gender-nonconforming artists — was intended as a sort of alarm bell, as Crockett told the News at the time.

Launched in June — Pride Month — the show went up at YS Pizza Company and Trail Town Brewing amid a panoply of anti-trans legislation in Ohio and executive actions from the Trump administration. With “Gender X,” Crockett wanted to push back against what she described as the attempted erasure of trans and gender-nonconforming people.

This year, after mounting the second iteration of “Gender X,” she told the News the apprehension she felt last year, and named, still lingers.

“The rhetoric has not stopped, the legislative attacks haven’t stopped, and I think the danger is just as real,” Crockett said.

Nevertheless, she said something in her own thinking has shifted since last year; the “Gender X” show is larger this year, with work installed across three venues — YS Pizza Company, Trail Town Brewing and the Emporium — and with more artists. More to the point, last year’s sense of emergency has given way, she said, to a renewed hope.

“I feel less certain that they’re going to be successful in their attacks on us as time goes on,” Crockett said.

Last year, she said, she wondered if even staying in the U.S. was ultimately safe for her, and for other trans people in the country; now, she said, she believes her place is here.

“What I realized was that leaving the country wasn’t going to solve my problems,” she said. “It might save my life, in the short term, but … it’s a worldwide struggle.”

She added that the relationships she’s built within the trans and wider LGBTQ+ community — including those who might not have the money or flexibility to leave — weighed on her heart, too.

“I wouldn’t be able to leave them behind,” she said. “So it became like, OK, how do we stay and fight here and make our stand here?”

The second iteration of “Gender X” is part of that stand. The first exhibition, Crockett said, was organized quickly — “rough and basic,” as she put it — because she felt it was important to begin pushing back as soon as possible. This year, she wanted to return to the idea, but on a broader scale.

Last year’s show featured work by Crockett and fellow Ohio artists Ray Mathew-Santhosham, Dravyn Rosendahl and Lynn Jiminez. This year, Mathew-Santhosham and Rosendahl return, in addition to Nicki Graeling, Luna Cherry, Lola Betz and Lark Orbe. The exhibition includes digital collage, digital painting, found-object and wire work, mixed media on paper and acrylic painting.

Crockett said her primary requirement for the artists was practical: The submitted work had to be frameable and able to be installed in public-facing businesses where folks would be moving through their typical lives — approachable, both physically and in style and tone. That’s part of the central premise of the show as it was imagined last year, and this year: that your typical villager or visitor, out for a cup of coffee, a beer or a pizza, might encounter art by trans and gender-nonconforming artists and be drawn to engage with it.

And while they’re admiring the work, patrons of the host establishments will, with any luck, also read the short biographies and written responses to questions from Crockett, and get to know the artists as the fully-rounded people they are.

Last year, Crockett said, she received some good feedback from the venues where “Gender X” was installed. The most meaningful responses, though, came from the artists who participated.

“It seemed to make a great deal of difference to them, to have been able to speak and to share their work out,” she said. “For a lot of them, that was the first time that they’d shown any work.”

And though she hopes the show reaches people outside the trans community — people who might not otherwise seek out trans voices or stories — she said she has come to understand another benefit of the exhibition.

“I think that ultimately the real benefit of this is going to be in building community and giving strength to those other trans people and trans artists,” she said. “Building community is great, so if that’s all that comes out of it, then it’s worth the effort.”

She said she classifies community-building as its own brand of activism — maybe not the kind that upends legislation or incites large-scale public action, but the kind that, little by little, can result in cultural change.

“I think reaching people one on one and changing hearts and minds one at a time as you go is the sort of non-glamorous, dirty-in-the-trenches activism that we need more of,” she said. “We need more people to build personal connections, and to sort of risk their hearts and be vulnerable out there.”

And vulnerability often means sharing one’s own words, art and image in public, sometimes without knowing who will see them, or whether they’ll have the effect you hope they will, she said.

“You don’t really know if it makes a difference, and you have to have faith that it does,” Crockett said. “Maybe if 100 people look at your work, one person leaves different. But that’s one person who wasn’t going to be changed if you hadn’t put yourself out there, and that is what we build.”

Crockett said she knows the damage already done won’t resolve on its own, and that trans people can’t afford to “wait for people to wake up one day and care about” them. Full equality and acceptance for trans and gender-nonconforming people likely won’t come quickly — maybe not even in her lifetime.

Nevertheless, she said she doesn’t believe that work like what she hopes to build with “Gender X” is a drop in a bucket  — or if it is, it’s one of the many drops that keep on dripping, and one day, the bucket will overflow.

“Things change very gradually — maybe they’ll change by the time I’m long gone,” she said. “But I was part of it, right? And we all have to step up and be part of it, and have that sort of faith, that hope, that this is worth it.”

“Gender X” is on display at YS Pizza Company, Trail Town Brewing and Emporium Wines and Underdog Cafe through June 30.

This year’s local celebration of Juneteenth will take place throughout the day Friday, June 19, beginning with a gathering at 9:45 a.m. in front of Antioch College’s Olive Kettering Library, where a historical walk will begin at 10 a.m., led by 365 Project youth walking-tour guides.

The walk will conclude at the John Bryan Community Center front lawn, where, at 11 a.m., the 2026 YS Juneteenth program will begin, featuring songs performed by the World House Choir; remarks on the meaning of Juneteenth and the ties between African cultural expressions of freedom and Juneteenth celebrations; and readings from narratives of formerly enslaved people. The program will conclude by 12:30 p.m., and will be followed by a free Juneteenth lunch prepared by local chef Locksley Harper.

From 12:30–3:30 p.m., the YS Juneteenth Community Fair will take place on the Bryan Center lawn with music by DJ Basim and performances by Tronee Threat, Misty Gill and Friends and Phenom Brown.

From 5–7 p.m., at Little Art Theatre, a fundraiser for the Coretta Scott King Center at Antioch College will feature a screening of the film “Chosen: A Love Letter to Black Trans Community,” about the 2025 Black Trans Reunion in New Orleans, followed by a panel discussion. Admission is $15.

Then, from 7:15–9 p.m., locally based artist Joshua Whitaker will be at the Village Cyclery courtyard on Dayton Street, where he will lead a Juneteenth Art Making Workshop honoring the legacy of Black American freedom. Participants may contribute to a group piece, make a piece to take home or both.

Donations for the day-long celebration may be made online at the365projectys.org. Questions may be emailed to the365Projectys@gmail.com.

Michael Casselli told the News this week that his years with Antioch College have been bound up with his belief in its continued mission of education within a structure of shared government, upheld by institutional memory.

An alumnus who graduated from the college with an art degree in 1987, Casselli — who had been working in the arts in the U.S. and abroad for two decades — returned to campus in 2008 after Antioch University announced the college’s closure, and decided to stay. He worked with the Nonstop Institute to keep the historic college’s mission visible and alive while the college gained independence from the university in 2009. After the revived Antioch opened to students in 2011, he became part of its arts faculty.

“I’ve spent 18 years of my life working on that place,” Casselli said. “I believe in it as an institution.”

That’s part of why, he said, his recent indefinite unpaid suspension feels larger than an employment dispute. Having earned tenure in 2021, Casselli said he believes the suspension undercuts the academic freedom that Antioch has always championed, and that tenure is designed to protect.

He told the News that being suspended indefinitely with conditions, in his view, amounts to being fired without the due process historically afforded to, and expected by, tenured faculty — a concern also raised by the American Association of University Professors, or AAUP.

Casselli was initially terminated by the College in February following what he called “a very heated disagreement with a colleague.” He said the disagreement was “primarily on my side,” and wrote in correspondence with the College that he apologized and viewed his own behavior as regrettable.

But the issue at hand for Casselli is not whether the January incident occurred; rather, he said, it’s “the process that was not used” to instigate his initial termination and later indefinite suspension without pay.

“I want to take responsibility,” Casselli said. “I thought we were going to move through a process similar to mediation.”

In a June 2 letter to Antioch President Jane Fernandes, the AAUP — a national union and membership association that advocates for faculty and other academic professionals — wrote that Casselli’s indefinite unpaid suspension is a “matter of serious concern,” and should have been preceded by a “dismissal-style hearing” before an elected faculty committee.

The College has framed the issue as being about workplace behavior within a professional environment. In letters reviewed by the News, Antioch described its actions as responses to documented conduct and safety concerns rather than disagreement over academic viewpoints or academic freedom.

Last week, ahead of running a letter to the editor that cited Casselli’s termination and later suspension, the News requested comment from Antioch College; Fernandes submitted a written statement in response, which was printed in full in last week’s “Community Forum” section.

In the statement, Fernandes said the College is “committed to maintaining a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for students, faculty and staff.” She wrote that when conduct concerns arise, the College follows policies designed to ensure “a fair, thorough and appropriate review,” but added that personnel privacy limits what the College can share publicly.

The News reached out to Antioch again this week after speaking with Casselli; the College declined to comment further and directed the News again toward its written statement.

The College first notified Casselli of disciplinary findings in a Feb. 9 letter following the January dispute and a later meeting between Casselli, then-Provost Brian Norman, a faculty advocate and the colleague involved in the dispute.

In that letter, Fernandes wrote that Casselli had engaged in misconduct constituting workplace violence under College policy. The letter cited “undisputed facts,” including “threatening, intimidating, and derogatory language in a public setting where students were present,” his “acknowledgment of responsibility” and a broader pattern of behavior. Any further violation, the letter stated, would result in immediate dismissal.

Casselli pushed back on the College’s findings in a Feb. 13 response, calling the assertions of “undisputed facts” and a documented pattern of behavior “incorrect statements.” He wrote that there had been “no evidentiary hearing,” and that the incident “did not involve violence or threats of any sort,” but was “only an argument that eventually did include some yelling.” He said the disagreement occurred in his office, that he was not aware of students nearby and that he had apologized for his behavior.

“I never threatened,” Casselli told the News. “I’m not a physically violent person.”

The Feb. 9 letter gave Casselli until Feb. 13 to make a decision between three options: undergo unpaid suspension with conditions for possible return, be terminated for cause or resign in lieu of termination.

The suspension option would have barred him from campus and contact with the colleague involved in the dispute, required anger management counseling and delayed a possible return to his position until at least Aug. 15, with at least six months of probation and a permanent final warning. He would also be required to sign nondisclosure and nondefamation agreements, and agree not to “weaponize students, alumni, or other community members against the College.”

Rather than select one of the options, Casselli requested “a full hearing before the Faculty Promotion and Review Committee and all other applicable processes, including the inclusion of the Board of Trustees.” He objected to being required to choose within four days from what he called “three equally unacceptable ‘options,’” and wrote that the nondisclosure and nondefamation requirement “violates the principles of free expression, academic freedom and the fundamental values of Antioch College.”

“I challenged it because I found it to be unfair, lacking process and arbitrary,” Casselli told the News.

On Feb. 19, Fernandes denied Casselli’s request for a hearing and terminated his employment for cause, effective that day, citing a provision in the College’s Faculty Personnel Handbook allowing termination of a tenured position due to “moral turpitude,” a term not defined in the handbook; the same provision had been cited in the College’s initial disciplinary findings.

Casselli argued in his Feb. 13 response that his January conduct did not constitute “moral turpitude,” and said he believed the College’s use of the term was intended to characterize his conduct as a fireable offense within the limited options the handbook outlines for terminating tenure.

On March 2, Fernandes emailed Casselli that the Board of Trustees had directed her to suspend his termination, restore his pay and benefits and continue further investigation, including review by the Faculty Promotion and Review Committee. While the process continued, Casselli was not allowed on campus or permitted to teach. Casselli said he believes the Board’s guidance to Fernandes reflected concerns about the process used to arrive at termination.

“I think it was presented to the board, and the board had questions,” he said.

The matter continued May 20, when Fernandes wrote that the College had reviewed its policies and concluded Casselli would be suspended without pay until he provided “satisfactory evidence” that he was “able and willing to return to work in full compliance with all College policies.”

The letter barred Casselli from faculty duties and campus access except with written permission, and made any change in status contingent on medical and psychological “fit for work” certificates; anger management, workplace behavioral coaching or similar training; demonstrated commitment to College policies; and agreement to any ongoing restrictions or monitoring requirements deemed necessary by the College.

Casselli wrote back May 26 and questioned why physician statements were required when he had not been on medical leave and said he had “no physical or mental impairments” preventing him from working. He also asked what would satisfy the College’s requirements and what restrictions he would be expected to accept, writing that “it is not reasonable to ask me to agree to something if I do not know what the terms are.”

In a June 4 response, Fernandes directed Casselli to complete a professional anger management or comparable conflict de-escalation program and sign a statement agreeing to follow College conduct and safety policies, but did not address his question about why medical certification was required.

Fernandes also wrote that the College retained “sole discretion” to determine whether its concerns had been addressed and when and whether he could return. The College could determine that Casselli would not return to his position even if he completed one or more requirements, the letter said.

In his interview with the News, Casselli said that “sole discretion” is why he believes his suspension is effectively permanent.

“When does it end?” he said. “It’s totally subjective.”

The AAUP, having already written to the College with concerns in May ahead of Casselli’s indefinite unpaid suspension — that letter was published in last week’s issue of the News — expanded on its concerns in its June 2 letter. AAUP Senior Program Officer Mark Criley wrote that the organization had previously contacted the College over concern that Casselli was facing termination for cause without a hearing before an elected faculty committee.

Criley wrote that while the AAUP was “heartened” that the College had not immediately dismissed Casselli without such a hearing, the indefinite unpaid suspension constituted a “major sanction, second in severity only to dismissal,” and reiterated that Casselli should be given a hearing. Criley added that an indefinite suspension with conditions for return is “tantamount to a dismissal,” particularly when the administration alone determines whether those conditions have been met.

“While we would welcome correction, it remains our understanding that Professor Casselli has not been afforded such a hearing,” Criley wrote. “The allegations against [Casselli] are serious and the sanctions he faces are severe; both threaten his career and his reputation. Common decency and basic principles of fairness call for them to be contested before a representative body of his professional peers.”

Casselli told the News that what drew him to Antioch College as a student were its “pedagogical ethos” and “community-based shared government ethos,” and they were part of what brought him back in 2008.

“I feel very strongly about the place, what it did for me and what it represented,” he said.

Through that lens, Casselli said he believes the way his case has been handled reflects an erosion of shared government and faculty process at the College. He said he doesn’t view the January incident itself as an academic freedom issue, but does view the process used afterward as such.

“If we don’t maintain these structures that we’ve all agreed upon for process, then our academic freedoms are being impinged,” he said.

At press time, Casselli remains barred from campus, though he said he’s continued to offer assistance to his students when they ask.

“I just lent a student my recliner for their senior project film and made stuff for their shoot,” he said. “I’ve talked to the students, and they’re upset, because I have a good relationship with them. They’re the reason I was there, right?”

On June 3, one of Casselli’s students began circulating a petition, with signers asking Antioch administration to allow Casselli to be on campus for upcoming events, including Reunion, where he was intended to be the recipient of the Alumni Association’s J.D. Dawson Award.

“We believe he should be there for it,” the petition reads. “Due to his contributions to student projects and the college as a whole, his presence at these events is important to us.”

Despite his dispute with the administration, Casselli said he “does not want to see [Antioch College] fail.”

“I believe it can continue, and I believe it can be successful,” he said. “And I believe if the community gives voice to asking questions, I think it has a chance.”

And though he said he is not sure what the final resolution should be — reinstatement, settlement or something else — he wants the process itself to be clear.

“If you have all this stuff on me,” he said, “let’s do the process.”

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