By Asia Nail
The Truth Reporter
Candice Harrison knows what it means to walk through a door that once seemed out of reach.
She also knows something even more important: once you get through that door, you should not be the person who quietly closes it behind you.
This year, Harrison became the first Black person and only the sixth woman to serve as president of the Toledo Rotary Club, a milestone that carries more weight than a title printed on a business card. For Harrison, it represents possibility. It represents progress. And perhaps most importantly, it represents an invitation.
“I hope this is only the beginning,” Harrison says.
Not the first and last.
The first of many.
Her election comes after another history-making chapter. Harrison recently completed her term as the first Black woman to serve as president of the Toledo Press Club. Now, she carries those lessons into Rotary, an organization with a long history in Toledo and an even longer tradition of service.
A First That Opens the Door
But Harrison, director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at SSOE, is not walking into the presidency unaware of what awaits her.
Rotary’s leadership structure gave her time to prepare. She first served as vice president, then president-elect, before stepping into the presidency. Along the way, she worked alongside other presidents and learned the organization from the inside.
“You get an opportunity to work under a couple of presidents, you know, just to kind of learn the ropes,” she explains.
That preparation matters.
Because leadership is rarely about stepping onto a stage and suddenly knowing what to do. More often, it looks like watching. Listening. Asking questions. Learning where the light switches are before someone hands you the keys.
Harrison understands the responsibility that comes with those keys.
Her experience with the Toledo Press Club taught her that leadership is not simply about holding a position. It is about protecting the organization, respecting its members and honoring the standards that came before you.
She brought that mindset to Rotary.
“With Rotary, it’s that on a much larger scale,” she makes clear.
There is a legacy to honor.
There are expectations to meet.
And there is history to acknowledge.
When History Becomes Responsibility
Harrison remembers that there was a time when people of color were not members of Rotary. The fact that she eventually became a board member and now its president is not something she takes lightly.
“There was a time I wouldn’t have been able to do that,” she stresses.
That sentence carries the weight of generations.
It is easy to look at a milestone and see only the person standing in the spotlight. Harrison sees the people who were standing outside the room before the invitation ever came.
That may be why she refuses to treat being “the first” as a finish line.
She sees it as a beginning.
“I hope this opens the door for more women, more people of color, African-American, Hispanic,” she shares. “That this is now a barrier that has been removed.”
That is the kind of leadership that changes more than a resume.
It changes what other people believe is possible.
A young Black woman watching Harrison step into the Rotary presidency may never know how many conversations, decisions and years of service led to that moment. She may simply see a woman who looks like her sitting at the head of the table and think, “Maybe I can sit there too.”
And sometimes that is how history moves.
Quietly.
One example at a time.
Leadership Is More Than a Title
Harrison also believes organizations have to do more than say they want diversity. They have to create spaces where people actually want to belong.
Rotary, she says, has been intentional about attracting younger members and people from different backgrounds. But recruitment is only part of the equation.
“You can welcome people, but if the things that we present them with are not interesting, they’re not going to want to join,” she says.
That is a powerful distinction.
A welcome sign means very little if the room does not feel welcoming once someone walks through the door.
Making Room at the Table
For Harrison, evolution means asking who is at the table but also asking what they experience once they arrive. Are younger professionals given meaningful opportunities? Are people of color able to see themselves reflected in the organization? Are new members encouraged to do more than simply add their names to a roster?
Harrison wants people who will work.
Rotary gives more than a handshake and a membership card. Through its foundation, the organization provides more than $100,000 in grants annually to the community, while members also participate in hands-on volunteer service.
Her message to people who may have an outdated picture of Rotary is simple: Come see for yourself.
Come See What’s Possible
Visit a Monday meeting. Look at the work. Learn Rotary’s history. Decide whether there is a place for you.
She believes many people may be surprised by how much the organization has changed.
That openness matters, particularly when Harrison thinks about Toledo’s Black business community and the possibilities that exist when established organizations connect with entrepreneurs, professionals and emerging leaders.
Leave the Door Open
But perhaps the most compelling part of Harrison’s leadership philosophy has little to do with Rotary at all.
It has to do with knowing when to pass the baton.
Harrison speaks candidly about the future.
“One day I’m going to step out of the mix,” she says. “I’ll retire, and I won’t be able to serve in the same ways I do today.”
That realization has shaped how she leads now.
“If you want to have servant leaders, you have to start preparing them now.”
There it is.
The heart of her philosophy.
Leadership is not ownership.
It is stewardship.
You hold the position for a season. You do the work. You make it stronger than you found it. Then you make sure someone else is ready to carry it forward.
That means giving younger people real opportunities instead of keeping them on the sidelines until they have accumulated enough years to make everyone else comfortable.
Harrison points to her own actions as an example.
When she received a Milestones Award, her employer purchased a table specifically so 10 high school girls could attend the event and hear the stories of accomplished women.
She wanted them in the room.
Not someday.
Now.
She carries that same philosophy into Rotary, where younger members are being given opportunities to lead committees and gain the experience that can eventually prepare them for board service and, perhaps one day, the presidency.
Harrison looks beyond age and career stage, focusing instead on whether someone is willing to serve and lead.
The question is whether they respect the mission and are willing to do the work.
What We Leave Behind
That may be the most important lesson in Harrison’s story.
The door does not open simply because someone wants it to.
But once it opens, someone has to decide whether or not to hold it for others.
Harrison is doing exactly that.
Her presidency is historic, but she does not seem interested in spending her term admiring the history.
She wants to build on it.
She wants Rotary to continue evolving. She wants people who may have once looked at the organization from a distance to reconsider. She wants younger professionals to see leadership as something they can grow into. And she wants the next person who breaks a barrier to understand that they do not have to break it alone.
“I hope people will give Rotary a chance to continue to evolve and don’t give up before it gets there,” Harrison says.
That sounds like advice for more than an organization.
It sounds like advice for all of us.
Stay open.
Stay consistent.
Keep moving.
And when you finally reach the room you once wondered if you belonged in, do not just take your seat.
Look around.
Find someone behind you.
Then pull out a chair and make room for them beside you.
Learn more about the Rotary Club of Toledo, its community work, membership and upcoming meetings.