Valley Tough, a website focused on the Mahoning Valley’s comeback from COVID-19, plans to publish a series of videos starting next week that feature local leaders talking about beating racism.

Titled “Words on Race,” the series includes interviews with Youngstown State University President Jim Tressel, Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Green and three other leaders.

The host for the series is Chris Gunther, a Youngstown broadcast professional and host of the Chris Gunther Show on YouTube.

“These interviews shine light on some good examples of what local leaders are doing to beat racism in their organizations and what they’d like to see the rest of us do,” said Dan Pecchia, publisher of Valley Tough and president of Pecchia Communications LLC, the Canfield public relations firm that launched and manages the website at valleytough.org.

“Although this is not an easy topic to discuss, these leaders were glad to talk about it with passion and sincerity. They have some challenges for us. We can all do more.” 

The six interviews will be posted over the next three weeks at valleytough.org and shared on the Valley Tough Facebook and Twitter pages.