Thomas Minor

Thomas Minor II was born on March 31, 1989 in Cleveland, OH to Valissa Jones and Thomas Minor Sr. Thomas was given the nickname “Tommy” in honor of his grandmother who passed away before he was born. Cleveland is an interesting city with an equally interesting demographic. Through his travels in the 30 years of life on this earth, Tommy has been guided toward what interests him. From exercising entrepneurial endeavors, to working on the ground floor of organizations learning different industries. Tommy has always been an observant individual learning from every interaction and through life experiences can confidently say that he is ready for the next step.

During Tommy’s younger years, he was not the best-behaved student but was always one of the brightest! He realized that my actions were due to the content that was being taught not being of any interest to me. Once Tommy graduated high school he entered undergraduate studies as a Computer Science major, this was interesting to him but not nearly as much as Psychology. It would be during his Sophomore year that he would make the transition from Computer Science to Psychology. Tommy transferred from Bowling Green State University to Morehouse College to continue his studies and would be introduced to the concept of sustainability.

Upon graduating from Morehouse College in 2012, Tommy received an internship to the Prevention Institute where he would assist the Youth Violence Prevention team. After completing the internship he returned home to Cleveland, OH to build up his personal business of screen printing. Tommy would then take on two jobs at Oriana House Inc. and Open Doors Inc. to save money and relocate to Oakland, CA. It was this combination of employment which lead him to start a solar workforce reentry program within GRID Alternatives to help combat mass incarceration and reduce recidivism.