Amy Zell
H.O.P.E. Honoree 2020
The daughter of Dave Maliner and the late Jeanne Maliner, community involvement and helping others learn how to make positive impacts on their communities has been the main focus of her career. After earning her BA degree in English from Thiel College, Amy furthered her studies at Kent State University where she achieved her MA library and information studies. From there, she began a life of service, compassion and resiliency. Amy thrived during her 10-year position with the Hubbard Public Library as their Teen and Patron Technology Services librarian.
Amy’s efforts have been recognized and honored by numerous organizations and serve as a testimony of her positive influence on the community, as well as to her excellence as a librarian and educator. Amy’s knowledge for how the development of digital skills can empower an individual has led her to new avenues of success. As the Makerspace Manager for Youngstown’s Oak Hill Collaborative, Amy’s grant writing and marketing skills enhanced the collaborative’s community impact. While working on workforce development at Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries, Amy had the pleasure of impacting a variety of individuals from educating medical coding students to teaching a woman with visual disability to work in a call center. Currently employed by Whole Life Services in nearby Sharon, PA, Amy works with individuals who have disabilities to develop skills in laser engraving, 3D printing and entrepreneurial development at the Valley Fab Lab using the Maker Mindset Method she developed in Graduate School. Amy’s true passion, however, has been her work with suicide prevention and more recently, prevention. She is the Suicide Prevention Event Coordinator for LOSS (Local Outreach to Survivors of Suicide loss) Community Services in Columbus.
She helped establish Trumbull County LOSS through a partnership with Terri Ann Naughton and the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board.
She is currently planning Facilitator Training, scheduling QPR Trainings, and facilitating support groups all while pursuing her certificate in Death and Grief Studies from the Center for Loss in Fort Collins, Colorado. Amy and her husband, John, reside in Brookfield. They’re blended family consists of daughters Jessica and Samantha Neral, Luke Beckstine, Samantha (Zell) and her husband Tyler Rainey and their children Mia and Ava. Other family members include the late Tyler Neral and children who live in nearby communities with their families: Johnny, Amanda, Cassie and Jeremy. If there is one message she would like everyone to learn from her recognition it is: “You are the reason I am here today. You can survive this one more day and then another. I am here with you. You are not.
