Joel Daniel Harris is the founder and Executive Dreamer of TomTod Ideas.

JDH loves working alongside a stellar team to support and empower early adolescents because he knows middle schoolers live in an incredible intersection of intellectual ability, imaginative capacity, and passionate energy. He contends there is no group of more awkward, more lovable people on the planet, that have the capacity to initiate such impactful change.

Born and raised in Canton, JDH is a graduate of Glenoak High School, has a Bachelor’s degree from Malone University, a Master’s degree from George Fox University, and is in the final semester of a Masters in Education Leadership degree from Harvard University.

A longtime community advocate, JDH is a graduate of the 26th class of Leadership Stark County, was part of the founding committee of Stark SOUP, has served on both the yStark and United Way Young Leaders Society steering committees and led multiple service learning trips for Malone University to the Taizé Monastery in France. He currently serves on the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Education Committee and serves as a mayoral appointee on the Canton Planning Commission.

Joel Daniel has been honored to receive a number of community service awards including Canton Public Educators Association’s Layperson of the Year, Malone University’s Young Alumnus of the Year, Twenty under 40! award, the DeHoff Emerging Philanthropist Award, and was a Thirty Faces of Leadership Stark County Honoree.

JDH, his wife Joy, and their two daughters (nine-year-old Everett and seven-year-old Amelie) live in Canton City School District. As a family they enjoy walking to Vassar Park and Weiss Park, spending time outside (usually tackling enormous landscaping projects), and building extravagant blanket forts.

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