Welcome these new Rotarians!
We are excited to welcome these new members to the Rotary Club of Dayton! We look forward to serving alongside you to make our community the best it can be.
New members are automatically assigned to the Red Ribbon Committee, structured to provide them an opportunity to learn what it means to be a Rotarian through an active service project.
Jonathan Platt
Jonathan Platt was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. Graduated from Louisville Male High School and then joined the Army in 1988 as a Radio and Television System Specialist. He spent two years at Fort Irwin National Training Center in California’s Mojave Desert and then a year stint in Seoul with the Armed Forces Korean Network. He decided to stay in Korea and teach English…that’s when he started corresponding with Antioch College and graduated from there in 1996.
From 1997 to 2005 Jonathan taught English in New York City in the upper west side of Manhattan known as Spanish Harlem…but he yearned for the Miami Valley (he also married Heidi Hoover a native of Yellow Springs) and taught at DECA (Dayton’s Early College Academy) for 4 years. In 2014 StoryChain was a thought bubble and in 2017 it was the focus of his thesis paper at Wright State University, where he received a Master’s Degree in English.
Karen Levin from the Levin Family Foundation gave StoryChain their first grant, and they used it to help 7 mothers at Dayton Correctional Institution. Many grants followed, including one from the Dayton Rotary! Jonathan has been the Executive Director of StoryChain for the last 11 years and is proud that StoryChain is experiencing exponential growth. Just last year, StoryChain worked with over 70 families in 3 different institutions, engaging 100s of volunteers and employing a half-dozen staff, editors and sound engineers.
With tremendous support from Federal Judge Walter H. Rice and Dayton City Strategic Planner and Director of the Fatherhood initiative Dr. Michael Newsom, Jonathan looks forward to more success in Montgomery County. This initiation into the Dayton Rotary is another positive step in achieving StoryChain’s mission: connecting families affected by the criminal justice system with literacy and community support.
Connor Royse
Connor Royse was born at St. Elizabeth in Dayton, OH on May 13, 1996. His family moved to Northern Virginia in 1998 where he would spend his childhood, graduating from Freedom HS in 2014. After a year at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Connor felt called to enlist in the United States Army, where he would go on to serve with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division as a medic at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, AK. Following his time in the Army, Connor moved back to the Dayton area where he began working for Turning Point USA, and then Turning Point Action. He is now working with the Montgomery County GOP.
Outside of work Connor is an avid golfer and chess player. In addition to Rotary, he is also a Knight of Columbus and a member of Christ the King Action Ministries in Cincinnati, as well as the Dayton Young Catholic Adults. He is a parishioner at Holy Family Catholic Church.
Connor’s “why” for becoming a Rotarian centers around service, particularly to the local community. In John Chapter 17 we are called to be in the world, but not of it, proclaiming the gospel. Through the community of our club he hopes to further foster new relationships centered around giving back to the Dayton area, and build lasting personal connections with fellow Rotarians.
Andrew White
A self-made entrepreneur, Andrew White has been a visual storyteller for more than 20 years. Together, with his wife and business partner Lauren White they run Indigo Life Media, a video production company specializing in entertainment marketing! From local history to national recovery narratives, their work has earned widespread recognition—including features in Forbes, Huffington Post and honors from the American Red Cross and the Ohio Senate. Today, Indigo Life Media is redefining how entertainment and marketing intersect—one powerful story at a time. Andrew’s interest in Rotary is to give back to his community through service and to connect with other business owners as well as staying in the know of what is happening in Dayton.
