A one-way ticket, a scholarship, and a life built around moving resources toward people who need them most.
What does it mean to leave behind everything familiar and build something entirely new, not just for yourself, but for a whole community? That is the question at the heart of this episode of Roots, Routes and Voices That Shape America, and Janice Liebenberg answers it with a story that is equal parts grit, grace, and purpose.
For anyone who has ever wondered how immigration stories America tells itself stack up against the ones lived quietly in our own neighborhoods, this conversation is essential listening. Janice is one of Cincinnati’s most consequential voices in the world of equity and community development, and her journey from apartheid-era Cape Town to Over-the-Rhine is a reminder that the African diaspora podcast conversation is never just about where someone comes from. It is about what they choose to build when they arrive.Janice Liebenberg is Senior Vice President of Development at the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio. Before that, she spent a decade as Vice President of Equitable Arts Advancement at ArtsWave, stewarding more than twelve million dollars annually and building the region’s most significant grants program for Black and Brown arts organizations. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Northern Kentucky University and lives in Over-the-Rhine with her husband Andy Holzhauser and their three children.
Key Takeaways
- Growing up multiracial during apartheid in Cape Town, Janice moved through childhood feeling mostly normal until a family camping trip ended with her entire family being asked to leave a beach marked for whites only, a moment that cracked something open in her and never fully closed.
- She saved her own money and bought a one-way ticket to the United States as an au pair, drawn not by a dream of America but by the practical hope of earning enough to eventually pay for college back home.
- A scholarship from Northern Kentucky University changed the trajectory entirely, and Janice earned her degree in psychology, a discipline she says she has used every single day of her fundraising career.
- At ArtsWave for ten years, she helped channel more than twelve million dollars a year toward the arts community and championed the region’s first grants for independent artists.
- She now serves as SVP of Development at the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio, an organization on a mission to end generational poverty through workforce development, credit building, financial education, and economic empowerment.
- Janice said, “I’m a risk taker and I love change.”
- Janice said, “To tie it all together, I feel like my growing up in South Africa destined me in a way to do this work, and I’m exactly where I need to be at this very moment in time.”
Timestamps
0:12 Welcome and introduction from Clara and Bryan
5:10 Growing up multiracial under apartheid in Cape Town
7:33 The beach that changed everything, asked to leave for whites only
8:45 Khoisan, Dutch, and Malaysian heritage and the Cape Colored identity
20:46 Deciding to leave South Africa and come to America as an au pair
22:53 First call from Cincinnati, WKRP, and landing in the Queen City
30:21 UC Blue Ash, the NKU scholarship, and a psychology degree that became a fundraising superpower
34:34 First corporate job at E.W. Scripps and the National Spelling Bee
45:09 A decade building equity and arts funding at ArtsWave
52:43 Launching the first ever grants for independent artists in the region
58:27 Joining the Urban League in 2024 and the mission to end generational poverty
1:09:18 Choosing to live in Over-the-Rhine deliberately and raising three kids there
1:11:49 Closing reflections on purpose, legacy, and being exactly where she needs to be
Connect with Janice Liebenberg
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janice-liebenberg/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janice.liebenberg
Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio: https://ulgso.org
