Our co-founder and COO, Sarah Slavik, has been named a 2026 Progressive Woman honoree by Smart Business Network (SBN), recognizing women who are redefining leadership across Northeast Ohio.
Sarah brought two decades of operational expertise into 2025, when she co-founded SkillSpout™ with Mel McGee. Since then, she has been the one building the AI systems, teams, financial infrastructure, and client delivery model that turn a big vision into an actual operating company, in a space where most organizations are still figuring out what AI adoption should look like. Under her direction, SkillSpout has grown into the leading AI strategy and training provider in Northeast Ohio, with clients like Tri-C, ERC, GCP, and BBB Cleveland relying on the Human-First AI Maturity Model to guide their own adoption.
SBN summed it up well: what makes Sarah’s rise progressive is not that she moved up. It’s that she kept moving toward harder problems, at every stage.
Congrats, Sarah. This one is well earned. She will be recognized at the Smart Women Breakfast on July 8, 2026.
Read more about the 2026 SBN Progressive Woman honorees here, and learn more about the human-first approach behind SkillSpout’s work at skillspout.com.