HCC appoints Dillenbeck as new executive director

The Rev. Eric Dillenbeck, new executive director of HCC.

The board of Heights Community Congress (HCC) has announced that Eric Dillenbeck is its new executive director. He assumes the role from Martha Goble, who is retiring. His first official day was Jan. 1.

Dillenbeck has been an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. for the past 15 years. He most recently served as associate pastor of Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights. A veteran of the nonprofit world, Dillenbeck is currently the coordinator of community partnerships at Youth Opportunities Unlimited, where he works with nonprofits throughout the Cleveland area to provide workforce-readiness training and jobs for youths and young adults.

As HCC’s executive director, Dillenbeck will oversee HCC’s Fair Housing Enforcement Audit program, and will be responsible for the agency’s diversity programming, its annual Heights Heritage Home and Garden Tour, and the volunteer management these activities entail. He will serve as HCC’s main public contact and liaison with other like-minded agencies.

“HCC has a demonstrated faithfulness to building a stronger community, one that is committed and welcoming of all people, and one that helps each other see the value and gifts of our diversity,” Dillenbeck explained. “These are values that grounded my work through the church and are central to my outlook on the world.”

Dillenbeck believes the value of HCC’s work is unquestionable, and noted, “Now more than ever, the Heights and the greater community need organizations like HCC, organizations that are devoted to building stronger communities based on mutual respect.” 

Looking ahead to the future, Dillenbeck is optimistic. His vision for HCC includes “engaging the community in ways that help us hear more about the issues Heights residents face every day, and then building new coalitions of nonprofit organizations, faith communities, businesses, and local residents to address those concerns together.”

Dillenbeck is married, and has three children who attend the Shaker Heights schools.

Heights Community Congress (HCC), founded in 1972 and incorporated in 1973, is a non-partisan, broad-based citizen coalition of organizations and individuals which monitors and supports integration and diversity in Cleveland Heights.

Among its many accomplishments, HCC helped establish and maintain city-regulated fair housing and home inspection (1974), a housing service for homebuyers (1974), and neighborhood associations. HCC sponsors programs which maintain and promote the city's proud heritage of diversity, and it produces the annual Heights Heritage Home and Garden Tour. The HCC office is located in Cleveland Heights.