I turn lived experience, creativity, and strategy into stories and solutions that help people, organizations, and communities grow, heal, and thrive.
Veronica "Ms. Vee" Thornton
Creativity is not only expressive. It is transformative.
Hi, I'm Veronica Thornton, though most people call me Ms. Vee. I'm an author and consultant who transforms lived experience, creativity, and strategy into powerful stories and practical solutions. Whether I'm writing or consulting, my mission is to guide individuals, organizations, and communities to grow, heal, and thrive.
I am a creative with a background in business. I have been shaped as much by my education as by my life experience, and early on I learned how to bring the two together. What I studied and what I have lived now work side by side in everything I do, and that is where my work comes from.
The result is solutions that are sometimes unexpected. They are innovative, but they are always grounded in listening. I do not recycle the same answer for every client. I sit with a challenge, ask questions, and work to get to the root of the issue before I ever propose a way forward. That is what it means to build something viable, efficient, and effective.
As a descendant of the Great Migration and a proud resident of Cleveland's Mt. Pleasant neighborhood, I champion arts access in communities that have long been overlooked. Having navigated my own challenges, I am dedicated to helping people and their communities not just make it through hard times, but discover how to thrive using their own strengths, resilience, and creativity.
My writing lives across books, essays, and collaborations. It explores creativity, resilience, and lived experience, and it asks readers to look deeper.
Ongoing essays and conversations on creativity, community, and the ideas shaping our realities.
Read & subscribe BooksFind my published titles on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, plus the collections I have contributed to.
Purchase books here ShopDigital works, tools, and resources straight from the source.
Open the vaultCollaborative works & anthologies
Also featured in Ohio Poetry Association: Common Threads Journal, Poets Without Limits Magazine, and Triumph Magazine.
At Vee's Consulting we help creative small businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations thrive through tailored strategies rooted in equity, healing, and collaboration.
We turn creativity, lived experience, and strategy into action, empowering leaders, organizations, and communities to grow, heal, and thrive. Through V.E.E.S. we create equity driven, lasting impact across arts, education, health, civic engagement, and economic development.
Vee's Consulting has led initiatives that support artists, strengthen organizations, and bring people together through arts and culture across sectors.
The Impact of Art was never really about murals. It is about what communities lose when arts infrastructure disappears, and what becomes possible when it returns. This is how the work moves, from listening to proof to lasting infrastructure.
Surveys, focus groups, and real listening with residents of Cleveland's Southeast Side. The data confirmed what people already knew: these neighborhoods were never short on creativity, only on the structures that let it function as community care.
Project Shifting Energy, a six week therapeutic arts workshop series at the Cleveland Public Library Rice Branch, became the proof of concept. When communities are given intentional, facilitated creative space, healing follows.
Healing in Color scales that model into sustainable, community owned arts in health infrastructure, training and credentialing artists who bring the work home to their own neighborhoods.
In the places forgotten, art remembers.
This documentary carries the story of The Impact of Art to the screen: the neighborhoods, the artists, and the healing that happens when creativity is treated as infrastructure rather than a luxury. Your support helps bring it to life. Every gift moves the film forward.
Donate to the documentaryBooking Vee's Consulting means working with a consultant who brings formal training, a measurable track record, and deep community trust to every engagement.
Formal education paired with lived experience, so strategy stays grounded in the realities of the people it serves.
Led the AEP6 economic impact study in Cuyahoga County and managed the ARPA campaign that helped 100+ artists.
Selected as 1 of 5 Cleveland arts leaders for the 2026 CreativeOhio Advocacy Leadership Institute.
Author of multiple books and contributor to 15+ anthologies, featured in Voyage Ohio and Signal Cleveland.
"I do not recycle the same solutions for different organizations. I listen first, get to the root of the issue, and build what actually fits. My versatility, resourcefulness, and adaptability are what set me apart."Veronica "Ms. Vee" Thornton, Founder of Vee's Consulting
Fellowships & leadership development
Board service
Healing in Color Institute is workforce development for community artists and community based arts in health programming, built together and rooted in the same neighborhoods it serves. It trains, credentials, and sustains Black and Brown artists as Arts in Health Practitioners, then supports them as they bring healing centered work home to their communities. The Institute has its own dedicated home online.
Support professional development for artistsWhether you are looking for a consultant, a collaborator, or a speaker, I would love to hear what you are working toward.
