For Ian Abston, community is a living organism that needs to be nurtured. Over the years, Abston has become a champion for Milwaukee and its community, but it wasn’t always that way.
As a kid growing up in Elkhart Lake, Abston equated Milwaukee with Admirals games, Summerfest and high crime. After graduating from University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, he ventured west, but when he returned to Wisconsin, he moved to the Riverwest neighborhood and gave the city a chance.
Riding his bike down the Oak Leaf Trail led Abston to the Urban Ecology Center, where he soon became a member.
Within three months, Abston realized Milwaukee wasn’t the intimidating city he recalled from his childhood, but an urban environment where great people can make great things happen. These days, Abston, founder of Newaukee, director of the Hoan Group, founder of Forward 48 and co-founder and emeritus director of Light the Hoan, considers himself a “Milwauk-IAN.”
“If you don’t like something, you can change it and fix it,” Abston said. “Milwaukee is small enough where you can impact change, but also big enough where that change could be viewed on a national or international level, because Milwaukee’s a pretty big city. The more you meet the great people in it, the more you find the people like yourself who are creators or makers or solvers or whatever that might be.”
Abston has served on several boards, including the Urban Ecology Center, 88.9 Radio Milwaukee, Salvation Army’s Echelon and Joy Engine. Abston views his role as a connector and injector of ideas. His goal is to elevate the voices and ideas of young people, which motivated him to start the Forward Fund at the Foundation in 2025.
The Foundation was integral to helping the Hoan Group light the Hoan Bridge, which built trust and connections, but it was the ThriveOn Collaboration that convinced Abston to house the fund at the Foundation. Seeing how the Foundation, the Medical College of Wisconsin and Royal Capital set ego aside to create ThriveOn King was inspiring, he said. The fund will support the implementation of ideas, opportunities and solutions that help Milwaukee grow.
“I think the fund will be an opportunity for those people [Hoan Group and Forward 48 members] to roll up their sleeves and participate and fund ideas that might be
more true to where they want to see Milwaukee grow,” Abston said.