Mentor Mafia
Mentor Mafia is a playful nickname for Mentoring Through Media’s Board of Directors, along with our most committed mentors, advocates, sponsors, and supporters.
Founder Corey Cleghorn credits his late mother, Maryjane DeSalvo, as his inspiration for media, entrepreneurship, and community impact. In the 1990s, Maryjane owned her own publication, Metro News, and later encouraged Corey to launch his own publication, the Dallas Entertainment Journal, helping shape his passion for storytelling, media, and cultural influence.
Maryjane also credited her parents, Frank and Josephine DeSalvo, founders of DeSalvo’s Italian Restaurant in Oak Cliff, Texas in the early 1970s, as her entrepreneurial mentors who trained her in the restaurant business. As a family rooted in Sicilian heritage, Corey draws from the original cultural meaning of the word “Mafia,” which historically represented a close-knit group defined by boldness, loyalty, entrepreneurship, and protection.
In that spirit, Mentor Mafia represents a trusted circle of people committed to guiding, uplifting, and protecting the next generation.
Corey is also building partnerships with Italian restaurants as community meeting spaces and as sponsors who can support youth events through donations of pizza and Italian food.
Founder Corey Cleghorn credits his late mother, Maryjane DeSalvo, as his inspiration for media, entrepreneurship, and community impact. In the 1990s, Maryjane owned her own publication, Metro News, and later encouraged Corey to launch his own publication, the Dallas Entertainment Journal, helping shape his passion for storytelling, media, and cultural influence.
Maryjane also credited her parents, Frank and Josephine DeSalvo, founders of DeSalvo’s Italian Restaurant in Oak Cliff, Texas in the early 1970s, as her entrepreneurial mentors who trained her in the restaurant business. As a family rooted in Sicilian heritage, Corey draws from the original cultural meaning of the word “Mafia,” which historically represented a close-knit group defined by boldness, loyalty, entrepreneurship, and protection.
In that spirit, Mentor Mafia represents a trusted circle of people committed to guiding, uplifting, and protecting the next generation.
Corey is also building partnerships with Italian restaurants as community meeting spaces and as sponsors who can support youth events through donations of pizza and Italian food.
