Roxanne Qualls

Roxanne Qualls (born March 3, 1953) is an American politician who served as the 66th mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Prior to serving in elective office, Roxanne was the first Director of the Northern Kentucky Rape Crisis Center (1975–1977, now known as the Women's Crisis Center, Kentucky), the Executive Director of Women Helping Women (1977–1979, now known as the Hamilton County Rape Crisis and Abuse Center), owned a small business specializing in house painting and renovation, and served as an Associate Director (1983–1985) and then Director (1985–1991) of the Cincinnati office of Ohio Citizen Action (formerly known as Ohio Public Interest Campaign).

While director of Ohio Citizen Action's Cincinnati office, Roxanne worked with neighborhood groups and environmental organizations to pass the City of Cincinnati's air code, lobbied the city to establish the Office of Environmental Management, and advocated for the establishment of the city's recycling program.

Her office released an annual analysis of the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory.

She served as a member of the Lower Price Hill Task Force, a collaborative effort to target the environmental causes of Lower Price Hill children's health problems.

Roxanne Qualls first ran for the nine-member at-large Cincinnati City Council in 1987.

She ran again in 1989 and placed 10th.

She also served a two-year term on the Cincinnati City Council prior to her service as mayor, having been elected in 1991.

She was elected in 1991.

In her first term on council, Roxanne served as chair of the Intergovernmental Affairs and Environment Committee.

She promoted employee health and safety, successfully advocating that the city adopt Occupational Health and Safety Administration standards for city workers and develop an effective loss prevention program.

She led the city's planning efforts to develop a long-term transportation policy that included mass transit.

She worked to establish the Toxic Sweep program that trained city inspectors to recognize threats from hazardous and toxic waste.

In addition, she emphasized increased cooperation between the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and organized regular meeting between her committee and the County Commission on issues of shared concern.

In 1993, Qualls became Mayor of the City of Cincinnati by achieving the highest number of votes of any council member.

Upon taking the office of mayor in 1993, Qualls established "Mayor's Night In" where every Tuesday evening for two hours anyone could come and see her about any issue or concern; and she established the Mayor's Business Expansion and Retention Program and the Mayor's Business Breakfasts.

She introduced several partnerships with various private sector companies.

The partnership with the Greater Cincinnati Home Builders Association resulted in Citirama, a center city home show.

A partnership with the Board of Realtors produced the Ambassador Program that familiarized real estate agents with the assets of Cincinnati.

She subsequently won elections for the office in 1995 and in 1997 where she served until the end of her term limits.

As mayor, Qualls emphasized openness and accessibility, collaborative public-private partnerships, and community and economic development.

It was recognized by the U.S. Conference of Mayors as a "Best Practice" in 1999.

She initiated Cincinnati's suit against gun manufacturers for failing to incorporate safety features into guns and for facilitating the illegal distribution of guns.

She supported the hiring of more police officers and the Community Oriented Policing (COP) program based around broken window policing.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors recognized this programs as a "Best Practice" in 2005.

She established the Home Ownership Partnership, a coalition of over 32 lending institutions and community development organizations to improve Cincinnati's rate of home ownership.

Qualls also enacted multiple policies regarding crime.

She developed the Zero Tolerance Initiative: A Campaign to Take Back Our Neighborhoods, to combat blight and neighborhood deterioration.

On August 8, 2007, the Charter Committee announced her appointment to fill the unexpired term of council member Jim Tarbell.

Qualls was elected to a two-year term on Cincinnati City Council in November 2007, and again in 2009 and 2011.

She served as Vice Mayor, the chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, chair of the Livable Communities Committee and chair of the Subcommittee on Major Transportation and Infrastructure Projects.

She was a candidate in the November 2013 election for Mayor of Cincinnati, but was defeated by John Cranley.

Qualls was born in Tacoma, Washington.

She grew up across the river from Cincinnati in the community of Erlanger, Kentucky.

Her parents settled in Erlanger after her father retired from the Air Force when Roxanne was seven years old.

Prior to arriving in Kentucky, she had lived in Taiwan, Japan, and New Hampshire.

She attended St. Henry's Grade School in Erlanger and then attended Notre Dame Academy in Park Hills, Kentucky for high school.

While at Notre Dame Academy, she participated in the school's chapters of the National Forensics League and National Honor Society.

She attended Thomas More College for three semesters majoring in history and then attended the University of Cincinnati in the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning.

She placed 14th.