Roxanne Qualls

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

Since returning to council in 2007, she has focused on initiatives that are fundamental to building a strong Cincinnati and result in enhanced quality of life, a globally competitive local economy, and smart management of city resources. Her Great Neighborhoods Initiative is using the best approaches from around the country to strengthen and revitalize Cincinnati's neighborhoods by giving communities innovative, new tools to protect neighborhood character while encouraging investment. She is working to develop a 21st-century transportation system that reinforces walkable neighborhoods and increases investment in multi-modal transportation systems that accommodate public transportation, bicycles, and pedestrians. Qualls has worked to ensure that the I-75/Brent Spence Bridge project supports economic development in Cincinnati neighborhoods. She started the Homeless to Homes Initiative to take homeless men and women off the streets and help them become productive members of our community.

She emphasized partnerships with the communities and the private sector to achieve shared goals. The partnership with the Greater Cincinnati Home Builders Association resulted in Citirama, a center city home show that has created new neighborhoods and brought people back to the city. A partnership with the Board of Realtors produced the Ambassador Program that familiarized real estate agents with the assets of Cincinnati so as to be better able to "sell" the city. The US 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 served as a Visiting Professor at Northern Kentucky University from 2004 to 2007. She taught in the Masters in Public Administration Program. She taught Executive Management, Urban Policy, and Citizens and Governance. In 2005, she became Director of Public Leadership Initiatives. Under her direction, NKU's Institute for Public Leadership and Public Affairs has presented New Leadership Kentucky, a three-day residential program in political leadership for undergraduate women from Kentucky and the Greater Cincinnati metropolitan area. This non-partisan, non-ideological program was developed by the Center for American Women in Politics. In 2007, the Institute began the Advancing Women in Political Leadership project in collaboration with the Women's Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation.

Believing that successful community and economic development is built on a foundation of safety and security, Roxanne developed the Zero Tolerance Initiative: A Campaign to Take Back Our Neighborhoods, a comprehensive effort to combat blight and neighborhood deterioration. It was recognized by the US 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 that took police officers out of cars and put them on the street in neighborhoods. Also, she proposed the Permitting Drug Abuse ordinance to hold property owners responsible for knowingly permitting drug trafficking on their property.

Successful community and economic development also requires a willingness to invest in the physical, cultural, and social infrastructure of the city. As Mayor and as a member of the Executive Committee, and later as President of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, she oversaw the Major Investment Study that resulted in the significant redesign and reconfiguration of Fort Washington Way; and, she successfully lobbied for federal dollars to fund the region's light rail major investment study. With then-County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus and members of City Council, she helped form the joint City-County Planning Committee to develop the Master Plan for Cincinnati's Central Riverfront and to determine the location of the two stadiums. In 1998, she ensured the expansion of the city's premier riverfront park system by insuring that money was budgeted for the construction of the Theodore M. Barry International Friendship Park.

In 1998, Roxanne was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress. When she completed her last term in office, Roxanne pursued her dual passions of policy and urban design and planning. She served as a Fellow in the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government (Spring 2000); she served as a 2001 member of the Loeb Fellowship in Environmental Studies at Harvard's Graduate School of Design; and she graduated in 2002 from the Kennedy School with a Master's in Public Administration.

In 1993, Roxanne became Mayor of the City of Cincinnati by achieving the highest number of votes of any council member. Cincinnati's voters returned her to the Mayor's office in 1995 and in 1997 where she served until term limits forced her out of office.

Upon taking the office of Mayor in 1993, Roxanne 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. These efforts reached out to over 1,000 individuals and 240 businesses and resulted in legislative initiatives, constituency services, and jobs and business expansion and retention.

Roxanne Qualls first ran for the nine-member at-large Cincinnati City Council in 1987. She placed 14th. She ran again in 1989 and placed 10th. She was elected in 1991.

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 (born March 3, 1953) is a former Democratic mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, having served from December 1993 to November 1999. She also served a two-year term on the Cincinnati City Council prior to her service as mayor, having been elected in 1991. 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.