On March 6, 2010, Alicia Reece was appointed as the Ohio General Assembly to represent Cincinnati’s 33rd House District, affectionately known as the “Fighting 33rd.” State Representative Reece was elected to the seat in November 2010 and serves on the Finance & Appropriations Committee, is the Ranking Democratic member on the Transportation sub-committee of Finance, and is a member of both the Small Business & Economic Development and Local Government Committees.
Ms. Reece has been described as “a bright star” in the Ohio Democratic Party. She has a resume filled with historic ‘firsts’ including being the first woman to file to run in a directly elected Mayor’s race in Cincinnati’s history gaining over 6,000 votes in an off year nonpartisan primary as well being elected as the youngest woman in Cincinnati’s history to Cincinnati’s City Council in 1999 and one of the youngest female Vice Mayor’s in the country which she served for 4 years.
She has appeared nationally and internationally on MSNBC, CNN, BET, National Rainbow/PUSH network, and Nightline as well as appearing in magazines such as Ebony, Black Enterprise, Jet, Applause, Sports Illustrator, Vibe, Washington Post, LA Times, and Detroit Times newspapers, and the home page of AOL.com.
Ms. Reece has been recognized at the state and national level as she became one of the youngest females to make the short list for Lieutenant Governor on the Ohio Democratic ticket in 2002 and was courted for a run for Secretary of State. As a delegate at the 2000 National Democratic Convention, Ms. Reece electrified the crowd, as was one of the featured speakers at the Ohio Delegation breakfast in Los Angeles, California. Ms. Reece was awarded the highest honor for a female elected official in the Ohio Democratic Party by receiving the 2002 Gertrude W. Donahey Award. Recently, Rep. Reece was elected as a 2012 Delegate for President Obama at the Democratic National Convention.
Ms. Reece has a strong marketing, communications, and promotions background. She was appointed by former Governor Strickland in 2006 as the Assistant State Tourism Director for the State of Ohio. In that role she oversaw the state’s highest Return On Investment branding, advertising, public relations, marketing, and multicultural tourism campaign as well as the marketing contracts while overseeing the tourism staff.
She has been a strong advocate for women in Ohio she had a monthly column in Cincinnati Women’s Magazine, and has spear headed local legislation such as Cincinnati’s Working Mothers Act for female public employees who are nursing, employment fairness ordinance resulting in promotion opportunities for female city employees, and mentoring other young female talent producing more female elected officials. She also fought for more funding for Breast Cancer Treatment for low income women. Ms. Reece spearheaded the efforts to name a street surrounding the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the Rosa Parks Street in downtown Cincinnati and she was a keynote speaker at the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act in Selma, Alabama.
Ms. Reece’s first campaign for office started while at Withrow High School, where she won her first election as senior class president, won a city championship as captain of the basketball team, and graduated with honors from the International Studies Academy there in 1989. That civic involvement continued when she attended Grambling State University where Ms. Reece organized a voter registration and mobilization campaign that energized over 7,000 youth which attributed to the defeat David Duke for Governor of Louisiana. While at GSU, Ms. Reece would win her second election, the office of Miss Grambling State University, the official ambassador for the university. The basketball point guard not only won a Division I championship but she also earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from Grambling State University in 1993.
As a businesswoman, was selected as one of the Cincinnati Business Courier newspaper's "Forty Under 40"Business Leaders in 2000. Ms. Reece was the founder of the National Student Leadership Convention, Stop The Violence Conference, and co-founded the Communiplex African American Business, Consumer, & Get Out the Vote Week. She has been a consultant for the Urban League of Cincinnati and WCIN radio where she produced the number one daily African American live radio talk show. Ms. Reece has also produced and co-hosted her own live radio show called “On the Real Side”.
While serving as the Vice Mayor of Cincinnati, Ms. Reece has overseen a $1.8 billion budget as the Vice Chair of the city’s Finance Committee, she has many accomplishments as she forged bi-partisan support to pass important and innovative legislation like a 30 day prompt pay law for small businesses, increased funding to keep neighborhood health clinics open for children and families, a summer employment initiative, the second chance ex-offender one stop, a $100 million public/private faith-base urban neighborhood redevelopment project, small business tax reform, and an anti-predatory practices law. She also launched the Cincinnati On the Move tourism campaign which attracted millions in revenue to the city by securing conventions such as the National Baptist Convention, the United Supreme Council, and National Association of Blacks in Law Enforcement and more.