Joe Rottenborn

Joe Rottenborn earned a B.A. degree in government cum laude at Boston University in 1970, while he received the Master of Arts in Teaching from Brown University in 1972. He was awarded the Master of Science in Educational Administration in 1990 from Youngstown State University and the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in educational leadership at YSU in 1998. Dr. Rottenborn worked for 30 years as a public educator in Ohio. He taught social studies at Boardman High for thirteen years, was an Assistant Principal at Salem High School, Assistant Superintendent of Canfield Local and Chagrin Falls Schools, and became Superintendent at Columbiana Exempted Village in 1994. Since retiring as Columbiana's Superintendent at the end of December 2001, he has been Executive Director of the Mahoning Valley College Access Program (MVCAP), which provides free advising on college admissions and financial aid to students from Mahoning, Trumbull, and Columbiana Counties in northeastern Ohio. In its first nine years after startup, the MVCAP has advised over 9,000 high school students, raised almost $1,100,000, and awarded over 160 Last-Dollar Scholarships—most for $1,000. Dr. Rottenborn has sat on the boards of the Kent State University College Tech Prep Consortium, Salem City Schools, and the Ohio College Access Network (OCAN). He has been married for 39 years to Cindy, a senior library assistant at Kent State University Salem campus; Dr. Rottenborn is also an adjunct instructor at KSU Salem. The couple has two children--Mary (37) and Bo (30), both summa cum laude graduates of the University of Notre Dame--and one grand child, Luke Michael Kozlowski, born 11/17/10.