Board of Advisors

Rosa E. Blackwell is a retired educator and administrator who served 36 years in the Cincinnati Public School System, culminating her career as the system’s Superintendent from 2005 to 2008. Blackwell took Cincinnati schools from “academic emergency to continuous improvement,” said Cincinnati television news station WLWT and Cincinnati school board members at the time of Blackwell’s retirement announcement. Since then, Blackwell has served on the Board of Trustees for Xavier University and as a board member for Mayerson Academy.

Blackwell has two college scholarship programs named in her honor. The Rosa E. Blackwell scholarship program gives half of its scholarships to Cincinnati high school students of any race who have been accepted for admission at a historically black college or university, and the other half to students accepted at any four-year college or university.

The Cincinnati chapter of Project GRAD, a nonprofit organization seeking to better the educational opportunities of disadvantaged students, also created a scholarship in honor of Blackwell. This scholarship goes to Cincinnati high school students who plan to major in education.

Blackwell has a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Education degree from Xavier University. She is married to Amb. Ken Blackwell and the two have three children and are lifelong Cincinnati residents.