Biography |
Ramona R. Reyes was appointed to the Columbus City Schools Board of Education in January 2009 to advocate for a quality education for all children. She is the currently serving in her second term as Vice President, and is the first Hispanic elected member of the Board. She chairs the Public Engagement Committee which has championed the annual Columbus City Schools Children’s Day celebrations, “Kicking it with CSS” a student lead radio show, and the student/parent ambassador program.
Ramona R. Reyes is the director of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Center at Catholic Social Services. Prior to coming to the Center, she worked as a Human Resource professional at Nationwide Insurance where she was employed for 24 years. Ramona R. Reyes is a bilingual trainer with Working Partners®. She originally came to Columbus when she was awarded the Campbell Soup Migrant Scholarship, a scholarship for children of migrant farm working families, to attend the Ohio State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Transportation Logistics. While at Ohio State, she was a member and president of Alpha Psi Lambda fraternity and cabinet member of the Undergraduate Student Government. She is an alumnus of the National Hispana Leadership Institute, a Grass Roots Leadership program. Over the last several years she has committed herself to volunteerism. She is currently serving as secretary of the Board of East Coast Migrant Headstart Program, Mt. Carmel School of Nursing, Columbus Association of the Performing Arts (CAPA), and member of the Columbus Branch of the NAACP. She has served as a Commissioner with the Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs, President of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce where she founded the Latina Mentoring Academy (LMA), and Big Brothers Big Sisters of central Ohio mentor. She has also founded the Ramona Reyes Foundation sponsoring the first ever Latino scholarship and graduation ceremony. Ramona received the Champions of Diversity Pioneer award and an EXPY from Experience Columbus as chair CAPA’s Latino Festival steering committee. She was featured in the inaugural edition of Women's Book and the 2013 WELD - Women You Should Know Calendar. She has been named a Columbus Hispanic Hero by the City of Columbus and the Columbus Crew, served as the Publisher for Who’s Who in Latino Columbus, and named a Distinguished Hispanic Ohioan by the Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs and the Governor of Ohio. She is a breast cancer survivor. She is married to the Rev. John T. Coats II and their daughter is set to graduate high school in 2021. |