Stories of Southeast Ohio women in public office
Graphic by Maggie Prosser.
*Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story had the wrong first name written for Lenny Eliason. This story has been updated to include a correction for that.
Women have long been marginalized in American society, working hard to break down barriers and redefine history. It's been 173 years since the start of the women’s rights movement in 1848, and we’re still trying to bring equality to women in leadership positions.
Last November, the United States elected Kamala Harris as the first female vice president. Women had only appeared three times before on the presidential ticket, but the lack of women in politics reaches much further than the White House.
According to UN Women, out of 133 countries, women make up only 36% of elected members in local government. In just two countries, women make up at least 50% of these positions.
Across Ohio, women make up only 29% of elected government positions, according to Matriots, a Columbus-based political action committee. Data collected in 2019 had Athens County coming in just below that at 27%.
Despite this, women can be found in nearly every elected office across the county’s cities, townships and villages.
Here are the stories from some of Athens’ female officials.
Chris Knisely was the first woman in the city of Athens’ 200-year-long history to be elected as Council president, but she never thought this was where she’d end up.
While Knisley was working at Ohio University in the colleges of education and osteopathic medicine, she became active with the League of Women Voters and the Southside Neighborhood Association. Politics piqued her interest, and in 1999, she earned her master’s degree in public administration.
When a vacancy opened up on City Council in 2008, Knisely registered with the Democratic Party and filled the seat. She served as an at-large councilmember until 2015, when a vacancy for the president’s seat opened up.
“When people first asked me to run for office, I thought, ‘Oh no, not me. I can’t do this,’ and I think that’s often the reaction,” Knisely said. “I left my university job and decided that City Council was what I really wanted to focus on.”
Despite the talents of her male counterparts, Knisely said it’s daunting to walk into a room and be the only woman.
She said she believes it is important to have a female perspective when it comes to decision-making because it’s important to represent as many voices as possible in government.
Knisely also encouraged women and girls of any age to start getting involved in politics through their communities, to continue running for office and to keep improving on the past.
“Women are equally talented and can be equally good politicians, so there’s nothing stopping (us),” Knisely said. “Perhaps the biggest hurdle is your doubts.”
According to Knisely, the first step to getting involved in local politics is to go attend a council meeting. She said it’s important to ask questions and learn as much as possible about local issues and how the local government functions. She said from there, take small steps and — little by little — change is made.
Lisa Eliason’s office wall is lined with the portraits of her predecessors. Following these thirteen men is a portrait of Eliason, the first female law director and woman in any elected legal position in Athens County.
“One hundred years worth of law directors, and that’s me at the end,” Eliason said. “I’ve been here since 1990. Chief city prosecutor, to prosecutor, to city prosecutor for 25 years and, in 2015, I became the law director.”
Inspired by her younger, autistic brother, Eliason graduated from Ohio U in 1976 with a degree in special education and a goal to bring better education, care and awareness to children on the spectrum.
She taught for eight years before deciding to go to law school at the University of Dayton. After graduating in 1987, she got her first job in Athens as a law clerk at the court of appeals in 1990.
At one point, Eliason also ran for state representative and municipal court judge and worked on campaigns for other politicians with her husband Lenny Eliason. From 1993 to 1996, Eliason worked at a private law firm where she experienced first-hand differential treatment from clients.
“Now I was an associate, and a lot of people would call and not want to deal with me, they’d want to deal with (the male) partner,” Eliason said. “I had a lot of men who called me ‘honey’ and ‘dear’ and spoke in a condescending manner to me, and that’s why I decided to go back to being a prosecutor.”
Since returning to her Athens County law office position in 1996, Eliason has been working to empower more women to get involved in government and politics.
“When I graduated in ‘87, it was only like 15% of the class was women, so I’ve spent my entire career being a role model and mentoring women in the law,” Eliason said. “Things haven't changed a whole lot from when I was a young attorney. When I went to law school, I really felt like I was going to change the world for my own daughter. In all this time, 40 some years, and I still think that women have their struggles.”
Eliason hopes that in the future, more women will be working in decision-making positions. She said women hold different, unique perspectives that bring an important diversity to the discussion. Eliason firmly believes women should be the voices behind the decisions that impact women’s lives.
“A very small percentage of the decisions made about our lives are made by women,” Eliason said. “50% of the people making the decisions [should be] women because we’re 50% of the population.”
Her advice to those looking to get involved with politics: Support a candidate running for a local office by getting involved in their campaign. She said no steps are too small, and by working directly with a campaign, people have access to learn the ins and outs of running for office.
Heather Rockwell got her official start working as an income tax clerk where, for nine years, she learned her way around the intricate procedures and policies in local government. Being an income tax clerk prepared Rockwell to take her next position as fiscal officer of New Lexington in Perry County in 2002.
Now, in her 19th year in local government, she works full-time as the finance director of New Lexington, two part-time jobs in Athens County as fiscal officer for the villages of Jacksonville and Trimble, and on a volunteer basis for the village of Rendville in Perry County.
“When I interviewed for that very first job [with New Lexington], it was down to me and another woman, and they asked me some illegal questions,” Rockwell said. “Now, I wanted this job very badly, so I did what you’re not supposed to do, and I answered.”
Rockwell said she was asked if she was married, if she had children and if she planned to have children.
“They ended up hiring me, but I always felt bad for the other girl because I knew she had a family and young kids,” Rockwell added. “To this day, I still wonder, did I get hired over her simply because she would need more time off for her kids or not be willing to put in the hours that I would?”
While much has changed over the past 20 years, Rockwell said she believes that women still struggle to be taken seriously in politics and would like to see equal pay in the workforce. She hopes the younger generation will step up to bat in their own communities to continue to bring change across the country.
Amy Renner was elected mayor of Chauncey in 2019 and has since been working to make improvements to infrastructure, recurring issues like neglected or vacant buildings, crime and poverty, and bringing new businesses to the roughly 1,000 person village.
“I’ve spent a lot of time advocating for Southeast Ohio, so when it came to looking at my own community in 2016, I remember thinking, ‘While I wish I could change things nationally, surely we can do something on a smaller scale to make a difference,’” Renner said.
Originally from Wilmington, Ohio, Renner moved to Chauncey three years before she went to her first Council meeting. When she decided to run for mayor, she wasn’t sure Chauncey was ready to take a chance on an “outsider.”
“I did a lot of work and got a really good understanding of the challenges that were happening in Chauncey and, with the right leadership, I felt like these were things that could definitely be overcome,” Renner said. “I didn’t feel that I planted my roots deep enough here to be trusted with such a high position, but I’m so glad the voters had faith in me to do it.”
Renner said even though Chauncey has been open-minded, she’s struggled with how to handle tough discussions. She finds herself having to sugarcoat her language to not be perceived as shrewd or unreasonably cold. Despite this, she has found a strong community of women who help to lift each other up.
“Testing those boundaries with female leadership is important,” said Renner. “And if I can break the barrier in Chauncey, then what other barriers can be broken? The more women that we see in leadership, the more female empowerment we’ll have, and just giving women the freedom to feel that they can achieve anything they want is really important.”
Jill Thompson has been the auditor for Athens County since 2002 and, according to Knisley and Rockwell, is one of the best elected officials in the county when it comes to job performance. But like Knisely and Rockwell, Thompson never imagined herself in her current position.
In fact, Thompson never actually thought that she would get into the workforce. She said her only reason for going to college was to make herself more knowledgeable and to have a better understanding of useful subjects for daily life.
When she went to Ohio U for her undergraduate degree, she studied as much as she could, taking classes in business, accounting, finance, real estate and computer science.
In order to pay for her schooling, Thompson worked three different jobs. During her time with Hocking Valley Bank, she made acquaintances who would later lead her to the office of the auditor. After working there for several years, she ran for auditor, being appointed in 2000 and elected in 2002. Thompson also ran for state representative in 2008, but said she was relieved that her path in politics went another direction.
Thompson has learned a lot from the Jo Ann Davidson Institute, where she formed valuable connections with other women who have inspired her along the way. Among them are Ohio House of Representatives Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, Ohio’s first female Attorney General Betty Montgomery, former U.S. House Rep. Deborah Pryce and former Gov. Nancy Hollister, Ohio’s only female governor.
“Women are often your own worst enemies (in politics), which is really, really hard,” Thompson said. “Immediately when I started rising through leadership opportunities, I started being attacked: Anonymous letters written to me, threats, people suggesting I get back in my place, that I not rise so fast, that I shouldn’t be dipping my toes in these waters. And it was most often women who felt threatened by me, not men.”
Thompson said if she could do anything, she would create a world where women would not judge or attack each other, but instead, lift each other up to new heights and break the boundaries women have faced for centuries.
“I think often women put ceilings on themselves because they have to or they feel that they have to, but it takes a woman that’s willing to do what she has to for women to be heard in a position of power,” Thompson said. “If women would just stand together and support other women, it could be the most powerful tool in politics today.”
Roxanna Rupe, mayor pro tempore of Coolville, started her career in local politics by covering Council meetings for the Route 7 Report newsletter.
After moving into the village, she said she got involved with different community activities, such as the Founder’s Day committee, and even became the president of the Village Council in January 2020. Then, elected Mayor Rose Tyman took a leave of absence in June, leaving Rupe to fill Tyman’s spot in addition to working her full-time job at the library.
In Rupe’s time with Council, she has helped to improve the financial situation of the village through outside funding and has worked to address ongoing issues in the community such as the lack of handicap entrances at Village Hall.
“Pippy Longstocking was one of my favorite people when I was growing up,” Rupe said. “She had this can do attitude like nothing could stop her … I want women to lead the world. Women just have to have the courage to step in and get out of their box a little bit.”