Who Run the World? Women in Elected Office

Rebecca Maurer

Councilwoman Maurer

Cleveland City Council

Rebecca Maurer represents Ward 12 which includes parts of Old Brooklyn, Slavic Village, Brooklyn Centre and Tremont.

Councilwoman Maurer is a lawyer and community advocate. She's focused her legal career on housing issues -- including lead poisoning in children, tenant's rights, and utilities access. She previously ran her own law practice, was a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and clerked for Judge James Gwin of the Northern District of Ohio. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and her J.D. from Stanford Law School.

In 2018 and 2019 she was the policy attorney for Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing, a community coalition that pushed for the passage of a bill to better protect Cleveland's children from lead poisoning.

In 2020 she joined the Student Borrower Protection Center as counsel and program manager. In that role, she consulted with state legislatures on student loan issues and helped set up one of the first academic institutions in the country dedicated to student loan law.

As a community advocate, Councilwoman Maurer has been involved with organizations across the city: she served as a mentor and teacher at Minds Matter Cleveland; she is active in her block club; she was an inaugural participant in the Cleveland Leadership Center's Stokes Leadership Program; and she served on the board of Slavic Village Development. From 2018 until 2021 she served as the Ward Leader in Ward 12 and built a get-out-the-vote program across all four neighborhoods in the Ward.

Jennifer Ngo

Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion

Undergraduate Student Government

Jennifer Ngo is a second-year Economics and Public Policy Major from Toledo, Ohio. Throughout their first year at CWRU, they have involved themselves as a member of the Varsity Volleyball Team, Phi Mu, Black Latinx Athlete Coalition President and Founder and Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion on Executive Student Government. Outside of school activities, Jennifer enjoys yoga, photography, videography, listening to podcasts, social media, and cooking. She has always had a passion to advocate for others, and is a passionate advocate of democracy and all it encompasses. Jennifer's aspirations of using her voice to represent and serve others were solidified these past couple of years with all of the social unrest - this led her to becoming a prominent student activist and advocate!

Barbara Palmer

Professor of Political Science, Legal Studies Coordinator, Creator & Executive Director of the BW Center for Women & Politics of Ohio

Baldwin Wallace University

Dr. Barbara Palmer is an expert on elections and the success of women candidates. Her most recent book, co-authored with Dennis Simon, is entitled Women and Congressional Elections: A Century of Change. Professor Palmer teaches courses on American politics, civil rights and liberties, elections, and women and politics. She is the recipient of the Baldwin Wallace Student Senate Faculty Excellence Award, the Baldwin Wallace Gigax Faculty Scholarship Award, and the Erika Fairchild Award sponsored by the Southern Political Science Association Women’s Caucus. Prior to her arrival at Baldwin Wallace, she taught at American University in Washington, D.C., for nine years. Professor Palmer has given invited talks on American federalism, elections, constitutional law, the history of the integration of women into Congress, and the challenges faced by female candidates. She has been interviewed by numerous media, including the Washington Post, US News and World Report, HuffingtonPost, Cleveland Public Radio, the Voice of America, Agence France-Presse, Nara News (Japan) and Die Ziet (Germany). She has spoken to a wide variety of audiences in the United States and abroad and has worked with hundreds of young women between the ages of 14 and 24 from all over the United States, helping inspire them to get involved in politics. Professor Palmer was a founding member of Women Under Forty Political Action Committee and served as the Political Director and Treasurer. She also helped with the creation of Running Start, a non-partisan organization that trains young women to run for public office.