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Charleta B. Tavares
House : 1993-1998 (120th-122nd General Assemblies)
Home : Franklin County
Occupation(s) : Legislator
Political Party : Democrat
A native of Columbus, Charleta Tavares is a graduate of Eastmoor High School. She attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and The Ohio State University. She has been actively involved in government for many years. She was legislative assistant to State Representative Ray Miller and chief staff person of the Human Resources Subcommittee of the House Finance-Appropriations Committee.
She has significant service in agencies dedicated to children's well being. For four years, Tavares was Associate Director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio (PCSAO), a statewide advocacy organization representing county children's service agencies in all of Ohio's eighty-eight counties. PCSAO is charged with protecting Ohio's abused, neglected, and dependent children. She also served as Chief of the Children's Protection Section in the Ohio Attorney General's Office.
She led this section in developing policy and legislative initiatives, which were designed to protect the health, safety, education, and security of Ohio's children.
In 1992, the 22nd House District elected Tavares to the Ohio House of Representatives. She was the first African American woman to serve in the state legislature from Franklin County and the first African American woman ever to hold a leadership position, Minority Whip, in the Ohio General Assembly. She spent five and one-half years in the General Assembly, concluding her tenure in 1998.
In 1999, she was appointed to fill an unexpired term on the Columbus City Council. In November of the same year, she was elected to a four-year term in her own right. Tavares' state and national reputation as a leader in health and human services issues was instrumental in her appointment to serve as the chairwoman of the council's Health, Housing, and Human Services Committee. In addition, she serves on the Appropriations, Development, Public Service and Transportation, Utilities and Zoning Committees.
Tavares is actively involved in the community. Her primary focus is education, health, housing, and human services. She currently serves on the boards of the Ohio Hunger Task Force, Central Ohio Breathing Association, Columbus Compact, Franklin County Family and Children First Council, Franklin County Educational Council Foundation, and the Franklin County Criminal Justice Planning Board. She is also a member of the Ohio Municipal League and the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials. She has been a member of the boards of Central Community House (as President) and Metropolitan Human Services Commission (as Secretary), and has served on the Ohio Commission on Minority Health.
Tavares also is a member of numerous national boards and associations. She served until December 1998 on the Executive Boards of The National Black Caucus of State Legislators and the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women. She was state director of Women in Government (WIG). As a leader with WIG, she helped develop the Managed Care Consumer Protection Act, model legislation unveiled and introduced in 14 states simultaneously.
Source: Personal Biography, 2001. |
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