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photo by Talia Hodge
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photo by Talia Hodge
For about 10 years around the ‘80s, Ilene Shapiro volunteered to answer Summit County’s overnight Rape Crisis Center hotline. Shapiro, now the Summit County executive, learned not to merely sympathize with sexual assault survivors but to empathize and give them options — helping to empower them.
“Those things really put me in touch with the community and seeing what the community needed,” says Shapiro, who grew up with a single mother in Cleveland. “I’ve always been a change agent.”
Shapiro has broken barriers as the first and only female county executive in Ohio — but that journey didn’t come without roadblocks. Early in her career in the ‘80s, she was selling copiers and encountered a man who refused to do business with women. “He tried to dismiss me from his office with a scheduled appointment. I was … taken aback,” says Shapiro, who brushed it off. “I never feel that I don’t belong at the table because there’s a bunch of men at the table.”
When women’s workplace roles were emerging in the ‘80s, Shapiro joined the Women’s Network and eventually became president. She mentored female entrepreneurs. In 1993, Shapiro helped found Akron Community Foundation’s Women’s Endowment Fund, which has provided programs for women and girls with $2.1 million in grants to date. Over the years, she also held leadership jobs at FirstMerit and Summa Health and started Shapiro Consulting, guiding other businesses.
“She’s definitely an alpha female,” says Elinore Marsh Stormer, friend and Summit County Probate Judge. “The doors were not open the way they are now. She made herself there and became notable for her competence, which made it easier for other women.”
Shapiro’s community involvement caught the eye of politicians. Though she turned down other requests, she chaired the Summit County Charter Review Commission in the early 2000s after being asked by a friend. In 2007, she started on Summit County Council, first elected to the at-large seat, and in 2014, became county council president.
In 2016, Shapiro visited Summit County executive Russ Pry in the ICU. On a Thursday, he asked her to run for his position. He died that Sunday morning. That evening, in the wake of his passing, she was sworn in and later won the election.
As executive, Shapiro is charged with leading 10 departments and overseeing a budget of half a billion dollars. Shapiro was championing economic development while the county was negotiating a large settlement with opioid manufacturers and distributors.
“They’re saying, You’re going to file a lawsuit telling we have an opiate problem while you’re trying to bring in businesses and recruit people?” she recalls. “Yes, because we need to do this. They need to stop.”
Funds from the $76 million net county settlement are being dispersed into a new foundation, social services and the Unite Us community referral platform, which the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services is utilizing in Summit County. After around 20 years of working with 31 communities, Summit County has a new consolidated 911 dispatch system and center, which is available to communities that choose to participate.
“There’s the humanistic part of working with people to move things forward,” she says. “I have the ability to do that — connect the dots to ask, What’s next?”
“She’s a dynamo,” Stormer says. “Though she is small, she is fierce.”
One constituent told Shapiro how she was impacted by the $94 million in CARES Act COVID-19 relief funds that she helped allocate to residents, businesses, schools and more.
“She said, What you did with the COVID money saved my life. I was losing my job. I was losing my house. I didn’t have any food. You created a lifeline,” Shapiro recalls. “That’s what keeps me motivated.”
The 76-year-old Akron resident isn’t slowing down — running unopposed for a third term. She wants to see the opioid money through, work on getting countywide broadband and more.
“I still have energy,” she says. “I still have a passion to make a difference.”
