Vice Mayor Alicia Reece made history by being the first African American woman to ever file to run for Mayor in the city of Cincinnati.

Alicia Reece became the youngest woman in history to be elected (at large) to Cincinnati City Council at the age of 28, in November of 1999. She was reelected to City Council (at-large) by placing first in 16 out of 26 wards and became one of the youngest African American female Vice Mayors in the country. Ms. Reece has been recognized at the state and national level as she become one of the youngest females to make the short list for Lieutenant Governor on the Ohio Democratic ticket in 2002 and was courted for a run for Secretary of State. As a delegate at the 2000 National Democratic Convention, Ms. Reece electrified the crowd as one of the featured speakers at the Ohio Delegation breakfast in Los Angeles, California. Ms. Reece was given the highest honor for a female elected official in the Ohio Democratic Party by receiving the 2002 Gertrude W. Donahey  Award.  

Ms. Reece was a 2004 delegate for the Kerry/Edwards presidential ticket as well as Vice Chair of the Credentials committee which passed a resolution honoring Fannie Lou Hammer at the National Democratic Convention in Boston.

Ms. Reece is a graduate of Withrow High Public School (1989) where she served as senior class president, captain of the girls’ City Champions basketball team, and graduated in the top ten percent of her class from the International Studies Academy. Ms. Reece is also a graduate of Grambling State University in Louisiana where she not only earned a bachelor degree in Mass Communications but served as Miss Grambling State University; the student ambassador. She played on the 1990 Grambling State University Women's Division I Basketball Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship team and traveled the country with legendary coach Eddie Robinson promoting the university.

As a businesswoman, Ms. Reece serves as Vice President of her family's 32 year marketing and consulting business; Communiplex Promotions and Reece &Reece Enterprises, located in the inner city. She was selected as one the Cincinnati Business Courier newspaper's "Under 40" Business Leaders in 2000. Ms. Reece is the founder of the Communiplex National Student Leadership Convention, The Stop the Violence Conference, and co-founded the Communiplex African American Business Consumer, & Get Out the Vote Week.

Ms. Reece has appeared nationally and internationally on CNN, FOX News, BET, National Rainbow/PUSH network, and Nightline as well as being featured in Ebony Magazine, Jet Magazine, Applause Magazine, Washington Post, LA Times, and Detroit Times.

As the Vice Mayor, she played a critical role in negotiating the nationally recognized Federal Court's Racial Profile Collaborative Settlement in Cincinnati; an agreement signed by the US Justice Department, an African American activist group, the FOP, ACLU, and US Attorney General John Ashcroft in Cincinnati. She chairs the Health, Social & Children Services, Small Business Development, and Employment & Training Committee and is a member of the Finance Committee. Vice Mayor Reece authored legislation establishing a Prompt Pay system guaranteeing contractors, sub-contractors, vendors, and small businesses doing business with the city are paid on time. She is the co-author of the fair tax legislation ending double taxation of small businesses in Cincinnati, designed to retain small business in the city. As a fighter for healthcare, Ms. Reece lobbied for increased funding of over $70 million which resulted in keeping neighborhood health clinics open for uninsured and underinsured families. At the requests of hundreds of constituents, Vice Mayor Reece reformed city government by co-sponsoring a bi-partisan Charter Amendment on the 2001 ballot allowing Cincinnati to change a 74 year old system and do a national search for the positions of police and fire chiefs, as well as economic development officers like other major cities. The voters passed the historic amendment on Nov 7, 2001.

Other accomplishments in her 6 year tenure on council includes:

*Played a major role in negotiating the University Hospital/Health Alliance settlement with the city which resulted in funding for a new Health Disparity Center and a Dental Clinic
*Created the city’s first Small Businesses Division
*Sponsored a 30 day guarantee “Prompt Pay” Law for Contractors
*Sponsored the city’s first “Anti-Predatory Leasing” Law
*Sponsored Convention Center Inclusion resolution which has resulted in over $30 million in contracts for African Americans and Women Owned Businesses
*Played a key role in securing African American conventions to Cincinnati such as the National Baptist Convention, the United Supreme Council, and several other potentials such as the National Shiners and National Association of Blacks in Law Enforcement

Ms. Reece has marched with Rev. Jesse Jackson for Appalachians and workers rights. She has also served as the Minority Coordinator for the Get Out the Vote Campaign for the Hamilton County Party including coordinating the Congressional Black Caucus's tour bus stop in Cincinnati with Congressional members Jesse Jackson, Jr., Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, John Conyers, Harold Ford, Jr., and Charles Rangel.  She also served as a co-chair of the Obama for U.S. Senate campaign fundraiser in Cincinnati.

Ms. Reece travels across the country speaking on panels and serving as a keynote speaker at national conventions and conferences about her experiences as a young female elected official.