Melissa Cropper

Melissa Cropper is the president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT), which represents 20,000 members in 55 locals across the state, including public school educators and support staff, higher education faculty and support staff, and public employees. Before being elected state federation president in 2012, Cropper was a library media specialist in Georgetown, Ohio, for 14 years, a longtime president of the Georgetown Federation of Teachers, a member of the OFT executive committee and the chair of the federation's retirement committee.

At the state level, Cropper serves on the Ohio AFL-CIO's executive board and chairs its political committee. She is the secretary-treasurer of We Are Ohio, a state coalition of community and labor groups formed to preserve workers' rights, and the chair of the Coalition for Public Education, an advocacy group that fights for charter and voucher accountability. She also has been an active leader in the Ohio Appalachian Collaborative, a comprehensive approach for transformational change in rural education. At the national level, Cropper is a member of the AFT Teachers program and policy council and a co-chair of the AFT's State Federation Presidents Advisory Committee. As OFT president, she has developed collaborative relationships with leaders and organizations across the state to help fulfill the union's mission of advocating for issues that affect not only OFT members but also the children, families and communities that our members serve.

July 2014