This article is part of the 2025 General Election Voters' Guide produced in partnership with the League of Women Voters of the Akron Area.

Ross Widenor is running for the Ward 1 City Council seat in Munroe Falls.
Ross Widenor is running for the Ward 1 City Council seat in Munroe Falls. (Photo courtesy of Ross Widenor)

Ross Widenor

Nonpartisan

Campaign phone: 724-344-8123

Campaign email address: electrosswidenor@gmail.com

Facebook: facebook.com/RossMunroeFalls

Instagram: instagram.com/RossMunroeFalls

X: RossMunroeFalls

Training/experience: R&D, Innovation, Strategic Planning, and Project Management

Education: BS and MS in Chemical Engineering

Why are you the best candidate for the office?

I bring all of the skills I’ve gained through 12 years in various corporate roles to impart strategic thinking and data-driven decision-making to City Council. I continuously strive to serve ethically and transparently, and have worked to institute new ways to both communicate with and receive feedback from the community.

What are the top priorities you seek to address once in office?

The most important thing for Council to do is to think long-term and plan for the future of the city. That’s why I’ve led Council in developing a strategic plan framework with a vision for 2030 to give context and direction to our policy-making priorities. I have also focused on environmental sustainability, as I believe all communities need to, and taken steps to ensure people of all walks of live feel welcome in the City of Munroe Falls.

What strategies will you use to accomplish those priorities?

I use visual thinking exercises to build consensus among Council members about how to solve problems. In order to make sure our long-term planning is in line with the needs and desires of the community, I instituted a third-party professional survey platform to collect statistically significant, unbiased feedback to inform our decisions.

Editor-in-Chief (she/her)
Zake has deep roots in Northeast Ohio journalism. She was the managing editor for multimedia and special projects at the Akron Beacon Journal, where she began work as a staff photographer in 1986. Over a 20-year career, Zake worked in a variety of roles across departments that all help inform her current role as Signal Akron's editor in chief. Most recently, she was a journalism professor and student media adviser at Kent State University, where she worked with the next generation of journalists to understand public policy, environmental reporting, data and solutions reporting. Among her accomplishments was the launch of the Kent State NewsLab, an experiential and collaborative news commons that connects student reporters with outside professional partners.