Jocelyn Rhynard

Jocelyn Rhynard is chair of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, the first woman to hold the office. She is a campaign and civic affairs specialist with twenty years of civic experience in southwest Ohio, spanning electoral, legislative, and ballot-issue work. She has served as chief of staff and field manager for a congressional campaign, managed a six-county judicial race, and co-led the Montgomery County effort that gathered over 7,000 signatures for Ohio’s 2023 reproductive rights amendment. Her communications work spans candidate messaging and brand management, persuasive writing, and public speaking, and she is a practiced relationship builder: pursuing endorsements, coordinating volunteer networks, and, as her school board’s legislative liaison, maintaining working relationships with state legislators and members of Congress, including testimony before Ohio Statehouse committees.

She pairs that campaign experience with nine years of fiscal and organizational oversight as an elected member of the Dayton Board of Education, where she shares responsibility for a $267 million annual budget serving 13,000 students across twelve bargaining units. She has served two terms as board vice president, sat on the finance, policy, and evaluation committees, led the restructuring of the district’s Parent Family Community Council, and guided the board through a superintendent search. As a consultant, she has facilitated strategic planning sessions for nonprofits, built operations manuals and project management systems, and provided data and census analysis. She also spent three years directing the New Leaders Council’s Southwest Ohio chapter, running its six-month leadership institute. She holds a B.A. in American Studies from Brigham Young University.