About William Wendling

Bill Wendling plays a leadership role in public-private collaboration and engagement in education policy development and issues of urban education at local, state and national levels.

For the past ten years he has served as Executive Director of the Ohio 8 Coalition, which he helped establish. The Ohio 8 is a strategic alliance of the superintendents and teacher union presidents from the big-city school districts in Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown.

In his capacity as Executive Director, Bill has served on a number of statewide advisory boards, including the ODE Race to the Top Advisory Group, Governor's Institute on Creativity and Innovation, Seniors to Sophomores, membership in Conservancy for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Regional Advisory Council for District 3 and the “Kitchen Cabinet” of former State Superintendent Susan Zelman.

In addition to his work with the Ohio 8, Bill serves as Director of Public-Private Partnerships for the Educational Service Center of Cuyahoga County, where is he is working to establish a closer collaboration among K-12 school districts, higher education and health and human service providers in the county.

Prior to the establishment of the Ohio 8, Bill was Chief Communications and External Affairs Officer for the Cleveland Municipal School District. In this capacity he professionalized the communications staff and built the District's first website. He also co-chaired the Labor/Management Council, led the District's response to several high-level crisis management issues and helped guide voter approval of a $1.5 billion bond issue.

Before joining the District, Bill was an advisor to then-Superintendent Richard A. Boyd; authored the report that led to mayoral control of the Cleveland school district, and chaired the public relations advisory group for then-Mayor Michael R. White.

He is a member of the Greater Cleveland School Superintendents Association and the American Association of School Administrators, where he is active in the Urban Policy Network. Bill was a presenter at both the 2008 and 2009 National Conference on Education.

He also is a leading public relations counselor in Cleveland. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum in 2006 named him one of its “Instrumental Few” for his leadership in bringing the Rock Hall to Cleveland.

A past president of the Cleveland Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), he received the Chapter's Lighthouse Award and was elected to PRSA's national College of Fellows, both in recognition of his lifetime achievements in public relations leadership. A former president of the Cleveland board of the March of Dimes Foundation, he was a keynote presenter at the 1996 national volunteer leadership conference and received the Foundation's Frederick Robbins Award for outstanding service.

Bill holds a bachelor's degree in English from Miami University, where he serves on the Advisory Board of the College of Arts & Science. He and his wife, Lynne Woodman, live in Richfield, Ohio.