Biography

Vice President of the State Board of Education, Stewart is the elected representative from District 9. She is a past president of the Zanesville City Board of Education and of the Mid-East Ohio Vocational Board of Education.

In 2003 Stewart was recognized by the Ohio Department of Education for her work with family literacy. She received the 2004 Educator Friend of Foreign Languages award from the Ohio Foreign Languages Association, the local YWCA Women of Achievement Award, and was named the Ohio Association for Career and Technical Education's 2004 Person of the Year.

In January of  2008,  Jennifer Stewart was recognized as a local honoree at the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Fund Prayer Breakfast, held in Zanesville.

Born in August of 1950, Jennifer is the daughter of Mary and Walker Huffman, and has one brother and three sisters. She and her husband Bill were married 36 years ago in Grace United Methodist Church, where they are active members. They are the parents of Brian, Amy, Allison, Jessica and David - and live in Zanesville.

After graduating from Zanesville High School in 1968, Jennifer attended Clemson University where she was active in Student Government - serving as a class Senator and a member of the Executive Cabinet. She earned a bachelor's degree in education from Muskingum College in 1972. She taught Spanish in the Zanesville schools and was a Teaching Assistant at the Ohio State University where she earned a Master of Arts degree in 1978.

Active in her community, Stewart was chair of the Goodwill Industries Executive Board and president of the Zanesville Alumni Association. She has been involved with the James Madison Family Literacy Center, the Boy Scouts and PTO organization.

Stewart was a Central Area Director for NASBE (National Association of State Boards of Education) and previously served on the OSBA southeast Region Executive committee.  She has co-chaired the State Board’s Capacity Committee, held membership on the Joint Council of the Ohio Board of Regents and State Board of Education,  and  the Governor’s Commission on Teaching Success. Recently she served as a member of the ODE/BASA  Ohio Leadership Advisory Council.