Board Member: J. Rita McNeil Danish

CEO, Signal Ohio

A highly accomplished attorney, transformational leader, and community changemaker, Rita McNeil Danish possesses more than 3 decades of professional legal experience across a range of industries and business sectors. In her roles as partner, Judge. consultant, and now CEO of a nonprofit media organization, Rita has fostered intercultural interactions that embraced and celebrated diversity, equity, and inclusion, resulting in communities that were both empowered and strengthened. Leveraging her breadth and depth of insights into municipal and government law, she has a proven history of building bridges across party, racial, and gender lines, fostering open cultures, dismantling prejudices, and empowering individuals to uniquely contribute to society.

As CEO of Signal Ohio, a new nonpartisan media organization using community-centered journalism to catalyze civic and community engagement, Rita is focused on launching newsrooms across the network to achieve the organization’s mission of delivering quality, unbiased information accessible to all Ohioans. Signal Ohio is one of the fastest growing and largest nonprofit news organizations.

Rita’s unique set of skills is why often she is sought after to contribute to boards including her previous 5-year term appointment on the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. Additionally, she served the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the National Civic League, and Women’s Small Business Accelerator. She was the Chair for Women for Economic and Leadership Development (WELD) and Chair of the Public Contracting Committee of the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law.