Today we’d like to introduce you to Rochelle Sibbio.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started with Habitat for Humanity of Summit County in June 2006 as it’s executive director. In 2008 I became President & CEO and we launched a capital campaign to find a new headquarters for our organization to be large enough to house our offices, construction warehouse and our ReStore. We have occupied 2301 Romig Road since December 2009 and just added on 3,000 sq. ft. of garage space.
My background is two degrees in education. A bachelor’s in secondary education and a master’s in technical education. The classroom was not my comfortable space so I opted to go a different route. In 1997 I accepted a role with the Akron Urban League to run a program called School’s In which was a GED program for habitually truant students in Akron Public Schools to provide them the academics they needed to achieve the GED and some workforce solutions to help them gain employment. Eventually through various promotions at the Akron Urban League to assist with program development and resource development I left there in 2004 to be the Director of the Foundation for the Kevin Coleman Foundation. I remained there for 2 years and felt the pull back to social services and being in a space of serving families with long term solutions for stable, affordable homeownership.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
For the most part my nearly 20 full years at Habitat have been the most enjoyable of my professional career. Sure there are struggles everywhere but the most impactful days are when we dedicate a home, sign the mortgage and pass the keys to the homeowner and the day we burn mortgages with families that successfully pay off their homes. To date 57 have paid off and I’ve been there for most all of those including seeing some of the first families I built with 20 years ago pay off in the last year.
Running a capital campaign and raising the funds needed to move into a large space was a challenge but the community stepped up and helped us raise just over $2M to make it happen. Our first development of homes was 8 in Kenmore which was paused during the pandemic and we are just about to finish our second development of homes where 16 families will be homeowners in a city block in North Hill. These two larger projects have taught us a lot about a development especially since we were always an ‘infill” house builder with single family home lots around the city.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Habitat for Humanity of course is known for building and repairing homes. Being the affiliate for nearly 20 years I’ve been able to take what I learned growing up in a construction related family business and transfer those skills and knowledge for something I am certainly proud of. Professionally I have been recognized my Smart Business Magazine as a non profit CEO of the Year, ATHENA Akron finalist for the Women’s Leadership Award and Habitat for Humanity has been recognized by the same two entities just in 2025 for our Organizational Culture from Smart Business Magazine and Non Profit of the Year by ATHENA Akron. I give credit to my amazing team of talented and dedicated employees that make coming to work a blessing.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I grew up in a large Italian family. Many of the traditions revolve around food – from making authentic dishes to getting up at 5:00 am with my mom to prep and stuff the turkey for Thanksgiving. I also grew up in a small town in Portage County and my parents were known to be very philanthropic. They adopted families for the holidays including providing Thanksgiving meals to around 50 families in our town and then adopted families and purchasing toys and clothes to work with the town police dept. to “stuff the cruiser”. They generally stuffed 3 or 4 of them!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hfhsummitcounty.org
