Mike Dovilla is a U.S. Navy veteran and small business owner. A fourth generation Ohioan, he grew up in Berea and has been a resident of the 18th Ohio House District for more than 20 years.

Mike currently serves as president of The Dovilla Group, a Cleveland-based government relations consulting firm. He represents companies and nonprofits on matters that are important to northeast Ohio, including its renowned strength in manufacturing and its future in energy and emerging technologies.

The great-grandson of Italian, Irish and German immigrants, Mike learned at a young age the importance of hard work and service to others.  His Grandpa Dovilla was a skilled watchmaker who grew up in the Tremont neighborhood on Cleveland’s West Side, while his Grandpa Metzger served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and later worked for 31 years at General Motors in Parma as a member of UAW Local 1005.  Mike credits his grandmothers with his entrepreneurial spirit, deep love of our country and lifelong calling to public service.

Following that passion, Mike served in the executive and legislative branches of the federal government in Washington, D.C. In 2003, he was selected as a Presidential appointee to be Executive Director of the Chief Human Capital Officers Council, a group of Cabinet department human resource executives who develop government-wide personnel policy.  Previously, as Staff Director and Professional Staff Member for U.S. Senator George V. Voinovich on the Committee on Governmental Affairs’ Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, Mike was responsible for drafting and successfully guiding to passage five major bills that reformed the federal civil service for the first time in 25 years.  He also played a central role in negotiating and achieving consensus on key provisions of the law that created the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Mike began his public service career in the federal government’s Presidential Management Fellows program, serving at the U.S. Departments of State and Defense and earning the State Department’s Meritorious Honor Award for “sustained superior performance” in overhauling the Department’s strategic planning processes.

In 2006, Mike ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Ohio’s 10th Congressional District, earning the support of more than 70,000 voters in the strongest mid-term challenge to date against Democrat incumbent Dennis Kucinich.

Mike served on active duty with the U.S. Navy on a 12-month deployment in Iraq in 2007-2008.  As Deputy Officer-in-Charge, he led a 25-person, Baghdad-based intelligence headquarters for Combined Joint Task Force Troy, the counter-improvised explosive device brigade in Iraq. For “exceptionally meritorious performance,” Mike was awarded the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the third highest award granted by the U.S. Department of Defense.  Mike’s reserve assignments have been with the Chief of Naval Operations and the Office of Naval Intelligence.  He currently serves as an intelligence officer assigned to a U.S. Forces Japan reserve unit located in Akron.

In 2009, Mike was named an American Marshall Fellow by the German Marshall Fund of the United States.  GMF is an American public policy institution dedicated to promoting greater cooperation and understanding between the United States and Europe by supporting work on transatlantic issues, convening leaders to discuss the most pressing transatlantic themes, and examining ways in which cooperation between our nations can address a variety of global policy challenges.

Mike is an engaged member of his community who is dedicated to building a stronger Greater Cleveland and State of Ohio. While in the Nation’s capital, he was elected president of the Buckeye State Society, a social and community service organization for Ohioans living in Washington.  He is a member of The City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland Council on World Affairs, Northeast Ohio Legislative Council, Cleveland Italian-American Organization, Kiwanis Club of Berea, American Legion Post 91 in Berea, and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3345 in Strongsville.  Mike is a volunteer in the Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital “Circle of Friends” network, a national officer of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity, and an alumni advisor to his local chapter at B-W.  He and his family belong to the United Methodist Church of Berea.

An honors graduate of Berea High School, Mike holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics and political science from Baldwin-Wallace College and a Master of Public Administration from The American University in Washington, D.C.  He resides in Berea.