Mayor Sean Dunne

Phone: (740) 357-2629
Email: Sean Dunne

Elected in November 2017, Sean Dunne is the First Ward Representative and Vice-President of City Council.  Sean was born in the Bronx, New York City, and spent his childhood in New Jersey.  He moved to Portsmouth in August, 2013 after living in Ireland for approximately thirteen years.  Sean is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Shawnee State University and has been certified by the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology as a Clinical Sociologist in Community Development.

Since starting in January 2018, Sean’s work on council has focused on two central areas: the transformation of physical spaces and the improvement of discourses that define Portsmouth. To improve physical spaces, he has helped develop the Spock Memorial Dog Park, the Portsmouth Skate Park, and the Grant Bridge social space.  He has written grants for a number of projects, including work that made improvements to the McKinley Pool and Spartan Municipal Stadium.  He has helped pass legislation to established a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area in the city’s downtown and he was the lead advocate for passing a resolution to put Electricity Aggregation and Clean Energy on the November 2021 ballot.  He was one of the main organizers of the 2019 Blues Brews n BBQ festival at Spartan Municipal Stadium, and he designed and donated a public trash can that resembles the Michigan Football logo.

Sean has also worked to improve how our city and our residents are defined in legislation and media narratives.  Sean was the main author Portsmouth’s successful 2020 All-America City Application.  With Councilman Edwin Martell, he wrote legislation to challenge racism in high school sport.  He worked to bring the New York Times back to Portsmouth to cover our community’s recent accomplishments.  Sean was recognized by Equality Ohio as the 2021 Southeastern Ohio Ally of the LGBTQ+ Community based upon legislation he helped develop to extend anti-discrimination protections to the LGBTQ+ community.  Based upon research conducted by one of his Sociology students, Sean advocated to co-name a section of Findlay Street, “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way”.  He has helped preserve Portsmouth history by placing Spartan Municipal Stadium on Preservation Ohio’s 2017 Endangered Historic Sites in Ohio, and he worked to archive Portsmouth Spartans game film with the Library of Congress.  He has worked with others to improve data collection, organization and visualization of Code Enforcement.