Debi Chess

Director of External Relations and Development, Dayton Metro Library; Board of Directors, House of Bread; Board of Directors, Parity Inc.; Vice Chair, Downtown Neighborhood Association

Debi Chess is the director of external relations and development at the Dayton Metro Library and a Kettering Foundation 2026 Dayton Democracy Fellow. She grew up in Fairborn, Ohio. Her father moved the family to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and retired from the United States Air Force when she was in the fourth grade. Chess graduated from Wright State University with a bachelor’s degree in social work. She went on to join the Peace Corps and worked in social service, arts and culture, and community development organizations in Chicago, San Francisco, and Tucson. After 32 years, she returned to Dayton in 2021 and began working at the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company as director of strategic initiatives. She began working at Dayton Metro Library in 2023, where she organized the 2024 Black Midwest Symposium in partnership with local and regional artists, academics, and activists. The three-day symposium was designed to elevate the collective experience of Black Midwesterners. Belonging is her guiding principle, and she believes people develop a sense of belonging where there are spaces of belonging. Her career has been dedicated to cultivating and preserving spaces, places, and experiences that connect individual narratives to a common and collective human identity; that a democracy is dependent on belonging as a core value—ensuring everyone sees themself reflected in the values of the community—and has full and equal opportunity to contribute to and extract from social, cultural, economic, and political resources that advance the whole. Chess sits on the boards of the House of Bread and Parity Inc., is a member of the Downtown Land Use Board, and is the vice chair of the Downtown Neighborhood Association. She has a master’s degree in urban planning and policy from the University of Illinois Chicago and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.