A 35 year resident of Franklin, Doug Greathouse moved here in May 1980 with a dream of starting his business and making the city his home. Just like many of us, he married, raised three children, saw them through college and beginning lives of their own. What many don't know, is he also became a non-traditional college student at age 41, earning three degrees at Sinclair Community College along with BA and MA degrees from Wright State University and received numerous academic honors along the way. Doug has attended nearly all city council meetings beginning in the summer of 2009 and is well informed on all the current issues. Doug is passionately interested in improving our community and making it the best it can be. His philosophy is simple, successful, and direct—working together we can do better!
EDUCATION
Douglas Greathouse received his Associate of Applied Sciences degree in Paralegal Studies from Sinclair Community College with honors in 2000. He was awarded several Honors Scholarships to continue his studies at Wright State University, earning his Bachelors Degree in Political Science, magna cum laude, in 2001 and his Masters Degree in International Relations in 2003. In 2004, he completed a second AAS degree from Sinclair in Computer Information Systems. He also pursued additional graduate coursework in Political Science at Miami University.
COLLEGE PROFESSOR
Greathouse taught in the Political Science department at Sinclair Community College for nine years. As Adjunct Professor of Political Science, he created the SCC Model United Nations program which teaches college students many of the important life skills needed to be successful in their careers. Students are taught to assume the role of international diplomats representing various countries at regional and national conferences. They learn debate and caucasing, pursuasion, consensus building, bargaining and negotiation, policy research and writing, parliamentary procedure, and more. Sinclair's students often earn conference awards and have been elected to Student Government offices.
BUSINESSMAN
In 1980, he founded SPS Construction here in Franklin as a residential and commercial electrical construction firm providing quality work at reasonable prices for hundreds of area property owners. In the early 90s, the company merged with a Middletown company and Doug became the Fiscal Officer of the combined enterprise. In that capacity, he managed matters of finance and led the strategic reorganization of the company including the merger of several corporations and conversion to a Limited Liability structure. Other responsibilities included due diligence analysis of potential investment acquisitions, cash flow restructuring, and analysis/auditing of company accounting procedures. Recently Doug has re-opened his former entertainment company, Stagecraft Production Services which is a provider of stage and event lighting, sound, and audio/visual services to provide support services for local events and venues. He and his wife, Sandra Reff, also opened an art gallery last year at the Pendelton Art Center in Middletown to display and sell her contemporary art creations including an interesting collection of Franklin's mural art.
PARALEGAL
After college, Greathouse worked as a paralegal providing a variety of services to local law firms. After a stint with the Montgomery County Public Defender's office where he worked in the Family Reunification and Juvenile Offender units, he served as a Law Clerk in the Dayton Municipal Court researching legal precedent for the Judges. Since then, he provides contracted services to lawyers handling probate, real estate, landlord/tenant, family law, litigation, and appellate matters. A special interest of his is working with the legal issues of special needs children.
SOFTWARE ENGINEER
As a Microsoft Certified Professional, he presently works for Just Jewelry in Springboro doing enterprise web development that is helping the company grow and create jobs. Formerly he worked for leading eCommerce company in Loveland, Ohio building their global web presence as the company expanded into international markets. Previously, he was employed by Harris IT Systems as Lead Software Engineer at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. There he lead a team of developers building secure, robust, high performance Web applications capable of meeting the rigorous Certification and Accredation standards of the U.S. military.
FAMILY
Greathouse has three children, daughters Deanna Reising, Kathleen Greathouse Gorman, and son Sebastian Greathouse. DeeDee graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a BSN degree and is now practicing pediatric intensive care in Honolulu. Her sister, Katie, also graduated from UC with her BSN and practices coronary intensive care in Cincinnati. Sebastian is currently enrolled at Sinclair Community College and is studying software engineering. He currently works in Sinclair's IT department as his dad did for ten years.
ORGANIZATIONS
Franklin Rotary Club, Franklin Chamber of Commerce, Warren County Chamber Alliance, Dayton Dot Net Developer's Group
INTERESTS
Amateur Radio, Aviation, English Country Dance (just because it's fun), Discussing foreign affairs and American policy. Avid blogger and commentator on a wide variety of contemporary topics and issues.