About Rosa

• Click here to read Rosa’s résumé
• Click here to download Rosa’s book, Maine Rising
• Click here to read Rosa’s newspaper column

Rosa Scarcelli is best known for her impressive showing as a political newcomer in the 2010 Maine Democratic Gubernatorial Primary. She entered the race as a relative unknown, yet finished fourth out of 11 candidates in both parties – within one percentage point from second place against three formidable Democratic opponents.

The Rosa for Maine campaign centered on non-partisan, common sense solutions to create government efficiency, generate jobs and invest in education. In the beginning of her campaign Rosa launched a book, Maine Rising, detailing her comprehensive policy plan for creating 50,000 jobs in Maine. The book demonstrated Rosa’s ability to outline solutions to complex issues and the campaign that followed assembled a first-class team of professionals, political newcomers and volunteers who engaged a statewide voting base.

In her nearly twenty years in business, Rosa has been directly responsible for $500 million dollars of business development across Maine and 13 other states. She is currently the CEO of Stanford Management, a company that employs more than 115 people and provides quality affordable housing to thousands of residents in Maine and three other states. She took over and turned the company around in 2005 – reshaping it into one of the top ten affordable housing companies in the country – after founding her own real estate management company just six years before.

Rosa was named to the Aspen Institute’s 2009 Henry Crown Fellowship Program, a class of 20 young, accomplished, entrepreneurial leaders from across the country (past recipients include Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Delaware Governor Jack Markell).

She holds memberships in: Young Presidents Organization (YPO), YPO’s Women’s International Network, the International Women’s Forum and the Maine Women’s Forum. She also served on the Board of Youth Alternatives Ingraham, a non-profit social service and mental health care provider, where she received the 2004 Outstanding Leadership Award.

Rosa grew up in Wilton, where her father taught at the University of Maine at Farmington for 35 years. She was Senator George Mitchell’s first U.S. Senate Page in 1987 and later interned in his office. Rosa attended the University of Maine at Orono before graduating from Bowdoin College in 1992, where she was named a James Bowdoin Scholar.