Renee Zimelis Ruchotzke, a fourth-year student at Meadville Lombard, is serving as the Modified Residency Student representative. She graduated from Kent State University with a B.A. in History. She serves as the halftime Consulting Student Minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Canton in North Canton, Ohio. She also serves on the Ohio Meadville District’s Leadership Development Team, and as the Campus Ministry Coordinator at Kent State University for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent, where she is also a member.

She is active in Social Justice work, traveling with Kent State Students in the Spring of 2006 to the Gulf Coast to assist in cleanup after Hurricane Katrina, and organizing various local events that connect the arts to justice and diversity work. She is the 2007 recipient of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Seminarian Award for Excellence in Social Justice.
Renee lives in Kent, Ohio with her husband, two children and two stepchildren.