“My family lived in the Azores for six years,” Rodgers said. “It was there that I met my good friend Ellen Henderson.”
When Rodgers was 9 years old, her family left Lajes and returned to Dayton. Her parents divorced and Rodgers and her mom, Roni Meyers, moved to Yellow Springs. She got involved in sports and got her own horse while there.
In 1983 when Rodgers was a 9th grader, she went to visit her dad, who had remarried and was living in Ramstein, Germany.
“I ended up loving living in Germany and traveling,” Rodgers said. “I decided to stay and continue school there.”
Rodgers returned to Yellow Springs to finish high school and graduated in 1987. She continued to show horses and play sports and decided to attend college at Moorhead State University in Kentucky because the school allowed her to bring her horse along.
“Moorhead had a prelaw program I was interested in,” Rodgers said.
Finding herself missing Germany, Rodgers jumped at the opportunity to return to Europe and finish college at Bitburg Air Force Base and the University of Maryland. And it was there she met her future husband, Leith Rodgers. The couple was married in early 1993 and welcomed their daughter Candace in November of that same year.
“That was when the government was starting to close a lot of bases,” Rodgers said. “We had to make a decision to either stay overseas or return stateside.”
The couple wanted to be close to their parents and families for support, so they moved to Columbus, Mississippi and Rodgers got a job with the local paper, writing obituaries and local pieces.
“That was my most favorite job,” Rodgers said of her newspaper stint, though she had already had some law experience under her belt after helping civil service members with legal needs in Germany.
After a year in Columbus, Rodger’s husband decided to separate from military service, and they moved to his home state of Illinois. While living in Elgin, Ill., Rodgers and her husband welcomed two sons, Jake in 1997 and Jason in 1999.
Rodgers hadn’t given up on her dream of going to law school, but she couldn’t figure out how to pay for it, so she took a job as a paralegal, working in family law and estate planning. Meanwhile, all three of her children were exceling in sports — Candace in soccer and ice skating and the boys in football and rugby.
Rodgers divorced in 2010 and moved with her children to Poplar Grove, Ill., a community with good schools that would give her children more opportunities. And during that time, Rodgers reconnected with her childhood friend, Ellen Henderson.
“Ellen had moved to Beavercreek and built a house on her parents’ land,” Rodgers said. “I was working crazy hours and Ellen started a business in real estate.”
Coincidentally, Rodger’s daughter, Candace, found job opportunities in Ohio after she graduated from college and younger son, Jason, decided to attend the University of Cincinnati. Jake was also looking at jobs in the Dayton area.
“Ellen asked me why I was living in a house by myself in the snow and cold,” Rodgers said.
Henderson asked her friend to move to Ohio and help her in the real estate business and Rodgers was intrigued. She sold everything, put in her notice at work, and moved to Beavercreek in 2018.
“It was good nobody knew me in Beavercreek,” Rodgers said. “I had to figure out how to meet people. The first place I went was the Beavercreek Chamber.”
Rodgers met the executive director of the chamber at the time, who helped get her connected to programs and networking events. She soon found herself meeting many people and loving every moment of it. Within six months, she was elected to the board of directors and served as both chair and vice chair.
In 2021, the chamber president and CEO position came open and Rodgers decided to apply. She was hired in August of that year.
“I was successful in real estate because of the chamber,” Rodgers said. “I wanted to take this position because of my passion for the organization and to give back to a community that helped me.”
Rodgers is proud of how she’s managed to grow the membership in the past few years. She also started a business development grant program to support small businesses and a scholarship program for local students.
“I talk to a lot about people from Ohio and we always say we can’t wait to leave,” Rodgers said. “But so many end up coming back here because it’s home.”
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