Personal History

Born June 24, 1958 in Santiago de Cuba, Mr. Ortiz left Cuba at the age of seven to escape the Communist dictatorship of Fidel Castro. He grew up and was educated in Central Flordia. Mr. Ortiz graduated from Maynard Evans High School, and afterwards earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from the University of Central Florida in Political Science. By 1984, he was working at Harcourt Brace Publishers developing social studies textbooks for the nation's secondary school market as one of its youngest editors developing secondary school, social science texts. Mr. Ortiz then went on to work as a successful printing broker.

After his father's passing in 1999, Mr. Ortiz remembered his father's challenge to pursue public service as a legislator who would truly represent the people. His father had always encouraged him to utilize his college education and caring personality to better his community. To do this Mr. Ortiz knew that there was more work ahead, and so he enrolled at Florida State University. Today, Mr. Ortiz is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of History studying the historical role of the political economy of welfare in the United States, while teaching at Keiser University in Tallahassee.

Mr. Ortiz is a recipient of numerous honors, including two nominations to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers and has been named Fellow Visiting Scholar at the Claude Pepper Center.

Mr. Ortiz has one son, named Zachary, who attends Kate Sullivan Elementary School in Tallahassee.

Robert@robertortizforcongress.com

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Robert Ortiz
for Congress