Bob Fitrakis is a Political Science Professor in the Social Sciences department at Columbus State Community College, where he won the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1991 and the Distinguished Professor Award in 2012. He also teaches The Legal Environment of Business for the Legal department. He has also taught adjunct at Capital University and Otterbein University.
He was a Ford Foundation Fellow to the Michigan State legislature in 1975 and studied at the University of Sarejevo on scholarship in 1978.
Fitrakis earned a J.D. from the Ohio State University Mortitz College of Law in 2002. His Ph.D is in Political Science from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He has also taught political theory at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and political science at Wayne State University and Oakland Community College.
Fitrakis serves as the Ohio Chancellor and was voted the National Vice Chancellor in 2005 of the International Association of Educators for World Peace, an NGO in over 100 nations working to promote human rights and world peace.
Dr. Fitrakis produced an interactive educational CDROM on hate groups in Ohio and published the journal article with Dr. Judy Gentry “High Tech Hate” for the Ohio Association of Two-Year Colleges.
In 1997, the CICJ received a grant from the Drug Policy Foundation for polling in Franklin County, Ohio on the issue of medical use of marijuana and industrial hemp.
In 2002, Fitrakis was awarded the Golden Ruler Award from the Columbus School Board for his journalism in behalf of the Columbus schoolchildren. In 2003, the Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio honored him with their Selma Walker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Human Rights Activism.
Dr. Fitrakis is a past President of the Columbus State Educational Association and has been President of the Columbus State Faculty Senate. He also chaired the Instructional Support Council of Shared Governance and was the faculty advisor to the Ohio Board of Regents. From 1991-93 he was a Friends of the Homeless board member.
He served on the Africentric School Advisory Board for the Columbus Public Schools and worked with the West High School College Preparation Program.
He wrote an electronic textbook American Government: The Pursuit of Democracy in 2017.
Fitrakis teaches as an Adjunct Instructor of Cannabis Law and Policy in the United States, Cleveland School of Cannabis-Columbus.
He had been a member of the bargaining team for the Columbus State Educational Association at Columbus State Community College in 2018 and 2020.