Joanne Rajoppi is the first woman County Clerk in the
149-year-old history of Union County. Elected County Clerk in 1995, and re-elected in 2000 and 2005, she served previously as the first Union County Register of Deeds and Mortgages for 12 years.

As the County Clerk, she serves as a constitutional and ministerial officer mandated to certify, record and preserve numerous categories of public, legal and property documents.

The County Clerk performs a variety of functions including the administration of election ballots, passport applications, recordation of land records, maps, liens, various professional licenses, notary public commissions and veterans' discharges among other items.

She initiated the first computer software program for property recording and accounting in the State of New Jersey.

Ms. Rajoppi, a native of Springfield, served on that municipality's Board of Education and the Township Committee and was the first woman mayor of Springfield in 1977. She was elected to the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders in 1978 and became its first woman Chairman in 1980. Governor Brendan Byrne appointed her to serve as New Jersey's Assistant Secretary of State in 1981.

She received her B.A. degree, cum laude, from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and her Master's in Public Administration from the Center for Public Service at Seton Hall University. She is a seven-time winner of the National Association of Counties Achievement Award for innovative and creative management. She is the recipient of numerous civic and professional awards including citations from the New Jersey Association of Woman Business Owners, the Boy Scouts of America, the Salvation Army and the Northern New Jersey American Heart Association.

Ms. Rajoppi is a past president of both the Union County Women's Political Caucus and the Woman's Political Caucus of New Jersey. She also is a former president of the New Jersey Association of Counties and the Constitutional Officers Association of New Jersey.

Ms. Rajoppi is an adjunct lecturer in Public Administration and Public Policy-Making at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Formerly, she was a staff writer for the Newark Evening News and editor of statewide publications for the New Jersey Carpenters' Funds. She resides in Union Township and is the mother of two sons, Peter-Anthony Pappas and Andrew Leigh Pappas.