Polly Clemo has spent most of her adult life involved in the Greater Cleveland community. She served as President of The Junior League of Cleveland from 1982-1984. During that period she graduated from Leadership Cleveland. She was named one of Cleveland 's most influential women by Cleveland Magazine .

In 1986, Polly joined the Ostendorf-Morris Colliers Company, a commercial/industrial real estate firm as their first Director of Marketing. She remained with OM for eight years, during which time she received the Colliers Marketing Award, recognizing the Colliers professional having the greatest positive impact on the marketing efforts of the Colliers organization of 3,400 professional in 26 countries and 185 markets.

Polly joined the Benjamin Rose Institute in January 1994. Her responsibilities as Vice President/Institutional Advancement include coordination of all Marketing, Community and Government Relations and Development functions for BRI. In 1997, she successfully coordinated a $5.7-million capital campaign toward the construction of a new skilled nursing facility and in 2001 a $3-million campaign to renovate Margaret Wagner House, BRI's former skilled nursing facility. She also coordinated the Institute-sponsored city-wide Summit on Aging in February 1995, a pre-conference to the 1995 White House Conference on Aging, which was the largest pre-conference in the United States with 1,081 attendees. She is currently overseeing the orchestration of the 100 th Anniversary Celebration of the Benjamin Rose Institute.

She was named a “Woman of Professional Excellence” by the YWCA in 2005 and was also honored as 2005 Trustee of the Year by the Center for Health Affairs for her service as a trustee to the MetroHealth Systems. She received the prestigious Frances Payne Bolton Award in 2007 for her involvement in the Greater Cleveland community from The Junior League of Cleveland.

She continues to be active in the community, serving on several boards as a director/trustee. They include the MetroHealth System Board of Trustees; the MetroHealth Foundation Board of Directors; Cleveland Leadership Center Board of Directors; Leadership Cleveland, Class President; Cleveland Bridge Builders, Advisory Board; Council on Older Persons; Special Gifts Cabinet and the Health Care Cabinet of the United Way ; BrownFlynn Advisory Board; and Mayor Frank Jackson's Mayor's Operations Efficiency Task Force.