Alumna Retired from Teaching then Became First Female Mayor of Vancouver, Washington
Anne McEnerny-Ogle was born in Medford but her family lost their business when the Interstate 5 viaduct was built so they moved to Eugene where she graduated from South Eugene HS. Her favorite math teacher there was a Southern Oregon College (SOC) graduate and passed on some encouragement and advice about Ashland and the SOC campus. Anne did a tour on campus and in Ashland and loved the small-town environment and the beautiful campus nestled in the foothills of the Siskiyous.
Anne lived in the Cascade Housing complex for a year then was able to find a cute one- bedroom, one-bathroom house to rent on Wightman Street with her two roommates. “We loved the house because it was so close to everything on campus but it only had two interior doors and if they were both open at the same time, they’d literally hit each other! I have fond memories of those close-knit times in that house for three years,” she said.
Anne started off as a secondary education mathematics major but switched to elementary education and did her student teaching at Walker Elementary in Ashland. “My experience at SOC was wonderful as a student. I was President of the Student Oregon Education Association which was a chapter of the Oregon Education Association (OEA), so I got to travel from Ashland to Tigard as a student and participated in state-level discussions with educators. It was an enlightening experience for me,” she said. After graduating in three years in June of 1974 with her bachelor of science degree in elementary education, her supervisor for her student teaching, a former principal in Lake Oswego, helped her get her first job at Uplands Elementary School. That began a 15 year career in elementary education. Additionally, in 1976, she earned a master’s degree in education at Lewis and Clark College in Portland.
After teaching at the elementary level for 15 years, she worked to earn her certification to teach mathematics at the secondary level. She then moved on to Waluga Middle School in Lake Oswego, where she would teach for 15 more years, closing out a 30-year career before retiring in 2004. Educators, involved in the field of mathematics, will remember Anne’s years of work as an author and one of the editors of The Oregon Mathematics Teacher (TOMT).
While teaching in Lake Oswego, Anne met Terry Ogle, an educator in Battle Ground, Washington. They married and settled in Vancouver, Washington, where their son John was born. From there, a long career of servant leadership would start. “In Vancouver, I got involved with volunteering at almost every level, from helping to lead Boy Scouts to helping to restore local streams to being President of the Vancouver Neighborhood Alliance,” she said. She also served on a local task force that determined how the Interstate 5 bridge should be replaced over the Columbia River. All the volunteering and service got her interested in running for the Vancouver City Council, which she did in 2009 and 2011, losing both times in the general election. Her dedication though, drove her to run again in 2013 and she won!
Vancouver is run by a paid city manager style of local government where the Mayor and Council members serve on an elected council. In 2016, Anne was elected to serve as Mayor pro tem for two years. In 2018, she ran for Mayor in the primary against six men. She won in the primary and later, won in the general election to become the first female Mayor of Vancouver, a growing and dynamic city of nearly 200,000 people. She is finishing her third year as Mayor and has really focused on keeping city government focused on people and small businesses during the pandemic. “As leaders, we will always face challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic, is no different. We must strive to deal with the issue head on, while helping to make our local government more responsive to our citizens,” she said. “When I was a student at SOC, being able to serve as president of the Student Oregon Education Association then later, the student representative at the OEA, really spurred my interest in serving others as a volunteer. I will always cherish those memories and have a special place in my heart for Ashland and the college campus.”
Learn more: City of Vancouver
