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Mayor Kelli Linville Biography

Mayor Kelli Linville

Kelli Linville, a fourth-generation Whatcom County resident, small business owner, educator and former state legislator with more than four decades of community service, became the Mayor of Bellingham on January 1, 2012.

Mayor Linville was elected to a four-year term, and is the City of Bellingham’s first woman mayor. She brings to her position a great passion for community service and excellence in government, and decades of experience as a public servant.

A lifetime of experience in our community

Mayor Linville was born and raised in Bellingham, where her parents still live in the home they built on the G.I. Bill in 1950. She is a 1966 graduate of Bellingham High School and holds bachelor’s (1974) and master’s (1981) degrees in speech-language pathology from Western Washington University. She worked for 16 years as a speech pathologist in the Bellingham Public Schools and was active in the Bellingham Education Association, including serving as the organization’s president in 1989.

She was elected in 1992 to represent the 42nd District in the Washington State House of Representatives, serving 1993-1994. She lost her bid for re-election, only to be appointed to fill a vacant seat in 1995. She won seven successive re-election bids for her 42nd District seat, serving through December 2010, for a total legislative service of 17 years.

17 years of effective leadership in the 42nd District

Mayor Linville is well-known locally and statewide for her fair, independent voice and highly effective leadership as a state legislator, with her skills, influence, and strong relationships resulting in successful legislation in many key areas, including economic development and job creation, government accountability, social justice, and funding for important community projects. From 2009 to 2010, she chaired the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, the primary fiscal committee for the House of Representatives. Throughout her legislative career she consistently “reached across the aisle” to solve problems, working across party lines for the good of the greater community.

She counts among her innumerable legislative achievements:

In addition to decades of serving her community in various roles, Mayor Linville is the co-owner of several small businesses. She has a life-long interest in mid-century design and is a long-time collector of 1950s furniture and art. She is married to Will Roehl, is the mother of two adult sons and is grandmother to two granddaughters.

Affiliations (partial list)

Recent Awards (partial list)

 

Updated: Jan 2, 2012

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