A committee tasked with nominating the interim Ward 2 Norman City Councilmember has chosen the OU Carl Albert Center’s director of National Education for Women’s Leadership and Civic Engagement to be approved in the May 11 city council meeting.
The committee, which consisted of Britton Perry — former Ward 2 councilor David Perry’s son — Richard Stawicki and Aleisha Karjala, according to an article by the Norman Transcript, chose Lauren Schueler based on her “ready answers, broad experience and determination.”
Originally there were ten candidates vying for the position after Ward 2 councilor Matt McGarry stepped down a month after his election to accept a job offer at an Ivy League institution. Afterward, the committee formed to find a new councilmember.
Schueler, according to her faculty biography, coordinates the N.E.W. Leadership program, which addresses the historical underrepresentation of women in politics, public service and civic engagement on campus. She is a member of Leadership Norman 2019, Norman Next and the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition’s Young Professionals Roundtable.
According to the article, Schueler also served on Leadership Norman in 2019, the Citizens Police Academy in 2017 and listed the OU Advocates and the Virtue Center boards as civic experience.
To select the Ward 2 councilor, the committee asked for the candidates’ viewpoints on tax increment financing districts, broadband internet as a utility, how overlooked populations would be represented and their accessibility to the ward, according to the article. The runners-up in the process were Russell Rice, electrician for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 1141 and Jeffrey Dismukes, director of communications for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
