I have a Master's degree in Education from San Francisco State University, with a concentration in Instructional Technology. For 30 years I ran my own consulting business, Learner Centric. I created instructional media for corporations and non-profits across a broad range of topics and audiences, from the sales and operatonal staff of technology companies to social workers and law enforcement personnel. This honed my skills at reviewing quantities of new information, gleaning the most important data, and explaining it clearly and concisely to others. This has served me well in my role on the City Council. I also developed useful facilitative, team leadership, and project management skills.

I left San Francisco for Healdsburg in 1992 with my husband and young son. I soon felt that Healdsburg was truly my home, more so than any other place I’d lived. But I was concerned about the threat of sprawl development, which I’d watched transform the rural area north of Seattle where I grew up. I got together with other residents to develop Healdsburg’s pioneering Urban Growth Boundary initiative, which passed overwhelmingly in 1996 and was renewed in 2014. It became a model for other cities in Sonoma County who wanted to protect agricultural land and preserve the character of their cities.

I went on to serve on the City Council from 2000 through 2004, and as Mayor in 2003. The voters returned me to the Council in a special election in 2017. I am committed to doing all I can to maintain what makes Healdsburg such a safe, attractive, and welcoming community, and expand cultural and recreational opportunities for residents.

I am a lifelong, active Democrat, and my political priorities align neatly with those expressed in the California Democratic Party Platform. City Council is, however, a non-partisan position, and I often find that Republican and independent voters are equally likely as Democrats to share my concerns and back my positions on city issues.

Evelyn Mitchell is proud to be running for City Council in Healdsburg. She is a third generation Californian, born in San Francisco and raised in Palo Alto. Evelyn moved to Healdsburg over 20 years ago. She and her husband, Tom O’Hair, were married in their backyard, with close friends and family sharing the day with them. Evelyn and Tom live with their two “perfect” rescue dogs, Buddy and Eli, a few blocks from where Tom grew up and where his Mom stills lives.

Since coming to live in Healdsburg in 1998, Evelyn has started her own consulting business, earned an Executive MBA and volunteered on the board of the Humane Society of Sonoma County for over 10 years. Evelyn has been running her management and accounting consulting business since 2005 and has had many years of corporate experience in management and accounting prior to that. Evelyn’s education, non-profit leadership and business background have provided her with the experience of building relationships and helping clients define and achieve their goals. Working mainly with family-owned businesses, where there are unique challenges and dynamics, Evelyn sees similar dynamics in running a city. The citizens of Healdsburg feel ownership of their city and want to be part of the decision-making process. Evelyn listens to all sides of the situation and can help achieve clarity, consensus and direction, while adding her own thoughts and ideas to the mix.

As Board President of the Humane Society for five years, Evelyn was directly involved in helping restore the Healdsburg Animal Shelter. Through this process, she experienced first-hand the collaboration the City provided to the Humane Society in order to facilitate bringing this asset back to the community. Evelyn’s experience with the City Manager, City Council and the Police Department was very positive and confirmed her confidence in our city government.