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Women's History Month: highlighting one of seven women to have ever served on the Bryan City Council

Before Marca Ewers-Shurtleff, the City of Bryan hadn't had a woman on the city council since 2014.

BRYAN, Texas — Prior to December of 2022, the Bryan City Council lacked a female councilmember for nearly eight years. Marca Ewers-Shurtleff was sworn in to represent Single Member District 5 on Dec. 19.

Shurtleff comes from a legal background, having served as a civil attorney in Bryan for many years. Prior to her start on council, Shurtleff served on the Planning and Zoning Committee for the city and was even elected the Mayor of her hometown, Stratford.

Shurtleff ran against A.J. Renold and Kyle Schumann for the District 5 race in November of 2022, and won after a runoff election was called. Since then, some of the biggest issues discussed in the City of Bryan have been the Bryan I.S.D Bus Barn, the Interlocal Agreement over Fire and EMS resources, and a potential sewer line from College Station being placed in Bryan.

“Sometimes you have to fight for a seat at the table, but with this particular group of males, they pulled up a seat for me and are always open to my ideas," said Shurtleff.

Before the lawyer's start on council, there had only ever been six other female councilmembers to serve as a representative of the City of Bryan. Ann Horton was the latest female councilmember and her term ended in 2014.

Shurtleff said that she has an easy time with all the other councilmembers and her opinions are always highly-respected. There are several women looking to serve on city organizations, but she said she'd love to see more women run for office.

“Even if I didn’t get this seat, one of our goals was to encourage more women to run, to show that it can be a fun experience--you can still embrace your personality and run for office. You don’t have to fit in a certain box. You can kind of maintain your own individualism, your own femininity, if that’s what you choose to do, and run for office," said Shurtleff.

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