WIRE for Women in Government

  Please join us on Friday morning when our speaker will be Carol Mayer Marshall. Carol is the founder of WIRE for Women — Women who Identify, Recruit & Elect — to help women get elected or appointed to offices in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. WIRE is a volunteer nonpartisan organization comprised of women and men who are committed to increasing the number of women in appointed and elected office in both Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. They envision a world where more women hold elected and appointed office, bringing their unique experience and wisdom to focus on our community's greatest problems. WIRE believes that better public policy decisions result when all segments of the community are fully represented.

  WIRE is an active group of concerned citizens that helps identify women who would be effective public servants and encourage them to run for office. Once these candidates are recruited, WIRE mentors and assets the women by providing free political consulting on a one to one basis provided by individual volunteers.
 

  Carol began her political career at age 12 volunteering for Senator Robert Taft of Ohio. Later she was a Congressional Intern on Capitol Hill, and a Legislative Assistant to three Congressmen and two Senators. In 1969, she became the first woman ever to serve as an Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations in any Administration. She was later appointed by the President and confirmed by the US Senate as the first female Director of VISTA (the Domestic Peace Corps). In 1989, President Bush Sr. appointed, and the Senate confirmed her as the first woman Director of the San Francisco Mint.

  Carol has run her own consulting business, practiced law, and been active in commercial real estate development. She has run for the California State Senate and has served on many local community and political boards. She founded a salon of women, now in its eleventh year, which meets monthly to discuss issues of national and international importance. She serves on the board of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, is the Chair Emeritus of the NARAL Leadership Council, has served on the national NARAL board, and on both the local and state boards of Planned Parenthood.

  Carol received her Bachelor of Arts in political science from Mt. Holyoke College & George Washington University in 1960 and her JD from University of California, Berkeley in 1975.