Alumni Spotlight

Sara Gelser '94

In the State House

Sara Gelser '94 (right) visits with preschoolers in Oregon's 16th District.

Sara Gelser ’94, like so many moms, will go to extraordinary lengths to get the best for her children. What sets her apart, however, is that she is ready to fight for everyone else’s children, too. Gelser, who was appointed last December to fill a vacant seat in the Oregon state legislature, puts the welfare of children at the top of her list of priorities.

A mother of four, Gelser first got involved in local politics after she and her husband, Peter Gelser ’94, waded through the bureaucracy on behalf of her oldest child, Sam (11), who has a developmental disability.

“We have been able to get Sam the medical care and educational resources he needs, but Peter and I are fortunate to have wonderful educational backgrounds, family support, great insurance and financial resources. As I went through the process with Sam, I kept running into families who did not have those advantages, and things were much more difficult for them,” says Gelser, a Democrat. “My goal is to help families and professionals help kids be independent and successful when they grow up. This is not a new idea, but there has not been a lot of money and power behind it in the past.”

In order to share what she had learned about helping special needs children, she taught a parent-education course at a local community college. She also got involved with local and national organizations that help children with developmental disabilities and their families. Still, she wanted to do more.

“If the system is not working for families — and it’s not — then that’s a policy problem,” explains Gelser. “And policies can be changed.”

Gelser’s passion for helping marginalized children first led her to serve on the school board in her hometown of Corvallis and to serve on public and private boards. Her other legislative priorities include increased funding to all levels of education, legalizing civil unions for same sex couples, providing health coverage for uninsured children, tax reform and improving public safety. All these issues are made more difficult by the financial crisis currently facing Oregon.

“This is a ballot initiative state, and issues have passed that contradict one another,” she reports. “We have to decide if we really want certain public services, and assuming we do, we need to find a way to pay for them.”

Corvallis is home to Oregon State University as well as a large community college, so recent cuts to higher education is an area of particular concern to Gelser. “There has been a 36% drop in higher education, and that’s very worrisome” says Gelser, who earned a master's degree at Oregon State. “Colleges and universities need to remain affordable for students, and we need to be able to attract great faculty members…. People in this area talk a lot about people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, but government needs to give people the tools they need pull themselves up. Education is the best tool we have to help working families improve their economic opportunities.”

After only six months on the job, Gelser is already preparing for election day in November. But when facing her Republican challenger or colleagues in a State House that she calls “very rancorous,” she often reflects on her Earlham experience. “Earlham really taught me how to listen to people that I disagree with. I learned that listening to opposing ideas can inform an idea and even make it stronger. I remember Howard Richards’ course, “Methods of Peacemaking.” He urged us to listen to the values and needs that were being expressed and to look for the middle ground. I use that methodology all the time.”

As an Earlham student, Gelser had planned to be a teacher, but she says that she has long had an interest in public policy and leadership. She cites an independent study with Professor of History Carol Hunter entitled “Teaching for Social Change” as an early example of how her interests in politics and education coalesced. For now, she hopes that the good people of Oregon’s 16 th District will elect her for another term and that she will see progress on legislation that is important to her.

“I feel so grateful to have the opportunity to serve, and I hope the people of my district will allow me to serve for another two years,” says Gelser. “As long as I feel like I am making a difference, I will want to remain in office.”