Former Lexington, Kentucky, Mayor Teresa Isaac likes to keep things moving. As mayor she presided over measures that previously had been stalled by controversy:

•Enactment of an indoor smoking ban

•Increased pay for police, firefighters and corrections personnel

•Budget cuts to every other area of government, including significant cuts to her own office budget

After a few years absent from the job, Teresa Isaac is throwing her hat back into the ring to run for mayor of Lexington.  Teresa’s passion for her city has lead her to the decision to run again.  “I love the job, and want to do it again,” said Isaac. “My priorities are public safety, economic development and preservation of bluegrass farm lands. I’m proud to say that while I was Mayor, we made strides in those areas, but in the intervening years progress has slowed.”

In her first months on the job, Mayor Isaac led the city through a major ice storm where more than 90,000 residents were without power.  She received kudos for her compassion, hard work and leadership.

As a young lawyer, Teresa Isaac wrote the grant proposal to the U.S. Department of Education and directed the resulting project that did much to bring equity to sports in Kentucky.  For those efforts she received a National Sports Equity Commendation, and the Golden Gazelle Award, in 1988.  In 1988 she also was selected for the first class of Leadership America.

A University of Kentucky Law graduate, Isaac served three years as a prosecutor in the Fayette County Attorney’s office and five years as Associate Professor in the Eastern Kentucky University Department of Government and Law before running for office.  She is an honors graduate of Bryan Station High School in Lexington and a Magna Cum Laude Graduate of Transylvania University.

Isaac served from 1999 through 2002 as Executive Director of the Lexington Fair Housing Council while also teaching.   She resumed teaching in 2007 after her stint as mayor.

Isaac has received numerous national, state and local honors. In 1996 she was one of six American elected officials chosen to monitor the first Palestinian elections. The U.S. Department of State sent her to three cities in Argentina in 2004 and in Chile in 2005 as part of a democracy project to train mayors in those countries. In February of 2007, Isaac participated in the U.S. – Islamic World Forum, sponsored by the Brookings Institute, in Doha. Later that year, the State Department sent her to Namibia.

In April 2007, Isaac was presented the Halaby Award for Public Service, at the Kahlil Gibran “Spirit of Humanity” Awards gala in Washington, D.C.

For more information or to support Teresa Isaac, visit: http://www.active.com/donate/bluegrassmwoy/bluegrassTIsaac