Glenn A. Johnson, Mayor, Term: 2004-2007; 2008-2011; 2012-2015

In November 2011, Glenn became the first mayor in the history of Pullman to be elected to three, four-year terms and said he is very appreciative of the support of the citizens of Pullman.  The mayor’s position is part-time, in theory. Glenn’s other job is a professor in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. He teaches courses in television news and media management.   Sports fans also know him as the “Voice of the Cougars” because Glenn has been the public address announcer at Cougar football and men’s basketball games since 1980. 

He is a past president of the Association of Washington Cities (AWC), a group that represents 281 cities in the state and has served on its board of directors since 2006.  He also is on several AWC committees including the legislative steering, nominating, federal legislative subcommittee, safe and healthy communities, and federal health care subcommittee. He was elected trustee in 2010 of the Association’s Employee Benefit Trust.
 
Glenn earned the Advanced Certificate of Municipal Leadership from AWC in September 2008 and received the Certificate of Municipal Leadership in January 2006.  He is also certified by Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency as an advanced public information officer.  He volunteers with the Pullman Fire Department as its PIO since 2000 and was the PIO for the Pullman Police Department from 1998 to 2003.  He continues to work with the police department on major cases when needed.  If there is a state of emergency in Whitman County, Glenn will serve as the PIO for the county during level II and III emergencies.  Glenn holds additional certifications with Homeland Security.

Before becoming mayor, Glenn was elected to the Pullman Memorial Hospital Board of Commissioners (now Pullman Regional Hospital) from 1998 through 2003 and was the board president of this public hospital district for the last three years of his term.  He was actively involved in the process of getting the new hospital on Bishop Boulevard that was completed in 2004.

He is on the board of directors of the Pullman Chamber of Commerce and was the 1999-2000 chamber president.  He has been chair of the popular Fourth of July celebration at Sunnyside Park since 1998. He was “Member of the Year” for the chamber in 1997 and received the Marshall A. Neill Community Service award in 2001. He is chair of the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport board; Washington State Association of Broadcasters secretary-treasurer and serves on the board. He is a board member of the Community Action Center of Whitman County and serves on the Palouse Advisory Board for the Inland Northwest Blood Center, based in Spokane.  He is a member of the Bel Canto Performing Arts Society in Seattle and serves on their advisory board.  He is also member of the advisory team for Washington State University Project Healthy Campus.

Glenn first became active in helping the city of Pullman when he was asked to co-chair a committee to get a bond measure approved to build a new Pullman Police station in 1984.  He has chaired other successful committees to have bond measures approved that expanded the Palouse Bill Chipman Trail in 1998 (with money being used in 2004 for the Downtown Riverwalk project) and, in 2000, the measure that added three new police officers and three new firefighters to the city.

Glenn is the Lester Smith Distinguished Professor of Media Management.  He earned a BA from California State University, Sacramento, a Master’s degree from UCLA, and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in Mass Communications.   Before arriving in Pullman, Glenn was a broadcaster and news reporter in Sacramento and Los Angeles and managed two radio stations in Sacramento for four years.

Glenn and his wife, Kathryn, raised two children in Pullman’s outstanding school system.  Their son, Eric, is principal of Park Orchard Elementary School in Moses Lake, Washington and his wife, Darcy, is Director of Special Services in the Moses Lake School District.  Their daughter, Karen, who was a registered nurse in Kirkland, Wash. with a specialty in cardiac rehabilitation, was killed in a car accident, along with her husband, Jeff Doke, on December 23, 1996.