Barbara Bry

Prior to running for elected office for the first time in 2016, Barbara started her professional career working at Connect and then becoming an entrepreneur and serving on the initial management team of companies like ProFlowers.com.[6]

In 1998, Barbara founded Athena San Diego, an organization for women in the tech and life sciences community.

In 2008, Barbara founded Run Women Run, an organization that recruits and trains pro-choice women to seek elected and appointed office.

Barbara is married to entrepreneur Neil Senturia.

The 2016 San Diego City Council election for District 1 featured an open seat since incumbent Sherri Lightner was ineligible to run due to term limits. Bry, a Democrat, was expected to run against Republican Ray Ellis and Democrat Joe LaCava to replace Lightner. However, LaCava announced that he had decided not to run in January 2016.[7] In March 2016, Bruce Lightner, husband to the incumbent Sherri Lightner, and Kyle Heiskala, a policy advisor on Sherri Lightner's City Council staff, pulled papers to run for the District 1 seat.[8]

Since no candidate received a majority of the votes in the June primary, Bry and Ellis were slated to advance to the November runoff election.[9] However, on August 12, 2016 Ellis announced that he would be withdrawing from the election.[10] Despite effectively conceding the race, Ellis's name still appeared on November ballot.[11] Bry was then elected to the City Council in November.

Bry has served as Council President Pro Tem since December 2017.[12] She has taken action on several issues including short term vacation rentals,[13] dockless vehicles,[14] community choice energy,[15] and establishing the Workplace Equity Initiative.[16]

She has also been supportive of an “inclusive” economy, urging hiring decisions to be about what a person can do, not “who they know or when and where they went to school.”

• City of San Diego: Barbara Bry website