An Introduction to Our New Trustee
By: OLIVER PULCHER ONLINE EDITOR
On April 2nd, the election to decide who would hold the Subdistrict 3 seat on the St. Louis Community College Board of trustees was held. Anne Adams Marshall won the seat by a vote of 11,118 to Paula Savarino’s 9,448 votes. After the election was decided, Marshall celebrated with family and friends and finally caught up on the sleep she had been missing during the election. A few days after the election Marshall agreed to an interview with the Montage to introduce herself as a newly-elected representative of St. Louis Community College.
Marshall describes herself as a lover of learning. “I have always been a voracious learner. My dad has his master’s in English and he taught at Flo Valley and was tenured from St. Charles Community College. And my mother is a retired adjunct and a retired children’s author,” said Marshall.
The new trustee added that her education was cut short due to needing to raise her son and earn a living to support the two of them. However, her liberal arts education does allow her to actively learn about and know about other cultures, so that when she travels, she understands the cultures she experiences.
Marshall started at Neiman Marcus in 1984, and has spent thirty-five years with the company. Her son was six months old when she moved back to St. Louis, and when she moved back, healthcare trumped everything else as a mother. This combined with the decline in benefits offered in teaching positions led her to make the decision to stay at Neiman Marcus.
However, this didn’t stop her from becoming active in other ways in St. Louis. Marshall said, “When 2016 happened, I felt like I couldn’t sit still. To sit still would be like being complicit. I couldn’t do it, especially as I started seeing rights stripped.” Marshall helped with a rally where she coordinated with C.A.R.E., a humanitarian organization, in front of Senator Blunt’s office. Marshall and her fellow rally members went to Blunt’s office every day at noon to discuss issues with the Senator’s staff, the ultimate goal of which was to get Senator Blunt to listen. When discussing Marshall’s plans for being in office, her goal was similar to that which she wished of Senator Blunt.
When asked what her plans for being in office were, Marshall said, “My plans are to listen. I plan on getting myself acclimated with all the campuses, and I plan on meeting all the staff. I am going on tours of campuses. It will take whatever it takes. Right now all of my days off will be spent on campuses.”
When asked what her priorities would be while in office, Marshall said, “My ultimate goal is to see the college grow. How we do that is we take care of our faculty, adjuncts, and students. And we make sure that they have what they need to be successful. With a strong and happy faculty, and with strong and happy adjuncts who like being here, the students will come. You have to care for the people.”
Marshall plans to accomplish her goals of listening and caring for faculty and students by being open for contact, as well as setting up listening sessions on campuses where students can come and voice their opinions. She also plans to accomplish her goals on the board of trustees by building coalitions, listening for several board sessions to see how everyone gets along, and by learning through reading, listening, and research.
