Catching up with new Menlo Park City Council member Maria Doerr

At a special Menlo Park City Council meeting on January 9, Maria Doerr was selected to represent District 5, filling Ray Mueller’s seat after his election to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.

She came to the Bay Area from Missouri to attend Stanford and was a strategy and management consultant for nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies — worked that took her internationally.  She returned to the Peninsula early last year.

“I knew I wanted to get involved,” she says. “I was excited to learn about all the issues that our community was thinking about and what it means to create action for the community. I think it’s important to have short term wins and slow steady progress longer term.”

Issues and action that have captured her attention include passing the housing element — “staff put so much work on it” — and improving safe bike lanes on Middle Avenue.

“We had 14 young people under the age of 12 show up and share their voices,” she says about Middle Avenue pilot program.

She hopes to make information more accessible to the community and increase involvement by young families and young professionals. “It’s important for all age groups to know what’s happening and how it affects them. I really love participating in the conversation.”

Maria holds in-person office hours at the Woodside Bakery in the Sharon Heights shopping center every Tuesday from 8:00 to 9:30 am to meet with residents.

What not engaged in Council work, Maria can be found rock climbing, cross country skiing, baking pies, playing the piano and ukulele, and singing. “I was a member of Talisman choir at Stanford and at one time thought I wanted to be a concert pianist.”

A quick look at her website reveals a person who’s both artistic and intellectual. “I benefited from my mother who was both an artist and an engineer in the Navy,” she says. “The creative deeply informs the analytic — and I’m hoping to bring both to the Council.”

Photo by Robb Most (c) 2023