Mary Mascher

Mary Mascher represents House District #86, which includes the Southeast side of Iowa City and the city of Hills.  She is serving her 10th term in the Iowa House of Representatives. She is the ranking Democrat on the State Government Committee and also serves on Education, Human Services and the Budget Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Mary graduated from the University of Iowa with a teaching degree in 1976 and a Master’s Degree in counseling education in 1982.  After teaching for 33 years in the Iowa City schools, she retired from teaching in June of 2009.

Mary has been very active in her community. She helped organize the first girls’ softball league in Iowa City and served on its board of directors. Since 1988 she has sung and acted in numerous productions of the Iowa City Community Theater, and also served on their board of directors. She has been a member of the Iowa City Parks and Recreation Commission, the Iowa City Riverfront Commission, and was president of the Iowa City Education Association. From 1992-1997 Mary served on the State Sesquicentennial Commission.

In 1994, Mary was elected to the Iowa House where she has been an advocate for women, children and families. Mary serves on the State Reading Recovery Advisory Board and Executive Committee. Mary was appointed by Governor Vilsack to the State Council on Continuous Improvement of Educational Excellence. Mary received the Iowa Counseling Associations’ Legislator of the Year Award in 1996. In 1999 she was recognized as the National Reading Recovery Teacher Leader Friend of Education and in 1998 she was recognized by the Iowa Counseling Association as Legislator of the Year.  In 2003 Mary was recognized by the Girl Scouts of Mississippi Valley for their Growing Strong Award and in 2010 The Corridor Business Journal recognized Mary with their Women of Influence Award. In 2011 Heritage Agency on Aging recognized Mary as their Outstanding Elected Public Official and in 2012 Iowa Physicians’ Assistant Society recognized Mary with their Outstanding Leadership Award.  In 2010 Iowa Pride Network recognized Mary for her work with the Roger Wendt Education Award.