Jackie Minchew has sought to strengthen our community during a long and distinguished career as an educator and civic leader. His commitment to the community and a sustainable future will continue to guide him as he serves Everett as our City Councilman.

A Working-Class Leader for Everett
Since 1990, Jackie has taught in the Puget Sound region, first at Langley Middle School on Whidbey Island and currently at Silver Firs Elementary School. In his career, he has taught band and choir, grades 5-12, and general music, grades K-12, in the public schools of three states. Five times in his career, Jackie has been recognized as an outstanding educator, most recently in his current position.

Prior to his 29-year career as an educator, Jackie worked at a variety of blue-collar jobs, digging footings for a concrete contractor, cold-tar roofing in the Arkansas summer sun, and 4 ½ years in a Dow Chemical manufacturing plant, including one year as inventory clerk for the Cell Assembly Unit. Working his way through college in this way, with a young son to support, Jackie learned the value of hard work and established the working-class values that continue to guide him today.

Committed To Our Community
Throughout his adult life, Jackie has enjoyed music as an occupation, a hobby, and a thoroughly enjoyable way of life. He has performed with and, in some cases, been a founding member of a variety of vocal and instrumental music ensembles, most recently the Three Chord Progressives. He has sung in and directed a variety of civic and church choirs, and performed for ten years with the Everett Symphony trombone section, including a performance in Carnegie Hall in 2006.

When not occupied with work and his musical pursuits, Jackie enjoys hiking the trails in our beautiful Cascade Range, pursuing his life-long love of reading, and most importantly, spending time with his family who, in his words "are at the center of who I am."

For the past 6 ½ years, Jackie has spent considerable time and energy in political and civic involvement. He is an elected Precinct Committee Officer in his neighborhood and is the recent past Chair of the 44th Legislative District Democrats. He is now serving as Chair of the Lowell Civic Association and represents his neighbors on the Everett Council of Neighborhoods.

Jackie is also proud to serve on the Mayor's Diversity Adivsory Board and the Snohomish County Citizen's Committee for Human Rights where he helped to draft an ordinance, currently before the Snohomish County Council, to create a Human Rights Commission here in Snohomish County. He is a founding member and past Executive Chair of Democracy for Snohomish County, a progressive political action committee with which he remains active.  More recently, Jackie is proud to be a founding member of Green Everett, a group of local activists dedicated to sustainability in all its forms.

Jackie represents his fellow teachers on the Representative Council of the Everett Education Association as well as representing the EEA on the Snohomish County Labor Council.

Jackie has always chosen to be involved, frequently seeking positions of leadership and responsibility. Whether founding a coin club, a brass ensemble, a band booster organization or political action committee, he has always been more than willing to face the challenge and work for the success of his community.

Family, Education Guiding His Values
Jackie graduated High School in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1967. He attended Arkansas Tech University, then transferred to Colorado State University, where he graduated with distinction in 1980. As a public school music teacher for 29 years, Jackie is committed to the idea that a person should never stop learning, and has taken a multitude of continuing education classes, workshops and symposia, including a Summer Master's Program at the University of Washington.

Jackie learned his working-class values while growing up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The second of six children born to G.B. Minchew, a World War II veteran who fought in the European theater and worked as a civil servant until his retirement, and Ethel Minchew, who Jackie watched leave her role as a housewife to work in a manufacturing firm until her retirement in 1991. The examples they set taught him the value of a strong, loving family and a solid work ethic.

Jackie married his wife Phyllis in 1968, and their son Ray was born in 1969. The family grew again in 1994, when daughter Amber, now 19, joined the family through the joy of adoption. The Minchews have lived in the Lowell neighborhood of Everett since 1990, and through all the challenges that a 41 year-long life together can present, Phyllis and Jackie continue to deeply enjoy one another's company and the love of their children.