Swanson named to vacant Lexington Council seat

Mark Swanson

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – A University of Kentucky professor who already has a track record of working with downtown neighborhoods has been named to fill the vacant 3rd District City Council seat.

Monday, Mayor Linda Gorton appointed Mark Swanson to the post left vacant by the March 3 death of Jake Gibbs.

“Mark is well prepared to be the Councilmember for the Third District,” Gorton said. “He has worked to improve economic opportunity in our downtown neighborhoods. And he is a faculty member at the University of Kentucky, which is another important part of the District.”

Gorton said Swanson will be sworn into office after a 15-day waiting period to allow Council members time to meet him. The council is scheduled to return from a two-week break on April 9. Council members don’t have to approve Swanson’s appointment but with a two-third’s vote — 10 of 15 members — they can reject it.

“I’m honored by the confidence Mayor Gorton has shown in me with this appointment and I look forward to serving my neighbors in the 3rd District in these unprecedented and challenging times,” Swanson said at a press conference Monday. Swanson said he was friends with Gibbs for more than two decades and will honor his legacy during the next eight months.

Swanson will serve the remainder of Gibbs’ term, which ends Dec. 31. Swanson is not running for the seat.

Four people have qualified for the non-partisan June primary. The top two vote-getters in the primary will face off in the November general election for a full two-year term.

The four candidates are Hannah LeGris, a UK recruiter of top academic students; Jessica Mohler, the communications and marketing director for the Carnegie Center for Literary and Learning; Christine Stanley, a lawyer; and Charles D. Smith, a retired workforce development specialist who has previously worked for the city’s traffic engineering department.

The 3rd District covers a large part of downtown and areas to the south, including areas around the University of Kentucky.

A faculty member in the College of Public Health, Swanson’s work focuses on applied research on food environments in addition to teaching.

He has worked with stores in low income neighborhoods in Lexington and in Eastern Kentucky to increase healthy food options. He also worked on the “Better Bites” initiative to add healthy items to the menus at Lexington pools and to overhaul pool snack bar menus.

Swanson is a member of the Lexington Environmental Commission, the Lexington Tweens Nutrition and Fitness Coalition Board of Directors, and the Advocacy Committee of the American Heart Association, Kentucky Chapter.

He holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Florida.

Swanson and his wife, Nancy Schoenberg, a professor in the UK College of Medicine, have two adult children, Rachel and Ben Swanson.