About Marie
Marie with her husband Rod, and their children Anthony and Nicole
Marie Gilmore made local history when she was elected as the first African American woman to the Alameda City Council. Utilizing her skills honed as an attorney and known for her ability to build consensus, Marie has held leadership positions in Alameda for over 15 years.
Before joining the City Council in 2003, Marie was asked to serve on the Recreation Commission. For Marie, that opportunity provided her with chance to work to improve the parks where her two young children loved to play. Marie went on to serve Alameda families as the Chair of the Recreation Commission and eventually was asked to lead the Alameda Planning Board.
According to the Alameda Journal, Marie, “developed a reputation on the Planning Board for her diplomacy in handling difficult cases where, like discussions of Measure A, feelings run high.”
On the City Council Marie has worked to restore and open the historic Alameda Theatre, providing residents with a major local movie theatre for the first time in over 25 years, and greatly enhancing the vitality of Park Street. Her leadership and commitment helped build a brand new public library and she has helped implement the renovation of the South Shore, now renamed Alameda Town Centre.
Marie has fought to continue development of Harbor Bay Business Park to provide opportunities for small businesses to own their own offices. She helped hire world class management to improve the level of service at the Alameda Golf Complex and worked to improve accessibility of Alameda Landing.
Thanks to her commitment to moving Alameda forward and her rejection of the divisiveness that has hampered City Hall recently, Marie has been endorsed by Alameda’s firefighters. In endorsing Marie, Firefighters President Dominick Weaver stated: “Alameda needs a thoughtful leader who bring our city back together to find positive solutions to the challenges we face. We’ve been working with Marie for years. She is smart, focused and interested in results, not politics. She’s in this race for the right reasons. We trust that Marie Gilmore will build consensus at a time when Alameda needs it most.”
The daughter of immigrants from the Caribbean island of Dominica, Marie first moved to the Bay Area to earn a bachelor’s degree from Stanford. She met her husband, Rod, while they were attending Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. They moved to Alameda in the 1980s to raise their children, Anthony and Nicole. Marie practiced law for several years before devoting her time to her family and community. Rod, the son of former Oakland City Council Member and civil rights leader Carter Gilmore, is a business attorney and college football sportscaster for ESPN.