Liz Brater | |
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Member of the Michigan Senate from the 18th district |
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In office January 1, 2003 – December 31, 2010 |
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Preceded by | Alma Wheeler Smith |
Succeeded by | Rebekah Warren |
Member of the Michigan House of Representatives from the 53rd district |
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In office January 1, 1995 – December 31, 2000 |
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Preceded by | Lynn N. Rivers |
Succeeded by | Chris Kolb |
58th Mayor of Ann Arbor | |
In office 1991–1993 |
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Preceded by | Gerald D. Jernigan |
Succeeded by | Ingrid Sheldon |
Personal details | |
Born |
Boston, Massachusetts |
April 12, 1951
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Enoch Brater |
Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania |
Profession | writer, editor, university lecturer |
Elizabeth Brater (born April 12, 1951) is a Democratic former member of the Michigan Senate, who represented the 18th District from 2003 to 2010, and served as the Assistant Minority Leader. Her district included the cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. She was previously a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1995 to 2000.
Brater was born in Boston, Massachusetts. After graduating high school in 1969, she enrolled at the University of Chicago, where she remained for two years, but transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, completing her B.A. in English in 1973. She continued to receive an M.A. in History, magna cum laude, in 1976, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1975, when her husband, Enoch Brater, took a job as an English professor at the University of Michigan. In Ann Arbor, she worked as an editor and writer, also teaching courses on local government and writing at the university.
Brater won election as a Democrat to the Ann Arbor city council from the city's Third Ward in 1988. She then ran for mayor of Ann Arbor in April 1991, defeating two-term incumbent Republican mayor Gerald D. Jernigan. Brater was the first woman to be elected mayor of Ann Arbor. As mayor, Brater established the city's extensive recycling program. After serving one two-year term, she was defeated in her mayoral reelection campaign, losing in April 1993 to the Republican challenger, former city council member Ingrid Sheldon, who went on to serve four two-year terms as mayor.