After losing her bid for reelection, Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward will be leaving office at the end of the year as the Mayor-elect Lisa Brown steps in. 

Woodward, 61, is Spokane’s 47th mayor to hold office. She succeeded David Condon, who served for two terms, from 2011 to 2019. 

Prior to running for mayoral office in 2019, Woodward was a news anchor for 35 years. She moved to Spokane in 1990 to join local television station KREM-TV, where she was a news anchor for nearly 20 years. In 2010, she joined KXLY Broadcast Group, where she was an anchor for nearly a decade before leaving to run for office.  

The Journal recently sat down with Woodward in her last weeks as mayor to discuss her transition, her four-year tenure, and what the future holds. 

How are you preparing for transitioning out of office? 

We’ve offered the mayor elect (Brown) office space in City Hall. She started this last week of November with her transition team. We also gave her access to employees so she could do information gatherings, interview cabinet members, and everything she needs before she takes office on January 1. 

She is on the fifth floor, which is the same office that the former mayor, David Condon, gave me when I did the transition work for two months before I took office. It is hugely beneficial for the organization and for the administration. We wanted to be able to create an opportunity for a smooth transition. 

How do you feel about the transition? 

You know, things happen for a reason. We worked really hard during the campaign, and I’m excited for the next chapter. 

One term has really felt like two terms when you think of all the incredible challenges that we’ve addressed in four short years: A global health pandemic, civil unrest and a summer of protests in 2020, the housing crisis, unprecedented workforce shortages, and Camp Hope. We’ve dealt with a lot of challenges these last four years. I’m ready for a break before I figure out what the next chapter looks like. 

How was your term in office?

I took office on January 1, 2020, and then the pandemic hit within just a couple months.  

My dad died my first month in office. I lost my mom at the end of my one term. So I’ve lost both my parents during all this—that’s a challenge on the personal side of things. 

Leading the city through a global health pandemic is not something that I thought would be part of my job.

But I always tell people, we’re not supposed to be able to look at that crystal ball and know what’s coming down the pike. It is what it is. You get to work. I have a great team and we worked regionally to move our city through that pandemic. 

It’s great now that we’re on the other side, but we did a lot of advocacy work for supporting our businesses during the shutdown, assisting with children learning virtually, and making sure people had food on the table. There was a lot that went into the work that we did at the Emergency Operations Center for many, many months. 

What are some things that you are happy to have accomplished and hope will be carried forth? 

Definitely the work that we did during the pandemic supporting our businesses and community. I came in running on a platform of addressing homelessness regionally, and with better outcomes. When I came into office, the city only had one shelter that was operating seasonally. Over the past four years, we have created hundreds of more shelter beds in the regional shelter system. There are about 420 beds now. The fact that we’ve opened all those facilities in one term is pretty incredible. 

During the pandemic, we worked regionally with the city and the Valley to make sure the vulnerable were housed during the pandemic. A year ago, we went to Houston to see how that city was moving the needle on homelessness. We’ve been working on what a regional homeless authority would look like for over a year now. That has been a huge undertaking, but it was a priority. Although I’m leaving office, I’m optimistic that we will get across the finish line. 

What drove your decision to go into politics? 

I loved covering politics. I loved election night back when we had polls and people went to the polls to vote. That was like the Super Bowl of news for me. 

After 35 years, I knew I wanted a change, so the thing I loved about my job as a broadcast journalist was telling people stories, the stories of people doing great things for the city that they loved and I thought, in my next chapter, I want to be one of those people. I want to make a big impact on the city that I love, the city that has welcomed me. 

When I moved here, I was a newlywed. My husband and I decided to stay here, raise our kids, build our lives, and it’s been the best decision that we’ve ever made. So I thought, how can I impact the city in a profound way? I decided to run for office of the mayor. 

What are your plans now that you won’t be serving? 

I’m going to take a couple months off and just allow myself to have some time to myself. This is a 24/7 job, without running a campaign as well. 2023 was an extremely busy year, I lost my mom just a week and a half before the election. So, I’d like to be able to take a little time to myself and figure out what the next chapter is and not be in a hurry to do so. 

Being mayor has been an honor unlike most people will ever be able to experience. When I moved here 33 years ago, I never thought that I would be a mayor here. It’s been a privilege to serve the community. 

This has been an experience that will prepare me for something else. I just don’t know what that is yet. But when you are called to do something, you’re also equipped to do it. I have leaned on my faith a lot during this time and will continue to do so as I move forward into whatever that next chapter looks like.  

As the new mayor steps in, what do you feel are the needs of the city? 

I hope to see that regional homelessness authority or entity get across the finish line and working the way we all hope it works. Our police chief resigned; I’m looking forward to seeing who that next individual is because that’s a very important position in the city. This community has supported Chief (Craig) Meidl during some tough times this year—calls for his resignation, calls for independent investigation into his engagement with the downtown neighborhood. 

Spokane has a lot going for it. 2024 is going to be very exciting year. We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of Expo ‘74 and we’ve seen many great things with the renovation of our park. There’s all the development on the North Bank, a soccer stadium with USL soccer teams. There are so many great things going on that I would have loved to be a part of as mayor, but I will be part of in a different way.