Get to Know Your AGC Staff - Jerry VanderWood!

Get to know your AGC staffers! In offices in Seattle Bellingham Olympia Tacoma and Yakima AGC staff members are working on issues important to you from legislation to safety to labor and more! AGC Executive Vice President David DHondt has made Get to Know Your AGC Staff a regular feature of AGC Works. The first profile is of AGC Communications Director Jerry VanderWood not (just) because hes the editor of AGC Works but because thats the name David pulled out of a hat! Thanks to Communications Assistant Sarah Teague whom youll hear more about in a future profile for her help with the article.

Get to Know Your AGC Staff: Jerry VanderWood

Jerry VanderWood is originally from Greenville South Carolina. He graduated from the University of South Carolina (Go Gamecocks!) but also attended Clemson University (Go Tigers!). After college he moved to Washington DC to feed his interest in politics and over seven years he worked for Congressmen Carroll Campbell (SC) and Jim Saxton (NJ). While in DC he met his wife Shari who was a Congressional as well as White House aide.

Shari had lived in Seattle for several years before her stint in DC and she convinced Jerry that Seattle was the greatest place on earth and all that. So the pair moved out and landed in Issaquah. Jerry has three kids and his hobbies include being a soccer dad being an avid (meaning lazy) TV watcher and a sports fan. His last vacation was spent at Ocean Shores where he and his family were able to stay at a beachfront condo that was donated by AGC member Bill Kloster for the BUILD PAC auction. They flew kites played tennis and walked their two dogs on the beach.

Due to his current non-aerodynamic shape some may be surprised to learn that Jerry was a competitive swimmer in his youth. He later coached swim teams and once took his team all the way to a championship. Today he stays plugged into the Issaquah community by serving on the board of Issaquah Select Youth Basketball program and on the editorial board of the Issaquah Reporter Newspaper. A few years ago he earned a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Washington (Go Huskies!).

This is Jerrys second term at AGC. Jerry worked here from 1989 to 1993. He then worked for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and later for a nonprofit communications and political consulting firm headed by former Seattle Mayor Charles Royer. Looking to make another change Jerry came back to the AGC last summer as our new Director of Communications. He produces AGC Works and AGCs new print magazine Cornerstone. He led the overhaul of AGCs website staffs AGCs Future Leadership Forum (FLF) deals with the news media and helps out with major events. All of that means that Jerry ends up knowing a little bit about a lot of things AGC-related so members with questions can usually count on Jerry to steer them to the appropriate resident experts.