Steve Langer, City Councilmember

Term of Office

Elected:    01/01/2012-12/31/2015
                 Four Year Term, Position #2
Appointed: 05/25/10-11/11
                To complete a vacant term, Position #7

How to Contact

Mail:        Olympia City Council
                PO Box 1967
                Olympia, WA 98507-1967
Phone:    360.753.8447 (City Council office)
Email:      slanger@ci.olympia.wa.us

Correspondence to a Councilmember, including email,
is a public record potentially eligible for release.

Biographical Information

Steve was appointed to the City Council in June 2010 to fill Position #7 when it was vacated after Councilmember Joe Hyer’s resignation. In November, 2011, he was elected to a four year term for Position #2.

Steve is a native Washingtonian and moved to the Olympia area in 1981 after completing his Bachelor of Science in psychology at the University of Washington and graduate studies at the University of Montana, where he obtained a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. He continues to have a full-time private practice as a licensed psychologist in the City of Olympia.

Steve is the Director of the Northwest Brief Therapy Training Center, which provides training to mental health practitioners in psychotherapy skills, and management training and consultation to businesses and public agencies locally, nationally and internationally since 1995. He is also on the faculty of the International Trauma Treatment Program, providing training in trauma treatment to practitioners from conflict areas worldwide.

Prior to becoming a City of Olympia Councilmember, he was a Governor-appointed member to the Thurston County Boundary Review Board and served until he joined the City Council. He served a term on the Capitol Land Trust Board as well as on the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill/Thurston-Mason Board. From 1999 to 2004 Steve was on the Water Resources Inventory Area 13 Salmon Restoration Stakeholder Committee (WRIA 13 includes the City of Olympia) and was chair of the Henderson Inlet Watershed Council from 1989 to 2001, as well as a member and chair of the Henderson (2001-2003) and Henderson/Nisqually Shellfish Protection District Stakeholder Committee (2003-2007). The City of Olympia shares part of the Henderson watershed.

He is a member of the Olympia Downtown Association and the Thurston County Chamber of Commerce (he was active in the Business and Economic Development Committee for several years). He is proud of being a founding member of the volunteer Thurston County Critical Incident Debriefing Team, working with Fire and Police Departments countywide since 1986. He is a member of the Olympia Kiwanis Club.

On a more personal note, he is married to Julie Macdonald, an occupational therapist working in the public schools, and enjoys living in the historic Bigelow neighborhood. He has a daughter who is attending Western Washington University and two teenage children are still living in the family home. He loves biking, traveling and downhill skiing and has a long-standing interest in medieval and local history as well as Pacific Northwest plants and animals. 

2012 Council/Intergovernmental Assignments

• Chair, Land Use & Environment Committee 
• Emergency Management Services Board (Medic One) 
• Law and Justice Council
• LOTT Clean Water Alliance Board