Barbara Tellman is known far and wide as one of the best volunteers the Pima County Democrats have ever known. Barbara was born into a family of left-wing do-gooders and tree-huggers and has followed that heritage. Having a short attention span (her words not ours!), after being a stay-at-home Mom, she went from working for a local environmental group, to a public interest law firm, then Planned Parenthood, while volunteering on numerous campaigns – even an environmental Republican elected to the Board of Supervisors – and a successful County zoning referendum. She abandoned politics for a while, working at UA, doing water policy and environmental history research after becoming disillusioned when a City Councilman she helped elect turned out to be a crook (literally).
Howard Dean brought her back to her senses and since then she has worked for the Party on the local and state levels, and for many candidates (many of whom were endorsed by Arizona List and were elected!). One of her addictions is Election Integrity. With Elaine Lim at her side, PCDP volunteers observe election procedures and verification of ballot counts. She is Vice-Chair of the Pima County Election Integrity Commission. She helps Susan Bickel and Mariana Spier, work towards more effective PCs. A favorite activity is helping new people, especially young ones, get involved and learn to use tools such as VAN. Tom McConnell got her started on political GIS mapping and data analysis, one of her hobbies. She works on the re-election campaigns of Arizona List candidates Sen. Olivia Cajero Bedford and Rep. Stefanie Mach among many others and her maps and political analyses are legendary among all Arizona List candidates.
She enjoys her 2 children, 3 grandchildren, and 2 dogs, none of whom are interested in politics, except the dogs, who love campaigning for their pal Olivia. Arizona List is extraordinarily pleased that Barbara Tellman is the first to be recognized as the recipient of the Jacqueline Adams Volunteer Award.