Jean H. Godden (born October 10, 1931) was a member of the Seattle City Council, first elected in 2003 and re-elected in 2007 and 2011. Council member Godden served three terms and conceded her seat to Rob Johnson in the 2015 election. She chaired the Libraries, Utilities, and Center Committee and the Special Committee on Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Project and Central Waterfront Planning. She was also Vice Chair of the Parks and Neighborhood Committee and was a member of the Transportation Committee. Jean also was an alternate on the Parks and Seattle Center Committee. Godden received her bachelor's degree in editorial journalism from the University of Washington in 1973 and was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Her local fame is due to her award-winning column in The Seattle Times newspaper, which she gave up to run for City Council. Godden won reelection to the Council in 2007. She defeated her challenger Joe Szwaja in the November election by winning 71.21 percent of the vote. Godden conceded her seat in the election of 2015, during the council’s first district elections in recent times. Biography Born in Connecticut, Godden's family moved many times before she graduated from high school in Virginia due to her father's job as a surveyor. After two Seattle school levies failed and her son's kindergarten class disappeared, Godden and other parents mobilized and she ended up as PTA president. Godden then joined the League of Women Voters; Citizens Against Freeways; the Municipal League; and the United Way, where she helped to organize the Lake City Community Council, wrote its bylaws and served as one of its first directors. In the late 1960s Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman appointed Godden to his charter review committee. She was also named to the City's Board of Adjustment. Godden attained celebrity status in Seattle as a columnist for both daily newspapers, first for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and most recently for The Seattle Times. Godden reached that status after years working in other positions with the paper, including as a business editor, editorial page editor, real estate and urban affairs reporter and restaurant critic. Godden was one of the P-I's early female staff members and one of two women in her class at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. She would eventually graduate from the University of Washington's School of Communications. She started her newspaper career at the University