Council President Joan Seymour is a long time Southfield resident, having moved here from Detroit in 1973. First elected to City Council in 1993. She has been Chair of the Council Finance Committee four times, Chair of the Legislative & Urban Affairs Committee, and twice chaired the Boards & Commissions Committee. She has also been a member of the Southfield Housing Authority. She has been elected City Council President Pro Tem five times.
With a background that includes over thirty years in corporate management, Council President Seymour has always devoted significant time and energy to various causes that benefit youth, women's issues, the environment and the arts.
Her volunteer activities began when a teenager, and she has been active in many organizations, including as a Board Member of the Environmental Protection Council of Oakland County, as Chair of the Southfield Wetlands & Woodlands Preservation Council; Detroit and National Audubon Societies; National Wildlife Federation; Board Member of International Art Center/Institute; Michigan Wetlands Coalition; National Organization for Women as co-chair of the Detroit area employment committee; and as Vice President of Working Opportunities for Women.
Long interested in environmental issues, she has been active in several natural areas preservation efforts in Southfield and, as a private citizen, led the successful effort to preserve a large wooded wetland in the path of the I-696 Expressway. Following that, she helped to form the Southfield Wetlands/Woodlands Preservation Council and, as it's President, led the community-wide successful effort to enact both the Wetlands Protection Ordinance and the Woodlands Protection Ordinance. She has been active in gaining protection for several of Southfield's special natural areas, including Lincoln Woods Nature Preserve, Horsetail Woods Nature Preserve and Carpenter Lake Nature Preserve, among others.
Council President Seymour is dedicated to keeping Southfield a vibrant, beautiful, and successful city and has always been an advocate for the neighborhoods, which she deems "the core strength of our community."
She is proud to call Southfield home and says the natural beauty of Southfield was a great selling point for her, but the vitality of the community is in it's people and that Southfield's residents are "the best."