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 Fresno’s
new mayor, Ashley Swearengin, is a California State University, Fresno
alumna, who served as the university’s director of community and
economic development and in strategic posts working improve the region’s
economy.
Swearengin took the oath as Fresno’s 24th mayor on Tuesday, Jan. 6.
She is a Texas native, who was raised in Arkansas and moved to Fresno in
1987, where she attended Clovis West and Fresno Christian High. She
enrolled in Fresno State’s Craig School of Business and was awarded a
bachelor’s degree in 1994 and her master’s in 1997.
She worked in marketing, while attending grad school, but after taking
an entrepreneurship class in the Lyles Center for Innovation and
Entrepreneurship, she changed career course. Swearengin started her
economic development career with the Central Valley Business Incubator,
a nonprofit cultivator of new businesses.
Swearengin was appointed to the Fresno State Futures Institute (renamed
the Office of Community and Economic Development) in 2000. She cofounded
the Fresno Regional Jobs Initiative, becoming CEO of the public-private
partnership aimed at creating thousands of jobs in the private sector.
Gov. Schwarzenegger appointed Swearengin to the California Commission on
Economic Development in 2007.
She also served as a leader in the California Partnership for the San
Joaquin Valley, a state-created organization dedicated to meeting
challenges shared by Central California counties with solutions
harnessing regional resources.
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