Mary Lou Makepeace

Makepeace continued her affiliation with philanthropy and nonprofit organizations in the Pikes Peak area when she became executive director of the highly successful Indy Give! campaign raising over $1 million in the last two months of 2013.

She was inducted to the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2008. Other recognitions include the Athena Award, Colorado College Community Diversity Award, Denver Business Journal’s Outstanding Woman in Business, Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Community Service Award, the Mary Jean Larson Community Service Award, and numerous others.

Term limited in 2003, she joined the Gill Foundation and became the executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado, distributing millions of dollars to nonprofits across the state.

Colorado Springs’ first female mayor, Makepeace was elected in 1997 to fill the last two years of retiring Mayor Bob Isaac’s term, defeating Republican Cheryl Gillaspie, known for carrying a pistol in public, by 25%. She was re-elected in 1999, defeating Republican Will Perkins, who opposed the zero-tolerance discrimination policy passed by the city in 1997.

She entered politics in 1985, when she was appointed to fill a council seat being vacated. She was the executive director of the adolescent child placement agency STAY from 1995 to 1997. As councilmember, Makepeace helped form the Colorado Springs Women's Network in response to the growing number of women who voiced concerns about discrimination.

Born Mary Louise Pfahl, she received a bachelor's degree in journalism and political science from the University of North Dakota and attended the Harvard University Program for State & Local Government. She earned a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in 1979.

Makepeace moved to Colorado Springs in 1973, where she worked as a caseworker, and later administrator, for the El Paso County Department of Social Services between 1974 and 1982, working on child abuse cases.

She taught at the American School in Antananarivo, Madagascar, and was appointed Assistant to the Defense Attaché at the American Embassy in Prague, Czechoslovakia, following the 1968 Soviet invasion. She later served as adult education officer at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Mary Lou Makepeace (born April 30, 1940) is an American politician who served as the mayor of Colorado Springs, Colorado from 1997 to 2003. She was the first woman to hold that position.