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Patricia A. "Pat" Waak (born February 1, 1943) is the former chair of the Colorado Democratic Party. A population and environmental policy analyst and consultant, Waak was elected to chair the Colorado Democratic Party in 2005. She led the party as it saw statewide gains in 2006 and won the right to host the Democratic National Convention. A superdelegate to the national convention, Waak publicly endorsed Sen. Barack Obama in late May 2008.
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Biography
Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma and raised in Texas, Waak, a registered nurse, was a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil where she taught maternal and child health between 1966 and 1968. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology and a doctorate in ministry.
During the Carter administration, she worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development and then joined at Columbia University as Assistant Director for the Center for Population and Family Health. She then spent 17 years at the National Audubon Society, from 1985 to 1999.
Waak was a delegate to the 1994 U.N. International Conference on Population and Development, and chaired the population and environment technical committee for the Commission on Environmental Strategies and Planning of the World Conservation Union. She was named a Population Reference Bureau Honorary Fellow in 1992, and received the Audubon Society's Charles Callison Award in 1998. She was the executive director of an environmental center and foundation in Loveland, Colorado.
Waak is also the author of My Bones Are Red, a genealogical memoir published in 2005 and "Planet Awakening" published by the National Audubon Society. She is married to Ken Strom; Waak has two daughters from a previous marriage to Joe Baldi, Cinira Baldi and Rachel Carter.
Political career
Waak's political resume includes stints as deputy campaign manager for presidential candidate Sargent Shriver in 1976 and a run for U.S. Congress in Colorado's 4th congressional district in 2002. A resident of Erie, Colorado, she has also served as a Democratic Party precinct chair and a member of the Weld County Democratic Party Executive Committee.
She was elected to chair the Colorado Democratic Party in March 2005, defeating incumbent party chair Chris Gates in a narrow 187-184 vote by Colorado's Democratic Party central committee. Supporters of Gates contended that the close vote reflected a rift between moderates and liberals within the state party, while other Waak supporters contended that the election reflected problems with Gates' leadership style. Waak was re-elected unanimously to a second two-year term in March 2007. During her term as state party chair, Colorado Democrats won control of the governorship and Congressional seat in 2006 and successfully bid to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Waak presided over the 2008 Colorado Democratic Party Convention, the largest convention in state party history. In 2009 she was elected to a third term as Colorado Democratic Party chair, the first time a chair was elected for three consecutive terms in 54 years.
As Colorado Democratic Party chair, she is a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, did not publicly announce her intention to vote for a particular candidate during most of the contested primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. She cited her post as state party chair as justification for remaining neutral for most of the primary in the presidential contest until a clear winner emerges. Waak endorsed Obama on May 28, shortly before the final Democratic primaries, during a visit by Obama to the state, citing Obama's success in the February caucuses in Colorado and Obama's lead in general election polling of Colorado voters. "First, as Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, I am influenced by the voters of Colorado….Second, I believe that Sen. Obama and his message of change is what Colorado wants….Finally, I believe that our country needs the type of visionary, uplifting leadership that Senator Obama has”