Mark Gudgel, a former Lincoln Southwest High School English teacher who co-founded an educator’s human rights institute to work with teachers in Rwanda, has taken on a new challenge: running for mayor of Omaha.
Gudgel, 39, who has taught English, humanities and world religions at Omaha North High School for the past six years, said the way the city handled protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death this spring was a catalyst.
“As a teacher who is deeply invested in thousands of children, but also as a parent, I am greatly disturbed by what I see unfolding around me,†he said. “I am sincerely worried about the future and what our children will be inheriting.â€
This, he said, seemed like an opportunity to make decisive change.Â
Gudgel, a Valentine native, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2004 and landed a job teaching English at Southwest, drawn in part by the chance to teach a Holocaust literature class.Â
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He visited Rwanda in 2008 and three years later co-founded the Educator’s Institute for Human Rights with a friend he'd met at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., where they both were fellows.
The institute holds workshops about the Holocaust to give Rwandan teachers the resources to teach about the genocide in their own country and has since expanded its programming to other countries.
Gudgel stepped down as executive director in 2016 to focus more on his family. He and his wife, Sonja, have two young children.
Social justice issues aren’t the only reasons he’s running.
He has six campaign planks focused on city growth through empowering large and small businesses and entrepreneurship, improving transportation and infrastructure and sustainability efforts, such as renewable energy. One of his planks includes creating a panel of teachers to advise on a range of issues, such as equity and reducing the "brain drain" of young people.
The city has offered no meaningful assistance to the small businesses — including some of those that comprise the city's vibrant restaurant scene — forced to close during the pandemic, he said.
“Small business is really the beating heart of the economy,†he said. “I’m not saying these are problems with simple solutions, but what I’m saying is there’s no solutions being proposed.â€
His parents are small business owners in Valentine, where they’ve had a small bookstore on main street for 30 years.
“I’m very familiar with the plight of small business owners and the struggles they face,†he said.
Gudgel is a registered Democrat running in the officially nonpartisan race.
Mayor Jean Stothert, a Republican, is expected to seek an unprecedented third term in the 2021 city election.
The 2020 Journal Star general election Voter's Guide
Your guide to Lincoln-area and statewide races and ballot questions that will appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. Click on a race name to see the candidates and learn about their views on the issues.
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Only one of the two seats on the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners up for election this year features a contested race.
The University of Nebraska Board of Regents consists of eight members elected to serve six-year terms representing districts across the state.
The State Board of Education sets state education policy and regulations, and oversees the Nebraska Department of Education.
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View the Voter's Guide as it appeared in the Journal Star print edition.