In her personal and professional life, she strives to connect the people of the Chippewa Valley around shared values.

name 

Catherine Nicole Emmanuelle

family 

Husband: David Jones. Kids: Reya (15), Siena (10)

neighborhood

Historic Randall Park, Eau Claire

background

A self-proclaimed “Wis-Cali-Consonite,” Catherine was born in Oakland, grew up in the Bay Area, and moved to the Chippewa Valley in December 1999 after a year traveling to all 50 states. In 2012, she was appointed to an at-large seat on the Eau Claire City Council, then was elected to a full term in 2013. Notably, she is the first Latina/o elected official in city history. Catherine holds a bachelor’s degree from UW-Eau Claire and a master’s from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. In addition to her elected position, she works as a family living educator for UW-Extension in Trempealeau County. For fun, she likes to bargain shop, tries to recreate foods from her travels, dabbles in growing food in her front yard, and occasionally indulges in Netflix-binging. You can find her on Facebook and Twitter (@CEmmanuelle).

We love the Chippewa Valley because there is a little bit of everything you need and want, it has a great sense of community, and it’s affordable! Although I am far from thinking about retirement, we often talk about how great Eau Claire is for a homebase, and we can then launch from here to explore the world. And when back at homebase, there are amazing people, opportunities to serve the community, and fun and relaxation to be had too!

My favorite place to take our daughters is the Farmers’ Market. Without ratting out who … at least one of our girls has a standard breakfast of one cookie during the summer on Saturdays at the market. Go ahead and assign me negative mommy points.

I make sure to never miss an opportunity to hug. I am a hugger – there, I said it! So sue me, no wait, hug me!

I never leave the house without my iPhone, some type of lip product, and my wallet, tucked in a little purse. I decided a few years ago to downsize to smaller purses, instead of filling larger purses to the brim, making the purse super heavy. Now I have a few little purses that are convertible to fanny packs (I know, dork-alert!), and a couple of the little purses convert to bike bags on my handle bars.

During the holiday season you’ll find us being kinda minimalists on the holiday home decor front … so if anyone is up for holiday-decor-bombing my place, let me know! We also stay close-to-home, or we’ll hit the road to visit my husband’s family in Omaha, or as we like to call it, The Big “O.” And here at home, we call it the big “Eau.” See what we did there?

When our kids are with a sitter we love to walk from our house to Barstow or Water Street and catch some live music and enjoy some local nosh. For really getting out of Dodge, we love to our blissed-out annual vacation place, Santa Fe.

My husband would say my super power is connecting people to others who share their values. I love matchmaking for the common good; for good old romance, um, not my bailiwick.

My daughter will tell you that her mom loves to sing in the car, especially to The Little Mermaid soundtrack, ’90s hip-hop, or (my in-my-dreams BFF) Lizzo. Or preparing for the day the sisters of The Staves ask me to join the musical family. She will also tell you that her mom is on a mission to bring back the word “tight” to present-day vernacular (such as: “Ursula’s sultry vocals in The Little Mermaid are tight!” or, “You should be proud of your mom’s dance moves – they are tight!”). So far, my 10-year old has vetoed every tight word integration I’ve attempted. Now that is definitely not tight.

If I could pass on one bit of advice it would be love > fear.