Board member seeks OKC council seat
Mike Dover, a member of the MAPS 3 Citizens Advisory Board and longtime community volunteer, said this week he would seek the Ward 2 seat on the Oklahoma City Council.
Dover served 27 years as executive director of Variety Health Center. Under his leadership, Variety Care grew from a small clinic to a center serving thousands of Oklahomans.
Having grown up poor in St. Louis, Dover, 70, said he “knows what it is like for families to struggle to get by and make it day to day.”
“I will always be an advocate to improve the quality of life for all families,” he said.
Dover was born in St. Louis in 1948 and graduated from McKinley High School.
He attended the University of Missouri, Columbia, graduating in 1974 with a bachelor of arts degree in social work. His master’s in social work is from St. Louis University.
Dover said he had been encouraged by Oklahoma City’s rapid development and its accompanying economic opportunities.
City leaders, though, need “to keep an eye toward long-term sustainability and transparency” in how taxpayers’ dollars are spent, he said.
“It’s important we keep building on our momentum in Oklahoma City,” Dover said, “but we also need to strike a balance and develop in neighborhoods outside downtown.”
Balanced public investment, he said, will “keep our progress going into all of the communities and neighborhoods we call home.”
Dover is seeking the seat held since 2011 by Ed Shadid, who has said he will not seek a third term.
Dover began his career teaching at Marymount College in Salina, Kansas, then moved to Norman, where he was an instructor at the University of Oklahoma and executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
He was founding president and served as chief executive officer from 2009 to 2011 of the Variety Care Foundation.
Dover and his wife, Rosanne, a school nurse in the Western Heights School District in Oklahoma City, have four children and five grandchildren.
They attend First Unitarian Church in Oklahoma City.
Dover chairs the MAPS 3 senior health and wellness centers subcommittee and serves on the Oklahoma City Bond Advisory Committee, both volunteer positions.
He volunteers as a mentor at The Education and Employment Ministry (TEEM) and as a consultant at The Executive Service Corps of Central Oklahoma (ESCCO).