Edmonds School Board Director Carin Chase said she will seek appointment to the District 3 Snohomish County Council position vacated by Stephanie Wright.

“Precinct committee officers across the county and women, in particular, have urged me to run for this office,” Chase said. “Our loss of reproductive, civil and human rights, and public safety has been especially impactful on people’s lives. They all want strong representation and have come to expect it from me.”

Wright, a county councilmember representing the cities of Edmonds and Lynnwood and the Town of Woodway since 2010, resigned Monday to take an executive position in county government.

State Rep. Strom Peterson has also announced he is seeking the county council appointment. Peterson, an Edmonds resident, represents the 21st District, which includes the cities of Edmonds and Lynnwood.

A resident of unincorporated Esperance, Chase is in her second term on the school board, having first been elected in 2014. She is also an elected member of the bipartisan Charter Review Commission, and is a member and chair of Snohomish County’s Human Rights Commission.

“I am a strong defender of public education and proud of the actions that we, as the Edmonds School Board, have taken to collaborate with other organizations to build housing for homeless students,” Chase said in a press release issued Tuesday. “We are also currently opening the first school-based health center in south Snohomish County.”

Since the 1990s, 60% of women’s medical clinics have closed in the Northwest, and currently, vulnerable people in the U.S. — as well as in Snohomish County — face restrictive access to medical care, Chase noted in the press release. “The seat on the council will allow me the opportunity to address these challenges at the county level, and I look forward to working on the council and with the county health department to address the crucial issues facing our community head-on.”

Chase also serves as the president of the Washington State Federation of Democratic Women and is a board member of the National Organization for Women.

Under the county charter and the state Constitution, since Wright was a Democrat, Snohomish County Democrats will pick three nominees via a vote of its precinct committee officers. Those names will then be submitted to the county council for their consideration.