Mayor Ellen Glasser is a wife, mother of six, and grandmother of three. Before being elected Mayor of Atlantic Beach in 2017, she distinguished herself professionally as a career FBI Agent and Supervisor; as National President of the FBI’s professional association; and as an educator.
In the FBI, Mayor Glasser had many domestic and international assignments. She was Case Agent for the Iran-Contra Investigation and worked on many high profile bank robbery, extortion, terrorism, kidnapping, and homicide cases. After 9/11, she was inaugural Coordinator of the North Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force.
More than twenty years ago, Mayor Glasser chose the beautiful, eclectic coastal city of Atlantic Beach as her final home. She retired from the FBI and then earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership at the University of North Florida. Thereafter, she taught criminology and criminal justice at UNF for several years. Mayor Glasser has also served on many local non-profit and governmental boards.
While in office, Mayor Glasser has focused on planning strategically, improving city services, demonstrating civility in local government, increasing resiliency, utilizing citizen committees, building capacity, and forming partnerships like the one we have formed with the American Flood Coalition. Atlantic Beach has made environmental leadership its top priority. Accomplishments include: a reduction of the impervious surface building ratio, a stormwater master plan update; a capital improvement plan; a vulnerability assessment for the impact of flooding; community sea level rise forums; an adaptation plan for the future; a renewed focus on the city’s tree canopy; a focus on single-use plastic; public art; and coastal hardening projects. Atlantic Beach was the first city in Florida to be LEED-certified at the Silver level.
