Representative Linda Dean Campbell Served 2007 - 2022 Democrat - 15th Essex

Linda is married to Donald Edmond Campbell. Linda and Donald are the proud parents of two young adults: Marie and Zachary. While serving as Captains in the U.S. Army, Donald and Linda met in Stuttgart Germany, came back to Saint Theresa’s Catholic Church in Methuen to be married, and returned to Germany for several more years of military service. Linda’s professional life has been and is a life of public service. It started as a basketball and softball coach and community volunteer in high school and continued with ROTC at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she served as the first woman Commander of her unit. After being selected for active duty by the United States Army, Linda served in Germany for six years followed by two years as a paratrooper and an Intelligence Officer with the 525th Military Intelligence Brigade (Airborne), VIIIth Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. After eight years of active duty service, Linda left the Army to start a family and taught part time at the undergraduate and high school level before her husband was deployed to Desert Storm. A note of interest is that their first child, Marie, was born only a week after Donald’s deployment. Linda returned to Methuen during Donald’s deployment and has indicated that she will forever be grateful for the support received from both her family and community at this time. Donald retired from the U.S. Army as Lieutenant Colonel after 22 years of service and three commands. Linda first became involved with politics as an environmental activist who represented the City of Methuen in a two-year successful fight to prevent the construction of a massive gas/coal fired electrical generation plant along the Merrimack River at the West Methuen / Dracut line. As a result of this very successful endeavor, she was encouraged by her neighbors to run for City Council, where she topped the ticket and served with distinction for six years. Likewise, because of her record of accomplishments on City Council, she was encouraged by her community to run for State Representative when the seat opened up.