SAN CLEMENTEAN


Lori Donchak Cracking the Glass Ceiling


by Bill Thomas C


limbing her personal career moun- tain, Lori Donchak started up the trail as a waitress, performed mar-


ket research, moved up as a corporate ex- ecutive, changed directions to become a teacher, and is currently serving as San Clemente’s mayor, her second time around. Residents are well aware of her


“Mayor’s Walks” to familiarize locals with their City’s merits, her weekly responses to citizen’s inquiries via our local paper, her City Council meeting facilitating, and her innumerable contributions to enhance the town’s quality of life. But are we ac- quainted with her background, former pro- fessional life, and important roles as a wife and mother?


Lori, a 4th generation Californian on


both sides, was born in Los Angeles and began life in Manhattan Beach. Between San Diego and Santa Barbara, she reports, “I had 150 relatives.” While in kinder- garten, her father, a Ford Motor Company “corporate gypsy,” according to Lori, moved the family to Detroit. From that time on, they relocated on a fairly regular basis. The Robert Harner family, consisting of mom Marilyn, Lori, and brothers, Ron and Jeff, had multiple stints in Michigan, Connecticut, and Illinois. “However, my mother preferred Cali-


fornia to all those places, so we visited here often.”


Lori with husband Andy, daughter Lisa and son, Scott. In her youth, Lori became fascinated


with the game of Scrabble because she stated, “I was an obsessive reader,” “loved words and communications,” “put unfamiliar words in a notebook,” and “enjoyed the competiveness of Scrabble.” She became the youngest


Lori’s family at the beach in 1960.


Midwest Scrabble finalist to Place in na- tional competition. When she attended high school, the


family lived near Chicago, and Lori became a waitress at a Howard Johnson restaurant. “I really liked waitressing, serving cus-


tomers, selling meals, learning about the business. I was also making my own money. Serving customers is one of the most resilient, robust skills a person can bring into her adult life.” She continued her restaurant work while attending both Oberlin, where she majored in creative writing and linguistics, and Northwestern University, where she completed her de- gree in education. “Fluent in Spanish, my plan was to be-


come a bi-lingual teacher,” Lori explained. However, Scrabble once again came


into her life through an incident when she was playing for money and winning. One of her defeated opponent’s wife worked for Quaker Oats and because of “her way with words” recommended Lori for a mar-


26 SANCLEMENTEJOURNAL


ket research position which would also en- able her to simultaneously pursue an MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. “I was at Quaker for two years. If it was


fattening, I worked on it: Quaker Cookie mix, Aunt Jemima pancakes, Captain Crunch Cereal, and grits. The job was very heavy on multiple variant statistical analy- ses. We used consumer data to recommend pricing, flavor choices, product develop- ment, and analyze our competition. It was a great learning experience.” However, another learning endeavor


led to Lori’s next position with one of the nation’s top creative advertising firms, BBDO (Batten, Barton, Durstine & Os- born). Enrolled in a human relations course, she was a member of a case study group using the renowned Harvard Case Study Method as it related to a utility com- pany. Although, as Lori confessed, “We got the wrong answer,” she impressed a class- mate who was employed by BBDO, who recommended her to his company. She was interviewed, offered a job, doubled her salary, provided with an officer’s title, and moved into advertising. “It was both a temperamental and bet-


ter fit,” Lori said. Since its founding in 1891, BBDO had


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