Mayor Tom Beehan has served on Oak Ridge City Council since 2001. After serving as Mayor Pro Tem for his first six years on City Council, he became Mayor in 2007.
Tom is serving this year as President of the Tennessee Municipal League, the state association of local elected officials. He was appointed by Gov. Phil Bredesen to serve on the Tennessee E-911 board. He also serves on the boards of directors of the Energy Communities Alliance, the East Tennessee Development District, and the Anderson County Development Association.
As a member of City Council, Tom serves as chairman of the Highland View Redevelopment Advisory Board, which is working to make Highland View revitalization a model for neighborhood improvement in the city's older neighborhoods.
A participant and leader in community organizations before his election to Council, he served on the Oak Ridge Municipal Planning Commission and was board chairman of the Housing Development Corporation of the Clinch Valley, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving housing for those with low and moderate incomes.
Tom and his wife, Kay Brookshire, were co-chairs of the 2007 United Way of Anderson County Campaign. Tom also serves on the United Way Board of Directors.
Tom also served as chair of the Oak Ridge Housing Task Force, a grassroots effort bringing representatives of neighborhoods, non-profits, real estate and banking together to address housing as an economic development issue in the city. A graduate of Leadership Oak Ridge, he is a member and past chairman of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.
A native of Nashville, he is a graduate of Father Ryan High School in Nashville and St. Pius X Seminary in Erlanger, Kentucky, where he received a bachelor's degree in philosophy. He attended graduate school at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore and Xavier University in Cincinnati. He is married to Kay Brookshire and has three children and two grandchildren.
Retired from State Farm Insurance Company after a 25-year career, Beehan is an affiliate broker with Betsy Coleman Realty in Oak Ridge.