Joan Wagnon

Joan Wagnon (; born October 17, 1940) is an American former politician. She was a representative in the Kansas House of Representatives between 1983 and 1995 and the mayor of Topeka, Kansas, between 1997 and 2001. She was secretary of the Kansas Department of Revenue from 2003 to 2011, when she took over as chair of the Kansas Democratic Party, a position that she held until 2015.

Early life Wagnon was born on October 17, 1940, in Texarkana, Arkansas. She was the eldest of two daughters of Jack Davis, an electrician, and Louise Davis (née Lucas), a businesswoman. She received a bachelors of arts degree in biology in 1962 from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, and worked as a research assistant at the University of Arkansas Medical School between 1962 and 1964. She married William O. Wagnon, a college professor who served as the pro-science chair of the Kansas State Board of Education, in 1964 and the couple had two children: Jack and William III. She worked as a senior research assistant at the medical school of the University of Missouri between 1964 and 1968, the same year that she received her masters of education in counseling and guidance from the same institution. She was the Mayor of Topeka from 1997 to 2001, the city's first female mayor. She was the state's Secretary of Revenue from January 13, 2003, to January 2011. She served as the chair of the Kansas Democratic Party from 2011 to 2015, rebuilding it from an electoral calamity it suffered in 2010, while substantially expanding the use of information technology in its efforts.