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Biography

A former three-term Mayor of Salina, Kansas, Alan Jilka's family roots go back more than 130 years in the First Congressional District.

His mother's family settled in Saline and Ottawa Counties in the 1870s where, for more than four generations, they have raised wheat, corn, soybeans and alfalfa, as well as hogs and cattle.

Alan's paternal great-grandparents emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Ellsworth County, near Black Wolf, in 1878. They grew wheat until his Grandfather opened Jilka Furniture in downtown Salina in 1923, which remains one of the oldest and best-known family businesses in Western Kansas.

Born and raised in Salina, Alan graduated from Salina Sacred Heart High School in 1980 and, in 1984, graduated from the University at Notre Dame with a Bachelor's Degree in History.

While in college Alan interned for U.S. Senator Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS), an experience that sparked an interest in politics and public service that he has carried forward to the present day.

After college Alan worked as a teacher in Guadalajara, Mexico and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where he studied Spanish and Portuguese and taught ESL (English as a Second Language).

He returned to the United States and to Washington, D.C., in 1986 to work for U.S. Congressman Dan Glickman (D-KS). In 1987 Alan entered the private sector, spending two years representing a Eudora, Kansas-based company that provided medical products to hospital emergency rooms throughout the Midwest.

Alan subsequently earned his Master's Degree in Comparative Literature in 1992 from the University of South Carolina. The same year he began his studies toward a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese from Vanderbilt University while studying at the Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has also taught at Tennessee State University and Kansas Wesleyan University.

In 1995 Alan returned home to Kansas to join his family's retail furniture business and launch his career in local politics.

In April 1997 he was elected to the first of three four-year terms on the Salina City Commission. His successful tenure as Mayor and on the City Commission was highlighted by an unprecedented number of major capital improvement projects for the community and small business.

He led the drive to restore the Fox Theatre in downtown Salina, renamed the Stiefel Theatre, and secured $750,000 in public funding for the project, now a major part of Salina's cultural arts scene.

During Alan's tenure as Mayor, the city won a Capital Improvement Ballot Initiative with the largest margin of victory for a special election in Salina's history (74-26%), resulting in the establishment of an economic development fund that allocated 12.5% of special tax proceeds to the creation of hundreds of new jobs in the community.

Alan oversaw the largest capital improvement project in the city's history, the $20.3 million railroad overpass, and garnered state funding for 65% of the cost.

While on the Commission he also successfully campaigned for the building of The Kenwood Cove Aquatic Park, which opened this summer. He also worked with the First District's Republican Congressional Delegation on efforts to remediate environmental contamination from the city's former Air Force Base.

In addition, Alan's leadership on local drainage improvements ended perennial flooding problems in South Salina.

As a state and local leader, he has served on the National League of Cities' Information Technology and Communications Committee, the Kansas League of Municipalities' Legislative Policy Committee and the Leadership Kansas Program, sponsored by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Alan was one of 35 statewide participants selected to participate in a six month series on Kansas' economy and governance.

In April 2009 Alan stepped down from the Salina City Commission after twelve years and three terms as Mayor. He is one of only two individuals in the history of Salina to serve three separate stints as Mayor.

On October 1, 2009, Alan Jilka launched his campaign to represent the First Congressional District of Kansas.