Lynn Cutler was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1938. She attended the University of Illinois from 1955 through 1957, but received her B .A. and M .A. degrees from the University of Northern Iowa in the 1960s.
In 1974, she was the first woman to be elected to the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors. She ran unsuccessfully for the United States Congress in the Iowa Third District in 1980 and 1982. In 1981, she was elected Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D. C. She held that position until 1993. She was a Senior Vice President at The Kamber Group, a communications firm, in Washington, D. C.
Lynn Cutler served as deputy assistant to President Clinton and as senior advisor to the White House chief of staff on Indian Affairs. President Clinton selected her as the permanent White House delegate to the United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing. She was elected to the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1998.
Lynn Cutler is now a senior policy advisor in the Chicago office of Holland & Knight, where she works on municipal and Indian tribal matters. Lynn Cutler has four children and is married to L. Ronald Scheman.
More information about her life and professional honors and activities can be found in Boxes 4 and 17. MsC-48 Lynn Cutler Papers