Vice-Mayor Osterman is a true Lake Park native; she was born and raised in Lake Park and later bought her own home here in 1998. But before settling down, she travelled and taught around the world after receiving her Bachelors Degree in English from the University of Florida and her Masters Degree in Applied Linguistics from Indiana University.
Vice-Mayor Osterman travelled to Japan and taught for two years in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET), where she team taught conversational English with a Japanese partner. She spent one year working for Sony Corporation in Japan teaching managers in Sony's language school. She then studied French at the University of Dijon in France.
Her next stop was in Ankara, Turkey, where she taught for three years at Bilkent University, where she was instrumental in establishing a writing program at the English-medium science and technology university. Her students were proficient enough in English to earn their degrees because it was impossible to translate new materials into the Turkish language fast enough to stay current with the developing technologies.
Vice-Mayor Osterman returned to the States and taught English as a Second Language (ESL) courses at a Palm Beach County middle school for 3 ½ years. She attended the Haitian Summer Institute at Florida International University to gain a fuller understanding of the culture and work more effectively with students and their parents.
Politics lured Vice-Mayor Osterman into action in 2000, when she began attending Commission meetings on a regular basis and was appointed to the Education Advisory Board, the Merit Board and the CRA Board. Her strong commitment to public safety, programs for children, community pride and economic development led her to run for Town Commission in 2006, and again in 2009, when she was unopposed.
Vice-Mayor Osterman married Karl Osterman in 2004, and they had their son Kai in 2006, who is the light and love of their lives. She maintains a life-long interest in travel, cross-cultural communications and understanding and enjoys working with and for those who are under-represented in society.
The Vice-Mayor is currently an Associate Professor at Palm Beach Community College, where she teaches developmental English and reading to students who need remediation in order to successfully compete on a college level.
Mayor & Commissioners 
