Mayor Teresa Tomlinson was elected as the 69th Mayor of Columbus, Georgia on November 30, 2010 with 68% of the vote. On January 3, 2011, she was sworn in as the city's first female mayor. On May 20, 2014 she was re-elected to a second term with 63% of the vote, making her the first Mayor since the city's consolidation in 1971 to win re-election in a contested race. She has three times been named to Georgia Trend's 100 Most Influential Georgians, and she holds a National Security Secret Clearance with the Department of Defense.

Mayor Teresa Tomlinson moved to Columbus in 1994 from Atlanta and married Wade H. (Trip) Tomlinson, who was raised in Columbus. For 16 years she practiced with the law firm of Pope, McGlamry, Kilpatrick, Morrison and Norwood, LLC, where she specialized in complex litigation and was the firm's first female partner. She served from 2006-2010 as Executive Director of MidTown, Inc., a non-profit community renewal organization. Mayor Tomlinson is a 1983 graduate of Chamblee High School in Atlanta, Georgia, a 1987 graduate of Sweet Briar College, in Virginia, and a 1991 graduate of Emory University School of Law, in Atlanta.

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