Lynn Marmer and Christine Robertson sit in the principal's office of Bramble Developmental Academy in Madisonville, talking their own brand of talk.

''We went with multiage last year, but it was very difficult so this year we went with looping,'' Ms. Robertson says.

Ms. Marmer nods enthusiastically. ''It fits perfectly with the strategic plan,'' she says. ''Tell me how you're doing with the developmental approach.''

''We're doing well, but we can't say we're completely there,'' Ms. Robertson says.

''Certainly the testing program by the state isn't developmental.''

Within five minutes, enough educational jargon fills the room to spin any lay person's head. Ms. Robertson could be expected to keep up. She is Bramble's principal. But Lynn Marmer is an attorney by trade, dealing in the particularities of real estate law.

Yet her interest in the smallest details of the operation of the school is intense and proprietary. She is the new president of the Cincinnati Board of Education, and the buck not only stops with her, it starts with her as well.

For many Cincinnatians, assuming the hot seat in a complex and controversial urban school district would be community service enough. So many headaches, so little glory. But Lynn Marmer's record of civic involvement dates back more than a decade, and covers some of the most basic and crucial issues facing the city - housing, food, education.

Lynn Marmer leaves few things to chance, including picking her causes. She believes that if communities provide the basic underpinnings of support, people will go on to take care of themselves.

For the quality and depth of her community involvement, she has been named a 1996 Enquirer Woman of the Year.

Runs in the family

Then a favorite sixth-grade teacher started Ms. Marmer thinking in terms of community. She began to see the network of systems of support that, once in place, would ''allow people to grow on their own.''

It is a belief that has shaped her performance in three separate careers, as a special education teacher, city planner and finally partner at the law firm of Dinsmore & Shohl. And it is the distinguishing feature in her three years on the school board.

She likes to empower people - clients, social service users and the city's teachers and parents. She wants people who must live by decisions to be the people who actually make them.

In the city schools, it is a bold and controversial step. Although educational reform has long been a hot topic nationally, few urban districts have done what Cincinnati proposes to do - shifting more control of day-to-day operations and budget to the individual schools. For it, Ms. Marmer and the other school board members have taken both praise and blame.

''I most admire her willingness to take risks for what she believes is best for our community,'' writes Cincinnati parent and school activist Margaret Hulbert in nominating her.

''In the role of president of the Cincinnati Board of Education, she has been straightforward in challenging the school system to respond in new ways to the real problems it faces, and forthright with the community about the need for reform.''

Marmer style

Friends say it is simply Marmer style to do them all well.

''She is one of the strongest, most insightful and effective trustees with whom I have worked on the board,'' says G.G. Carey, who served with Ms. Marmer on the FreeStore board. ''I depended on her time and time again and was never disappointed - her judgment is always first rate and she always delivered on her commitments.''

In every aspect of her life, Lynn Marmer is in for the long haul. During a period in her life when she had time for running, she took on marathons. The gardens she tended won awards.

Even now, after an arduous day, she keeps her commitment to reading a half-hour each evening. ''Sometimes I have to prop myself up in a chair to do it,'' she says with a laugh.

Her calm demeanor and unhurried style are marks of her ability to focus on one project at a time, and to let non-essential things go.

''I do not have polished nails. I do not have a sophisticated haircut,'' she says in a typically unpretentious way. ''And there are certain things I'd like to have - piano lessons, the chance to sing in a choir again. But I focus on the things I'm doing now.''

And in her typical way, Lynn Marmer knows exactly why she does them.

''My fundamental commitment is that people should live their lives in such a way that it affirms God in the world,'' she says. ''It's in every religion - the idea that you are here and given wonderful blessings, and it's your obligation to use those blessings to make the world a better place.''

The Enquirer's 1996 Women of the Year will be honored noon Wednesday at a luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Fifth and Elm streets, downtown. Tickets, $15, may be purchased by calling 768-8104, 9 a.m.-noon and 1-4:30 p.m. through Monday. Tickets also may be purchased during those hours on the 20th floor of The Enquirer building, Third and Elm streets.

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