Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Springfield Office:
M108 State House
Springfield, IL 62706
(217) 782-7419
District Office:
179 S. Wall Street
Kankakee, IL 60901
(815) 929-1133
Years served: Appointed to the Illinois State Senate in January 2009 following the election of former Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Committee Assignments: Agriculture and Conservation; Labor; Local Government; State Government and Veteran Affairs; Transportation.
Biography: Born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1973; Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; attended two years of law school at Northern Illinois University College of Law (is currently on leave of absence); two terms as village clerk for the Village of Olympia Fields; chief of staff for Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson from 2005 – 2006; lobbyist for the State alliance of YMCAs; 15 years of experience in community organizing and nonprofit development; service on the Executive and Political Action Committees of the South Suburban NAACP; community liaison and vice president of diversity for the Government Affairs Council of the Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce; vice chair of the Olympia Fields Planning Commission; in 2004 became a Harvard Kennedy School of Government executive management fellow for the Women and Leadership program. Married with three children, she and her family live in Olympia Fields.