Experience

I have been working at the Utah capitol for nearly a decade on a wide array of issues. Here are a few examples of my professional and personal experience:

  • Current service:
    • Assistant Whip - House Democratic Caucus
    • Co-Chair: Utah Legislative Clean Air Caucus
    • Utah Opioid Task Force
    • Youth E-Cigarette, Marijuana and Other Drug Committee (new UDOH committee created in statute in 2020)
    • Baby Watch Early Intervention Program: Interagency Coordinating Committee
    • Board Member: The Children’s Center
    • Board Member: Advantage Services
    • Board Member: Area Health Education Centers (AHEC)
    • Board Member: Utah Health Care Institute
    • Executive Committee member: Utah Democratic Party

 

  • Past service:
    • Inmate Health Care Study Task Force; Chair of the Women's Healthcare Subcommittee
    • Utah Falls Prevention Task Force
    • Two sub-committees of the Governor’s Medicaid Expansion Task Force in 2013
    • Utah Department of Health legislative rule-making committee for nicotine content and labeling standards
    • Board member of Utah Health and Human Rights and Repertory Dance Theater
    • Treasurer for the Salt Lake County Democratic Party
    • President of my kids’ parent teacher association

Past and current policy priorities (still fighting for these):

  • Medicaid expansion (with Senator Shiozawa, Senator Davis, Representative Chavez-Houck)
  • Anti-discrimination amendments (in the past with Senator Urquhart)
  • Access to birth control/Family Planning Amendments (with Representative Ward)
  • Comprehensive sex ed (with Representative King)
  • Eliminate the sunset date for coverage of autism treatment (with Representative Ray and Senator Shiozawa)
  • Protect children from predatory tobacco industry (particularly e-cigarette use) – restrict advertising of e-cigarettes to children
  • Access and use of medical cannabis
  • Same-day voter registration (see above)
  • Rank-choice voting
  • End of life options (with Representative Chavez-Houck)
  • Will support any effort to eliminate or scale back the 0.05 BAC law that passed in 2017
  • Will support legislation to restrict fireworks
  • Will fight for paid parental leave with Representative Weight in the 2018 session
  • Will fight for better regulation of for-profit universities with Representative Kwan in the 2018 session
  • Will support legislation related to human trafficking with Representative Romero in the 2018 session
  • Will work on any legislation that addresses social disparities, especially related to health and health care access
  • Working with Senator Vickers and Representative Arent to ensure that people with life-critical medications have insurance coverage to get an extra month’s supply in case of a natural disaster or emergency

 

Legislation I have fought for:

  • Expanded primary care physician training capacity in the state of Utah 16 percent in order to work to meet the health care needs of Utahns (with Senator Vickers) - $1.2 million in annual funding support
  • Mandated insurance coverage for autism treatment for children (with Senator Shiozawa)
  • Multiple opioid-related policies
    • Improve controlled substance database (CSDB)
    • Require insurers to develop a policy to screen for narcotics over-use behavior
    • Mandate prescriber guidelines for narcotics and opioids
    • Encourage funding to provide for addiction treatment (most notably, Medicaid expansion)
  • Change criminality of drug use from a felony to a misdemeanor (avoid turning drug users into hardened criminals)
  • Protect children from nicotine poisoning: Required e-cigarette product manufacturers to comply with nicotine accuracy and labeling standards; Required e-cigarette products to have child-resistant packaging (with Representative Ray)
  • Eliminate back log of rape kit testing (with Representative Romero)
  • Fight against decriminalization of domestic abuse via property destruction (fought bill sponsored by Representative Coleman; successfully defeated, but she is running it again in 2018 so we will continue to fight)
  • Increase educators’ ability to address student suicide risk (with Representative Eliason)
  • Re-fund student loan repayment assistance for healthcare providers who serve in rural and high-needs areas (with Representative Redd)
  • Create a mental health care medical home (coordination of care) for minors in state’s custody (with Representative Sanpei)
  • Improve controlled substance overdose reporting in order to better deploy resources for prevention (with Representative Ward)
  • State support for development of primary care workforce scenarios that maximize access to health care - $10,000 grant (with Senator Shiozawa - since leveraged for a $150,000 grant award for public health and primary care research)
  • Same-day voter registration (with Representative Chavez-Houck); pilot proved to be successful but was not adopted as permanent policy – still fighting to make this law
  • Clean air legislation (with Representative Arent) –
    • Motor vehicle emissions amendments
    • Electric vehicle infrastructure
    • Burning solid fuel (fought this but lost, it passed)