Congresswoman Sinema to deliver Fall 2016 Convocation address

Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema will deliver the convocation address at the College of Public Service and Community Solutions graduation ceremony Tuesday, December 13 at Comerica Theatre.

Kyrsten Sinema was born in Tucson in 1976 and raised in a middle-class family. Her father was a lawyer, and her mom stayed at home raising three kids. Then the recession hit in the early 1980’s and her father lost his job. Her family lost everything. Her parents divorced. Her mom remarried. Her new stepdad was a school teacher. They moved across the country to the Florida panhandle where he had relatives.  
 
When her step dad lost his new job, they moved into an abandoned building owned by her step-grandparents. It was a shuttered gas station and convenience store. It had no electricity. No running water. This was Sinema’s home for the next two years. She relied on free lunches at school. And free breakfast and lunch at elementary schools during the summer.
 
Sinema was her high school valedictorian graduating at the age of 16. She also took 60 college credits in high school and earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from BYU at the age of 18. She then moved to Phoenix to become a social worker. She went back to school to earn her Master’s in Social Work from Arizona State University, a law degree from the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law, and a Ph.D. in Justice Studies from ASU.
 
In 2001, Sinema ran for a seat on the Phoenix city council. She lost. The next year, she first ran for the legislature as an independent. She came in last place. Sinema ran again in 2004, this time as a Democrat. She won a seat representing central Phoenix in the Arizona House of Representatives. By the time she left the House in 2008, Sinema was assistant minority Leader. In 2010, she was elected to the Arizona Senate.
 
In 2012, Sinema ran for the newly created 9th Arizona Congressional District representing central Maricopa County. She won. She was elected to her third term last month.
 
Congresswoman Sinema has worked on behalf of many causes, including defeating a ballot initiative to ban gay marriage in Arizona in 2006. Arizona was the only state in a decade where this kind of measure was defeated. She was a vocal critic of the genocide of 300,000 Sudanese by government-supported militias in Darfur, hosting community events to draw attention to the senseless killings.
 
Congresswoman Sinema has also taught at Arizona State University in the School of Justice Studies and the School of Social Work where she currently teaches master’s level courses on Public Policy and Advocacy and Development Grants and Fund Raising.

 
Over the years, Sinema has received numerous awards for her community and legislative work. She also has many other distinctions, including being called “America’s most colorful Congresswoman” by Elle Magazine for her fashionable wardrobe. She also is one of the most likely to be seen running in the nation’s capital as she competes in Ironman Triathlons, which includes swimming, biking and running very long distances.

But of all the accomplishments and traits ascribed to the 40-year old Congresswoman, there is one other that is of particular note considering the nation’s current political circumstances. As a new policymaker, Sinema called things as she saw it. And in a conservative legislature, the self-described “righteously indignant crusader” earned the reputation as a “bomb thrower.” But she soon learned that path prevented her from getting things accomplished. So, Sinema builds friends across the political aisle using her considerable intellect and personal charm.

While she still works tirelessly on issues of poverty and justice, Congresswoman Sinema has shown she can’t be typecast as a liberal. She is known as a “blue dog democrat” for supporting more conservative stances on certain fiscal, domestic and foreign policies.