My Story
I grew up in Richfield, the daughter of a nurse and 4th generation railroad turned mechanical engineer for Bloomington Schools—real, salt of the earth, working people. My beloved grandmother, the farmer’s daughter, always dreamed of the opportunity to go to college, she instilled in me a great love of learning. My Scandinavian & Germans grandmother rocked me in her lap and read to me every chance she got. She poured all her college aspirations into her granddaughter and grounded me in the Lutheran Church as a strong, steadfast woman of faith. That devotion led me to Gustavus Adolphus College, a good Swedish, Lutheran, college making my very proud Grandma believe she had died and gone to heaven.
I have been proud to call Maple Grove home for nearly two decades and love being active in my community. I truly love meeting our neighbors, it is my favorite part of my job. You can often find me attending the Maple Grove Farmers Market, packing food baskets with the local Osseo Maple Grove Lions and our amazing Maple Grove firefighters, a pancake breakfast for the American Legion, walking in the Maple Grove Days Parade, Chalk Fest, and a plethora of community events. I have been fortunate to complete the Maple Grove Citizens Police Academy and appreciate a good volunteer opportunity!
I enjoy meeting neighbors out in the community to discuss issues and forge ideas into legislation to make the lives of my neighbors just a little bit better each day.
I came to the Capitol as a small business owner and IT Consultant, specializing in team-based project management that delivers solutions faster and more efficiently, leading my teams each day to get the jobs done on time, on budget, and most importantly, to do it together.
Over the years I have brought this collaborative style to the capital in St. Paul to become the most bipartisan legislator in the Minnesota House. This translated into a record 32 bills this past session, with over half making it to the finish line, all with full bi-partisan support in both parties and both chambers, a rare feat based on deep collaboration and the ability to work across the aisle.
I continue to be a tenacious advocate for my community, putting people first, fighting for the issues important to my neighbors, my community and my state. I am honored to have the opportunity to work for you and I believe together we can do great things.
What drives me to serve?
I’m running for re-election to continue to serve our vibrant community, protect our core values of freedom and autonomy, and care for our families and neighbors to build a strong community.
I am always ready to tackle the challenges that lie ahead, including protecting our state budget and Minnesotans from the uncertainty and chaos coming out of Washington DC.
Over my four terms as your State Representative, I successfully led nation on Cybersecurity Infrastructure, transformed government in the technological age to better serve Minnesotans, passed prohibitions on Medical Prior Authorization for chronic conditions, created transparency to close pay gaps among workers and acted as a champion to close loopholes in state law to protect women and children. While the work is only just begun, here are a few recent highlights:
- Protecting Public Safety through Strong Penalties on Officer Impersonation: Bipartisan legislation that restores the integrity of our hard-working law enforcement, working to keep our communities and our families safe though strong penalties for impersonating officers to ensure the assassin at my door on June 14th can never happen again and most importantly to restore public trust to our neighbors.
- Regulating AI Tools Harming Women & Children: I passed a first in the nation law to eliminate nudification tool used to exploit and victimize women and children that allows the creation of nude non-consensual sexualized images without knowledge or consent. This has led individuals to lose their job due to fake images, over 60 school children victimized facing depression, PTSD, and suicidal thoughts, while online predators trade inappropriate sexualized images of children like baseball cards. The EU plans to ban these AI tools starting this summer making MN not just a leader in the nation, but worldwide.
- Forging Good Government through Strong Fraud Protections: Improving grants management to create stronger whistle blower protections, provide administrative tools to flay and terminate grants to individuals convicted of fraud across state agencies and address exceptions in grant making all while making firm commitments to process improvements across state government.
- Securing Strong Homeowner Rights and Protections: Bipartisan legislation that aims to create transparency, best practices and consumer protections for a family’s largest asset, their home. This comprehensive package provides a framework for the Homeowners Bill of Rights, overhauls critical portions of a 32 year old, outdated law to protect residents of Common interest Communities (CIC) and Homeowners Associations (HOA) by eliminating conflicts of interest and kickbacks that lead to
- Putting Money Back in the Pockets of Charitable Gaming Organization: I worked for over 6 years to lower Charitable Gaming taxes, allowing organizations to keep more money on the bottom line and redirect that saving to their charitable mission. This includes local charities like the Osseo Maple Grove Hockey Association (OMGHA), the Osseo Maple Grove Lions, the American Legion and our Firefighters Associations.
At the federal level, some of the largest transfers of wealth to the top 1% in this country have come at the expense of our neighbors through massive cuts to essential programs and services for children, families, homeowners, seniors, and people with disabilities. If I win your trust once again for another term, I will defend our legislative victories and be your champion to fight and protect our district, our state and our neighbors.