Swati A. Dandekar ( mr, स्वाती दांडेकर; was born March 6, 1951) is a former

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

state legislator and former U.S. Executive Director at the

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. She is a Democratic member of the

Iowa Utilities Board The Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) is a 3-member public utilities commission, with beginnings in 1878. It is a quasi-judicial tribunal, which regulates services and rates of electric, natural gas, water and telecommunication providers in the U.S. state ...

, awaiting Senate confirmation in 2012. Previously, she was a member of the

Iowa House of Representatives The Iowa House of Representatives is the lower house of the Iowa General Assembly, the upper house being the Iowa Senate. There are 100 seats in the Iowa House of Representatives, representing 100 single-member districts across the state, formed ...

for the 36th District from 2003 to 2009 and a member of the

Iowa Senate The Iowa Senate is the upper house of the Iowa General Assembly, United States. There are 50 seats in the Iowa Senate, representing 50 single-member districts across the state of Iowa with populations of approximately 60,927 per constituency, . ...

for the 18th District from 2009 to 2011. She received her

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

degree in

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and Chemistry from Nagpur University and a graduate diploma in

dietetics A dietitian, medical dietitian, or dietician is an expert in identifying and treating disease-related malnutrition and in conducting medical nutrition therapy, for example designing an enteral tube feeding regimen or mitigating the effects of ...

from

University of Mumbai The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed h ...

. Dandekar serves as the Chair (formerly President) of the National Foundation for Women Legislators and as a board member of the Iowa Math and Science Coalition, the Greater Cedar Rapids Foundation, and the Belin-Blank International Center for Gifted & Talented. Dandekar previously served on the Iowa Association of School Boards, and as a board member of the Women in Public Policy (Iowa Charter), and the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy. On July 23, 2013 Dandekar announced that she would be running for the U.S. Congress from the 1st congressional district; she lost in the primary to former state house speaker Pat Murphy, who himself lost to

Rod Blum Rodney Leland Blum (; born April 26, 1955) is an American businessman and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Iowa's 1st congressional district from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected in 2014 a ...

Political history

Before her election to the

Iowa General Assembly The Iowa General Assembly is the legislative branch of the state government of Iowa. Like the federal United States Congress, the General Assembly is a bicameral body, composed of the upper house Iowa Senate and the lower Iowa House of ...

, Dandekar was a two-term member of the Linn-Mar Community School District Board from 1996 to 2002. During that time,

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appointed her to the Vision Iowa Board, a post she held from 2000 to 2002. She began her legislative career in 2002, winning an election to the Iowa House District 36, defeating

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Karen Balderston. She won re-election twice, against Republican Cory Crowly in 2004 and Republican Nick Wagner in 2006, before running for the Iowa Senate. In 2008, Dandekar defeated Republican Joe Childers for election to Iowa Senate District 18, and served there until resigning in 2011 to accept Governor

Terry Branstad Terry Edward Branstad (born November 17, 1946) is an American politician and former diplomat. A member of the Republican Party, he served three terms in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1973 to 1979 before serving as governor of Iowa f ...

's appointment to the Iowa Utilities Board for a term expiring in 2015. While in the House, Dandekar served on the Appropriations, Economic Growth, and Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee during all three terms, and served on the Education committee during her first term and the Transportation committee during her third term. While in the Senate, she served on the Commerce, Economic Growth, Rebuild Iowa, Transportation, and Ways and Means committees, while reprising her role as a member of the Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee.

Recognition

Dandekar has received several awards, including the J. C. Penney Education Golden Rule award, the 2003 Pillar of the Community award from Waypoint, recognition as a 2004 Flemming Institute Fellow and recognition by the

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' Global Economic Conference. In addition, she has been named Person of the Year three times, once in 2002 by ''

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'', once in 2003 by the Asian Alliance of Iowa, and once in 2008 by ''

AsianWeek ''AsianWeek'' was America's first and largest English language print and on-line publication serving Asian Americans. The news organization played an important role nationally and in the San Francisco Bay Area as the “Voice of Asian America”. ...

''. During her 2014 campaign for the Iowa 1st Congressional District Democratic primary, Dandekar was formally endorsed by the

National Organization for Women The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...

Electoral history

Personal life

Dandekar and her husband, Arvind, have two adult sons.Biography
at Wired for Change

References

External links

Senator Swati Dandekar
at The Iowa Legislature * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dandekar, Swati 1951 births Living people Democratic Party members of the Iowa House of Representatives Indian emigrants to the United States Politicians from Nagpur Women state legislators in Iowa University of Mumbai alumni Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University alumni Democratic Party Iowa state senators School board members in Iowa People from Marion, Iowa American people of Marathi descent Candidates in the 2014 United States elections 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians American politicians of Indian descent Asian-American people in Iowa politics