Amy B. Arata is an American politician serving as a member of the

Maine House of Representatives The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 voting members and three nonvoting members. The voting members represent an equal number of districts across the state and are elected via ...

from the 104th district. She assumed office on December 5, 2018.

Early life and education

Arata was born in

Winslow, Maine Winslow is a town and census-designated place in Kennebec County, Maine, United States, along the Kennebec River across from Waterville. The population was 7,948 at the 2020 census. History Winslow was originally an Indian settlement named ...

and attended Lawrence High School. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Gordon College and a Master of Science in genetics from the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

Career

After graduating from Gordon College, Arata worked at the Naval Blood Research Laboratory at Boston University. Arata later worked in the Dept. of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis. While there, Arata designed and published a method to distinguish between ''Taylorella asinigenitalis'' and ''Taylorella equigenitalis'' based on variations of their 16S rRNA sequences. Arata was elected to the MSAD 15 school board and was also appointed by the Maine Governor and confirmed by the Maine Senate as a member of the Maine State Board of Education. Arata was elected to the

in November 2018 and assumed office in December 2018. In January 2019, Arata sponsored a bill that would revise a state law governing the dissemination of obscene materials to minors. Arata later stated that she was inspired to sponsor the bill after her teenage son was assigned to read ''

Kafka on the Shore is a 2002 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Its 2005 English translation was among "The 10 Best Books of 2005" from ''The New York Times'' and received the World Fantasy Award for 2006. The book tells the stories of the young Kafka Tamu ...

'', which perpetuated the myth that rape is mutually pleasurable.

Personal life

Arata and her husband, Michael, have three children and live in

New Gloucester, Maine New Gloucester is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. New Gloucester is included in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area. It is home to the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, the last active Shaker ...

. Arata's father, Richard Bradstreet, is also a member of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arata, Amy Living people Republican Party members of the Maine House of Representatives Women state legislators in Maine People from Winslow, Maine People from New Gloucester, Maine Gordon College (Massachusetts) alumni University of California, Davis alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century members of the Maine Legislature 21st-century American women politicians