Ruth Ann Palumbo (born July 7, 1949) is the longest-serving woman in the
Kentucky House of Representatives
The Kentucky House of Representatives is the lower house of the Kentucky General Assembly. It is composed of 100 Representatives elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. Not more than two counties can be joined to form a ...
and has represented District 76, which covers downtown
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County. By population, it is the second-largest city in Kentucky and 57th-largest city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 28th-largest ...
and eastern
Fayette County, since 1991.
Palumbo is a member of the
Kentucky Democratic Party.
Through her career, Palumbo has pushed for legislation concerning "more thorough investigations of child sexual abuse; Kentucky's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act
.. and sponsorship of bills to protect the elderly in nursing homes," as well as bills to do with women's health, mammogram access, and healthcare in general.
Politics
In 1998, Palumbo helped pass the Women's Health Act of 1998, which brought reconstructive
mastectomies after breast cancer under coverage of medical insurance, as it previously had been considered cosmetic.
In the 2000s, Palumbo began caucusing with other female legislators (including included
Joni Jenkins
Joni L. Jenkins (born December 6, 1958) is an American politician and a Democratic member of the Kentucky House of Representatives representing District 44 since January 1995. She is also serving as Minority Leader in the House since December 20 ...
,
Susan Johns
Susan D. Johns (born October 7, 1954) is a former Kentucky politician and member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. After receiving degrees from Georgetown College, she worked in education before representing District 36 i ...
,
Eleanor Jordan
Eleanor Jordan (born May 18, 1953) is an American politician who served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1996 to 2001 before becoming the Executive Director of the Kentucky Commission on Women.
Politics
Jordan won a special electi ...
,
Mary Lou Marzian
Mary Lou Marzian (born September 16, 1954, in Louisville, Kentucky) is an American politician and a Democratic member of the Kentucky House of Representatives representing District 34 from 1994 to 2023. Marzian was first elected in a January 19 ...
,
Kathy Stein, and more) to track legislation in their individual fields of expertise and work together to affect legislation more easily than they could have done alone. One early victory involved "building statewide opposition to a bill that, before their organized effort, likely would have gone unnoticed and passed easily,
..removing the requirement that educational institutions offer women's softball as well as men's baseball, violating the spirit if not the letter of
Title IX
Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educa ...
."
In 2011, Palumbo became the longest-serving female member of the body.
During the 2009, 2013, and 2015 legislative sessions, Palumbo chaired the Economic Development Committee.
Palumbo has formerly chaired the House's Economic Development and Workforce Investment Committee and co-chaired the Task Force on Economic Development.
Personal life
During her youth, Palumbo thought about becoming a missionary but now considers her political work her mission.
She attended
Bryan Station High School
Bryan Station High School, founded in 1958, is a high school within the Fayette County Public Schools system in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. During the 2006–2007 school year, students were moved to their newly built school known as Brya ...
before earning a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in Education from the
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state's ...
in 1972, and served as the President of the Fayette County Young Democrats from 1973-1974 and as the Treasurer of the Kentucky Young Democrats the same year. She once received a fellowship from the University of Kentucky, and she was President of the Lexington Philharmonic Women's Guild as well as being a board member of the Interdisciplinary Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky. In 1988, she participated in Leadership Lexington.
Awards
Palumbo was named Lexington's Outstanding Young Woman in 1982 and received the Governors Volunteer Activist Award in 1989.
References
External links
Ruth Ann Palumbo Official Website*
ttp://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=4122 Project Vote Smart - Representative Ruth Ann Palumbo (MT)profile
*''Follow the Money'' - Ruth Ann Palumbo
20082006200420022000199819961994
campaign contributions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palumbo, Ruth
Democratic Party members of the Kentucky House of Representatives
1949 births
Living people
University of Kentucky alumni
Women state legislators in Kentucky
21st-century American politicians
21st-century American women politicians