Sen. Ana Quezada will serve as the Senate’s Deputy Majority Whip when the 2021 legislative session begins, Senate President Dominick Ruggerio has announced.
Senator Quezada (D-Dist. 2, Providence) was elected to the Senate in 2016 and currently serves as a deputy majority leader and vice chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Commerce. She is also a member of the Senate Committee on Education.
In the Senate, she has sponsored legislation to establish medical assistance coverage and reimbursement rates for perinatal doula services, and pushed the state to comply with minority-owned contracting laws. She sponsored the law that now exempts natural hair braiders from nonapplicable and onerous hairdressing licensing requirements. She has also advocated for more minority representation in the state’s judicial branch, and for the creation of a “biliteracy seal” that would be awarded to high school graduates who have demonstrated a high level of proficiency and literacy in at least one language in addition to English.
“I am deeply honored to be part of the Senate’s leadership team,” said Senator Quezada. “As a woman and a proud Latina, it is important to me that our state’s leaders are truly representative of the population of our state. We need representation at all levels for our government to respond the way it should to the issues that affect Rhode Islanders. I am honored to be a voice for the people as a leader in the Senate, and look forward to helping to shape our work in the upcoming term.”
