Terri Sewell

Terri Sewell assumed office as Alabama's United States representative in January 2011. Representing Alabama's 7th Congressional District, Sewell became the first Black woman elected to Congress from Alabama. Sewell and Republican Martha Roby, also elected in 2010, are the first women elected to Congress from Alabama in regular elections.

Sewell was born January 1, 1965, and was raised in Selma, Alabama. Her mother, Nancy Sewell, was the first African American city councilwoman in Selma. She graduated cum laude in 1986 from Princeton University. In 1988, she was awarded the Marshall/Commonwealth Scholarship and received her master's degree with first class honors from Oxford University. In 1992, she graduated from Harvard Law School. While at Harvard, Sewell served as the editor of Civil Right Civil Liberties Law Review.

Prior to being elected as a U.S. representative, Sewell served as judicial law clerk in Birmingham to Honorary Chief Judge U.W. Clemon, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama. She began her legal career at Davis, Polk and Wardwell in New York City in 1994, where she served as a securities lawyer. While in New York City, Sewell provided free legal services to the homeless and mentored girls in New York City high schools through the program Dreams Into Action.

For more information on Sewell's policy subject areas, committee appointments and sponsored/co-sponsored legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, please visit her profile on https://www.congress.gov.