Biography
Pramila Jayapal assumed office in the U.S. House of Representatives for Washington's 7th Congressional District in January 2017. She is the first person of color elected to the Washington State Democratic delegation and the first Indian American woman in Congress.
Jayapal was born on September 21, 1965 in Chennai, India and raised in Indonesia and Singapore. She came to the United States in 1982 to attend college, earning a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from Northwestern University. She became a U.S. citizen in 2000.
After the September 11, 2001, attacks, Jayapal founded Hate Free Zone, an advocacy group for Arab, Muslim, and South Asian Americans now known as OneAmerica, and served as executive director until 2012. She represented the 37th legislative district in the Washington State Senate from 2015 to 2017.
For information on Jayapal'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.
Sources: Ballotpedia (n.d.). Pramila Jayapal. Retrieved on November 21 2022, from https://ballotpedia.org/Pramila_Jayapal