Gloria Romero

• Biography:

  As Senate Majority Leader, Senator Gloria Romero is the highest ranking woman in the California Legislature, and is the first woman to hold this leadership position. Senator Romero works in partnership with the President pro Tem of the Senate to create and implement the agenda for the majority caucus.

  She is a legislator, an educator, a dedicated social activist, an aggressive prison reformer, and a forceful advocate for California’s most disadvantaged citizens.

  During her rise in the Senate, Romero sat on the powerful Senate Rules Committee where she was responsible for confirming all appointments made by the Governor. She currently serves on the Senate committees on Budget and Fiscal Review; Education; Public Safety; Elections, Reapportionment, and Constitutional Amendments; and Natural Resources and Water. Additionally, Senator Romero serves on two National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) policy committees: Environment and Natural Resources, and Law and Criminal Justice.

  One of her most crucial committee assignments is that of chair of the Senate Select Committee on the California Correctional System where she has taken on the formidable task of investigating and authoring reforms for the state’s massive array of youth and adult correctional facilities. As the first woman to oversee the largest prison system in the country, constituting over $6 billion dollars of the state’s general fund, she has conducted high-profile hearings on employee contracts, treatment of juveniles, codes of silence among correctional officers, and inmate health care costs in an effort to bring fiscal accountability and reforms to the correctional system.

  Elected first to the State Assembly in 1998 and then to the Senate in a special election in March 2001, she has gained a reputation as one of the hardest working legislators in Sacramento. Senator Romero has risen quickly to positions of leadership. In the Assembly, upon her election, she was appointed Majority Whip, and during her first term in office was named a rising star in politics by the California Journal.

  A proud member of the California Faculty Association, Senator Romero has taught at every level of the state’s university system. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California, Riverside. During her tenure at California State University, Los Angeles she earned the Honored Faculty Award from the Associated Student Government. She has been honored as one of the Distinguished Alumni of the California Community College league and as Legislator of the Year in 2000 by the California State Students’ Association. The California Faculty Association awarded her the Mario Savio Advocate for Justice Award for her commitment to due process rights for professors.

  In 2002, for her legislative efforts on behalf of California public safety officers, she was named Legislator of the Year by the Peace Officers Research of Association of California. Also in 2002, California Women Lawyers named her a Legislative Hero. In 2003 she received the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association’s Impact Award, a National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies Community Award, and was named Senator of the Year by the Consumer Attorneys of California. In 2004 the Southern California ACLU, Teamsters Joint Council 42, and the Consumer Federation of California all named her Legislator of the Year.

  Senator Romero is a graduate of Barstow Community College and California State University Long Beach. She earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California, Riverside. Senator Romero has one daughter who is attending UC Santa Barbara.