About

Nancy is honored to be a member of the Arizona House of Representatives and to represent Legislative District 26, which includes the Village of Catalina, Catalina Foothills, eastern Marana, Oro Valley, Saddlebrooke and Tortolita. She is the Ranking Democrat on the Water and Energy Committee and serves on the Education Committee.

At the legislature, she has worked for education, the environment, veterans, and for common sense solutions regarding pet overpopulation. As a citizens advocate, she brings capability, energy, and hard work to her job. She has started a non partisan water study group and a non partisan animal welfare caucus to help develop a greater understanding of these issues.

Nancy was elected to the Amphitheater Unified School District Governing board in 1996 and served on the board for ten years. She worked with the community to fight for changes that restored the public’s trust in the district. She cut administrative overhead, restored First Amendment Rights at the school board meetings, raised teacher pay, and lowered class sizes. She worked successfully to retain art, music and PE programs at the elementary level during tough budget times.

Nancy and her husband Allen have lived in northwest Tucson since 1983. Their daughter Erin graduated with a BFA in Art and their daughter Kelsey just finished her BA in photography. Both girls attended Amphi schools, where Nancy was a “mom activist” who served as a Girl Scout Troop leader, volunteered weekly in classrooms, and worked on PTO projects. She was also a member of the CDO Band boosters.

Nancy earned a BA in Journalism in 1981 from New Mexico State University. In 1997, she was awarded a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona.

As a tough fighter and grass roots organizer, she championed parks, trails and the environment. She helped start Oro Valley’s first parks board and worked with neighborhood groups to protect an important wildlife corridor and riparian area known as Honey Bee Canyon. She was a member of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan Steering Committee. This nationally-recognized plan created a blueprint for habitat preservation and responsible growth in Pima County.

After her children were in high school, Nancy returned to the paid working world as the Director of ArtsReach, a Tucson non-profit that provided educational writing programs targeted to Native American and Latino students and Elders. She also worked as a Program Coordinator at the Pima County Public Library, where she worked on projects involving management and employees in innovative outreach programs.

Her awards include the Arizona Newspapers “Freedom of Information” award.