Page 13 - CALIFORNIA WOMAN - WINTER EDITION 2022

STATE SENATOR TONI ATKINS

2023 CFBPW LEGISLATOR OF THE YEAR

California Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins has been selected as the 2023 CFBPW
Legislator of the Year and will be honored at our Public Policy Conference on February 25.
Throughout her career, Senator Atkins has been a champion for women, affordable housing, the
natural environment, healthcare, veterans, and the LGBTQ Community.

Among the important legislation authored by Senator Atkins was SCA 10, the Constitutional
Amendment approved by voters in November as Proposition 1. Now enshrined in our California
Constitution, this amendment makes explicit the right to abortion and to contraceptives.

Elected by the voters to the State Assembly in 2010, Atkins served there for six years. In 2014
her colleagues selected her to be the Speaker of the Assembly. In 2016 she was elected to repre-
th
sent the 39 District in the state Senate and in 2018 she was chosen as Senate President Pro
Tempore. Atkins became the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person to lead the legislature’s
upper house. She is the first person in 150 years, and the third person in California history, to
lead both houses of the Legislature.

Senator Atkins was born and raised in rural southwestern Virginia, the daughter of a miner and a

seamstress. After moving to San Diego in 1985, she became involved in public service, becoming
Director of Clinic Services at the Women’s Health Care Center at the age of 27. She served as an
aide to San Diego City Council members and later was elected to the Council. During a challeng-
ing and tumultuous time at City Hall, she served as interim Mayor.□