Donna F. Edwards, Maryland Women's Hall of Fame

Donna F. Edwards

Donna Edwards was the first African American woman elected to represent Maryland in the United States Congress. She was born in Yanceyville, North Carolina, and grew up in a military family. A graduate of Thomas Stone High School in Charles County, Maryland, she earned B.A. degrees in both English and Spanish from Wake Forest University, where she was one of only six black women in the class of 1980. She completed her final year of study at the University of Salamanca in Spain. She is the mother of one son, who is the light of her life.

Congresswoman Edwards began her career at the United Nations Development Program and also worked for the Lockheed Corporation at the Goddard Space Flight Center with the Spacelab program. She earned a Juris Doctorate degree in 1989 from the University of New Hampshire School of Law (formerly the Franklin Pierce Law Center), and held a summer clerkship in the office of Delegate Albert Wynn and the Women�s Equity Action League.

Congresswoman Edwards worked as an attorney in private practice, clerked for a District of Columbia Superior Court Judge, and worked as a public interest lawyer. She co-founded and led the National Network to End Domestic Violence, spearheading the effort to pass the Violence Against Women Act in 1994. She was the executive director of the Arca Foundation and Center for a New Democracy and was a tireless advocate for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy non-profit organization. A member of the Diversity Leadership Council for the Maryland Democratic Party, she also served on the board of directors for the League of Conservation Voters and Common Cause, and currently serves on the John F. Kennedy Library Profiles in Courage Awards Committee.

Elected in a special election in June 2008, Ms. Edwards served five terms in Congress. She served on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Committee on Standards and Official Conduct, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, and the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, serving as the lead Democrat on the Subcommittee on Space. In her last term, Congresswoman Edwards was a member of the Democratic leadership team as co-chair of the House Democrat�s Steering and Policy Committee.

Her first act in Congress was to add Maryland to the Afterschool Suppers Program, ensuring student access to nutritional dinners, and to afterschool and youth development programs in schools located in low-income areas. She secured a provision in the Affordable Care Act to hold insurance companies accountable for unjustified rate increases. She was a strong advocate for investing in historically black colleges, protecting women�s reproductive rights, and protecting the Social Security and Medicare programs. Congresswoman Edwards championed legislation to reduce opioid overdose, to ensure quality, affordable child care, to end the federal death penalty, and to provide education opportunities to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. She was the first member of Congress to introduce a constitutional amendment to repeal the Supreme Court�s landmark Citizens United decision. In 2014, as chair of the Democratic women of the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Edwards launched the Women�s Economic Agenda for equal pay, affordable childcare and women�s economic security.

Biography courtesy of the Maryland Commission for Women, 2017.