Sheila James Kuehl

Sheila James Kuehl (born February 9, 1941) is an American politician, former child actress, and currently the member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for the 3rd District. In 1994, she became the first openly gay California legislator. Two years later, George magazine named her one of the 20 most fascinating women in politics and the California Journal selected her as Rookie of the Year. The following year, she became the first woman in California history to be named Speaker pro tempore of the California State Assembly. In 1998 and 2000, the California Journal chose her as the Assembly member with the greatest intelligence and the most integrity. During this time, she was twice selected to speak about family violence and diversity at the Democratic National Conventions.After serving six years in the State Assembly, Kuehl was elected to the California State Senate. Between 2000 and 2008, she authored 171 bills that were signed into law by three different governors, including legislation to formally incorporate the rights declared in Roe v. Wade into California state law. In 2006, the Capitol Weekly selected her as the most intelligent member of the California Legislature.In 2014, she was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. In her capacity as Supervisor, she serves as Chair of the Board of Commissioners of First 5 LA, First Vice Chair of the board of directors of LA Metro, and sits on the Board of the new Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) known as the Clean Power Alliance.In her first three years on the Board, she has undertaken or collaborated in a number of initiatives and motions to improve the quality of life and reform systems in the County. Kuehl also helped establish oversight of the Probation Department and is working to reform the adult and juvenile justice systems, emphasizing second chance and anti-recidivism programs.

Bio from Wikipedia - See more on en.wikipedia.org Text under CC-BY-SA license