A teacher’s voice for Arizona!

Nancy serves as the Minority Whip in the Arizona State House of Representatives. She was elected in 2022. She serves on the Education and Appropriations Commities.

Nancy has been a resident of Arizona most of her life. She attended public school in Arizona from kindergarten through college at NAU where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education with an emphasis in Math. She has lived all over our state including Phoenix, Flagstaff and Sierra Vista as a military spouse. She now lives in Tucson with her husband, Andy, and two daughters, Megan and Macie. She and her husband have raised their daughters in Arizona and they’ve been in public schools their whole lives. Megan graduated from U of A in 2021 and Macie attends NAU. Nancy has held an Arizona Teaching Credential since 1994 and has taught in Paradise Valley, Sierra Vista and currently teaches yoga at Tucson High since 2013.

In 2017, Nancy was on the board of the Tucson chapter of the National Organization for Women and then served as the President for Tucson NOW in 2018. While stationed at Ft. Drum, New York with her husband, Nancy volunteered for the American Red Cross and served as their Volunteer Coordinator. She has always volunteered in her two daughters’ classrooms as class mom, Committee Chairperson and President of the Manzanita Elementary FFO.

Nancy studied and worked to complete her 500 hour Certified Yoga Teacher training at Yoga Oasis and has taught classes in Tucson for years before combining both of her passions of teaching and yoga, and now teaches yoga at Tucson High. She was the Physical Education Department Chair for five years and is currently on the Safety Committee at Tucson High Magnet School. Nancy has always searched out leadership positions in our community and her career.

My passion is public education.  I ran for office in 2022 to ensure that Arizona puts public education, teachers, staff and students as a priority.  We must prioritize and fully fund public education so that we can ensure all students receive an education that allows them to be successful in the paths they choose.  Teachers should be empowered to teach students with care, and not soley based on a biased, state mandated test.  Education in Arizona should bring opportunities for all students to learn in diverse modalities in order to prepare for a variety of employment options.  This will improve Arizona’s economy by attracting businesses who want to partner with us and become leaders in both industry, infastructure, environment and opportunities for all.

Arizona has been defunding public education since the 1990s when schools were forced to choose whether to offer PE, music or art and which students would participate in these important classes.

Our buildings are falling apart. Many schools do not have reliable air conditioning. There are classrooms that are unusable due to asbestos, but there are no funds in the state budget to address these very real issues. Budget overrides and bond issues can’t raise enough to fix this. Infastructure money must come from the state.

We need teachers in Legislature to let current lawmakers understand what is really happening in schools. I am qualified to be this voice. Only a current teacher understands what has happened to public schools during the pandemic and how to address these critical issues.

I will continue to fight for all people to have reproductive freedom and care. Women are the backbone of our society and we must have the freedom to make our reproductive decisions. We all must have access to education about our bodies, birth control, pre and post natal care and quality health care! I will work with health care providers and organizations that work for women to ensure these rights.

There is money in the Arizona budget to fund healthcare for women and children who can’t afford insurance. We know that when women have access to quality pre and post natal care they have healthier babies and are healthier themselves. We must have paid family leave so that families have time to bond and take care of each other before returning to the workforce.

I will fight until my daughters, my students and all people who are pregnant have the right to decide what they do with their body. This is no a place for the government.

This session, I introduced a bill to repeal the current preemption that does not allow our cities to regulate firearms in our communities. I worked closely with Pima County officials to bring this bill forward. I will not stop bringing legislation forward until we pass laws that will keep us safer.

I am happy and honored to have participated in the Moms Demand Action Demand A Seat Program and a Gun Sense Candidate. Now, I’m honored to participate as an elected Representative in the program and help those who are running for office.

We must never allow guns on any campus and loopholes must be closed for sales at gun shows. Where there are guns, there are more reports of gun violence. In Arizona, we are too lenient on who can carry a gun and where it can be carried. Arizona should reinstate the requirement to be certified to carry a conceled weapon. A school campus is not a place for anyone, except law enforcement, to have a gun. I will vote no on any bills that would allow people to have guns on campus or in the parking lot.

We have had too many school shootings and yet nothing is done about it. Every time an announcement comes on, there is part of me that wonders if this will be the time when I have to defend and protect my students against an active shooter. That is NOT okay. I will work for policy to close loop holes for gun sales, brings back licensing for concealed weapons and never allows weapons on any of our Arizona campuses.

I am committed to conserving our water and looking for ways to ensure that we have water for the future generations in Arizona.

We can’t just hope that we will have enough water, because the truth is-we won’t. I will work with water experts to put policy in place that not only serves to conserve the water we do have, but also uses innovative ways to cut down on the huge amount of water that is used by the agriculture industry.

The time is now to address this probelm aggressively so that our state and it’s people can continue to live and thrive here.