Speakers

Congresswoman Maxine Waters was elected in November 2008 to her tenth term in the House of Representatives, representing the 35th District of California.
She is member of the House Committee on Financial Services and the Chairwoman of its Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. She also serves on the House Judiciary Committee, and is a Chief Deputy Whip, making her an integral part of Congressional Democratic Leadership. Congresswoman Waters has long been highly visible in Democratic Party politics, serving on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) since 1980.
Prior to her election to the House of Representatives in 1990, Congresswoman Waters had already attracted national attention for her no-nonsense, no-holds-barred style of politics. During 14 years in the California State Assembly, she rose to the position of Democratic Caucus Chair. She was responsible for some of the boldest legislation California has ever seen: the largest divestment of state pension funds from South Africa; landmark affirmative action legislation; the nation’s first statewide Child Abuse Prevention Training Program; the prohibition of police strip searches for nonviolent misdemeanors; and the introduction of the nation’s first plant closure law.
She is a co-founder of Black Women’s Forum, a nonprofit organization of over 1,200 African American women in the Los Angeles area. In the mid-80s, she also founded Project Build, working with young people in Los Angeles housing developments on job training and placement.
Throughout her career, Congresswoman Waters has been an advocate for international peace, justice, and human rights. Before her election to Congress, she was a leader in the movement to end Apartheid and establish democracy in South Africa. She leads congressional efforts to cancel the debts that poor countries owe to institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. The Congresswoman’s legislation to pass debt relief for Haiti following the devastating January 2010 earthquake was recently passed by both chambers of Congress and signed into law by President Obama.
Expanding access to health care services is another of Congresswoman Waters’ priorities, as she recently joined her Democratic colleagues to vote for historic health care reform that was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. She spearheaded the development of the Minority AIDS Initiative in 1998 to address the alarming spread of HIV/AIDS among African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities. Under her continued leadership, funding for the Minority AIDS Initiative has increased from the initial appropriation of $156 million in fiscal year 1999 to approximately $400 million per year today. She is also the author of legislation to expand health services for patients with diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
Congresswoman Waters has led congressional efforts to mitigate foreclosures and keep American families in their homes during the housing and economic crisis, notably through her role as Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. She authored the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which provides grants to states, local governments and nonprofits to fight foreclosures, home abandonment and blight and to restore neighborhoods.  Through two infusions of funds, the Congresswoman was able to secure $6 billion for the program.
Congresswoman Waters attended California State University at Los Angeles, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. She began her career in public service as a teacher and a volunteer coordinator in the Head Start program. She is married to Sidney Williams, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. She is the mother of two adult children, Edward and Karen, and has two grandchildren.