Elizabeth Warren is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts. She is recognized as one of the nation’s top experts on bankruptcy and the financial pressures facing middle class families.
Born in Oklahoma in 1949, she learned first-hand about the economic pressures facing working families, as she spent most of her early life on what she referred to as "the ragged edge of the middle class." After her father, who worked as a maintenance man, suffered a heart attack, the family struggled economically and Warren began waiting tables at age 13. “I learned early on what debt means, how vulnerable it makes people, what the security of owning a home means,” she once said.
Being a brilliant student, her determination led her to graduate high school at the age of 16 and enroll at George Washington University that same year, on a full debate scholarship.
Two years later, she left school to marry her high school sweetheart and then moved to Texas, where she finished her degree in speech pathology at the University of Houston to become the first college graduate in her immediate family. She later earned a law degree from Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey.
After teaching law at several universities, including Harvard, and along the way becoming an expert on bankruptcy law, she was selected in the mid 90s to lead the National Bankruptcy Review Commission during the Clinton administration. During the 2008 financial crisis, she served as chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. She also led the movement to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In 2012 and then again in 2018, she won election to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first woman from Massachusetts to be elected to the Senate.
She is known for not backing down from her opponents, refusing to be silenced when everyone is against her, and always fighting with dedication for what she believes is right and what would better support middle class families. As such, there is no doubt her dedication and achievements have turned her into a role model and inspiration for women everywhere.