Representative Karen Alzate
Chair, House Special Legislation Committee
Second Vice Chair, House Labor Committee
Member, House Finance Committee
Member, House Municipal Government and Housing
Rep. Karen Alzate (D-Dist. 60, Pawtucket, Central Falls) was first
elected to the House of Representatives in November 2018. She is the
chairwoman of the House Special Legislation Committee, second vice chair
of the House Labor Committee, and a member of the House Finance
Committee and the House Municipal Government and Housing Committee.
During the 2023 session,
she introduced a new law
that would make it easier to convert commercial structures such as hospitals
or mills into housing. The legislation would allow, as a permitted use, the
adaptive reuse of commercial structures, such as mills, factories,
hospitals, malls, churches and schools, into high density residential
developments without the need to go before a municipal planning board for a
zone change.
She also
sponsored a law
which reduces the fee for an original driver privilege card. In the 2022
session, the General Assembly approved Chairwoman Alzate’s legislation
that directed the Division of Motor Vehicles to issue driving privilege
cards to undocumented residents in the state. This new law reduces the
fee for an original driver privilege card from $50 to $25 in order to
bring the fee in line with the cost charged for renewing a driver’s
license.
From 2021 to 2022, Representative Alzate served as the Chairwoman of the
Rhode Island Legislative Black and Latino Caucus.
She graduated from Tolman High School in 2006 and received her
bachelor’s degree in political science from Rhode Island College in
2013. She received a Master’s Degree in community development from Roger
Williams University in 2019. Representative Alzate was a part of the
Latina Leadership Institute in 2017 and she was previously a member of
the New Leaders Council in 2016.
Representative Alzate was born on December 26, 1987 and resides in
Pawtucket.