Vice Chair, Senate Committee on Health & Human Services

Member, Senate Committee on Special Legislation & Veterans' Affairs 

Co-Chair, Special Legislative Commission to Make a Comprehensive Study of Rhode Island's Healthcare Workforce Related to Educating and Retaining Primary Care Physicians and Establishing a State Medical School at the University of Rhode Island

Pamela J. Lauria is a Democrat representing District 32 (Barrington, Bristol, East Providence) in the Rhode Island Senate.​

A lifelong resident of the East Bay, Sen. Lauria was first elected to the Senate in November 2022. During her time in the General Assembly, she has been a leader in the Senate's work on health care, gun violence prevention, environmental protection, and reproductive rights.

As a primary care nurse practitioner with decades of experience who currently works at Brown University Health, Sen. Lauria has been especially active on issues related to primary care access. She serves as co-chair of the special legislative commission created in 2024 to explore solutions to Rhode Island's primary care workforce shortage, including the potential establishment of a medical school at the University of Rhode Island. She also successfully advocated for funding to support a primary care residency program in underserved communities.

Additionally, Sen. Lauria has sponsored laws to improve public health education about Alzheimer's and dementia; to ensure patients can access prescriptions; and to require that insurers cover the full cost of life-saving epinephrine injectors, commonly known as EpiPens.

Sen. Lauria also sponsored the 2024 law requiring the safe storage of all firearms in Rhode Island, which earned her the Demand A Seat Legislator of the Year Award from Everytown for Gun Safety, and the 2024 law that ensures climate change, rising seas and coastal resiliency are considered as the state makes its economic development plans.

Sen. Lauria was born Feb. 18, 1970, and grew up in East Providence. She graduated from St. Mary's Academy-Bay View in 1988, and he completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Rhode Island – where she was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing – in 1992. She was a nurse at Rhode Island Hospital until she completed her Master of Science in Nursing-Nurse Practitioner Tract at the University of Rhode Island in 1997.

Sen. Lauria is a volunteer and advocate with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. She previously chaired the Barrington Democratic Town Committee and served as vice president of the Rhode Island Association of Democratic City and Town Chairs. She also previously served on Barrington's Housing Board of Trustees.

She and her husband, David, reside in Barrington. They have two children, Jacob and Maddie, who both attended Barrington Public Schools.

Sen. Lauria can be reached at (401) 431-0013 and sen-lauria@rilegislature.gov.