Representative Mia A. Ackerman
Deputy Majority Whip
Member, House Conduct Committee
Member, House Health and Human Services Committee
Member, House Veterans' Affairs Committee
Representative Mia A. Ackerman (D) has served the residents of Cumberland
and Lincoln in District 45 since winning her first election in November
2012. She was named the first-ever female Deputy Majority Whip in January
2021, making her a member of the House Leadership Team. She is a member of
the House Conduct Committee, the House Health and Human Services Committee,
and the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
During the most recent
session, she joined with her colleagues in sponsoring a
package of new laws to address the state's housing crisis. This
continues the work of 2022, where she introduced a law that revises the
definition of an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) and removes the requirement
that an ADU be occupied by someone related by family to the principal
residence. She also sponsored a new law in 2023 to
combat childhood lead poisoning.
Representative Ackerman has
spearheaded efforts to enact life-saving laws and received the 2023 Public
Service Award from the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network and
Brown University's Legoretta Cancer Center. In 2022, she introduced a law
that requires private health insurers to cover biomarker
testing, which is a test of blood or other biological material to
identify changes or abnormalities that may be associated with cancer. In
2021, she sponsored a law that improves
over-the-phone CPR instructions by requiring the 911 system to certify
and staff individuals trained in telecommunicator CPR, and another that provides
full insurance coverage for colorectal cancer screenings. She also
championed a new law that requires statewide
standards in consumer education. The new laws garnered Representative
Ackerman awards from the American
Heart Association, the American
Cancer Society and the General
Treasurer's Office, respectively.
In 2019, she championed a law
protecting consumers'
right to pay in cash, which garnered national attention. The legislation
makes it unlawful for any retail establishment offering goods or services
for sale to discriminate against a prospective customer by requiring the use
of credit for purchase of goods or services.
A strong advocate of
youth issues, Representative Ackerman worked closely with the Cancer Society
and the medical community during the 2018 session to enact legislation that
bans the use of tanning beds for minors. She also successfully sponsored
legislation that changes the jurisdiction of child abuse crimes from Family
Court to Rhode Island Superior Court, which is much better equipped to
adjudicate those types of crimes. Since being elected, she has convened a
Youth Advisory Board made up of local high school students to give them the
chance to gain knowledge about the inner workings of state government and
contribute input on pending legislation.
In the 2016 session, she led
a commission to study the increasing problem of sexual
assault on college campuses. Those meetings led to legislation
introduced by Representative Ackerman that requires institutions of higher
learning to adopt a policy which grants amnesty for violations of
drug/alcohol policies for those who report incidents of violence, including
domestic violence, dating violence, stalking and sexual assault.
Born
on March 28, 1965, she earned a bachelor's degree in political economics
from the State University of New York at Binghamton. In addition to her
duties as a legislator, Representative Ackerman is a self-employed Real
Estate Title Examiner.
With a lifetime commitment to public service,
she was a member of the Cumberland Town Council from 2006 to 2012, and
served on the Cumberland Juvenile Hearing Board from 2003 to 2006.
She
also is involved with several community organizations, serving as a member
of the Cumberland School Volunteers, a member of the Board of Directors for
the historic Franklin Farm in Cumberland, a volunteer at Northern Rhode
Island Food Pantry, a member of the Cumberland Land Trust, and a member of
the Blackstone River Watershed Council. She was a Liaison to the Cumberland
Youth Commission and was a former member of the J.J. McLaughlin Elementary
School Executive PTO Board.
Representative Ackerman resides in
Cumberland with her husband, Barry. They have two children, Sam, a graduate
of Columbia Law School who works as an attorney in the Attorney General's
Office, and Ellie, a marketing coordinator who graduated from the University
of Rhode Island with a degree in economics with a minor in Spanish.