Representative Jennifer Boylan
Member, House Environment and Natural Resources Committee
Member, House Innovation, Internet and Technology Committee
Representative Jennifer Boylan, a Democrat, was first elected to represent
District 66 in Barrington and Riverside in November 2022. She serves as a
member of the House Environment & Natural Resources Committee and the House
Innovation, Internet & Technology Committee.
During her first year,
Representative Boylan supported efforts to improve housing affordability,
public education, environmental protection and gun safety. She successfully
passed a law that will allow 17-year-olds to
vote in primaries if they will be 18 by the general election. She
cosponsored legislation to
expand abortion access and supported a
package of new laws to address the state's housing crisis. She
also introduced a tangible tax reduction bill to help small businesses and
supported the tangible
tax reduction bill that ultimately became law. The new exemption wipes
out the tangible tax — viewed as an administrative burden for small
businesses and for the municipalities that collect it— for 75% of Rhode
Island businesses.
Representative Boylan launched a study commission
to bring together experts and stakeholders to study
school lockdowns, safety drills and responses to threats. This study
commission will be convened in the fall of 2023. The study commission
will include public safety officials, teachers, students, mental health
professionals and legislators. It is tasked with answering complex questions
such as whether and when students should be encouraged to evacuate during
lockdown events, whether advanced notice should be provided to students
and/or parents prior to a lockdown drill and whether the frequency of drills
should be changed.
Representati ve Boylan grew up in upstate New York.
She is a graduate of New Hartford Senior High School in New Hartford, NY. Sh
e is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, majoring in geology, and
earned her master's d egree in earth and planetary science from Washington
University.
With a background in science and geology, the firs t 14
years of Representative Boylan's career were spent as an environmental
professional. She worked as a government contractor doing environmental
investigations and as litigation consultant helping clients access funding
for hazardous waste cleanups. She left that business in 2004 to become the
Dire ctor of Operations for PacketLogix.
Prior to being elected to the
RI House of Representatives, Representative Boylan spent 10 years advocating
for common sense gun laws. In 2018, Gov. Gina Raimondo appointed her as a
member of the Working Group for Gun Safety. She has served as an
environmental champion in her community for many years, promoting
initiatives like composting, waste minimization, banning plastic bags, safe
athletic fields, and protecting local farmland and public open space.
Representative Boylan lives in Barrington with her husband. They have two
sons.