Representative Terri Cortvriend
First Vice Chair, House Small Business Committee
Member, House Finance Committee
Member, House Environment and Natural Resources Committee
Representative Terri Cortvriend (D) was first elected to represent
District 72 in Portsmouth and Middletown in November 2018. She is the
first vice chair of the House Small Business Committee and is a member
of the House Finance Committee and the House Environment and Natural
Resources Committee. She is the chair of the Finance
Environment/Transportation Subcommittee.
In the House, Representative Cortvriend has been a leader in efforts to
mitigate climate change and pollution, address public shoreline access,
support education, and prevent substance abuse, particularly among youth.
In 2023, the General Assembly adopted her legislation clarifying that the area
of the shoreline that is guaranteed to the public under the state
constitution begins 10 feet landward of the recognizable high tide line. The
legislation stemmed from a commission she led in 2021 and 2022 to settle the
long-debated issue.
Her years-long effort resulted in the 2022 passage
of legislation prohibiting polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
in food packaging as well as a 2024 law that will
phase out PFAS in most consumer products sold or manufactured in Rhode
Island beginning in 2027, and ban PFAS from firefighting foam starting Jan.
1, 2025. She was also a cosponsor of the landmark Act
on Climate. In 2020, Representative Cortvriend and Rep. Lauren Carson
launched the Aquidneck
Island Climate Caucus, a community group to give voice to the importance
of mitigating and adapting for the earth's changing climate.
The Nathan
Bruno and Jason Flatt Act, which she sponsored in 2021, created
requirements for suicide awareness and prevention training for teachers and
school personnel, and established a conflict resolution process between
teachers or school personnel and students. Another law she sponsored in 2021
now precludes the disability
of a parent from serving as a basis for denial or restriction in matters
involving a child's welfare, foster care, family law, guardianship or
adoption. She has helped effect changes that assist individuals with
disabilities in getting the
education,
services and
protections they deserve.
Before her election to the House of
Representatives, Representative Cortvriend served on the Portsmouth School
Committee from 2004 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2018, the last four years as
chairwoman. She served on the Portsmouth Water and Fire District Advisory
Board from 2011 to 2017, the Portsmouth Tank Farm Redevelopment Advisory
Committee from 2010 to the present, the Portsmouth Charter Review Committee
in 2012 and the Portsmouth Economic Development Committee from 2009 to 2013.
Born January 15, 1962, she graduated from North Miami Senior High School in
1980 and is a graduate of Miami Dade Community College. She also studied
business management at Florida International University and accounting at
Community College of Rhode Island.
Representative Cortvriend is the owner of Ocean Link, Inc., a marine
plumbing firm that she founded in 1989. She previously worked as a yacht
captain, and held a USCG Captain's license and a private pilot's license.
She is a member of the Rhode Island Marine Trades Association, the Newport
County Chamber of Commerce, and the International Yacht Restoration Program
Advisory Committee.
She is the mother of Savanna J. Cortvriend Cavacas
and the grandmother of Wilder Andrew Cavacas, and lives in Portsmouth with
her partner, Charles A. Perry.