Rep. Cherie L. Cruz (D-Dist. 58, Pawtucket) was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives in November 2022. She represents Pawtucket’s Fairlawn and Woodlawn neighborhoods where she was born and raised. She is a member of both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Municipal Government and Housing Committee.
She is a graduate of Brown University, with a Bachelor’s degree in Education Studies Cum Laude and a Master’s in Urban Education Policy as the Urban Education Policy Fellow. She also earned an Associate’s in Liberal Arts at the Community College of Rhode Island.
Representative Cruz runs an early-childhood development program at CCAP through the Love That Baby programs supported by the Rhode Island Department of Health.
She currently serves on the Rhode Island Senate Commission on Justice Reinvestment, the board of the RI Welcome Back Center, the board of the Reentry Campus Program, the board of the Transcending Through Education Foundation, and the executive board of the RI ACLU, and is the co-founder of the Formerly Incarcerated Union of Rhode Island. In addition, her past public service includes serving on the Rhode Island Special Education Advisory Committee, the board of OpenDoors of Rhode Island, and the RI Governor’s Council on Behavioral Health.
She is the mother of four beautiful children Christopher, Charice, Aaron, and Terrell, and grandmother to the amazing Jazzlynn.