Sen. Linda Ujifusa was elected in November 2022 to represent District 11 (Portsmouth, Bristol) in the Rhode Island Senate. She is a member of the RI Senate Health and Human Services Committee and the Special Legislation & Veterans' Affairs Committee.
During her first year as a senator, she introduced legislation seeking affordable healthcare and prescription drugs, limiting plastics pollution and greenhouse gases, and protecting veterans, seniors/retirees and children. She also helped introduce bills requested by local town and school officials and assisted constituents who reached out for help with individual issues.
Sen. Ujifusa graduated from Harvard College, B.A., magna cum laude, and from N.Y.U. School of Law, where she was an editor of the N.Y.U. Review of Law & Social Change and a member of the Moot Court Board.
Sen. Ujifusa was an attorney at Mintz Levin, a private law firm in Boston, and in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Regional Counsel. She also taught legal writing at the University of California Hastings Law School.
Beginning in 2016, Sen. Ujifusa served three terms on the Portsmouth Town Council, including as vice president of the council from 2018 to 2022. During her tenure, she focused on new initiatives that improved town management of properties and budgets, and emergency planning and climate change resiliency. She spearheaded efforts to secure grants to increase resiliency, create an open space and recreation master plan and rebuild a senior center with 50+ affordable housing units.
As a volunteer, Sen. Ujifusa has served as past chair of the Aquidneck Land Trust board. In addition, as a volunteer advocate for universal, comprehensive single payer healthcare, she helped draft state legislation, organize community education and outreach efforts, and testified at the State House.
Sen. Ujifusa was a delegate for Sen. Bernie Sanders at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. She is also a member of the Executive Committee of the RI Democratic Women's Caucus, which supports women candidates for public office.
Sen. Ujifusa is a member of multiple community organizations including the Portsmouth Historical Society, the Portsmouth Senior Center, the Naval Station Newport Restoration Advisory Board, Mt. Hope Farm, Bristol Historical and Preservation Society, Blithewold and a supporter of the Bristol 4th of July Committee. She has also volunteered at Portsmouth public schools, for the Portsmouth Open Space Committee and at Portsmouth and Bristol COVID vaccination clinics.
A third-generation Japanese-American, Sen. Ujifusa was born and raised in San Jose, California, and attended public schools. She and her husband, J. Mark Ryan, MD, have resided in Portsmouth since 1993. They have three children, John, Katie and Jamie Ryan, all of whom attended Portsmouth public schools.
Sen. Ujifusa can be reached at (401) 472-4721 and sen-ujifusa@rilegislature.gov.