Senator
Samuel D. Zurier
Vice Chair, Senate Committee on Rules, Government Ethics & Oversight
Secretary, Senate Committee on Education
Member, Senate Committee on Finance
Member, Senate Committee on Artificial
Intelligence & Emerging Technologies
Samuel Zurier, a former member of the Providence City Council, was elected to
represent Senate District 3 in Providence in November 2021.
Zurier grew up in Providence’s East Side and graduated from Classical High
School. He went on to study at Yale University, Oxford University (as a Rhodes
Scholar) and Yale Law School.
An attorney in private practice, Zurier specializes in civil litigation.
Between 1986 and 1988, he clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel and
future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, then a member of the First
Circuit Court of Appeals, in Boston. He went on to serve as Assistant Attorney
General in the Environmental Protection Division of the Massachusetts Attorney
General’s office. He has also taught education law as an adjunct professor at
Roger Williams Law School.
Education has been a central focus of Zurier’s public service and community
involvement. He served as a member of the Providence School Board from 2000 to
2002 and co-founded the Classical High School Alumni Association, which raises
private funding to support the school. In 2006, he and other East Side parents
formed the East Side Public Education Coalition, or ESPEC, to advocate against
the planned closure of Nathan Bishop Middle School. He was also a member of the
Steering Committee for Rhode Island is Ready, a grassroots group that supported
the state’s adoption of an educational fair funding formula.
Zurier was first elected to the Providence City Council as its Ward 2
representative in 2010. He won reelection in 2014. While on the council, he
continued his focus on educational issues, as well as the city’s finances.
He has also worked with a number of community organizations. He has been a
board member for Jewish Family Service, the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island
and Temple Beth El. Additionally, he served for several years as the chair of
the Rhodes Scholarship Trust’s Rhode Island selection committee.
Zurier and his wife, Lauren, have lived on the East Side of Providence since
1990. They have three children, Rachel, Hannah and Joseph.