ABOUT MARIA
• Maria lives in Minnetonka with her husband of 26 years, Mark, and their two children, Eric and Christian. Mark is a small-business owner, while Eric attends St. Thomas University and Christian attends Hopkins High School.
• Grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota, as the youngest of seven children, and graduated from Bloomington Jefferson High School.
• Earned a BS in nursing from the University of Minnesota and an MS in nursing from the University of California, San Francisco.
• Works as a Nurse Practitioner in women's health care when the State Legislature is not in session.
• Elected to the State Legislature in 2004, re-elected in 2006 and 2008.
• Prior to being elected to the State Legislature, Maria was an adjunct professor for graduate nursing students at the University of Minnesota, a member of the Hopkins School District Legislative Action Coalition and a volunteer for the Uptown Community Clinic and the West Suburban Teen Clinic.
• During the 2010 legislative session, Maria served on the Health Care and Human Services Finance Committee, Health Care and Human Services Policy and Oversight Committee, Licensing Divison Committee, Taxes Committee and Ways and Means Committee. Maria has also served as Vice Chair on the Energy Finance and Policy Committee, on the Health and Human Services Committee and the Education Finance and Economic Competitiveness Committee.
• During the 2009 and 2010 legislative sessions, Maria chief authored 35 bills and co-authored 209 bills.
• Maria helped create and co-chair the legislature's Small Business Caucus, which surveyed a thousand Minnesota businesses and then passed seven laws to help those small businesses grow and hire more workers.
’Ģ Was one of 40 business, political and military leaders selected from Minnesota in 2009-2010 to participate in the non-partisan Policy Fellows program at the University of Minnesota’Äôs Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. (Scroll down alphabetically.)
• Was honored in June of 2009 by the Minnesota chapter of the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network as its "Legislator of the Year." Maria was selected out of more than 200 legislators by the American Cancer Society because of "her leadership as the chief House author of the 2009 Minnesota Colorectal Cancer Prevention Act. Rep. Ruud helped build a bipartisan coalition in support of this important new initiative that will prevent cancer among those screened and could save the state millions in preventable treatment costs." Former Minnesota Congressman Jim Ramstad (R) was also honored at the same event with a lifetime achievement award.
l’Ģ Maria was honored in August of 2009 by the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians for her work in the legislature. Along with State Representative Steve Gottwalt (R), Maria received a 2009 Legislative Achievement Award. Dr. Patricia Fontaine said, "In their years of service to the House of Representatives, both have proven themselves as strong advocates for primary care, family physicians and their patients."