Laurie Jinkins represents Washington's 27th Legislative District, which contains most of the city of Tacoma. She is a native Midwesterner who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later a Juris Doctor from Seattle University School of Law (then the University of Puget Sound School Of Law). Jinkins also completed executive studies at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Jinkins started her career litigating child abuse and neglect cases for the state Attorney General’s Office. She then shifted her career toward public health, eventually serving as an assistant secretary of health at the state Department of Health before taking the position of Director of Organizational Initiatives at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, where she continues to serve. Jinkins was elected in 2010 as the first out lesbian to serve in the Washington legislature and serves on the following House standing committees: Health Care & Wellness, Appropriations, and Judiciary, which she chairs. Jinkins lives in Tacoma with her wife, Laura Wulf, and their 17-year-old son.