| Representative Naquetta Ricks is the first African immigrant to be elected to the Colorado General Assembly, and the first Liberian American to be elected to any state legislature. When she was only 13, she was forced to flee civil war in Liberia, and her family settled in Aurora, Colorado. Representative Ricks received her undergraduate degree in accounting at MSU, her MBA from the University of Colorado Denver, and in the summer of 2023 was selected to further her leadership education by attending the Harvard Kennedy School's Senior Executives in State & Local Government program. She is the owner and operator of a successful small mortgage brokerage business and is the founder and President of the African Chamber of Commerce, Colorado USA. As a leading Black woman in business and politics, she works tirelessly to improve her community by helping build economic opportunities, and by championing the rights of immigrants and refugees. In her first session in the General Assembly, she led the fight on groundbreaking legislation, including the creation of the Immigration Legal Defense Fund; the Diverse K-12 Educator Workforce Report; the Towing Bill of Rights; the Behavioral Health-Care Continuum Gap Grant Program; and the Prohibition of Reporting Medical debt on Consumer Credit Report, which was recently adopted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. For her efforts, Representative Ricks has been recognized with many awards, including Habitat for Humanity's 2021 Legislator of the Year; the 2021 and 2022 Colorado Bankers Association Spurs Award; the 2021 LGBTQ Chamber Legislator of the Year; the 2022 Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network Liberty Award; and membership in Healthier Colorado's Leadership Circle.
Representative Ricks is running for a second term representing House District 40 in the Colorado State Legislature to ensure that, whether you are a new immigrant or a fifth-generation Coloradan, you are given equal opportunity to succeed in life. This means fighting at the State House for policies that increase the quality of life for all of our residents. We must expand apprenticeships, vocational training, and continued access to education. One of the representative's primary focuses is stable, long-term affordable housing, an issue that she continues to address in the 2024 legislative session. Transparency and accountability in policy and politics are critical to restoring faith in our government, and those elected to serve the people. As an accountant, cutting inefficiency and abuses is at the forefront of her work. Representative Ricks combines her education and professional experience to help ensure Colorado continues to be a state that operates by and for the people. |