| Representative Mary Margaret Oliver is a DeKalb County native and practicing attorney in Decatur. She serves House District 82, which encompasses parts of Decatur, Brookhaven, Tucker and Chamblee inside Interstate 85, all of the Emory University campus and the unincorporated neighborhoods of Druid Hills, Saga-more Hills, North Briarcliff and Oak Grove. For more than 25 years, she has served multiple terms in the Georgia House and Senate, focusing on legislation to protect children and consumers and having the distinction of chairing both the House and Senate Judiciary committees. Rep. Oliver currently serves on the Appropriations, Judiciary, Governmental Affairs, Juvenile Justice and Science & Technology committees. She was appointed by the chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court to serve on the Committee on Justice for Children. She was also appointed by the governor to serve on the Georgia Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission. The speaker of the House also appointed her to the special committees on Criminal Justice Reform, Child Welfare Reform and Access to the Civil Justice System. In 2021, the speaker appointed her to chair the Metropolitan Atlanta Regional Transit Oversight Committee (MARTOC), making her the sole Democrat committee chair in the House. During the 2022 legislative session, she helped carry the speaker's bipartisan House Bill 1013, the Mental Health Parity Act, to unanimous passage by both chambers, which was a watershed victory for Georgians. As a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Emory University Law School, Rep. Oliver has remained active in the life of Emory, where she has taught in the Barton Child Law and Policy Center. She also serves on Emory's Board of Visitors and was honored as one of Emory's "History Makers." Her legislative work has also garnered recognition by the Atlanta YWCA, Garden Clubs of Georgia and Voices for Georgia's Children, among other organizations. Rep. Oliver is a frequent guest on GPB's "Political Rewind" program and is a timely contributor of opinion pieces on legislative issues to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Rep. Oliver is an avid golfer and canoeist with a love of Georgia's beauty, and she proudly serves on the board of the Altamaha Riverkeeper. She is a lifelong member of All Saints' Episcopal Church in Midtown Atlanta, where she teaches an annual Sunday School class, "Jesus on the Front Page of the New York Times." |