| Speaker McCluskie has served as a State Representative since 2018 and was re-elected in 2022 to represent House District 13, which includes Chaffee, Grand, Jackson, Lake, Park, and Summit counties. She is the first woman Speaker elected from the Western Slope.
Over her six years as a State Representative, McCluskie has served on the Rural Affairs and Agriculture, Education, Appropriations, Wildfire Matters, Early Childhood and School Readiness Commission committee, and as Chair of the Legislative Interim Committee on School Finance. Most notably, she was honored to receive an appointment to the prestigious six-person Joint Budget Committee in January 2020 and was appointed Chair of the JBC in November 2021. Over Speaker McCluskie's time as Chair of the JBC, she carried the state's budget, making record investments in public schools, higher education, and health care. Currently, McCluskie serves as Speaker of the House of Representatives, providing leadership and guiding legislative priorities for the Democratic Caucus.
Speaker McCluskie is a strong advocate for saving people money and protecting our mountain way of life. In 2021, she brought $48 million to affordable housing grants, nearly $200 million more to public schools, colleges, and universities, and over $100 million to wildfire mitigation and suppression. Over her time in the legislature, Speaker McCluskie also led multiple legislative efforts on student success and workforce revitalization, which invested more than $90 million in regional talent collaboration between businesses, labor, and higher education organizations; as well as helping Coloradans access nearly $40 million of zero-cost credentials to boost our workforce in the state's most critical industries. In 2023 and 2024, McCluskie also focused on rising costs and property insurance loss in the state due to increased wildfire threats. She created the first-ever FAIR Plan, which forms an unincorporated public entity to provide property insurance coverage to those who cannot get it from the private insurance market.
Speaker McCluskie is also a champion for education. During the 2024 legislative session, she passed the first revision to the Colorado School Finance Act in 30 years, making it more equitable, increasing funding for every school district in the state, and ensuring every student has the resources they need to succeed. In 2022, Speaker McCluskie helped increase accessibility to schooling by changing the rules around who receives in-state tuition - making it easier for Colorado high school residents and undocumented youth to attend college. In 2024, she built upon this by creating a more transparent, enforceable, and standardized system for schools to follow so that college students can obtain credits, transfer schools more easily, and graduate on time. Additionally, she carried out the Proposition EE ballot measure, which provided new funding for rural schools and the state education fund and ultimately funded universal preschool for 4-year-olds statewide.
Additionally, given the importance of water on the Western Slope and throughout the entire state, Speaker McCluskie has focused on protecting this essential resource, which is the very essence of the Colorado Spirit. In 2023, she established the Colorado River Drought Task Force, which led to legislation passed in 2024 to address the worsening drought conditions on the Colorado River. Additionally, McCluskie created a permitting program within the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment for dredge and fill activities impacting state waters following last year's Supreme Court ruling - restoring protections & ensuring clean water for generations.
Prior to serving in the State House, Speaker McCluskie spent more than a dozen years working in Summit School District, providing exceptional district leadership in strategic communications, community engagement, and student behavioral/mental health initiatives. During the Hickenlooper administration, she spent several years at the state Capitol as the Director of Communications for former Lt. Gov. Joseph Garcia. Speaker McCluskie also worked in resort and hospitality management, holding leadership roles in Xanterra Parks and Resorts in Denver and Doubletree Hotels in Colorado Springs and Vail.
Born and raised in Colorado and a graduate of Colorado State University, Speaker McCluskie and her husband Jamie have spent most of their married years in the Rocky Mountains. They are proud parents of two children, Ian and Cait, and enjoy spending family time in Colorado's great outdoors. |