| June Speakman was born and raised in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. Her mom stayed home with the four children. Her dad worked for Motown Records by day and was a jazz drummer by night. June went to Girls' Latin School in Dorchester. Her family moved to Cape Cod in the early 1970s, where June attended Cape Cod Community College and worked for several years as a server and bartender before returning to college at UMass-Amherst.
June has been immersed in academia ever since. She earned her MA in Economics from the New School for Social Research and her PhD in Political Science from City University of New York. June taught her first college class at Brooklyn College while still a grad student. She served as a full-time faculty member at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and then at the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, CA.
In 1995, the Speakman family went back to their roots in New England when June accepted a faculty position in the Political Science Department at Roger Williams University (RWU). She teaches American politics, state and local government and public policy. June has served in a number of leadership positions at RWU, including Department Chair, Faculty Senate President, and President of the RWU Faculty Association (NEARI).
After many years of service on various PTOs in Barrington, and one term on the Appropriations Committee, June was elected (four times) to a seat on the Barrington Town Council where she served for fourteen years, eight of them as Council President. She currently lives on Seymour Street in Warren with her best friend, Lady the dog, and her brother, Jim. Before being elected to the House of Representatives, she was a member of the Planning Board. June is an enthusiastic participant in Bristol and Warren's great restaurant scene.
June is on the Executive Committee of the Warren Democratic Town Committee. She was elected as an Obama delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte and served on the RI Democratic Party Platform Committee in 2016.
June's long-standing interest in housing policy led to her appointment on the Rhode Island Board of Housing Works, and to the State Housing Appeals board, where she served from 2010 to 2016. She also serves on the board of the Washington Internship Institute.
She has two sons, Jason and Adam, who attended Barrington public schools. They both live and work as creative professionals in New York City.
June is a lifelong member of Red Sox nation, has watched every episode of all seven seasons of The West Wing, loves a good crossword puzzle, and is happy feeding her friends at her old dining room table with its mismatched chairs. |