ROTARY LUNCHEON: Former U.S. Congresswoman Jackie Speier

From the halls of Congress to the County Supervisors dais, how is our self-government doing? Jackie Speier will answer this question and more. She is a former U.S. Congresswoman for California’s 14th district, where she served from 2008 to 2023. Before that, she served on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, the California State Assembly and the California Senate, bringing her total time in public service to over 40 years.

Speier was named to Newsweek’s list of 150 “Fearless Women” in the world and one of “Politico's 50” most influential people in American politics for bringing the Me Too reckoning to Congress. She is a fearless fighter for women’s equality, LGBTQ rights and the disenfranchised who has dedicated her life to eliminating government corruption while working to strengthen America’s national and economic security.

During her 18 years in both chambers of the California Legislature, Speier had more than 300 bills signed into law by both Republican and Democratic governors. She secured justice for women and children with a series of bills that led to the collection of more than $2 billion in delinquent court-ordered child support payments. She authored a measure that gave the state the nation’s strongest financial privacy law and was integral to the passage of California’s Gender Tax Repeal Act in 1996.

Speier first ran for Congress in 1979 for a seat formerly held by Congressman Leo J. Ryan, for whom Speier had served as a legislative aide. The special election was called after Ryan was shot to death in Jonestown, at the compound of the People’s Temple, a cult in Guyana that had previously been based in Ryan’s District. Speier traveled with Ryan on that trip in 1978 in an attempt to rescue some of the cult’s 900 members. She was left nearly lifeless on the airport tarmac after being shot five times at point blank range with an assault rifle. Speier underwent multiple surgeries after the tragedy and while recovering she realized she had a choice to make: Did she want to be a victim, or did she want to be a survivor? Speier chose to be a survivor, noting that “looking death in the face can make you fearless.”

Speier is the author of two bestselling books, Undaunted: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage and Fighting Back and This Is Not the Life I Ordered. She received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Davis and her J.D. from UC Hastings College of the Law. 

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