Maria de Lourdes Ramos Rivera (born August 6, 1960) is a Puerto Rican politician who currently serves in the

Puerto Rican House of Representatives The House of Representatives of Puerto Rico ( es, Cámara de Representantes de Puerto Rico) is the lower house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the bicameral territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The House, together with the Sen ...

from the at-large district since 2005. She previously served in that position from 1996 to 2001.

Early years and studies

Ramos was born in

Juncos, Puerto Rico Juncos (, ) is a town and one of the 78 municipalities of Puerto Rico. It is located in the eastern central region of the island to the west of the Caguas Valley, south of Canóvanas and Carolina; southeast of Gurabo; east of San Lorenzo; an ...

on 6, 1960. She completed a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in Business Administration from the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

, with a major as Executive Secretary.

Public service

Ramos began her career as Secretary of the Municipal Assembly of Juncos. In 1991, she was appointed as member of the Women's Affair Commission by then Governor

Pedro Rosselló Pedro Juan Rosselló González, (; born April 5, 1944) is a Puerto Rican physician and politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001. He was President of the New Progressive Party from 1991 to 1999 and 2003 to 2008, a ...

Political career

In 1995, Ramos successfully presented her candidacy to fill a vacant seat in the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico due to the resignation of Representative Jorge L. Navarro Alicea. Ramos was sworn in on March 26, 1996 as a Representative At-large under the New Progressive Party (PNP), becoming the first female from Juncos to occupy the position. Ramos was officially elected in the 1996 general election, where she was the representative who received the most votes of all 11 winning candidates. In 1997, the Action Committee of Carolina gave her the Jesús T. Piñero Award. Still, after one term, Ramos was defeated for re-election at the 2000 general election, where she was the candidate with the fewest votes. Ramos returned to the House of Representatives in 2005. After being sworn in, she was selected by her party as

Majority Whip A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology ...

for that term. After being in 2008, Ramos was appointed to preside the House Retirement Systems Committee. She was also a member of the House Government, Municipal Affairs, Consumer Affairs, and Education and Cooperativism Committees. Ramos was reelected for a fourth term in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramos Rivera, Maria L. 1960 births 20th-century American women politicians 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century American politicians Living people New Progressive Party members of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico People from Juncos, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican Roman Catholics Puerto Rican women in politics Republican Party (Puerto Rico) politicians University of Puerto Rico alumni