Ross Wilburn (1964/1965) is an American politician and social worker serving as a member of the

Iowa House of Representatives The Iowa House of Representatives is the lower house of the Iowa General Assembly, the upper house being the Iowa Senate. There are 100 seats in the Iowa House of Representatives, representing 100 single-member districts across the state, formed ...

from the 46th district. Elected in November 2018, he assumed office in January 2019. Wilburn has also served as chair of the

Iowa Democratic Party The Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Iowa. While existing when Iowa was granted statehood in 1846, it did not gain broad electoral success until the mid-1950s, when demographic changes ...

since January 2021.

Early life and education

Wilburn was born in

Galesburg, Illinois Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, United States. The city is northwest of Peoria. At the 2010 census, its population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County and the principal city of the Galesburg Micropolitan Statistical ...

and raised in

Ames, Iowa Ames () is a city in Story County, Iowa, United States, located approximately north of Des Moines in central Iowa. It is best known as the home of Iowa State University (ISU), with leading agriculture, design, engineering, and veterinary medici ...

. After graduating from high school, Wilburn joined the

Iowa Army National Guard The Iowa Army National Guard is a state agency of the State of Iowa, with significant funding from the Federal Government of the United States; and a reserve component of the United States Army. It has dual Federal and State missions. It is emp ...

. He earned a

Bachelor of Social Work A bachelor is a man who is not and has never been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

and

Master of Social Work The Master of Social Work (MSW) is a master's degree in the field of social work. It is a professional degree with specializations compared to Bachelor of Social Work (BSW). MSW promotes macro-, mezzo- and micro-aspects of professional social wor ...

from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

Career

From 1997 to 2000, Wilburn was the graduate program director of the School of Social Work Quad Cities Center at the

. From 2000 to 2007, he worked as the executive director of the Crisis Center of Johnson County. From 2008 to 2014, he served as the director of equity at the Iowa City Community School District. Wilburn was elected to the Iowa City Council in 2006 and served for 12 years, including for one term as mayor of

Iowa City Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

. Wilburn was a candidate for the

2018 Iowa gubernatorial election The 2018 Iowa gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018. Incumbent Republican Governor Kim Reynolds ran for election to a full term, facing Democratic businessman Fred Hubbell, Libertarian Jake Porter, and independent candidate Gar ...

, placing last in the Democratic primary. He was later elected to the

in November 2018 and assumed office in 2019. He serves as the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. In January 2021, Wilburn became the chair of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilburn, Ross 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century American politicians African-American state legislators in Iowa Living people Democratic Party members of the Iowa House of Representatives Politicians from Ames, Iowa People from Galesburg, Illinois People from Iowa City, Iowa State political party chairs of Iowa University of Iowa alumni Year of birth missing (living people)