Senator RHonda Fields
Rhonda Marshall Fields is a Democratic politician from Colorado. She represents District 29 in the Colorado Senate. Previously, she served as member of the Colorado State House of Representatives representing District 42 from Aurora, Colorado. She was the first African American woman elected in State House District 42, as well as the first Speaker pro Tempore.
Fields entered politics after her work as a victims' rights advocate in the wake of the murders of her son, Javad Fields, and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe.
The two Colorado State University graduates were murdered on June 20, 2005, less than a week before Javad Fields planned to testify as a key witness in the murder of his best friend. In 2007 Gov. Bill Ritter appointed Rhonda Fields to the Colorado Commission on Criminal Juvenile Justice, where she worked on public safety and criminal justice issues. Fields also testified before the Colorado legislature on two successful bills, one strengthening the state's Witness Protection Programs, as well as the Javad Marshall Fields & Vivian Wolfe Witness Protection Act that is designed to develop better risk-assessment tools to elevate the safety and security of witnesses in criminal trials.[2]
Fields serves on numerous boards, including the Safe 2 Tell Advisory Board and Voices of Victims. Her professional affiliations include Women in Government, the National Federation of Women Legislators, the Colorado Black Caucus, the National Council of Negro Women, the Urban League of Denver, the NAACP, Black Women for Political Action and Alpha Kappa Alpha, a sorority of African-American college-educated women.
In 2011, 5280 Magazine ranked Fields 37th on its list of the 50 "most powerful" people in the Denver Metro area, saying she has "gained the type of respect that politicians dream about." She also received the 2011 "Rising Star Award" of the Colorado Democratic Party, the 2011 Leadership for Healthy Communities Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Wilma Webb 2011 Co-Legislator of the Year presented by African American Voices, the 2011 Black Women for Political Action Award, the 2010 Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award and the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce President's Courage Award.[3]
Fields is the founder of the Fields Wolfe Memorial Fund, a nonprofit, started in memory of her son Javad Fields and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe. She has one adult daughter and four grandchildren. She is retired from United Airlines after 28 years of dedicated employment. Fields holds a Master's Degree from the University of Northern Colorado.
