Representative Mia A. Ackerman
Deputy Majority Whip
Member, House Conduct Committee
Member, House Health and Human Services Committee
Member, House Veterans' Affairs Committee
Rep. Mia A. Ackerman (D) has served the residents of Cumberland and Lincoln in District 45 since winning her first election in November 2012. She was named the first-ever female Deputy Majority Whip in January 2021, making her a member of the House Leadership Team. She is a member of the House Conduct Committee, the House Health and Human Services Committee, and the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Representative Ackerman has spearheaded efforts to enact life-saving laws and received the 2023 Public Service Award from the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network and Brown University's Legoretta Cancer Center.
In 2024, she sponsored a law that will allow Rhode Island patients and medical researchers access to vital national data and research. In 2022, she introduced a law that requires private health insurers to cover biomarker testing, which is a test of blood or other biological material to identify changes or abnormalities that may be associated with cancer. In 2021, she sponsored a law that improves over-the-phone CPR instructions by requiring the 911 system to certify and staff individuals trained in telecommunicator CPR, and another that provides full insurance coverage for colorectal cancer screenings. She also championed a law in 2021 that requires statewide standards in consumer education. These laws garnered Representative Ackerman awards from the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and the General Treasurer's Office, respectively.
Representative Ackerman is a strong advocate for consumer protection, in 2024 sponsoring a law that regulates business selling home solar systems to protect consumers and ensure a healthy solar industry. In 2019, she championed a law protecting consumers' right to pay in cash, which garnered national attention. The legislation makes it unlawful for any retail establishment offering goods or services for sale to discriminate against a prospective customer by requiring the use of credit for purchase of goods or services. She also sponsored a law in 2018 to prohibit consumer reporting agencies from charging consumers a fee for a credit freeze.
A strong advocate for youth issues, Representative Ackerman sponsored a new law in 2023 to combat childhood lead poisoning, and worked closely with the Cancer Society and the medical community during the 2018 session to enact legislation that banned the use of tanning beds for minors. She also successfully sponsored legislation that changed the jurisdiction of child abuse crimes from Family Court to Rhode Island Superior Court, which is much better equipped to adjudicate those types of crimes.
Since being elected, she has convened a Youth Advisory Board made up of local high school students to give them the chance to gain knowledge about the inner workings of state government and contribute input on pending legislation.
In the 2016 session, she led a commission to study the increasing problem of sexual assault on college campuses. Those meetings led to legislation introduced by Representative Ackerman that requires institutions of higher learning to adopt a policy which grants amnesty for violations of drug/alcohol policies for those who report incidents of violence, including domestic violence, dating violence, stalking and sexual assault.
Born on March 28, 1965, she earned a bachelor's degree in political economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton. In addition to her duties as a legislator, Representative Ackerman is a self-employed Real Estate Title Examiner.
With a lifetime commitment to public service, she was a member of the Cumberland Town Council from 2006 to 2012 and served on the Cumberland Juvenile Hearing Board from 2003 to 2006.
She also is involved with several community organizations, serving as a member of the Cumberland School Volunteers, a member of the Board of Directors for the historic Franklin Farm in Cumberland, a volunteer at Northern Rhode Island Food Pantry, a member of the Cumberland Land Trust, and a member of the Blackstone River Watershed Council. She was a Liaison to the Cumberland Youth Commission and was a former member of the J.J. McLaughlin Elementary School Executive PTO Board.
Representative Ackerman resides in Cumberland with her husband, Barry. They have two children, Sam, a graduate of Columbia Law School who is currently a clerk with the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, and Ellie, a marketing coordinator who graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a degree in economics with a minor in Spanish.