Yvonne Dorsey won election to the Louisiana State Senate in November 2007
and began her term in January 2008. She represents Senate District 14, an
area which includes not only LSU and the commercial and governmental heart
of Baton Rouge but also the bulk of the city's economically disadvantaged
neighborhoods.
Dorsey sits on four major standing Senate committees:
Judiciary C, where she is Chairman and controls changes to the criminal and
civil codes and all matters relating to law enforcement and the judiciary;
Revenue & Fiscal Affairs, where she oversees taxes, tax credits and bond
measures; Education, where she protects public education, including LSU,
Southern, Louisiana Technical Colleges, School for the Deaf and School for
the Visually Impaired, all of which lie within her senatorial district; and
Health & Welfare, where she makes crucial decisions helping to provide care
for children, the elderly and the economically disadvantaged. She also
serves on the Senate Select Committee on Women and Children.
Prior to moving to the Senate, she served in the Louisiana House of
Representatives for over fourteen years representing House District 67. Ever
since first attaining public office in April of 1993, Yvonne has used her
public position to promote community services in the city's poorest
neighborhoods. She has provided vital help with grants for after school
tutoring services and for inspirational activities for children and the
elderly. She sponsors community events at which she gives free school
supplies to thousands of children every Fall. Every summer she personally
leads groups of disadvantaged youth on two-week summer vacations to places
like Disneyland or the Grand Canyon. So far, she has given over two thousand
children their first—and sometimes only—vacation trip.
In 2005 the combined membership of the House unanimously elected Yvonne
to the position of Speaker Pro Tempore. In this capacity, she assisted in
managing House business, steered the Governor's legislative agenda, and
served as an ex-officio member of every House standing committee.
For a decade Yvonne stood as the sole voice for all of Baton Rouge in the
House budgeting process from her position on the House Appropriations
Committee. Yvonne was the driving force behind the capital outlay programs
which have revitalized Baton Rouge's downtown and restored the historic old
McKinley High School building. She also served as Vice Chair of the Health
and Welfare Committee in the House where she had oversight of the state's
public hospital system.
Yvonne began developing her expertise in management and public service
while employed at the 19th Judicial District Clerk of Court. She rose from
an entry level position to Executive Administrator in just a few years,
managing a five million dollar budget and supervising 250 employees in
eighteen departments. She was instrumental in creating that office's Family
Violence Department which gives assistance to victims of spousal abuse.
In 1992 she became Executive Director of the Employment Council at the
Louisiana Department of Labor where she was responsible for implementing
Louisiana's Federal Jobs Training Program. She resigned that position to run
for the Louisiana House.
Every year, Yvonne raises funds to send up to eighty children on an
educational vacation. She believes it is important that they know how much
larger the world is than what they have seen in their troubled neighborhoods
and that it is big enough to accommodate anyone's dreams. In 2009, she took
a bus full of children selected by pastors from Baton Rouge, New Orleans,
Alexandria, and Lafayette to Washington, D.C. where they witnessed the
inauguration of our nation's first African-American President, Barrack
Obama.
Currently, Yvonne is Industrial Coordinator at the Louisiana Technical
Colleges. She is responsible for identifying the critical job skills needed
by Louisiana's businesses and then creating and managing specific training
programs designed to meet them.
Yvonne graduated from Capital High School in Baton Rouge and earned a
bachelor of science degree in political science from LSU in May 2008. She is
presently completing her masters in political science in the LSU graduate
school.
She is the mother of two children: a son, Jamar, who is an architect, and
a daughter, Darcé, an ordained minister with a masters in education who
teaches and ministers to the hearing impaired. Yvonne attends Mount Zion
Baptist Church.
