Gwen Graham

Gwen Graham, who honed her commitment to public service as a leader in Florida’s local public schools, is a respected former Member of Congress with a reputation for fairness, compassion, and problem-solving. Graham served as the Congressional representative from Florida’s 2nd District during the 114th Congress and was known as one of the House’s most bipartisan members. She is an attorney and, prior to her service in Congress, focused her practice on public education as Chief of Labor and Employee Relations for the Leon County School District. She was involved in every aspect of the educational process and was recognized for her integrity and fairness. The Florida Education Association and the Leon Classroom Teachers Association were the first organizations to endorse her Congressional candidacy. She also served as a board member of the statewide Florida Educational Negotiators. Graham is a proud product of public K-12 education as are her children, and she served as PTA President and School Advisory Council Chair while they were young. She has worked on a number of presidential campaigns, and in 2004 served as John Kerry’s surrogate coordinator in Florida. She currently serves as a board director of the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida, the Florida State Parks Foundation, Ruth’s List, and as Vice Chair of the City of Tallahassee Independent Ethics Boards. Gwendolyn Graham was born in Miami Lakes, Florida, on January 31, 1963. Her mother, Adele Khoury, began her career as a public school teacher in Massachusetts and later spent 25 years as a school volunteer. In 1979 her father, then a Florida state senator, won election as governor, and Gwen Graham and her three younger sisters moved to Tallahassee to live in the governor’s mansion with their parents. In 1986 Bob Graham won election to the United States Senate. Graham graduated from Leon High School in Tallahassee in 1980. She earned a BA in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1984 and married Mark Logan in 1985. After earning a JD from American University in Washington, DC, in 1988, Graham worked in a law firm focusing on energy and environmental issues. In 1990 with the birth of her first child, Sarah, Graham temporarily stopped practicing law and worked from her home in Florida. She later had two sons: Graham and Mark. Her marriage ended in divorce.