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About Stephenie
I am a public policy professional, former journalist, community volunteer, mom, and proud resident of the 5th district.
I grew up in rural Appalachia without a stable home. I could only dream of living in a place like the 5th District, a place I am now privileged to call home. I got where I am today because a community raised me, giving me the love and encouragement I needed to become a first-generation college graduate.
My life’s purpose now is to strengthen the communities I am part of, including the 5th district and Lexington as a whole.
I left Towanda, Pennsylvania, for college ten days after graduation, determined never to look back. And I didn’t for a long time. I earned a journalism degree from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, in 2004 and dreamed of becoming a big-shot newspaper reporter. Checked that box by age 25, becoming a statehouse reporter at the Courier-Journal.
I love asking tough questions and holding government and elected officials accountable.
My highest achievement was the state’s decision to shutter three privately-run prisons after I investigated flagrant sexual abuses of incarcerated women, a riot at a men’s prison, and other violations.
I enjoyed being a journalist covering state government, but I yearned to have a seat at the table where policy decisions were being made. After a brief speechwriting job at Keeneland, I was named senior advisor and communications director for State Auditor Adam Edelen. I counseled the Auditor on policy, strategy, and management of the state’s taxpayer watchdog agency.
In 2015, I urged the Auditor to support a Senate resolution to count untested sexual assault kits in Kentucky. We went further, examining why 3,000+ kits weren’t tested, and making recommendations for reform. I directed the team, compiled the report that was considered a model for states, helped lobby the legislature to enact nearly all of the report’s recommendations into law, and, as a consultant to the state’s rape crisis coalition, helped implement several components of the new law. The rape kit project is my proudest accomplishment, with hundreds of kits having hit to criminal databases, helping identify and bring rapists to justice.
I love solving problems: seeking outside-the-box solutions, building support, and finding common ground. I believe in the power of public policy to improve lives.
For a time, I was satisfied that this would be my most significant career achievement. But, since launching a policy and communications consultancy in 2016, I have been instrumental in the passage of justice reform legislation, including the First Step Act through Congress, and felony expungement and protections for incarcerated women in Kentucky.
I also have a record of showing up for my community.
I love helping people, feeding people, and showing my daughters how to be a good human being. I serve their school's PTA, make sandwiches for the Catholic Action Center, deliver food for Foodchain, cook for the Bluegrass Wildwater Association, drive voters to the polls, and more.
I have served on the boards of Planned Parenthood of Indiana & Kentucky and The Nest Center for Women, Children and Families, as well as the Fayette Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention Coalition. I currently serve on a Fayette County Foster Care Review Board, as chair of a Family Resource and Youth Services Council, on the steering committee of the Bluegrass Wildwater Association, and as volunteer director of the National Paddling Film Festival, the country’s oldest paddling film festival. Last year’s event raised $8,000 for river conservation and access organizations.
When you aren't born in a place but choose to make it your home, you have to seek out and build communities. I have done just that.
As a lifelong learner, I decided to fulfill another goal after the pandemic. I received the James Still Fellowship in 2021 and, with it, earned a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce in 2022.
Raising two daughters with my husband has been my most rewarding role in the last decade. We love exploring the great outdoors, visiting national parks, whitewater rafting, skiing, and biking. We recently foster failed and welcomed Don, a cuddly terrier/poodle mix, into our family!
I didn’t understand my story until recently. But I understand now it is one of overcoming being a voice for the powerless and vulnerable, and solving complex problems.
It is also one of having lived in and explored the country, and choosing Lexington’s 5th district as the place I call home.
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