Tiara is a formerly low-income Black, queer, educator and activist. Raised in the metro Atlanta and South Carolina, she moved to Providence in 2012 to attend Brown University where she earned her bachelor’s in Public Health. In 2020, she unseated a 30-year incumbent to become the state's first openly queer Black elected state senator. As a directly impacted person, she understands that we need bold, visionary leaders to center real people and stories in every piece of legislation.

 

In her time in office, she had been a champion for LGBTQ+ rights, working families, housing and tenant rights, and expanding abortion access in Rhode Island. Since 2021, she has passed bills that have expanded abortion access to Medicaid recipients and state employees, a process to seal eviction records, critical childhood lead safety bills, and made Juneteenth a paid state holiday.

 

She serves on the Senate Commerce Committee as Secretary and as a member of the Housing and Municipal Government Committee and the Education Committee. She is a Board Member of the RI Abortion Fund and commissioner of the RI Commission on Prejudice and Bias.