Heather Fitzenhagen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heather Dawes Fitzenhagen
Member of the Florida House of Representatives
from the 78th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
2012
Preceded by Steve Perman
Personal details
Born (1960-10-08) October 8, 1960
Dallas, Texas
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Richard D. DeBoest
Children Alexander "Zan" Dawes
Alma mater Hollins University (B.A.), Shepard Broad Law Center (J.D.)
Profession Attorney
Religion Episcopal

Heather Fitzenhagen (born October 8, 1960) is a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 78th District, which includes central Lee County, namely, Fort Myers, since 2012.

History

Fitzenhagen was born in Dallas, Texas, and attended Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, before moving to the state of Florida in 1987. She then attended the Shepard Broad Law Center, the law school at Nova Southeastern University. Afterwards, she started Resolution Strategies, a mediation and arbitration company, and worked as the Marketing Director at the Condo & HOA Law Group, PLLC.

Florida House of Representatives

In 2012, she ran for the Florida House of Representatives from the newly created 78th District, based in the city of Fort Myers. Fitzenhagen faced Jonathan Martin in the Republican primary, whom she was able to defeat with 69% of the vote. In the general election, she had Independent Party of Florida nominee Kerry Babb as her opponent, and she easily won, winning 67% of the vote.

While in the legislature, Fitzenhagen joined forces with fellow State Representative Ray Rodrigues to alter the composition of the Lee County Tourist Development Council, which would cause the city of Cape Coral to "lose its automatic seat" on the Council.[1] Additionally, Fitzenhagen took the lead in authoring legislation intended to lure a Fortune 500 company to Lee County with $12 million in state funding.[2]

In 2013, Fitzenhagen supported a bill in the Florida legislature that would allow U.S. veterans using the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 to pay for their college educations to receive in-state tuition instead of out-of-state tuition, regardless of whether the veteran met the residency requirements.[3] Fitzenhagen said that the schools would benefit by "having the kind of leadership and the kind of character in the classroom that a veteran will bring."[3] Similar legislation, the GI Bill Tuition Fairness Act of 2013 (H.R. 357; 113th Congress), passed the United States House of Representatives on February 3, 2014.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "House passes bill to nix automatic seat for Cape Coral on tourism council". The News-Press. April 29, 2013. 
  2. ↑ "Funding sought to lure Fortune 500 company to Lee County". The News-Press. April 27, 2013. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Smola, Jenn (11 November 2013). "States fight for in-state tuition for student veterans". USA Today. Retrieved 5 February 2014. 
  4. ↑ "H.R. 357 - All Actions". United States Congress. Retrieved 5 February 2014. 

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.