REP. GWEN MOORE (D-WI)
Gwendolynne Sophia Moore (born April 18, 1951) is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Wisconsin’s 4th congressional district since 2005. In 2016, Moore was elected to serve as Caucus Whip of the Congressional Black Caucus[1] for the 115th United States Congress.She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is based in Milwaukee and as a result of the 2011 redistricting also includes some nearby Milwaukee County suburbs: Bayside, Brown Deer, Cudahy, Fox Point, Glendale, St. Francis, South Milwaukee, West Milwaukee, Shorewood and Whitefish Bay. She is the first woman to represent the district. She is also the second woman after Tammy Baldwin and the first African-American elected to Congress from Wisconsin.
Moore was born in Racine, but has spent most of her life in Milwaukee. She is the eighth of nine children; her father was a factory worker and her mother a public school teacher. Moore attended North Division High School and served as student council president. She later attended Marquette University and became a single mother and welfare recipient. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1973.
She worked as an organizer with AmeriCorps VISTA. Through the program, she worked to establish the Cream City Community Development Credit Union to offer grants and loans to low-income residents to start businesses. For her work, she was awarded the national “VISTA Volunteer of the Decade” award from 1976 to 1986. From 1985 to 1989, she worked for the City of Milwaukee as a neighborhood development strategist and for the state Department of Employment Relations and Health and Social Services. Moore also worked for the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) as a housing officer.
