Dingell, Debbie, 1953-

<p>DINGELL, DEBBIE, (wife of John David Dingell, Jr.), a Representative from Michigan; born in Detroit, Wayne County, Mich., November 23, 1953; graduated from the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Grosse Pointe, Mich.; B.S.F.S., Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 1975; M.S., Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 1996; analyst; professional advocate; business executive; non-profit executive; board of governors, Wayne State University, 2007-2014; member of the Democratic National Committee; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Fourteenth and to the two succeeding Congresses (January 3, 2015-present).</p>

<p>Congresswoman Debbie Dingell represents the 12th District of Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives. Before being elected to Congress, Debbie was the Chair of the Wayne State University (WSU) Board of Governors. An active civic and community leader, she is a recognized national advocate for women and children.</p>

<p>For more than 30 years Debbie served one of Michigan’s largest employers, the General Motors (GM) Corporation, where she was President of the GM Foundation and a senior executive responsible for public affairs. In her commitment to job creation, Debbie led the effort to bring the 10,000 Small Businesses initiative, a $20 million partnership designed to help create jobs and economic growth, to southeast Michigan. She is a past chair of the Manufacturing Initiative at the American Automotive Policy Council.</p>

<p>With values instilled by her Catholic education, Debbie’s activism took root in her passion for issues important to women and children. She successfully fought to have women included in federally-funded health research, and advocated for greater awareness of issues directly related to women’s health, including breast cancer and women's heart health. She is a founder and past chair of the National Women’s Health Resource Center and the Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She has served on numerous boards related to women’s issues including the advisory boards for the NIH Panel for Women’s Research, the Michigan Women's Economic Club, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and the board of the Michigan Women's Foundation. She was a co-founder of both the first Race for the Cures in Michigan and in Washington, D.C.</p>

<p>Debbie has led a number of efforts and initiatives related to young people and education stemming from her role as a WSU Governor and co-chair of the Children's Leadership Council, a business-led advocacy group that promotes investment in early childhood education. She chaired the Michigan Infant Mortality Task Force, the Baby Your Baby public education campaign that reduced infant mortality rates in Michigan, and has served on the board of Michigan’s Children, the only statewide independent voice working to ensure that public policies are made in the best interest of children from cradle to career. She was appointed by Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm to serve on the Early Childhood Investment Corporation and the Cherry Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth.</p>

<p>Much of Debbie's recent work has been focused on ethical issues and social responsibility as they relate to government and business. She co-chaired One United Michigan, which sought to preserve and support programs that ensure equal opportunity in Michigan. She chairs the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition, a statewide organization that brings business, labor and government together to find commonality on issues. She continues to serve on the Parade Company board of directors of which she is past chair, where she helped save America’s Thanksgiving Parade, an important Detroit tradition. A known “bridge-builder,” she continues to promote and lead efforts toward greater understanding among people of differing points of views and backgrounds.</p>

<p>Debbie is a respected voice in Michigan. She co-hosted Detroit Public Television’s “Am I Right,” regularly served as a panelist on “Flashpoint,” a public affairs program on WDIV-TV4 Detroit, and was named one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Michigan by Crain’s Detroit Business.</p>

<p>Debbie resides in Dearborn. She holds both a B.S.F.S. in Foreign Services and an M.S. in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University.</p>

<p>Deborah Ann Dingell (née Insley; November 23, 1953) is an American Democratic Party politician who has been the U.S. Representative for Michigan's 12th congressional district since 2015. She is the widow of John Dingell, who was the longest-serving U.S. congressman. She worked as a consultant to the American Automobile Policy Council. She was a superdelegate for the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.</p>

<p>She is active in several Michigan and Washington, D.C., charities and serves on a number of charitable boards. She is a founder and past chair of the National Women's Health Resource Center and the Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is also a member of the Board of Directors for Vital Voices Global Partnership. She is a 1975 graduate of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.</p>

<p>Descended from one of the Fisher brothers, owners of Fisher Body, from 1919 a part of General Motors, she has served as president of the General Motors Foundation and as executive director of Global Community Relations and Government Relations at GM.</p>

<p>She married Michigan Congressman John Dingell, 27 years her senior, in 1981; she was Dingell's second wife. She had grown up as a Republican, but became a Democrat soon after marrying Dingell. Their marriage lasted 38 years until her husband's death on February 7, 2019 at the age of 92.</p>

<p>She is a member of the Democratic National Committee from Michigan and chaired Vice President Al Gore’s campaign in Michigan in 2000. In 2004, she also helped secure the Michigan Democratic primary and general election vote for John Kerry in Michigan.</p>

<p>In November 2006, Dingell was elected to the Board of Governors of Wayne State University in Detroit.</p>

<p>Dingell and U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D – MI) were the proponents of moving up Michigan's presidential primary before February 5, to attempt to garner greater political influence for Michigan during the 2008 Democratic primaries. This resulted in Michigan almost losing its delegates' votes in the Democratic National Convention.</p>

<p>Dingell indicated that she planned to run for her husband's congressional seat after he announced his retirement. On August 5, she won the Democratic primary. On November 4, she won the general election, defeating Republican Terry Bowman. When Dingell was sworn in, she became the first U.S. non-widowed woman in Congress to succeed her husband – who was the longest-serving member of Congress in history with 59 years served. His father, John Dingell Sr., held Michigan's 12th district for 22 years before his son won it. All together the Dingells have represented this district and its predecessors for 86 consecutive years as of 2019. The district was numbered as the 15th from 1933 to 1965, the 16th from 1965 to 2003, the 15th again from 2003 to 2013, and has been the 12th since 2013.</p>

<p>In 2018, Dingell introduced a law that would give the Consumer Product Safety Commission the authority to recall defective firearms. Her husband, John Dingell, was a key lawmaker that initially granted the firearms industry this exemption from the 1972 Consumer Product Safety Act that created the Consumer Product Safety Commission.</p>