Mikulski, Barbara, 1936-

<p>Barbara Ann Mikulski (/mɪˈkʌlski/ mih-CULL-skee; born July 20, 1936) is an American politician and social worker who served as a United States Senator from Maryland from 1987 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she also served in the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987. Mikulski is the longest-serving woman in the history of the United States Congress and the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Maryland history.</p>

<p>Raised in the Fell's Point neighborhood of East Baltimore, Mikulski attended Mount Saint Agnes College and the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Originally a social worker and community organizer, she was elected to the Baltimore City Council in 1971 after delivering a highly publicized address on the "ethnic movement" in America. She was elected to the House of Representatives in 1976, and in 1986, she became the first woman elected to the United States Senate from Maryland.</p>

<p>From the death of Senator Daniel Inouye in December 2012 until 2015, Mikulski chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee. She was the first woman and first Marylander to hold the position. At her retirement, she was the ranking minority member of the committee. She also served on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence.</p>

<p>On March 2, 2015, Mikulski announced that she would retire after five terms in the Senate and would not seek reelection in 2016. In January 2017, Mikulski joined Johns Hopkins University as a professor of public policy and advisor to university President Ronald J. Daniels.</p>

<p>Barbara A. Mikulski, the longest-serving woman in congressional history, started her career as an activist in her native Baltimore, before winning election to the U.S. House and then the Senate. “I didn’t come into politics by the traditional male route,” she once said, “being in a nice law firm or belonging to the right clubs.” During her 40 years in Congress, Mikulski was a tireless advocate for Maryland, and applied the instincts she developed fighting for causes in Baltimore to major national issues. “Like most of the women I’ve known in politics,” she said, “I got involved because I saw a community in need.”</p>

<p>Barbara Ann Mikulski was born on July 20, 1936, in Baltimore, Maryland, to William and Christine Mikulski, grocers in the Highlandtown section of Baltimore who lived near their business. She graduated from Mount Saint Agnes College in Baltimore with a degree in social work in 1958 and worked as a caseworker for Associated Catholic Charities and the Baltimore Department of Social Services. She went on to earn a master’s of social work from the University of Maryland in 1965.</p>

<p>In 1969 the state of Maryland announced plans to build an expressway through southeast Baltimore. The route promised to raze whole city blocks and wreak havoc on the neighborhoods where Mikulski had grown up. In response, she jumped into local politics and spearheaded the opposition to the new highway. She coordinated protests in her Polish East Baltimore neighborhood and linked up with African-American activists in West Baltimore to expand the movement against the proposed thoroughfare. During the protests Mikulski helped establish the Southeast Council Against the Road and became the face of Baltimore’s opposition to the expressway. Eventually, Mikulski succeeded, and the state shelved the plan for the new road. “The British couldn’t take Fells Point, the termites couldn’t take Fells Point and we don’t think the State Roads Commission can take Fells Point either,” Mikulski told the Baltimore Sun in October 1969.</p>