Voters in the new LD10 elected first-time candidate, Stefanie Mach, to the Arizona State House of Representatives in 2012.
Growing up in a military family, Stefanie learned the value of personal responsibility and the importance of civil service to her community at a young age. At seventeen, Stefanie was faced with a traumatic car accident that left her with many injuries. One of the most challenging results of her accident was something surprising: that people had little or no expectations of her because of her injuries. Guided by her strong upbringing and optimism for the future, she excelled beyond expectations.
Determined to get everything she could out of life, Stefanie graduated from college in four years with a double major. After the events of September 11th, she dedicated a year of service to our country with AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps). In that year, Stefanie responded to a flood disaster with the American Red Cross, taught elementary school children, built part of the Appalachian Trail, maintained a wildlife reserve, and helped construct five houses with Habitat for Humanity. This was a powerful lesson in understanding how a society works together to solve problems and help one another. It taught her to be creative, adaptive and persistent in order to achieve independence and success for those in need; in short, to expect more for our community and ourselves.
After her term of service, Stefanie applied these lessons in the non-profit sector. The missions of the organizations she worked for varied from increasing civic participation to promoting community gardens to educating youth on conflict management. Through providing direct services to vulnerable populations she became even more convinced that we must expect more of the policies that affect all of our lives. This led her to earn a Master of Public Policy degree from Brown University and then start a business consulting for non-profit organizations.
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