Sonya Jaquez Lewis

Jaquez Lewis is part of the "Hispano", Hispanic families from the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado whose roots in the state go back hundreds of years.[2]

Jaquez Lewis was born in Charlotte, North Carolina but spent every summer in and has lived in Colorado for over 21 years. She is the oldest of five children of Georgia Jaquez Lewis and Robert Lewis. Jaquez Lewis is a licensed Pharmacist and former first Pharmacy Director of Colorado Medicaid, Colorado Access. She served for seven years on the Boulder County Board of Health. She is an Educator, serving as an Adjunct Professor at the Colorado School of Pharmacy and Guest Lecturer at the Denver school of Nursing.

Jaquez Lewis has been very involved in LGBTQ sports and Equality. As past President of Team Colorado, one of the first LGBTQ Sports organizations in the country and served on the board for the International Gay Games.

In 2014, Jaquez Lewis and Allison Lotspeich, her spouse, won the Gold medal for women's doubles tennis at the International Gay Games 9 in Cleveland, Ohio, and in 2018 she won the gold medal in the women's heptathlon in Paris. Because of her activism and athleticism, Jaquez Lewis is the First National Female Lesbian Athlete of the Year Award winner in 2016, as named by Compete Magazine.

In North Carolina she founded the Durham County Women's Commission 6 and the NC LGBTQ Pride Marching Band. She served on the statewide Board of Directors of NC Pride Festival and was one of the national Co-Hosts for NGLTF's Creating Change conference in Durham in 1993. The first CC conference located in the South.

Jaquez Lewis riding her horse in Boulder County.

In 2008, Jaquez Lewis was elected statewide as the first out lesbian national delegate from Colorado to the Democratic National Convention. She has been a three-time national delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Colorado. She is currently the Vice Chair of the Colorado State House State, Veteran, and Military Affairs committee, member of the Health and Insurance committee, and Legislative Interim Committee on Energy.

Lewis was elected in the general election on November 6, 2018, winning 74 percent of the vote over 26 percent of Independent candidate.[3]

Jaquez Lewis was interviewed by Shaun Boyd on Channel 4 news about HB 1296 that would help Coloradans save money. She is the winner of the 2019 Henry Toll Fellowship Program as part of the Council of State Governments (CSG).

Her legislative work can be found at the Colorado General Assembly website.