April Berg (1974- )

March 09, 2021 
/ Contributed By: Carol Sue Janes

April Berg

April Berg

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April Berg represents Washington State’s 44th Legislative District, which includes Marysville, Lake Stevens, the town of Snohomish, Mill Creek, and portions of unincorporated Snohomish County, Washington.

Rep. Berg was elected in November, 2020 and took office in January 2021 despite being seriously injured the day of Washington’s primary election in August 2020. Her back was broken in a head-on collision with an impaired driver whose vehicle had crossed the meridian.

In the legislature, Rep. Berg, a Democrat, serves as vice-chair of the Finance Committee and is on the Education and Local Government committees.  She has been the primary sponsor for bills allowing high school students to obtain college credits, and to increase access to school lunches.  She has also sponsored legislation to change police practices, restore voting rights to the previously incarcerated, and improve school safety and school board elections.

Rep. Berg grew up on the South Side of Chicago. She graduated in 1996 from Oregon State University with a B.A. in History. As an undergraduate, she was the first Black person to be elected Student Body President and was also appointed by Oregon’s Governor to serve as a student representative to the Oregon State Board of Higher Education.

Berg moved to Snohomish County in 1997 and worked as a program manager for Boeing. She was later the owner of The Edmonds Inn Bed and Breakfast. She then worked in business development for consulting firms. In 2014, she was elected to the board of the Edmonds School District. In 2019, she was elected to the Everett School District board and named to the Mill Creek Planning Commission.

Rep. Berg’s community service has included her positions as a trustee on the Seattle Children’s Theatre Board and as a member of the Snohomish County Juvenile Court Cultural Competency Committee.

Berg is the mother of four children—two have graduated from college, one is in college, and another in high school. She lives with her husband, Brian Berg, in Mill Creek.

About the Author

Author Profile

Carol Sue Janes is an attorney practicing in Seattle, Washington. She is a past chair of the Washington State Bar Association Health Law Section, and a past chair of the King County Bar Association Appellate Practice Section. She taught at the University of Washington School of Law, served as a staff attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and served as a law clerk to a Washington State Supreme Court chief justice. She has been selected to the Washington State Super Lawyers List every year since 2014. She is a member of the Loren Miller Bar Association and the Mother Attorneys Mentoring Association of Seattle.

A native of Seattle, Carol Sue has a B.A. in History (magna cum laude, with honors in History, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Alpha Theta, from the University of Washington, and a J.D. with honors and Executive Editor of Washington Law Review, from the University of Washington School of Law. She is an active amateur genealogist.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Janes, C. (2021, March 09). April Berg (1974- ). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/april-berg-1974/

Source of the Author's Information:

Washington State House Democrats, “April Berg Biography,” https://housedemocrats.wa.gov/berg/biography/; Herald Staff, “House candidate injured in crash on primary election day,” Everett Herald, August 5, 2020, https://www.heraldnet.com/news/house-candidate-injured-in-crash-on-primary-election-day/; Everett School District, “April Berg,” https://www.everettsd.org/Page/8932.

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