Biography:

      When Pam Resor discovered that W. R. Grace was polluting her community’s water supply, she found out first-hand how difficult it was to get the town and state elected officials to work to solve the problem.  She came to the conclusion that the only way to make sure that the polluter didn’t get away scot-free and that other communities didn’t face the same threats, was to get elected to the offices selectman, state representative and state senate where she could pursue the legislation and cast the votes that truly represented the needs of our families. 

      Pam Resor was active in her community before she learned about W.R. Grace.  After working her way through Smith College, Pam and her husband, Griff, moved to Acton in 1966.  While they were raising their three children, they made time to participate.  Griff served on the town’s finance committee and school committee. Pam volunteered in the local schools.  She was also an active member of the League of Women Voters, working to establish the local Housing Authority and leading an effort for fair assessing and taxing policies.

      Then, in 1978, just as Pam became President of the League of Women Voters, the W.R. Grace issue emerged.  Fully 40% of the town’s water supply was polluted.  The Acton Citizens for Environmental Safety (ACES), frustrated at the response they were getting at every level of government, turned to Pam for help.  

      First, she served on the Board of Health, but soon found that the board had little authority to provide the oversight that was necessary to force Grace to the negotiating table for a solution.  In 1981, Pam ran for the Board of Selectmen.  She was the top vote-getter in a field of five candidates for two vacancies on the board.  While on the Board, she not only worked on solving the Grace issue, but also worked on ensuring that the budget cuts mandated by Proposition 2 ½ did not eviscerate essential services or the quality of the public schools.

      Pam left the board after accepting a job as the Director of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions.  But, she found it frustrating to be working on critical environmental issues like land preservation and river and watershed protection when the decisions were being made by those who had a vote in the legislature.  Once again, Pam came to the conclusion that the best way to educate the decision-makers and hold them accountable was to become one of them.  She ran for State Representative against an incumbent candidate and came within a small margin of votes to being elected.  When she ran again in 1990, she won the House seat.  She served the people of the 14th Middlesex District for 9 years. In 1999, Pam ran in a special election, and was elected to the Senate.

      Since serving in the legislature, Pam Resor has been an advocate for the environmental issues that are her passion. She worked on strengthening the hazardous waste law and on passing "Brownfields" legislation which facilitates redevelopment of urban waste sites.  Pam was instrumental in the passage of the Rivers Protection Act of 1996, and the Community Preservation Act of 2000.  She has demonstrated a continued interest in developing a world-class state park system, and is currently sponsoring a bill to protect local conservation land.

      Pam has also compiled an impressive record of leadership and independent action on the many other issues that matter to the people of her district.  Her service on the Board of Selectman taught her the fiscal realities of sound budgeting, and she has consistently voted against patronage and wasteful government spending.  In good economic times, she has voted to cut taxes; in bad economic times, she has worked hard to insure that raising taxes is the last resort, after budgets have been cut.

      Pam knows that quality public schools are the most essential service that state and local government can provide, and has worked tirelessly in the district to ensure that these schools are among the best in the State.  Since entering the Legislature, Pam has seen how Special Education costs and a convoluted formula for State Aid penalizes suburban school districts.  She pushed to be appointed to the Education Committee and has filed legislation that shifts the cost of SPED funding away from local budgets back to the State.  She has filed legislation that will correct the funding formula, so that high-growth school districts in the metro-west area receive the state aid to address the boom in population. 

      She has been active on several economic development issues including the establishment of the Commonwealth Fund which provides $1 million in seed money for small start-up businesses, workers compensation reform, restoring solvency to the unemployment trust fund, and passing the most generous R&D tax credit in the country.

      Pam’s legislation to close the loophole in the stalking statute, known as "Sandy’s Law", was enacted in August of 2000.  The law is named for Sandra Berfield, an Everett waitress who was killed by a stalker. January was established as Stalking Awareness Month, in order to raise public awareness of this insidious crime.  Recently, Senator Resor has filed a Harassment Prevention bill that increases protections to victims seeking a protective restraining order.

      Pam also sponsored and worked for successful passage of the Sexual Harassment Education in the Workplace Act, which went into effect in 1996.  It requires all companies of six or more employees to have a policy on sexual harassment.

      Senator Pam Resor is the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources & Agriculture and the Vice-Chair of a new Special Senate Committee on Global Warming & Climate Change. She also serves as Senate Vice-Chair of the Joint Committee on Labor & Workforce Development, and is a member of the Joint Committee on Education, the Joint Committee on Children, Families, & Persons with Disabilities, and the Committee on Tourism, Arts, & Cultural Development.  She also serves on the powerful Senate Committee on Ways & Means, which examines all State spending bills.