Tonya (Tonya) Anderson (D-SS43)
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Capitol: 404.463.2598
FAX: 404.656.5043
District: 678.400.4946
District FAX: 707.591.1253
Senator-Elect
Georgia State Senate
Room 110-A State Capitol 206 Washington Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30334

District Office:
PO Box 1026
Lithonia, GA 30058
Elected: 2016    Next Election: 2024
Spouse: Houston   
Counties Representing
DeKalb / Newton / Rockdale

Bio

Enthusiastic, strong, motivated, visionary are just a few pow-erful words to describe Senator Tonya P. Anderson. Sen. An-derson was first elected to the Georgia State Senate to repre-sent Georgia's 43rd Senate District in 2016. Her district in-cludes parts of DeKalb, Rockdale, and Newton counties.

She began her elected public service as a City Councilmember for the city of Lithonia from 2006-2008, then as Mayor from 2008 to 2011. Sen. Anderson then went on to serve as a State Representative for House District 92.

Sen. Anderson currently serves as the Chair of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus (GLBC) and as Secretary of the Sen-ate Special Judiciary Committee. She is also a member of the Senate Economic Development and Tourism, Regulated In-dustries and Utilities, Reapportionment and Redistricting, MARTOC, and Veterans, Military, and Homeland Security Committees.

Sen. Anderson retired in 2012 from the United States Air Force Reserve after more than 21 honorable years of service and continues to volunteer and advocate for veterans' ser-vices. In addition, she volunteers in the community through local senior centers, The National Council of Negro Women, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peo-ple, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Junior League and United Way VIP as well as several non-profit boards. As a former board member, she continues to serve as a volun-teer for the DeKalb County Board of Health through the Live Healthy DeKalb Initiative.

Sen. Anderson is the recipient of numerous awards over the years by many world renowned organizations including the National Disabled American Veterans, Women Veteran's Social Justice, awarded the Woman of Excellence Award by The Na-tional Foundation of Women Legislators; and awarded The Who's Who in Black Atlanta award.

During the 2020 legislative session, Sen. Anderson authored and championed a criminal justice reform bill-Senate Bill 288. This bill allows for the restriction and sealing of criminal records of most misdemeanor convictions. Previously in Georgia, any criminal record stays on record for life. SB 288 affects 4.3 million Georgians and will create additional oppor-tunities for employment, housing and education. SB 288 went into effect January 1, 2021.

Sen. Anderson is an ordained minister and is very active in her church. She holds a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management from Alabama State Univer-sity as well as a Masters of Divinity from Luther Rice Universi-ty. In April 2018, she earned a Humanitarian honorary doc-torate degree from The Global International Alliance. Current-ly, she is pursuing another business degree.