Her bill extending benefits for unemployed Coloradans while they learn new workforce or entrepreneurial skills was one of the few jobs bills to make it through the Republican-controlled House in 2012.

Rep. Duran graduated from Arvada West High School with honors and earned a scholarship to attend the University of Denver, where she earned a B.A. with a double major in public policy and Spanish. She went on to law school at the University of Colorado, where she was elected president of the Student Bar Association and the Latino Law Student Association.

After graduating from law school, Rep. Duran went to work for the 21,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, where she fought for better paying jobs and access to quality healthcare. Rep. Duran currently has her own legal practice.

Rep. Duran has been president of the Colorado Young Democrats, served on the boards of La Raza and Democrats Work, and held posts in Women for Obama and the Latino Vote Steering Committee, Progressive Majority, and New Era Colorado. She was a delegate to the 2008 and 2012 Democratic National Conventions.