Cory Atkins Representative

Cory Atkins won the office of State Representative in the fall of 1999 in a special election. Since that time she has worked tirelessly on voters’ priorities concerning education, the environment, economic growth, local transportation, and the relationship between our communities and state government. Rep. Atkins was promoted to Chair of the Committee on Tourism, Arts, and Cultural Development for the 2013-2014 legislative session. In this role, Rep. Atkins leads committee members in considering all legislative matters pertaining to tourism, arts and cultural development in the Commonwealth and promotes job creation in those industries. Prior to this position, she was the Vice Chair of the House Committee on Rules for four years.

Currently, she is working shoulder to shoulder with Common Cause to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which allows unlimited corporate spending on political campaigns. Through these efforts and in collaboration with her colleagues in the House and Senate the Legislature passed a resolution that she filed in the House calling on Congress to overturn Citizens United.

One of her greatest achievements so far has been passage of An Act Relative to Harassment Prevention Orders in 2010. Prior to this law, citizens of the Commonwealth could only request a restraining order against a relative or someone with whom they had a significant dating relationship. The law now allows people to obtain a restraining order against anyone who is demonstrably stalking or harassing them.

She fought for more state funding for special education, for the METCO program, and to obtain favorable rates for the School Building Assistance for her towns. She has worked closely with town officials to balance the demands of economic development, the desire to preserve open space, and the increasing financial pressures on local services. She has secured funding for Route 2 renovations and improvements.

In the 2011-2012 legislative session Cory Atkins has served as the House co-chair of the Caucus of Women Legislators. As co-chair she has helped the Caucus to develop relationships with legislative leadership, the Commission on the Status of Women, and other agencies and groups. In addition she and the Caucus have worked together to support a number of bills that effect women’s lives including alimony reform, equitable coverage in disability insurance, and equal pay for equal work. During her time as co-chair, the Caucus has drawn attention to women’s heart health, screened a documentary about the portrayal of women in the media, and hosted the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts.

Cory Atkins was committed to public service long before she was elected to the House. As a community activist, she has been an active member of international, national, and local organizations including the Environmental League of Massachusetts, the Merrimack Repertory Theatre, the Lowell Mayor’s Drug Task Force, the Concord Assabet and Family Services, the Domestic Violence Victims Assistance Program, Walden Woods, the League of Women Voters of Concord-Carlisle, the Fundraiser for Network for Women’s Lives, the Concord Democratic Town Committee (twenty year member and former co-chair), the Fundraiser for Concord Children’s Center, the Handel and Haydn Society, and Amnesty International.

As an instructor and lecturer, Cory Atkins taught courses at Middlesex Community College in U.S. Government and Women in Management. She has also participated as a guest commentator on Channels 2, 4, 5 and 6, and has written a political column for The Middlesex News (now the Metrowest Daily News). She attended UMass-Boston and graduated Magna Cum Laude in Political Science, prior to which she attended Burdett Business School and graduated with an Associate’s degree in Marketing Research. She is most proud of her family, and she is pleased that both of her children have bought homes in Concord and are now raising their own families there.