C hristine Kaufmann is a Montana State Senator from Helena, having served in the legislature since January 2001. She currently serves on the Senate Taxation and Natural Resources Committees. As a Representative, she served on the House Appropriations Committee, and as chair of its subcommittee on Health and Human Services.

For 18 years Christine was director of the Montana Human Rights Network where she organized communities to speak out against bigotry and harassment, conducted research on right wing extremism, and advocated for public policy reform that respected human rights. She has written numerous articles on hate violence, right-wing extremist groups, and the mainstreaming of their ideas in Montana. Since 1985, she has worked as a director, community organizer, public speaker, lobbyist and project manager for various human rights, environmental, women's, and gay and lesbian rights organizations. Currently, Christine works on health insurance reform efforts for the Montana Office of the Commissioner of Securities and Insurance.

Christine received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology from Goshen College in Indiana, and a Master of Arts Degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. She serves on the board of directors for the Policy Institute in Helena, MT. and the National Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. She was formerly on the boards of Women's Voices for the Earth, the Montana Progressive Labor Caucus, the Helena Symphony Society, PRIDE [Montana's state-wide organization supporting gay and lesbian civil rights], the local Democratic Central Committee, the Montana Committee for an Effective Legislature, the Montana Alliance for Progressive Policy and the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity.

Christine has received awards for her activism from PRIDE, from the Montana Association of Bilingual Educators for her legislative efforts to prohibit policies that undermine diversity and establish English as the official language of Montana, and from the Montana New Party for her progressive leadership. Over the past decade, she was awarded a Fleming Fellowship from the Center for Policy Alternatives, the Leadership for a Changing World award from the Ford Foundation and was honored as the conservation legislator of the year by the Montana Wildlife Federation.

Christine grew up one of 12 children on a Mennonite farm in Illinois, where she was taught to value service to others, global responsibility, and non-violent conflict resolution. Prior to her Montana activism, she was a youth organizer, volunteer, and educator in the Mennonite Church. She completed short terms of voluntary service as an inmate advocate and community mediator in Virginia, as researcher in Honduras, and in Mother Theresa's Home for the Dying Destitute in Calcutta. She was co-director of an international education program in Costa Rica while on the student services faculty at Goshen College. Together, Christine and her life partner have 32 nieces and nephews and 13 grand nieces and nephews.

Christine has toured the United States and Europe by bicycle, trekked through the Himalayas in Nepal, and ridden busses through Central America. She now enjoys hiking, canoeing, cross-country skiing, and sea kayaking in the western United States.

An active volunteer...

• Supporting the arts and performing with the Helena Symphony
• Serving on the boards of numerous community non-profit organizations
• Providing care at Mother Theresa's Home for the Dying Destitute in Calcutta
• Registering and educating voters with Montana Women Vote
• Gathering signatures for citizen's initiatives to raise the minimum wage and limit predatory lending
• Convening the progressive leadership seminar series with Congressman Pat Williams, and former Public Service Commissioner, Ken Toole
• Founding political action committees to help elect progressive candidates