First elected in 1992, State Representative Rosemary Mulligan of Des Plaines is currently serving her eighth term in the Illinois General Assembly. During her nearly 16 years in the Illinois House, Rosemary Mulligan has become a proven leader on the state budget, family issues, health care, and early childhood education among many others. She is recognized for her expertise in prescription drugs, problem and compulsive gambling, health insurance coverage and reforms, welfare-to-work and victims’ rights. She has received numerous awards and honors and was named “One of the Top 100 Women Making A Difference” by Today’s Chicago Woman in July 1997.
Representative Mulligan has served as majority chair or minority spokesman of the Illinois House Human Services Appropriations Committee for13 years and has worked aggressively to secure significant appropriations for Illinois’ most vulnerable citizens. Additionally, Representative Mulligan serves on the Governor’s Senior Pharmaceutical Assistance Review Committee, the Illinois Immigrants and Refugees Task Force, the Illinois Discharged Service Member Task Force, the Early Intervention Task Force and the Elder Abuse Task Force.
In addition to serving as the Republican spokesman of the DCFS Oversight Committee, she is also a member of the Healthcare Availability & Access, Elementary & Secondary Education, Registration & Regulation, Healthcare and Healthcare Disparities Committees and on the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules.
Representative Mulligan has spearheaded successful legislation that has improved health care and expanded health care coverage in Illinois, increased assistance to seniors under the Circuit Breaker Pharmaceutical Program, enhanced the quality of the state’s school system, promoted environmentally sound policies, and offered help to veterans and disabled persons, to name a few.
At the national level, Representative Mulligan has served as program chair of the White House Women’s Economic Leadership Summit and represented the United States at the Women in the New Economy Summit in London and Northern Ireland. In 2005, she visited Israel as a guest of their government.
Locally, Representative Mulligan is extremely involved in her district. As an Advisory Board member of Avenues to Independence located in Park Ridge, Representative Mulligan works to improve services for the developmentally disabled. She is also an Advisory Board Member of Have Dreams—an organization dedicated to serving people with autism.
As a recipient of the four-year Illinois State Scholarship Award, Representative Mulligan studied at Illinois State University and later received her A.A.S. in Legal Technology at Harper College in Palatine. She also studied at the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education. Her family moved to Park Ridge in 1955 and she currently lives in Des Plaines. She has two grown sons, a daughter-in-law and two granddaughters.
