Velma Veloria

Velma R. Veloria (born October 22, 1950) is a former politician from Washington. Veloria was the first Filipino American as well as the first Asian American woman to be elected to the Washington State Legislature as a member of Washington House of Representatives. She served from 1993 to 2004.

Early life On October 22, 1950, Veloria was born in Bani, Pangasinan, Philippines. In 1962, Veloria immigrated to the United States.

Veloria decided to become an activist with (KDP, the Union of Democratic Filipinos).

In 1981, the KDP asked her to work in Seattle because the city's unions had been going through a tumultuous reform movement. Although the murders had been framed as gang-related violence, the committee and KDP showed that they were politically tied to the Marcos dicatorship. Veloria joins the group while continuing reformer efforts to organize workers and protest the Marcos regime. With her election, she became the first Filipina in a state legislature in the continental U.S. Among Washington's five Asian-American state legislators at the time, Veloria, Gary Locke, Art Wang, Paul Shinn, and Stan Fleming, Veloria was the only woman.

Veloria introduced an anti-human trafficking bill in 2003 which made Washington the first state to criminalize the practice. She had been motivated to pass the bill after repeated murders of "mail-order brides" in the state. Veloria, Sutapa Basu, and other women's rights activists attended trainings by the Center for Women Policy Studies and led arguments for the bill's passage.

Advocacy In 2019, the Filipino Community of Seattle and HumanGood Affordable Housing began constructing the Filipino Community Village, an affordable housing space and community center near Rainier Valley and Beacon Hill. The project took ten years to plan, and Veloria and Alma Kern were its co-chairs.

Awards 2019 Curriculum and Community Innovation Scholar. First recipient. Faculty award honored at University of Washington. 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Equity in Education Coalition.

Personal life Veloria's husband is Alonzo Suson. Veloria and her family live in Seattle, Washington.