Biography
Senator Paula Aboud cares deeply about Tucson and its future. She is a 3rd generation Tucsonan who has grown up in the heart of the city. As a leader in this community, her priorities have always been based upon what is best for Tucson. As a neighborhood activist, a mediator/facilitator and a political leader in the city, Senator Aboud is best known for building coalitions and building bridges between policy makers and the people, so that all voices can be represented. Her style of leadership works for Tucson& it has empowered strong grassroots efforts on behalf of our community and its citizens.
Senator Aboud's values have been shaped by her early career in sports where she learned the value of team building and commitment. She graduated from Tucson High School where she was an outstanding student / athlete. At the age of 14, Aboud began playing tennis, and by the time she was 17, she was the Arizona State tennis doubles champion. The very next year she went on to become the Southwestern tennis champion in doubles and took second place in singles. Hard work paid off for her and for her teams who also won state championships.
Paula then headed to college at the University of Arizona where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in English. During her 4 years at the U of A, she excelled in her studies and in her athletics, becoming a star on the women's varsity basketball, volleyball and tennis teams. In addition to leading her basketball team in both scoring and rebounding during her sophomore, junior, and senior years, she served as President of the Athletic Association at the U of A. Paula Aboud was honored by the University of Arizona and received recognition as a Who's Who in American Colleges.
After graduating from the U of A, Aboud wanted to give back to her community and to invest in its future. Upon completion of master-level education courses, she received a Certificate of Teaching for secondary education from the Arizona Department of Education. She taught English at Rincon High School for seven years while co-coaching the state champion volleyball team as well as the girls' tennis teams. Always the teacher, Coach Aboud taught not only athletic skills to her players but worked to instill strong values in her athletes. She shared with them the values that sports had taught her: fair play, honesty, hard work and commitment as well as good communication with your teammates. All these values continue to play a role in her political life. To this day she maintains her commitment to teachers and students that continues into her work in the State Legislature.
Presented with another opportunity in coaching in 1984, Aboud relocated to the State of Maine to serve as a college athletic coach. It was during this time away in Maine that she got involved in grassroots politics. Early in her career, she had personally experienced gender discrimination in the world of sports, before the monumental Title IX legislation. This served to strengthen her conviction that no U.S. citizen be treated as second class. She joined an organization that was fighting for human rights and later became its President, leading 1000 members to pass human rights legislation in the Maine State Legislature. Senator Aboud was recently nominated to the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame, whose slogan is "character of loyalty and honor" to become a member of the class of 2006.
Paula returned to Tucson in 1993 to care for her family's property management business. Her mother's love of real estate had instilled itself in her from an early age and Paula loved the real estate business as well, having become a licensed real estate agent in Arizona. She pursued further education and training in mediation through the American Arbitration Association and became a Life Coach through the Coaches Training Institute of Berkeley, California.
Aboud's involvement in grassroots political action continued via neighborhood activism, by working as a leader in her own neighborhood as well as co-founding the 26 neighborhoods in Ward III into a neighborhood coalition that is thriving today. The grass roots experiences in Tucson, as well as a great deal of local support, motivated her to rise to a new level of decision-making. And so, in 2001 Aboud stepped forward to run for City Council for Ward III. A disappointing loss in that race led a determined Aboud to decide to work to rebuild the Democratic Party in Pima County so that future candidates would have more support in their races.
Bringing with her all of the skills she'd gained as a team player, Aboud became President of Democratic clubs, first vice-chair of the Democratic Party and Get Out the Vote chair. Working together with many volunteers at the grassroots level, Senator Aboud brought her skills to bear in helping rebuild the current party as well as assisting in promoting the Strategic Plan for the next 5 years for that Party. One of her strengths within the Democratic Party is in bringing all of our voices together to make us louder and stronger and our accomplishments greater.
Aboud was chosen to replace outgoing Senator Gabrielle Giffords in January of this year by a vote of her District 28 precinct committee members and a subsequent unanimous vote by the Pima County Board of Supervisors. The values she lives by call upon her to fight against discrimination and for the rights of workers, families, teachers, women and children, the elderly, local businesses, and to promote environmental quality for Arizonans in the State Legislature. As a passionate spokesperson for those causes as well as for the interests of Tucson and Southern Arizona, Senator Aboud seeks your vote in the September 12, 2006 Primary Election for the position of Arizona State Senator.