Meet Senator Sandy Pappas
Born in Hibbing, Minnesota, Sandy grew up and attended schools in the Twin Cities and has lived in Saint Paul since 1977. Her Finnish great-grandparents were blacklisted from the iron mines after a failed strike in 1907 but went on to farm and found the Socialist Hall in Pike River.
Sandy is married to Neal Gosman, a Vietnam veteran, community media worker, and currently treasurer of AFGE Local 899 at the MSP Airport. Their three daughters grew up on West 7th and the West Side. They attended Saint Paul Public Schools and graduated from Saint Paul Central High School. Sandy and Neal have 29 grandchildren and one great-grandson.
When Sandy was 12, her parents divorced and Sandy’s single mother relied on public assistance to care for her family. Sandy helped raise and support her two younger siblings, including time as a union worker at a local grocery store. Sandy started at the University of Minnesota on scholarship but left early to work.
In the 1970s, Sandy began her activism by supporting the American Indian Movement (AIM) and protesting the Vietnam War. She became involved in the women’s movement as an actor/writer/producer in a pioneering community-based “socialist-feminist” theater in South Minneapolis. After her marriage, she moved to West 7th and worked in support of neighborhood development, through community organizing, the Community Reporter newspaper, COMPAS, and the Fort Road Arts Committee.
While pregnant with her third child, Sandy first ran for elective office as a proponent of neighborhood power, progressive politics and a woman’s right to choose. She wasn’t successful at her first attempt, but two years later was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party. One of her first achievements was a bill supporting workers’ rights to fair process during employer-mandated drug testing.
While in office and raising young children, Sandy earned a B.A. in public policy at Metropolitan State University. She later was awarded a fellowship to gain a master’s degree in public administration at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University. While serving in the Legislature, Sandy worked on counseling on worker’s benefit packages, clerked at a maternity store, and taught in the Saint Paul Public schools, Oneida Education Center, Metropolitan State University, and Hamline University.
Sandy and her husband were among the founding families of Minnesota Jewish Congregation Shir Tikvah which was the first synagogue to hire an openly lesbian rabbi in America.
She also served as chairwoman of the Saint Paul Chapter of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Association, president of Mississippi Market Co-Operative, president of the Board of World Without Genocide, national vice-president of the Womens’ Legislative Lobby, a program of Women’s Action for New Directions (WiLL/WAND), fundraising chair of Friends of DFL Women, co-chair Midwest Progressive Elective Officials Network, and international treasurer of the World Hellenic Inter-Parliamentary Association. Sandy is the founder, president and executive director of Forward Global Women – an organization for peace and dialogue with women in America and the Middle East and is currently board secretary for the National Association of Jewish Legislators (NAJL).
Awards and Recognitions
Women Candidate Development Coalition, Political Excellence Award.
Minnesota State College Student Association, Legislator of the Year.
Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE), Legislator of the Year.
University of Minnesota Alumni Association, Legislator of the Year.
Latino Scholarship Fund, Recognition for Providing Access to Higher Education Opportunities.
Minnesota College Career Association, Champion for Student Access to Higher Education.
Minnesota Conference of the American Association of University Professors, Friend of Higher Education Award,
Minnesota Public Health Association, B. Robert Lewis Award.
Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, Arts All Star Award
Moms Demand Action Gunsense Candidate