Lesley Smith

Representative-elect Smith was elected to represent House District 49, which spans western

Boulder and Larimer Counties plus Clear Creek and Gilpin Counties.

Smith had a thirty-year career as a research scientist and a science outreach specialist at the

University of Colorado at Boulder. Her research focused on the biogeochemistry of wetlands of

large river systems, such as the Amazon, Orinoco and MacKenzie Rivers, as well as small alpine

ecosystems in Colorado. She focused the latter part of her career on professional development

of educators, graduate students and community college students all funded by the National

Science Foundation. Smith was the first woman aquanaut to live and work in Aquarius, NOAA’s

underwater research habitat.

Smith has been a public servant for nearly twenty-years. She served eight years on the Boulder

Valley School District, weathering the 2008 recession. She was appointed to the city of Boulder

Water Resources Advisory Committee after the great flood of 2013. She currently is the

University of Colorado Regent At-Large. Through her efforts, sustainability was added to the

first-ever system-wide strategic plan, and she was a strong advocate for the state to allow out-

of-state Native American students with tribal ties to Colorado to receive in-state tuition at all

institutions of higher education. She will champion issues related to climate change, the

environment and public education.