User:Wikieditor2023wia/Rebecca Blankenship

= Rebecca Blankenship = Rebecca Blankenship is an elected official for the Berea Independent School District's board of education.

Biography
Rebecca Blankenship, born August 24th, grew up in the Western Kentucky city of Benton, where she attended and graduated from Marshall County High School. She then attended Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky where she majored in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and had an English minor. Here she came out as Transgender in 2012 when she was 19. She took some time off of school and eventually she returned to Transylvania University in 2017 and graduated in 2019. The same year she graduated she married her wife Sasha.

Upon graduating Blankenship traveled to Oregon and worked in Eugene as a Housing Specialist. She then returned to Berea, Kentucky and began working as an executive director for Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky in 2021.

In November Blankenship she ran for the Berea Independent School Districts Board of Education as a write- in candidate. On January 4th, 2023, Blankenship was sworn into public office as a member of the Berea Independent School District's board of education, making her the first openly transgender person ever elected into public office in Kentucky. Her accomplishment gained lots of support in the LGBTQ+ community through social media and the news. In this position she wants to improve the schools that her children attend. So far she has won a 3% raise for staff and faculty and reduced energy costs by a net of $100,000 a year in the school district.