Senator Duckworth finished high school and worked her way through college at the University of Hawai’i waitressing and with other minimum wage jobs before enrolling in a Masters in International Affairs program at the George Washington University. There, Tammy enlisted in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, where she quickly fell in love with the pure meritocracy of the Army—and met her now-husband, Bryan Bowslbey. After earning her master’s degree, Duckworth began a Ph.D. program at Northern Illinois University and continued serving in the Reserve Forces, interrupting her studies to become one of the first handful of women in the Army to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

On November 12, 2004, Tammy’s UH‐60 Black Hawk helicopter was hit by a rocket propelled grenade that exploded in her lap. She lost both legs and partial use of her right arm in the explosion. As a result of her injuries, Tammy earned a Purple Heart. After waking up wounded–but not defeated–more than a week later at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and fighting for her own life, she’s spent every day since fighting for those who sacrificed to save her—as well as for all military families. During her 13 months of painful recovery and rehabilitation, Duckworth quickly became a vocal advocate for her fellow Wounded Warriors.
After leaving Walter Reed, Tammy was named Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, where she implemented many first-in-the-nation programs to alleviate suffering from post-traumatic stress, improve traumatic brain injury screening and reduce homelessness among Veterans. President Barack Obama later nominated Tammy to be U.S. Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA). There, she headed the federal VA’s effort to end Veteran homelessness, launched the VA’s first online communications efforts and was a leader in initiatives for female Veterans.

But Tammy also realized that many of the systemic and bureaucratic problems our nation’s Veterans and military families faced could only be fixed by changing federal laws. So she ran for the U.S. House of Representatives, served two terms—and retired from the Reserve Forces at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel after 23 years of service—before winning the Senate seat she now holds. In her first term in the Senate, Tammy was named the most effective freshman Democrat by the Center for Effective Lawmaking and one of the most effective of all Senate Democrats in the 116th Congress. Several of her proposals were signed into law by the President, including her first-ever Senate bill to help support jobs in Illinois and cut bureaucratic red tape on infrastructure projects, which became law in record time.

Senator Duckworth is focused on helping working families get ahead through job development programs, protecting Social Security and Medicare, promoting civil rights and equal rights for all Illinoisans, advocating for environmental justice and supporting our Veterans and military families. She serves on the Armed Services Committee; the Environment & Public Works Committee; the Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee; and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee.

Tammy lives with her husband Bryan, their two daughters Abigail and Maile and her mother Lamai.