Kathleen Vinehout, 52, was elected state senator from Wisconsin’s 31st Senate District, a large rural district in Western Wisconsin, in 2006 and is serving her first four-year term.
She chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Higher Education, is Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Audit, and Vice-chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus. She is a member of the Senate’s Economic Development and Public Health committees.
Prior to being elected to the Senate, Kathleen was the primary operator of the family’s 50 cow dairy farm near Alma in Buffalo County. The farm had a rolling herd average of 21,000 pounds of milk, and received many quality milk awards. She was president of the Dairy Herd Improvement Association in Buffalo County and represented the district at statewide dairy meetings. For two years, Kathleen assisted the Wisconsin Farmers Union in agriculture and dairy policy and worked part time in 2005 as an advocate at the state capitol for the Farmers Union.
Before she and her husband, Douglas, started their dairy farm, Kathleen directed both graduate and undergraduate programs in health administration at the University of Illinois at Springfield. For ten years she was a member of the faculty and taught in the Health Services Administration and Women’s Studies Programs. Her academic work focused on state health policy, health care organization, the history of health care reform and health problems facing rural communities.
Kathleen earned a Masters of Public Health and PhD in Health Services Research from St. Louis University. She holds an Associate Degree in agriculture and a Bachelors of Science in education.
Kathleen has experienced health care from all sides. Her first job was as a nursing assistant. She has worked in a university medical center, primary care, acute care, home care and long term care. She held positions in medical records, medical education, health services research and quality assurance. She was the education director for a large home health agency and through her work learned first-hand the connection between poverty and health. As a farmer she and her family spent nearly two years without health insurance.
Kathleen is active in her community. She currently serves on the Mississippi River Regional Planning Commission and the Alma Chamber of Commerce. She served on the pastoral council of St. Lawrence Catholic Church, taught a weekly bible study class for eight years and still sings in the church choir.
Kathleen is chair of the Democratic Party of Buffalo County and was honored in 2005 with the state-wide Eleanor Roosevelt Award for her work in grassroots organizing. She served on the Buffalo County Agricultural Fair Association Board, the Buffalo County Farm Bureau Board. She was also a member of the Wisconsin Holstein Association and she and her family have shown cattle at district shows.
Kathleen is the eldest of five children. Both her parents served in the US Air Force. Her father was a member of the Laborer’s Union, her mother a registered nurse.
