Meet Vandana
Washington State Representative Vandana Slatter (D, 48th District, Position 1) is a four-term legislator and current chair of the House Post Secondary Education and Workforce (PEW) committee. She is a former Bellevue City Councilmember, community leader, public school parent, and a biotech and healthcare professional.
A Doctor of Pharmacy (UW), Vandana worked for twenty years at leading biotechnology companies, including Amgen and Genentech, bringing multiple parties together, making sense of complex information, and achieving safe and efficacious solutions to best serve patients. She is a licensed pharmacist in the State of Washington.
While obtaining her Master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Washington, Vandana served as an intern to U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell. She was appointed to a 4-year term on the Washington State Board of Pharmacy by Governor Christine Gregoire in 2007 and also served on the Foundation Board of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington.
In 2009, Vandana traveled with the Center for Women and Democracy (CWD) to Morocco, and in 2015, to Iceland as part of the organization’s mission to advance women’s leadership locally, nationally and globally. Since then, she has traveled to Washington DC, China, Belgium, Denmark, and Germany with delegations of NW political and business leaders.
On the Advisory Boards of local non-profits, Global Social Business Partners (GSBP) and Farmer Frog, she helped establish a Lake Hills Greenbelt urban farm, where healthy organic produce is provided to low-income households. In 2014, Vandana completed the first ever City of Bellevue Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training course.
Vandana serves on the Ruckelshaus Center Advisory Board, the UW Evans School Dean’s Advisory Council, and the Hopelink Foundation Board of Directors. In the past she has served on the Overlake Hospital Foundation’s Board of Trustees and is a past board member of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington and the Children’s Institute for Learning Differences, a school serving children with special needs.
Vandana reflects on the importance of representation and being the first Indian-American elected to the Washington State House of Representatives.
Elected as a Bellevue City Councilmember in 2015, she served on multiple committees, helped pass a $1.5B city budget, and worked on issues including affordable housing, technology & innovation, public safety, and transportation.
Vandana was appointed in 2017 to be State House Representative #1 for the 48th Legislative District. Over her 4 terms as a State Representative she has sponsored and passed first in the nation legislation to help protect the privacy of sensitive health care data, set statewide greenhouse gas emissions targets, and secure funding for higher education for low income students. Her legislative efforts have helped homeless youth access government services, improved collection of educational data, and created a tax exemption for low-income housing. She also sponsored legislation to reduce Washington’s greenhouse gas emissions, and develop regional air travel through electric or hybrid-electric aircraft.
Vandana is co-chair of the House Science, Innovation and Technology (ScItech) Caucus, a member of the Members of Color Caucus (MOCC), and a member of the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) higher education task force and energy security working group.
Vandana immigrated to the US from Canada in 1988, and is a naturalized US citizen. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia (B.Sc. Pharmaceutical Sciences). At UBC, she earned a varsity athletic letter in the sport of fencing, was captain of the UBC women’s varsity fencing team, and a gold medalist at the BC Junior Women’s foil championships.
Vandana and her family have lived in Northeast Bellevue since 2003. Her husband Greg is a research scientist.