Patricia Schroeder
U.S. Representative, Colorado
Former Democratic Rep. Patricia Scott Schroeder is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the national trade organization of the U.S. book publishing industry, a post she assumed on June 1, 1997. Mrs. Schroeder left Congress undefeated in 1996 after representing Colorado's First Congressional District (Denver) in the United States House of Representatives for 24 years. For a brief period of time in 1986, she considered running for President but withdrew for lack of funds despite the fact that she ranked third in a Time magazine poll.
From January to June 1997, she held the rank of Professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. In addition to heading the AAP, Mrs. Schroeder also serves on the Marguerite Casey Foundation Board of Directors, the American Bar Association's Center for Human Rights Executive Committee and is the Chair of the Council for a Livable World's Peace PAC.
Born in Portland, Oregon in 1940, Mrs. Schroeder graduated magna cum laude in 1961 from the University of Minnesota while working as an insurance claims adjuster to support herself through college. Mrs. Schroeder went on to Harvard Law School, one of only 15 women in a class of more than 500 men. She earned her J.D. in 1964 and moved to Denver, Colorado with her husband, James, who in 1972 encouraged her to challenge an incumbent Republican for the House seat representing Colorado's First Congressional District.
The mother of two young children at the time she was elected to the House, Mrs. Schroeder went on to serve 12 terms.
Mrs. Schroeder is the author of two books: "Champion of the Great American Family" (Random House, 1989) and "24 Years of House Work...and the Place Is Still a Mess" (Andrews McMeel, 1998).