My Interview with Vanessa Summers
State Representative Vanessa Summers
Indiana House of Representatives
District #99
Indiana State Representative Vanessa Summers’ father, Former Representative Joe Summers, was a legislator in the Indiana House of Representatives for 15 years. He passed away in 1991 while in office. There is a clause in the Indiana state law that states that a family member can fill an unexpired term of a family member who has passed. Rep. Vanessa Summers fulfilled the last 8 months of her father’s term and 26 years later, she remains in the seat.
At the time of her father’s death, the house was split 50-50 and Representative Michael Phillips was the Speaker of the House. Her father’s passing definitely impacted her decision because his seat was opened immediately after his passing. It was June and they were trying to pass the budget. At this same time another Representative had a heart attack on the House floor. The Democrats were losing their votes because the tally had changed. The Honorable Julia Carson, future Congresswoman for Indiana, encouraged Rep. Vanessa Summers to run for office, and she did. Rep. Summers was elected, and this experience taught her early on why it’s important for people to step up and serve.
Rep. Summers belongs to the National Black Caucus, the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus, and was Past Caucus Chair of the House Democratic Caucus. She sits on the Commission for Children under Chief Justice Loretta Rush. She also sits on Public Policy and Family & Children Committees.
Rep. Summers reads several publications, including those coming from all the organizations mentioned above. The best periodical she likes is called, “The Legislator.” Legislation can come from anywhere and from anybody, and keeping up with all of the publications helps her stay abreast of the needs of her constituents.
In her career, Rep. Summers has found the greatest reward comes from serving her constituents and helping them solve problems. Her staff is amazing and helps quite a bit. One of her recent achievements involved introducing legislation/study committee to look at the problems of the applied behavior analysis affecting clients of counseling services to ensure that these services are regulated effectively.
As a current Democrat who happens to be in the minority in the House & Senate in Indiana, Rep. Summers believes that sometimes everyone is not on the same page for what is best for the state, and that sometimes the heart of a person needs to be changed in order to make change. For example, in a past session the House reviewed legislation related to criminal record expungement. Ms. Summers took the Chairman of the bill to a transition program, Recycle Force, which helps felons with job training, coaching, getting their driver’s licenses, and learning soft skills. Taking the Chairman of the bill to visit the program helped him realize the need for these programs and demonstrated their value to the community.
As far as networking, Rep. Summers believes that it is 100% an advantage for everyone. You have to find gatekeepers to the situation you are trying to deal with, and networking helps with that.
Rep. Summers believes that not everyone is geared to college. If people can find jobs making a living doing something else, it is very important to provide them those opportunities. She remembers when the mantra was “go to college, go to college.” That wasn’t realistic for everyone then and it isn’t now.
CTE is on the rise in the state of Indiana. In the past, it was not as popular of a choice, but now it is on an upswing and it truly benefits the state. Now that Rep. Summers looks back, her other career in Mortuary Science technically is a CTE career as it requires state certification.
Ms. Summers was in another career prior to public service. When she started in politics, the climate was much different then what we see today. If she were to start her career again, she would definitely do things differently but would continue to work with the community in some way. A major challenge for Ms. Summer’s leadership goals—aside from time—is that today’s society comes with a host of new challenges. Working with others toward progress is difficult, but we have to do the best we can.
Mari A. Swayne
2017 Region III Fellow
Metropolitan School District of Pike Township
Indianapolis, IN