Debbie McCune Davis 2019 AZBio Public Service Honoree
Channel: AZ Bio
Date: 2019-10-02

For 40 years, Debbie McCune Davis has been building coalitions that champion health and educational opportunities in Arizona. 
She served as Arizona State Senator for District 14 from 2006 to 2017 and as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from 1979 through 1994, and from 2003 through 2006.  As a legislator, McCune Davis championed key legislative priorities including Education and Healthcare. During her time in the legislature, she was a leading voice in support of Arizona’s Kids Care program which enables children from low-income families to have access to the medical care they need for a healthy start in life.   
Ensuring schools and universities have the ability to provide education opportunities for all Arizonans is also extremely important to her. She championed funding for K-12 education, including career and technical education programs for students across the state, as well sponsored and cosponsored bills to provide funding for university infrastructure and tuition support so that a quality education is possible all Arizona students.
Today, Debbie leads The Arizona Partnership for Immunization or TAPI, a non-profit statewide coalition of over 400 members. When TAPI was formed in response to the alarming fact that in 1993, only 43% of Arizona’s two-year-olds were fully immunized against preventable childhood diseases like measles, mumps, polio and whooping cough. Through the efforts of TAPI’s partners from both the public and private sectors, immunization coverage rates in Arizona have improved dramatically, but the challenge never ends. Each year in Arizona almost 90,000 babies are born, and none arrive immunized.