A Dedicated Leader

Terri A. Sewell is the U.S. Representative for the 7th District of Alabama. The 7th

Congressional District includes parts of the cities of Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, as well as the counties of Alabama’s Black Belt – the heart of which is Terri’s hometown of Selma.

Elected on November 2, 2010, with 72% of the vote, Terri is one of the first women elected to Congress from Alabama in her own right, as well as the first black woman to ever serve in the Alabama Congressional delegation. 

In the 112th Congress, Congresswoman Sewell sat on the House Committee on Agriculture as well as the House Committee on Science, Space & Technology.  She also served as the Democratic freshman class president and as a both a regional and senior Whip.

Now in her second term, Congresswoman Sewell is a member of the exclusive House Committee on Financial Services and is serving as Chief Deputy Whip.  Sewell is also a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.  She has also taken on new leadership roles with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as Vice-Chair of Finance and Co-Chair of the Business Council. 

The first black valedictorian of Selma High School, Terri attended Princeton University,

graduating cum laude in 1986. Terri was awarded a Marshall/Commonwealth Scholarship

and received a Masters degree with first class Honors from Oxford University in 1988.

She is a 1992 graduate of Harvard Law School where she served as an editor of the Civil

Rights Civil Liberties Law Review.

After graduation, Terri served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Chief Judge U.W.

Clemon, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama, in Birmingham. Terri began

her legal career at the prestigious law firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell in New York City,

where she was a successful securities lawyer for more than a decade. Upon returning home to Alabama in 2004, she has made a significant impact both professionally and through her community activities.

Prior to her election to Congress, Terri was a partner in the Birmingham law office of Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C. where she distinguished herself as one of the only black public finance lawyers in the State of Alabama. Her clients included, among others, City of Selma, Dallas County Water Authority, Alabama State University, Stillman College, Jefferson State and Wallace State-Hanceville.

Terri is the daughter of retired Coach Andrew A. Sewell and retired librarian Nancy

Gardner Sewell, the first black City Councilwoman in Selma, Alabama.