Angie Paccione, a Democrat who has lived in Colorado for twenty years, was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 2002, re-elected in 2004, and is currently Chairwoman of the Majority Caucus. Her work across the aisle with other legislators has helped craft solutions to the real problems that Coloradoans face every day.

Her determination to overcome obstacles and reach goals has been Paccione's trademark throughout an eventful life. She is truly an American bootstrap success story.

Paccione was born in the South Bronx of New York, to a black mother and an Italian father, and learned to play basketball on the concrete courts of the inner city. She excelled at the sport, became a consensus All-American high school player, proudly wore the USA uniform in international competitions and attended Stanford University on a full athletic scholarship, graduating with honors. A devout evangelical Christian, she also played for Christian teams on humanitarian trips to foreign countries.

After Stanford, she played professional basketball, but the glamour faded when the league folded and left its players stranded away from home and without money. Paccione was forced to declare bankruptcy to survive. Such bitter lessons now allow her to speak from personal experience about poverty in America, and the real lesson -- how to rise up again.