Meet Trisha

Trisha Calvarese was born in Colorado, raised in Sterling and Highlands Ranch. She is a proud graduate of Douglas County public schools and earned a full academic scholarship to Johns Hopkins University. 

She gave voice to the labor movement at the AFL-CIO, representing 12.5 million working people in every sector of the economy. She worked with the late labor legend Richard Trumka and Liz Schuler, the first woman to lead the U.S. labor movement. 

Her words helped make unions the most popular they’ve been in a generation and moved forward both infrastructure investments and the largest climate bill in U.S. history, poised to create 20,000 clean energy manufacturing jobs in Colorado’s 4th District. She helped launch the AFL-CIO Technology Institute and led labor communications for the partnership with former Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz’s Energy Futures Initiative.

Trisha took an oath to the Constitution as a civil servant at the U.S. National Science Foundation, in the Office of the Director, Legislative and Public Affairs. She influenced landmark, bipartisan investments in US science and technology that authorized $80 billion to reshore American innovation and manufacturing.

She was on detail at the NSF Technology Innovation Partnership, which launched America’s Regional Innovation Engines. These groundbreaking technology hubs, located in areas overlooked and left behind by our economy, create good jobs and solve specific technological challenges. The NSF ASCEND Engine links research, capital, and industry to build and launch tech that makes Colorado and Wyoming a national center for environmental tech innovation.

But when both her parents fell ill with cancer at the same time, Trisha returned to Highlands Ranch to provide their end-of-life care at home. They passed days apart. Before he died, Trisha’s dad, a lifelong Republican, told her to step up and give back to the community that gave so much to her.