Year ahead will focus on protecting, empowering youth
The National Association of Attorneys General, the nonpartisan national forum for America’s state and territory attorneys general, has elected three-term Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum as president of the association.
NAAG (pronounced N-A-A-G) serves as a community for attorneys general to address collaboratively issues important to their work as their states’ chief law officers. The association helps attorneys general across the country work in concert to tackle complex subjects such as cybersecurity, elder abuse, teen vaping and human trafficking. It provides extensive training and resources to support attorneys general and their staff.
“I am honored to lead this organization in the year ahead, to continue to find and build on common ground, especially at a time of such divisiveness in our national body politic,” said AG Rosenblum. “From consumer protection and antitrust law to veterans’ rights and the ongoing fentanyl crisis, NAAG is a tremendous resource for attorneys general. It is an important space for exploring and resolving problems through partnership and mutual respect.”
A graduate of the University of Oregon School of Law (Go, Ducks!), Rosenblum began her career as an associate and partner in private practice in Eugene, Oregon. She served for nearly a decade as Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Oregon, focusing on economic crimes. Subsequently, Rosenblum served as a judge at both the trial and appellate levels of Oregon’s state courts. In 2012 Rosenblum became the first woman elected as Attorney General in Oregon. She has since been re-elected in 2016 and 2020. Rosenblum is married and has two children and three grandchildren.
Proudly calling herself “Oregon’s Mama Bear,” AG Rosenblum has consistently prioritized the protection of Oregon’s most vulnerable. On both the legal and legislative fronts, Rosenblum has advanced the visibility and strength of Oregon DOJ’s efforts at elder abuse prevention and prosecution, consumer protection, civil rights, and child advocacy. Along with all of her AG colleagues, she has taken on those responsible for fueling the opioid crisis and held them to account.
Each year NAAG’s president identifies an issue to champion. At the group’s Capital Forum today, Attorney General Rosenblum announced her Presidential Initiative. It is entitled “America’s Youth: AGs Looking out for the Next Generation.”
Seeking opportunities to improve the overall safety and well-being of America’s youth, the initiative identifies key areas to address during the year ahead: technology; healthy bodies & healthy minds; and consumer protection for youth. Rosenblum’s presidential initiative will include programming designed to address topics such as the impacts of various technology platforms on kids’ lives, and the detrimental, physical, and mental effects of vaping, alcohol, and drugs, dating violence and bullying. It will also advocate for financial literacy among young consumers.
“Confronting the challenges facing our next generation requires the kind of collaboration and shared purpose that are at the heart of NAAG’s mission,” said Rosenblum.