In the latest installment of our No Barriers Alchemy Series, sponsored by Prudential and Wells Fargo, Jeff and Erik speak with Lt. Governor Cyrus Habib. Cyrus was elected Washington State’s 16th Lieutenant Governor in November 2016 at the age of 35. He had previously been elected to the State House of Representatives in 2012 and the State Senate in 2014, where he was Democratic Whip and a member of the Democratic leadership team. As Lt. Governor, he is President of the State Senate, serves as Acting Governor whenever Governor Inslee leaves the state and oversees an agency whose key issues include economic development, trade, and higher education.

A three-time cancer survivor, Lt. Governor Habib has been fully blind since age eight. His parents immigrated to the U.S. from Iran before he was born, and he is the first and only Iranian-American to hold statewide elected office in the United States.

He is a graduate of Columbia University summa cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law School, where he was Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Lt. Governor Habib practiced law at Perkins Coie, and served as Distinguished Lawmaker in Residence at Seattle University Law School. He is a Truman Scholar, a Soros Fellow, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

From his Director of External Affairs: "In terms of anything we’d like to promote other than Boundless Washington, the Lt. Governor recently launched the Washington Mask Challenge to promote the making and wearing of cloth face masks to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. You can find more info here. That may be something at the end to remind people to wear masks in public places and to encourage them to participate if they can."

Boundless Washington: https://www.boundlesswa.org/

A Climb for a Cause: https://www.boundlesswa.org/climb

The Washington Mask Challenge: https://vimeo.com/413000725