Sen. Derek Stanford, who has been a member of the Senate since 2019, serves as Leadership Liaison to Tribal Nations for the Senate Democrats and chairs the Senate Business, Financial Services, Gaming & Trade Committee.
He also serves on the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee and the Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks Committee.
Outside the Senate, Stanford runs a small business specializing in analytics solutions and statistical consulting. Previously, he has served as director of analytics at companies specializing in fraud detection and customer insights. He has also worked as a research scientist at a software company, where he served as principal investigator on a research project for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).
Stanford earned a PhD in Statistics at the University of Washington, following an MS in Mathematics at Claremont Graduate University and a BS in Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College.
Stanford served in the Washington House of Representatives from 2011-2019, where he was the chair of the House Commerce & Gaming Committee. He is also chair of the Washington State Caseload Forecast Council. He is a former member of the Community Economic Redevelopment Board and the Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program Committee.