California Assembly Speaker: Toni G. Atkins.

• Position: THE FINAL WORD - Interview

Speaker Toni Atkins, a Democrat, was first elected to the California Assembly in 2010 and was unanimously elected speaker in 2014. She has been described as a coalition-builder and a leading voice for affordable housing, a powerful advocate for women and a champion of veterans and homeless people. Atkins was born and raised in Virginia. She earned bachelor's degree in political science from Emory & Henry College, and completed the senior executive program at Harvard. She will be term-limited out of the legislature in 2016.

As speaker of the most populous state and seventh largest economy in the world, how do you serve your constituents while leading the whole state?

It's a balancing act. I'm proud to be the first Assembly speaker to come from San Diego, But I also have 79 colleagues who feel just as passionately about their districts. Fortunately, there's a lot of overlap--working to strengthen California's economy helps create jobs in San Diego, a place Forbes magazine called one of the best places to start a business. Helping California veterans receive the benefits and services they need is good for San Diego, one of the biggest military towns around. There are a lot of examples like that.

What is your most important legislative priority and why?

Affordable housing has always been my passion. Maybe that stems from growing up in substandard housing in southwestern Virginia, without running water. We had an outhouse and had to take baths in a metal tub with water carried from a spring and heated on a wood stove. Or maybe it's my time as an intern working at Legal Aid and visiting too many rundown and infested shacks inhabited by hardworking poor people who deserved better. Or maybe it's seeing the deep and chronic poverty that exists in urban neighborhoods, even in a beautiful city like San Diego.

How do you tackle such a challenging issue?

Thanks to California's economic recovery, we've been able to make some badly needed investments in housing. And several of my colleagues and I have a package of affordable housing legislation. My part of the package creates a permanent and sustainable funding source for affordable housing using an approach that has proved effective in other states. We also put forward a ballot measure that voters approved to re-purpose some unused...