AM – Joyce Watson
Joyce Watson has firm links with Mid and West Wales and has served her community for many years. She has been Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales since May 2007.
Joyce Watson: AM for Mid & West Wales
Joyce sits on the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee in the Welsh Assembly, and previously sat on the Enterprise and Business; Environment and Sustainability; and Petitions committees during the fourth Assembly. She chairs the Assembly Cross Party Groups on Construction and Human Trafficking. She also chairs the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Wales branch.
Joyce has been involved in a number of high profile campaigns. In 2010 she published Bordering on Concern, a report on Human Trafficking in Wales. As a result of her campaign work Wales now has an anti-Trafficking co-ordinator. In 2009 she created the Women in Construction network and she continues to work with employers and trade bodies to get more young people and women into the construction industry. Joyce has also enrolled male sports ambassadors for her White Ribbon campaign work to support the fight against domestic violence, an idea that has since been taken up by the Welsh Rugby Union.
Before entering the Assembly, Joyce was leader of the Labour group on Pembrokeshire Council. She was manager of Women’s Voice, the Wales Women’s National Coalition, and was a senior member of the Wales Gender Budget Group and the NHS Equality Reference Group.
Joyce was educated at Manorbier School, Cosheston School and Cardigan Comprehensive. She has run several businesses including public houses, restaurants and retail outlets in Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire.
In 1990 she went to Pembrokeshire College. Then, in 1993, she read Politics at Swansea University, gaining an honours degree.
Joyce’s political interests include promoting rural economic renewal – by working to raise workforce skills, reduce youth unemployment and invest in rural businesses. She is married and has three children and one grandson and one granddaughter.
Joyce is a Welsh learner, and her children were all educated in Welsh medium schools.
Joyce Watson on the Web: Website | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube