West Virginia Approves Portable Benefits For Gig Workers

Justan A. Rice, M.Ed. serves as Director of State Government Affairs at the Libertas Institute, an award-winning policy organization with an 87% track record of seeing its recommendations become law. She architects and leads Libertas’ national expansion beyond its Utah roots, carrying the organization’s legislative victories into state capitols across all 50 states. Her portfolio spans portable benefits legislation that gives independent workers access to retirement, health, and paid leave options; Fourth Amendment privacy protections against government data purchases and geofencing; regulatory sandboxes that reduce barriers to innovation; and policies that expand economic opportunity for young entrepreneurs. Ms. Rice manages a national network of contract lobbyists, builds trusted relationships with legislators and executive officials in diverse political environments, and personally guides bills from early drafting and sponsor recruitment through committee testimony and final passage. Ms. Rice brings more than a decade of executive leadership at organizations navigating high-stakes policy and political landscapes. As Executive Director of the Arizona School Boards Association, she stepped into a period of organizational crisis and led the turnaround – rebuilding member trust among 1,200+ school board members, introducing a strategic framework built on accountability, collaboration, and transparency, and serving as the organization’s chief lobbyist before legislators, state agencies, and the Governor’s office. She simultaneously oversaw two affiliated entities, Arizonans for Quality Education and the ASBA Insurance Trust, managing a combined multi-million dollar budget and 15-member staff. As President and CEO of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Arizona, she more than doubled membership, grew the state’s largest annual transportation conference by 20 percent, and championed infrastructure and engineering policy through direct state and federal lobbying and political action committee leadership at both levels. Ms. Rice’s impact extends well beyond the organizations she has led. Appointed by the Governor to Arizona’s State Board for Charter Schools and to the State Board of Education’s Special Education Advisory Panel, she has shaped education policy from both the advocacy and governance sides of the table. Her perspective on workforce reform and regulatory policy has reached national audiences through op-eds in the Phoenix Business Journal, the Magnolia Tribune, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, making the case for legislative solutions that expand opportunity for independent workers and entrepreneurs. She holds a Master of Education from Arizona State University.