Barbara Evans Fleischauer

  Barbara received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Women's Studies from Allegheny College in 1975 and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from West Virginia University's College of Law in 1982.  After graduation from law school, she served as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, Office of the Attorney General, State of West Virginia and for five years  as General Counsel for the United Mine Workers of America, District 31 in Fairmont.  Since that time, she has maintained a private law practice and is a member of the WV State Bar, the West Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, and the Mountain State Bar Association.

      In 1994, she was elected to serve as a Delegate to the West Virginia Legislature representing the 44th District, Monongalia County. Since 1997, she has chaired the House Committee on Constitutional Revision,  is a member of the House Judiciary and Health and Human Resources Committee and served on the Joint Juvenile Task Force.  She  also Co-Chairs  the Equal Pay Commission. The 1998 Equal Pay bill, sponsored by Delegate Fleischauer, established the Equal Pay Commission which was assigned the task of studying pay inequities in state employment, reviewing in particular the wage rates for occupational classifications dominated by one sex or the other. Because the Commission discovered significant disparities, funding was placed in the 2001 budget to begin to address the disparities.

      Delegate Fleischauer has been a sponsor and advocate for numerous health related issues. In a state with the highest number of citizens who die without their natural teeth, one of her top achievements in the 2002 legislative year was passage of the Oral Health Bill, which requires the WV Department of Health and Human Resources to set up a separate office of oral health to plan strategy to turn those numbers around. For years, she has advocated passage of a strong Patient Protection Act and a Mental Health Parity Act. With the leadership of Governor Bob Wise, both of these bills
became reality. Delegate Fleischauer also achieved passage of legislation regulating alternative professions, including acupuncture and massage therapy. She also led the charge for passage of the Osteoporosis Prevention
and Education Act and was instrumental in appropriating funding for this program.

      Barbara has guest lectured at West Virginia University for a variety of departments.  She is a member of  the Board for the Monongalia County Teen Court Program, West Virginia Oral Health Task Force, Osteoporosis Advisory Board, and Chair of the Women's Health Policy Conference Steering Committee.  She is a former state president of National Organization for Women, current vice president of the Morgantown chapter of N.O.W., and a member of the League of Women Voters, American Association of University Women and the Business Professional Women.

     Barbara, her husband, law professor Robert M. Bastress, Jr., their son, Rob, and daughter, Sarah, live on Bakers Ridge Road in Morgantown in a renovated farm house which has been in her family for several generations.

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