Diana McGinness comes to her interest in public service via her 35 years working in the insurance industry. Her sense of fairness and justice led her to choose a career fighting fraud and, in 1991, she moved to Washington State with the goal of becoming a fraud investigator. Within two years, she attained that goal and within five years, she helped create the company’s first unit dedicated solely to investigating organized groups that defraud insurance companies and their policyholders. Her investigative acumen made her a natural choice to be lead investigator in a large scale medical clinic/attorney mill involved in selling and buying patients, padding medical bills, billing for services not rendered, and creating fake injuries. As a result of her field work, the company filed one of its first affirmative litigation lawsuits against the clinic, and winning a judgment against those involved.

Throughout her career, she has investigated and uncovered fraud rings, including family-based staged accident and theft rings, medical mills billing for services not rendered, and diagnostic firms billing improperly.  Most important to Diana, the company’s policyholders are no longer paying millions in fraudulent payments a year. Diana saw massive fraud—money scams, identity and credit card theft, and more—damaging the public and ruining lives. When she was unable to convince her company to engage in public education programs, Diana didn’t give up. She and a friend in the industry created a website for the general public to be educated about fraud issues and to assist those who have been defrauded. Diana was specifically recognized as the driving force behind the creation of a criminal fraud investigative unit within the Office of the Insurance Commissioner. In the years before her retirement, she turned her research skills toward politics. She has recently established a Progressive Democrats of America chapter in her congressional district (2nd).  She is not a party insider.  She is a concerned citizen who strongly believes we cannot continue along our current political path.  We must unite in our common desire to move beyond the current stalemates in Washington that do nothing to solve the problems we face as a nation.  We must come together or most surely we will come apart. Diana McGinness is from Southern Illinois where she grew up in a middle class family with working parents. Her parents, who lived through the depression, raised her to have a strong work ethic. She was the first in her family to attend college. She has a daughter and two sons, one a former Marine who served in the Gulf War. She relocated to Washington in 1991.  She currently lives in Bellingham, Washington.