Orrick Public Policy Podcast #15 – A Conversation with Pennsylvania Speaker Bryan Cutler

For our fifteenth episode, Public Policy Podcast hosts Scott Ward and Michelle McGann were joined by Pennsylvania Speaker Bryan Cutler. Join us as we discuss the Pennsylvania legislature’s election reform efforts, how the legislature is addressing the economic crisis through the budget, and how adapting to remote voting has led to the legislature’s busiest session in years.

Episode 15 Guest: Pennsylvania Speaker Bryan Cutler

Serving his seventh term in Pennsylvania legislature, Bryan Cutler represents the 100th District in Lancaster County. This June, he was elected to serve as Speaker of the House, having previously serving as the Majority Leader.

Bryan’s emergence as one of Pennsylvania’s key leaders reflects his approach to life: Give back to the community that helped you. A lifelong resident of the Peach Bottom area, Bryan faced adversity as a high school student when both his parents were diagnosed with ALS (which eventually took both their lives) and he took on the responsibility of caring for them and his younger sister. The community helped out and embraced Bryan and his family, helping meet their every need.

At a time when most young adults headed off to college, Bryan worked and put himself through a trade school to become an X-ray technologist. Soon after, he married his high school sweetheart, Jennifer, and graduated summa cum laude, from Lebanon Valley College with a health care management degree. Following several years of working at the local hospital overseeing the budgets and daily operations of several sections in the radiology department, he pursued a law degree, focused on health care law, from Widener Law School and become a member of the Lancaster Bar Association and began practicing law with the firm of Nikolaus & Hohenadel.

The desire to give back to the community – which did so much for him and his family – drove Bryan to run for public office. He was elected in 2006.

With his extensive background in health care and the industries that deliver these vital services, Bryan has been a constant advocate for policies to make the state’s health care system more accessible and affordable. He is an outspoken champion for ALS awareness and research, especially its impact on veterans. He also serves as a legislative appointee to the Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation. He is also known for using his background in hospitals to write laws to make the Commonwealth’s hospitals work more efficiently.

Bryan’s previous public service includes serving on his local township planning commission, regional planning commission and the local emergency management team.

Bryan and his wife, Jennifer, have three children, Cheyanne, Caleb and Drew. The family lives on an 11-acre “hobby farm” in the same log cabin home where Bryan grew up. The Cutlers are active members of the Wrightsdale Baptist Church. .