About Fern
Fern Leard is a NEPA native, a mother of twins, and a longtime healthcare advocate who has spent her life standing up for working families. Raised by a single mom, her grandmother, and foster parents, Fern learned early that nothing is guaranteed and everything must be earned. Moving throughout her childhood, she experienced life in public housing, the suburbs, and rural communities. She saw how different families struggle in different ways, but also how strong people can be when they look out for each other. When she found the Back Mountain, she found home. Fern chose to put down roots in Luzerne County, raise her family here, and invest in the community she believes in.
Fern entered the workforce after graduating high school with honors and went straight to work. She washed dishes, waited tables, tended bar, and later built a career in finance. She knows what it means to work long hours, take whatever shift you can get, and still worry about making ends meet. Her path was not built on connections or shortcuts. It was built the way most people build their lives, through hard work and sacrifice.
When her twins were born with a rare disease, Fern’s world changed overnight. She found herself navigating a complicated healthcare system, advocating for her children, and seeing how often families are left to fight alone. Instead of walking away, she stepped up. Fern earned her Nurse Aide Certification from Marywood University and spent nearly a decade working in pediatrics and with the elderly, caring for patients and supporting families during some of the hardest moments of their lives. She didn’t just see the gaps in the system. She worked inside it and fought to make it better for the people who needed it most.
Fern’s political journey didn’t start with ambition. It started with a fight. When a health insurance company denied an essential part of her sons’ treatment, she refused to accept that a corporation could decide whether her children received care. What began as a mother advocating for her family quickly became something bigger. Fern stepped into the political process and pushed for federal legislation that would require coverage for preventative care families were being forced to go without.
For more than a decade, Fern stayed in the fight. She learned the system, knocked on doors, made calls, sat in offices, and refused to be ignored. She worked with legislators from both parties, built unlikely alliances, and kept the focus where it belonged, on families, not politics. Because she refused to give up, millions of Americans gained access to necessary preventative care that insurance companies once denied. Fern proved that you don’t need political connections to make change. You need resolve, leadership, and the willingness to stand up to powerful interests and keep going until something changes.
That’s exactly what she’s doing right now in our communities. Fern is showing up, listening to residents, and standing with families who feel ignored. She’s pushing back against rising costs, fighting for homeowners, and demanding accountability from powerful interests that expect communities to just accept decisions made without them. She brings people together, works across differences, and stays focused on results.
Fern also knows what it feels like when the system stops working. She has lived through hard times, including homelessness, and fought her way to homeownership in just five years. That experience shaped her belief that hard work should actually pay off. Today, families are being squeezed by rising utility bills, increasing property taxes, and costs that keep climbing while paychecks stay the same.
Fern is fighting to stop skyrocketing utility bills, deliver real relief for homeowners, and make sure hard work leads to stability. She believes families should not have to choose between keeping the lights on and staying in their homes. She is also committed to ending pay-to-play politics that put special interests ahead of the people. Fern isn’t backed by corporate PACs. She’s backed by neighbors, families, and workers who want someone to fight for them.
Fern Leard is running to stand up for working families, protect homeowners, and restore trust in government. Because no one should work this hard just to fall behind, and no community should be left to fight alone.
