Newman is a retired lawyer from Washington, D.C., where she specialized in security clearance appeals and other employment law cases.
She is a graduate of Skidmore College and Georgetown Law.
She spent a lifetime campaigning for Democratic candidates in New Hampshire (“Clean for Gene”), Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Later, she joined the board of the Coral Gables Dems in order to do everything possible to restore sanity, reason, and compassion to all levels of government.
She lives in the Gables with her husband, John Tillson, a retired Dept. of Defense executive. Their daughter, Susannah, lives with her husband and three sons in Bologna, Italy.
In her spare time, she works as a volunteer mediator for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, sings in the Miami Collegium Musicum baroque chamber choir and travels frequently to Bologna.