She then received three postgraduate degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo: a Master of Arts (1989), a Juris Doctor (1991) and a PhD (1992).
[1] In 2009, Connolly completed Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government as a David Bohnett LGBTQ Victory Institute Leadership Fellow.
[2] Until 2000, she served as an adjunct professor in the Women's Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences.
[6] Connolly represents Laramie, the city in which Matthew Shepard was murdered in 1998 in what was believed to be an anti-gay hate crime.
A Republican, Ember Oakley, filed to run against her in the general election but withdrew on August 29.