Melissa mark viverito biography of barack
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Latino Campaign
Determined to make the most of her triumph is Latino Victory, a national organization that identifies potential Latino candidates, encourages them to seek office and supports their candidacies. The interim president of Latino Victory is Melissa Mark-Viverito, a Puerto Rico native who made history in when she was the first Latina elected to serve as Speaker of the New York City Council.
Ms. Mark-Viverito, who left the New York City Council after reaching her term limit, visited Brunswick’s New York offices recently to talk about her efforts in New York and across the nation to increase diversity among elected officials.
What is the “21 in ‘21 Initiative?”
Before I left the New York City Council, inom founded that initiative with two of my hona colleagues in the council. Our goal is to raise awareness of the drop in women in the city council. We have a city that is led by dock. We have a city council where we’ve seen the number of women drop to 11 women out of 51 m
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Making Her Mark
As recently as late fall , Melissa Mark-Viverito ’91 was a relatively obscure member of the New York City Council. A Democrat, she cruised to reelection in her district, which largely comprises East Harlem and portions of the South Bronx, seemingly destined to serve four more years in the member legislative body before term limits would force her out of office and, more than likely, back to the world of activism and nonprofits.
And then her political future changed forever.
Melissa Mark-Viverito ’91 took office as speaker of the New York City Council on January 8,
A behind-the-scenes push to elect a liberal speaker of the City Council — which included unprecedented intervention from then-Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio — propelled Mark-Viverito into arguably the second-most powerful elected post in the nation’s largest city.
Mark-Viverito, the first Latino or Latina to be elected to the role, has seized the opportunity, leading with a focus on diversity and acti
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NYC/Long Island
Melissa Mark-Viverito has been elected Speaker of the City Council. The vote of the member Council on January 8 was unanimous. She was first elected to the New York City Council in following her work at SEIU in support of the union’s homecare organizing campaigns.
Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez captured the significance of her election as Speaker. “It sent a clear signal, especially to our business and real estate barons — the 1% who had everything their way during the Bloomberg era — that all branches of city government are now lined up behind Mayor de Blasio’s promise to end the tale of two cities.
“With de Blasio, Mark-Viverito, Public Advocate Letitia James and Controller Scott Stringer, citywide government is now in the hands of the most ethnically diverse and liberal Democratic coalition in memory.”
Many Latino elected officials and community leaders—including Rep. Nydia Velazquez, NYS Assemblymember