Her career has been defined by a series of firsts including being the first person of Latino heritage, first person of color, and first Puerto Rican woman to serve as Speaker of New York City Council where she presided over 51 Council Members and negotiated a $72 billion annual budget. During her 12-year tenure as New York City Council Member and 4-year tenure as Speaker, Melissa delivered landmark legislative, policy, and civic engagement victories that included enacting the Unaccompanied Minors Initiative and driving the groundbreaking criminal justice reform initiative to close Rikers Island. Additional successes span organizational leadership, coalition building, stakeholder engagement and political strategy across key issue areas such as criminal justice reform, gender equity, LGBTQ+ rights, workers’ rights, housing, and immigration issues. Melissa has also initiated, championed and co-founded a number of coalitions, task forces and organizations including 21 for 21, Power 4 Puerto Rico, the Young Women’s Initiative and East Harlem/El Barrio/Bronx LGBTQ Task Force. Prior to her political career, Melissa worked with several nonprofits including ASPIRA where she served as Deputy Director. Melissa recently served as interim president for Latino Victory. For more than 20 years, she has fought tirelessly for justice for Puerto Rican people with a passion and tenacity that was inspired by her mother. Melissa is broadly known and respected for progressive and compassionate decision making, challenging entrenched systems, and doing what is right as opposed to what’s most politically astute. Show notes: Striving to empower women and make government more representative, I founded 21 in 21 to address this issue Working to build a more just and equitable society, my work as an elected official centered on making NYC a more just and equitable city so it can serve as a model across the country. Contact Information: 21in21.org http://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-mark-viverito https://www.facebook.com/mmarkviverito/