Adriano Espaillat
Template:TOCnestleft Adriano Espaillat is the State Senate representative for the New York 31st District.
Education
Espaillat graduated from Bishop Dubois High School in 1974. In 1978, he earned his B.S. degree in Political Science from Queens College, and later completed postgraduate courses in Public Administration at the New York University and Rutgers University Leadership for Urban Executives Institute. [1]
Early Years
From 1994 to 1996, Espaillat became the Director of Project Right Start, a national initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to combat substance abuse by educating the parents of pre-school children. This pilot program was implemented in six cities throughout the country and in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. From 1992 to 1994, Espaillat served as Director of the Washington Heights Victims Services Community Office. This organization offered bilingual support groups for battered women, and provided relief, compensation, counseling and therapeutic services for families of homicide victims and other crime victims. In 1991, Espaillat was chosen as a member of Governor Mario Cuomo's Dominican American Advisory Board, where he served for two years. From 1986 to 1991, Espaillat actively served on Community Planning Board 12 as a member of the Executive Board. During the mid 1980s, Espaillat was elected President of the 34th Precinct Community Council. In 1980, Espaillat joined the NYC Criminal Justice Agency, a non-profit agency contracted by the city of New York to provide pre-trial services to the New York Criminal Court system, where he worked as the Manhattan Court Services Coordinator for eight years. During the 1990s, Espaillat helped resolve hundreds of conflicts among his constituents by volunteering his services as a State Certified Conflict Resolution Mediator for the Washington Heights Inwood Conflict Resolutions and Mediation Center.[2]
New York Legislature
Espaillat made history in 1996 when he became the first Dominican-American elected to a state legislature. Following a successful tenure in the New York State Assembly, Espaillat was elected to the Senate in November 2010, where he will represent the 31st district. This uniquely diverse and dynamic district stretches from Manhattan’s Upper West Side through Washington Heights and includes Riverdale, Marble Hill, Inwood, and Hamilton Heights. In addition to serving on the Ways and Means committee, Espaillat recently chaired the Veterans Affairs Committee (2007-2010) and the Small Businesses Committee (2010). Espaillat was also selected to Chair the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Legislative Caucus. [3]
Supported Progressive Health Care Reform
In late 2009, Adriano Espaillat was one of more than 1,000 state legislators to sign a letter entitled "State Legislators for Progressive Health Care Reform". The letter was a project of the Progressive States Network and was developed in consultation with national health care reform advocates, including the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Community Catalyst, Families USA, Herndon Alliance, National Women's Law Center, Northeast Action, SEIU, and Universal Health Care Action Network. The letter reads in part,[4]
- "Failure to pass national comprehensive health reform now will further jeopardize state and local budgets, undermining public services like education, public safety, and transportation infrastructure... We, the undersigned, call on President Obama and the Congress to enact bold and comprehensive health care reform this year – based on these principles and a strong federal-state collaboration – and pledge our support as state legislators and allies in pursuit of guaranteed, high quality, affordable health care for all."