Melissa Mark-Viverito is the Speaker of the as well as the Council member for the 8th District.
Background
Mark-Viverito was born in San Juan and grew up in one of the largest cities of the metro area, the city of Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Her hyphenated last name comes from her late father, Anthony Mark, and the maiden name of her mother, Elizabeth Viverito.
Education
She came to New York at age 18 to attend college, earning a Bachelor degree from Columbia University in 1991 and then a Master of Public Administration degree from Baruch College in 1995.
Career
She is a Democrat. The district includes Concourse, Concourse Village, East Harlem, Highbridge, Longwood, Mott Haven, Portuguese Morris, and Randall"s Island. Described by The New York Times as "fiercely liberal", she was elected Speaker on January 8, 2014, succeeding Christine Quinn. In August 2014, Mark-Viverito publicly disclosed that she was infected with the most common Doctor of Sacred Theology, the human papillomavirus.
She is not married.
After running unsuccessfully against Philosophy Reed for City Council in District 8 in 2003, Mark-Viverito was elected to the position when Reed reached his term limit in 2005. During her first four years in office, Mark-Viverito sponsored and passed several pieces of legislation regarding tenant harassment, building safety, greening buildings, and park conservancies. In January 2009, she criticized the voting record of newly appointed New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on immigration.
During Mark-Viverito"s second term in the Council, she served as chair of the Parks and Recreation Committee and as founding co-chair of the Progressive Caucus.
Soon the New York Daily News cited Mark-Viverito as "the front-runner" for "New York City"s second-most powerful political post — Speaker of the City Council." A grassroots effort to boost her Speaker candidacy included social media, fliers, phone banking, and volunteer recruitment. Her first "State of the City" speech emphasized reform of the criminal justice system.
In January 2016, Mark-Viverito introduced a collection of eight bills known as the "Criminal Justice Reform Acting" to reduce the penalty for acts such as violating park rules, littering and public urination from misdemeanors to the civil process. Mark-Viverito sponsored the bills so that young people in communities of color could "fulfill their potential" by incentivizing officers to give verbal warnings and fines but not remove the option of making arrests.
Membership
Before running for City Council, Mark-Viverito served as a member of Community Board 11, coordinator of the movement Todo Nueva York con Vieques, president of Mujeres del Barrio, and Strategic Organizer for Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), an influential health care workers union. Mark-Viverito was elected City Council Speaker on January 8, 2014, at age 44, becoming the first member of the Council"s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus to hold this position.