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Rebecca Seawright was elected to represent the 76th Assembly District, which includes Manhattan's Upper East Side, Yorkville and Roosevelt Island. Rebecca, a resident of the Upper East Side for more than two decades, is an attorney, parent-teacher association member and activist, and former member of Community Planning Board 8. Rebecca is a former Assistant District Attorney in the Brooklyn DA�s office and legal counselor to small-business owners and entrepreneurs. She is also Chair of the Board of Directors of the Feminist Press and Chair of the Board of Visitors of CUNY School of Law.
With her vast experience in law, policy making, and community services, Rebecca will advocate for fair funding of public schools, improvements to local transportation, and affordable housing on the East Side and Roosevelt Island.
Rebecca has extensive experience as a public school parent. Rebecca’s daughter is a sophomore at a public high school and her son is a sophomore at SUNY Albany. She is a member of the Parent Teacher’s Association at her children’s schools and understands issues like school overcrowding and underfunding. She will work to make sure that our neighborhoods get their fair share of educational resources and pre-K seats.
In Albany, she will press the legislature to pass the long-overdue Women’s Equality Act. She will continue to fight against the proposed Marine Transfer Station at Asphalt Green and to improve access to parks and open space for neighborhoods.
Originally from Texas, Rebecca was the state director of the National Women’s Political Caucus, and served for five years as the chief of staff for central-Texas legislator Bob Melton. She has held positions in the Washington, D.C. offices of the former United States Senator Lloyd Bensten, the late Congressmember Marvin Leath and Congressmember Charles Stenholm. Rebecca later became a fundraiser for former Texas Governor Ann Richards when she was the Texas state treasurer running for governor, which is what eventually brought her to New York and, later, to become a CUNY Law School graduate.
She is married to Jay Hershenson, Senior Vice Chancellor for University Relations and Secretary of the Board of Trustees of City University of New York.
