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District 35 - Council Member - Democrat - Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Bedford Stuyvesant - Crystal Hudson is the Council Member for New York City’s District 35 in Brooklyn, representing the neighborhoods of Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and parts of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant. She was elected in 2021 and made history as one of the first out gay Black women ever elected in New York City. Crystal is a community organizer and public servant committed to making government more accessible for more people and delivering a just recovery for all New Yorkers in the wake of a global pandemic, economic crisis, and racial reckoning. Her commitment to public service is personal and began when her mother started exhibiting signs of what would later be diagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease. As the only child of a single mother, Crystal quickly became the primary caregiver for her mother. She experienced first-hand how difficult it is for working families to navigate complex, bureaucratic systems and access services and resources needed to keep older New Yorkers safe and healthy at home, where they can age in place and maintain their dignity. Crystal is a fierce advocate for seniors and families impacted by Alzheimer’s disease and is unwavering in her commitment to serving families who are caring for loved ones. Before entering public service, Crystal spent more than a decade working in marketing and advertising –– first with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and NBA’s Washington Wizards and then at Amtrak, where she managed a portfolio of sports, entertainment and multicultural marketing campaigns for the nation’s passenger rail service. In this capacity, Crystal led an effort to further diversify Amtrak’s advertising and fought for the inclusion of marginalized communities in national advertising campaigns. Once she entered public service, Crystal served as Co-Director of the Community Outreach Unit at the New York City Council, First Deputy Public Advocate of Community Engagement at the Office of the Public Advocate, and Chief of Operations to the Majority Leader of the City Council. In March 2020, in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Crystal founded Greater Prospect Heights Mutual Aid (GPHMA) and rooted the group’s work in core principles of mutual aid learned from people of African descent and those who are indigenous and native to the United States. GPHMA works to meet the needs of neighbors experiencing food insecurity and economic instability due to the COVID-19 pandemic –– especially seniors and those with underlying health conditions. Crystal was named as one of Out magazine’s OUT100 honorees in 2021, and has also been recognized by City & State New York magazine on its ‘Brooklyn Power 100’ and ‘Power of Diversity: Black 100’ lists. Crystal is the daughter and granddaughter of Jamaican and Honduran immigrants, and a third-generation Brooklynite. She is a proud graduate of Spelman College and holds a Master’s degree from George Washington University. She lives with her partner, Sasha Ahuja, in Prospect Heights.
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