Toby Ann Stavisky (née Goldhaar, born June 26, 1939)
is an American politician serving as a member of the
New York State Senate
The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate.
Partisan com ...
, having held a seat since 1999. She represents the
11th district, which comprises parts of
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
.
Life and career
Stavisky was born and raised on the
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
of Manhattan. She attended New York City public schools before graduating from
Bronx High School of Science
The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Spec ...
, and
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
, which she attended on an academic scholarship. The Senator completed graduate courses at
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
and
Queens College
Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...
.
After working in the actuarial department of a major insurance company, Stavisky taught Social Studies in the New York City high schools. She served as District Manager in Northeast Queens for the Census, where she directed more than 1,000 field and office staff and was cited by the Commerce Department for her outstanding work.
Stavisky was married to Dr.
Leonard P. Stavisky
Leonard Price Stavisky (September 11, 1925 – June 19, 1999) was an American university professor and politician from New York (state), New York.
Life
He was born on September 11, 1925, in the Bronx, New York City. He graduated from City College ...
(1925–1999), a member of the
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.
The Assem ...
from 1966 to 1983, and of the New York State Senate from 1983 until his death in 1999. Her son, Evan M. Stavisky, is a political consultant as well as a local district leader.
New York Senate
Upon the death of her husband in 1999, Stavisky ran and easily won the special election to succeed him. She is the first woman from Queens County elected to the State Senate. When she first won election, the district was predominantly
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, but has shifted drastically over the past two decades to become majority Asian American. As such, Stavisky has faced primaries in recent years against Asian-American candidates, but has been successful in each challenge.
From 2003 to 2008, Stavisky served as Assistant Minority Whip and Ranking Minority Member of the Committee on Higher Education. She currently serves as the Chairwoman of the Committee on Higher Education. In 2013, Stavisky was appointed to the subcommittee on New York City Education.
In 2022, Stavisky sponsored a bill that would give state health insurance coverage to
unauthorized immigrants.
Stavisky has claimed that New York's bail reform laws have had no clear impact on the increase in crime.
In 2023, Stavisky's Senate district
changed from the
16th
16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being , , and .
In English speech, ...
to the 11th.
References
External links
New York State Senate: Toby Ann Stavisky
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stavisky, Toby Ann
Living people
Democratic Party New York (state) state senators
People from Whitestone, Queens
Women state legislators in New York (state)
Syracuse University alumni
Hunter College alumni
21st-century American politicians
21st-century American women politicians
People from the Upper West Side
The Bronx High School of Science alumni
20th-century American politicians
20th-century American women politicians
1939 births