Johanna Garcia
10th Council District - Manhattan
A daughter of immigrants and a single mother of three children, we can count on Johanna to fight for our youth, our families, our seniors, and a city that works for all of us because that’s what she’s done her entire life.
Johanna is an experienced leader of Upper Manhattan who is standing up to make our voices heard as the next City Council member: working to make sure every child has the opportunity for a quality education and the chance to succeed; fighting to make sure the people who made this community can afford to stay in this community; and continuing to be a strong voice for equity and justice.
Johanna is a proud product of New York City public schools—PS 173, Mott Hall, and LaGuardia High School for the Arts. She got her first job as a teen via the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) and she’s been working nonstop to lift up her community ever since. Before her work in government began, Johanna started a successful family literacy program out of a public school in the Bronx that provided vocational training to mothers, on-site childcare, and a program to reduce the drop-out rate among high-risk students. She also founded a nonprofit in Washington Heights that increased the quality of local childcare and created economic opportunities for women of color by providing professional and certification training to a network of over 500 child care providers. Via this organization, she ran a youth program aimed to reduce teen pregnancy and promote healthy relationships in Washington Heights and Inwood.
She took a step back from organizational leadership during her struggles to leave an abusive relationship after the birth of her youngest child, working at Dominican Women’s Development Center (DWDC) while she got back on her feet. These personal experiences helped Johanna to better connect with and support high-risk families who came to DWDC with their own issues of domestic violence, substance abuse, education neglect, and food and housing insecurity. Her experience of more than a decade raising three kids on her own while supporting an intergenerational family have underscored for her the importance of compassionate, human- and especially women-centered policies.
Johanna first got involved in local government as a parent activist fighting for a better education for her children. She served as a member on the School Leadership Team at her children’s school, as President of the School District's Presidents Council and as President of the Community Education Council, where she's led the fight against high-stakes testing, was one of the first to highlight the crisis of lead in our children’s schools, and started the movement to prevent the sale of our students’ information to private parties. In 2017, Johanna joined a coalition of parents and educators who walked 150 miles from Manhattan to Albany to elevate the issue of the severe and unlawful underfunding of public schools in New York State. She also sued the State to reduce class size in our schools. As a mother of a child with special learning needs, she joined other parents in founding the Dyslexia Plus In Schools Taskforce.
Beginning in 2009, she served as then-Councilmember Robert Jackson’s Chief of Staff for six years, mastering the ins and outs of City Hall. This understanding of budgets, legislation, and how to fight for community priorities will serve her well as our next Council Member. During this time, she also served as interim Executive Director of the New York City Council Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, managing all activities supporting the 27-member caucus. It was during her leadership that the Caucus submitted their crucial Amicus Brief in the fight against the racist Stop-and-Frisk policing policies.
Johanna has also built up her advocacy muscle through her work as a member of Fort Washington Collegiate Church, a progressive congregation where she has served as an elder and on the church’s governing body. These experiences have shown her the enduring power of faith-based organizing to change hearts and minds of fellow parishioners and the wider community when it comes to causes like the Movement for Black Lives, LGBTQ rights, Housing rights, and Sanctuary for undocumented friends.
Following the end of Council Member Jackson’s term, Johanna served as Executive Director of Partnerships at City College, where she worked with student leadership to increase civic engagement and bring resources to a high-need student population. A proud union member, she also led efforts to establish the college’s first Staff Council to give equal representation and decision making power to non teaching and admin staff in the college’s governance.
While at City College, Johanna proved her mettle as a strong voice for tenants and small businesses. She stood up to the present Councilman against the predatory and unjust Inwood rezoning plan as a founding member of Northern Manhattan Not for Sale (NMN4S). As a leading voice for justice in city planning, Johanna believes in community control of land and the non-profit creation of truly affordable housing to make sure the people who have made our communities what they are today are not displaced. This fight resulted in successfully having the rezoning annulled in court, bringing relief to tenants and small businesses under threat. Johanna continues to fight with NMN4S after the recent Appellate Division overturning the annulment.
Seeking to give her community in Northern Manhattan more decision-making power in local politics and representation, Johanna went on to start and lead Uptown Community Democrats. As a result, hundreds of community residents and activists have engaged in successfully making politics work for the community and not the machine, effectively changing the political landscape. She listened and organized our community and helped to defeat the IDC, the group of Democrats-In-Name-Only who helped the Republicans hold on to power in Albany.
Since 2019, Johanna has served the people as Chief of Staff to now-Senator Robert Jackson, where she has helped usher in landmark legislation such as rent rollbacks, child victims act, women reproduction act, and LGBTQ rights, to name a few.