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Star of Brooklyn: Jo Anne Simon

April 21, 2014 Editorial Staff

Assemblymember Jo Anne. Photo courtesy of Jo Anne Simon.

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JO ANNE SIMON

Democratic District Leader, 52^nd A.D.

Community involvement: JoAnne Simon is no stranger to the community. She has served as Democratic district leader for the 52^nd Assembly District since 2004. The Boerum Hill resident is the president of the New York Branch of the International Dyslexia Association, a member of the Independent Neighborhood Democrats, the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, and the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn and is a part of the executive committee of the 504 Democrats, the countrys oldest political club focusing on disability issues.

An active member of the Atlantic Yards Task Force, the National Employment Lawyers Association and the Gowanus Community Stakeholders Group, Simon is also the founding member of the Association on Higher Education and Disability, serving postsecondary students with disabilities, and co-founder of the Downtown Brooklyn Coalition.

And, thats not all. During the nineties, Simon was president at the Boerum Hill Association. She is a founder member of BrooklynSpeaks.net, the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, the Friends of Douglass/Greene Park; the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Task Force and the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Task Force.

INFLUENCES: Simon said that a lot of people have impacted her over the years. I think my family, my parents were big influences, she noted. Simon did not plan on getting involved with her community until someone was shot across the street. She had just finished law school and her entire block got together to do something about it.

OBSTACLES: Old habits die hard, said Simon. It is a challenge for everybody in the area she works in, particularly people with disabilities and their civil rights. People have long held beliefs, stereotypes, discrimination that has its roots and misunderstanding and its hard to make some headway in that area, she said.

PROFESSIONAL: Currently, Simon maintains a specialized disability civil rights law firm in Downtown Brooklyn and is an adjunct assistant professor at Fordham University.

Earlier, Simon taught in Hofstra University School of Laws clinical program. She was also a teacher of the deaf. From 1978 through 2000, she was also a sign language interpreter with experience interpreting on Broadway and Off-Broadway.

GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Simon was lead counsel for the plaintiff in Bartlett v. New York State Board of Law Examiners, which was a landmark case on the rights of people with disabilities.

PERSONAL LIFE: Simon grew up in Yonkers. She currently resides with her husband Bill Harris, in Boerum Hill.

Simon was the first in her family to go to college. She graduated from Iona College with a Bachelors degree in Communication Sciences, Gallaudet University with a Masters degree in Education of the Deaf, and Fordham University School of Law, where she earned her law degree at night while working full-time.