The first woman from Queens County elected to the State Senate, Toby Ann Stavisky serves as Vice-Chair of the Senate’s Democratic Majority Conference and Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Higher Education.

Toby is a passionate advocate for women’s reproductive health rights, has fought for public safety and to rid our streets of illegal guns.

She is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science as well as Syracuse University. Toby also attended graduate school at Queens College and Hunter College. Toby raised her family in Queens and was a teacher in NYC’s public high schools.

Toby was first elected to the Senate in November 1999. She has been re-elected eleven times. A resident of Whitestone, she was married to Dr. Leonard Stavisky, a university professor who served in the Assembly as Chair of the Education Committee and in the Senate until his death in June of 1999.