Jo Anne Simon, Neighbor

Jo Anne Simon is the Democratic State Committeewoman for the 52^nd Assembly District.  Since the early 1990's Jo Anne has fought for the inclusion of the affected communities= voices and progressive transparent processes in many education, transportation and land use issues, because she believes that communities must have a voice in decisions that affect them. A former president of the Boerum Hill Association and chair of the Gowanus Community Stakeholder Group, she was instrumental in bringing area civic groups together to respond to the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning plan and is a founding member of Coalition of Brooklyn neighborhoods, the BrooklynSpeaks initiative and Friends of Douglass/Greene Park.

A long time disability rights advocate, former teacher of the deaf and sign language interpreter, today she is an attorney in Brooklyn, concentrating on discrimination in higher education, high stakes testing and employment and is an Assistant Professor at Fordham University School of Law. She also serves as president of <b>Everyone Reading, Inc. </b>a non-profit organization that provides information, referrals, training to support educators and empower families regarding the impacts of dyslexia and related learning disabilities.