Democratic nominee Shawyn Patterson-Howard (SPH) made history Tuesday, November 5, 2019, when she narrowly won the general election, becoming the First Female Mayor elected in the City of Mount Vernon. The City of Mount Vernon’s 28th Mayor.
As a fourth-generation Mount Vernonite, Patterson-Howard explained in her acceptance speech, “Mount Vernon is the community of my birth, my development, my education. It’s where I was nurtured and mentored by people of all ages and ethnicities, allowing me to become the adult and the leader that I am now.”
With her husband standing proudly behind her, Shawyn spoke of unifying the city and being an agent of change. She campaigned on a good government platform, pledging to end the dysfunction in City Hall.
As Executive Director for the Mount Vernon, New York, Family YMCA from 2004 through 2009, and the first woman and person of color appointed President and Chief Executive Officer for the Yonkers Family YMCA in New York. Mayor SPH focused on programs that highlighted “Youth Development, Healthy Living, and Social Responsibility.” From afterschool programming, youth employment and training, college preparation, access and completion, adult education, water safety programs, senior services, and residential housing to gang intervention and violence prevention, prisoner reintegration, health and wellness, community nutrition and feeding programs, boxing, AmeriCorps, service-learning and video production, Mayor Patterson-Howard and her staff looked for new and innovative ways to develop partnerships to serve the community
As the Chief Executive Officer for the Yonkers Family YMCA, she also created programs to support the region’s growing community of immigrants and to address the needs of those reintegrating into the community after extended periods of incarceration.
Patterson-Howard shattered the glass ceiling as the first African American woman to be elected mayor in the history of Westchester County. Mayor SPH’s historic victory also gave the City of Mount Vernon an all-female Board of Estimates (Mayor, Council President, and Comptroller) for the first time in the city’s history.
A proud graduate of Mount Vernon High School, she also holds degrees from Howard University School of Social Work and a Master’s in Public Administration and Urban Development from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Mayor Patterson-Howard began her esteemed career in public service as a social worker at AIDS-Related Community Services and Director of the City of Mount Vernon Housing Opportunity for Persons with AIDS Program (HOPWA).
Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard proudly continues her family’s century-long legacy of service to Mount Vernon with support from her husband of 38 years, Marvin Howard, and daughter Nia. She is the President Emeritus of the African American Mayors’ Association (AAMA), Trustee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Co-Chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) / U. S. Climate Mayors Board, and VP of the New York State Conference of Mayors (NYCOM).
Mayor Patterson-Howard has served as a trailblazer in the not-for-profit and government sectors for 25-plus years, and she continues to blaze the trail for others to follow and shatter that proverbial glass ceiling at every level. Black Westchester celebrates Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard!
Excerpt from the book, “Black Westchester Celebrates Black Women Of Westchester,” available on Amazon or email BlackWestchesterMag@gmail.com to purchase your autographed copies.
