NYSCAS-Brooklyn Graduation

Commencement Speaker

Eric L. Adams, Brooklyn Borough President

For the past three decades, Eric L. Adams has served the residents of the city of his birth as a police officer, state senator and coalition builder.  In November 2013, he was elected to represent all of Brooklyn as borough president. Born in Brownsville and educated in the City’s public school system, Eric is committed to ensuring Brooklyn’s bright future by helping each and every Brooklynite reach his or her full potential.

Throughout his career, Eric has been an effective advocate for Brooklyn, bringing people and communities together to create progressive change, and working with both the private and public sectors to invigorate the borough’s economy by encouraging job growth and investment in every neighborhood. Whether his beat was on the street or in the New York State Capitol, Eric has always looked out for Brooklyn’s working families and sought to protect our most vulnerable residents. His tenure as borough president will continue to build upon his career-long commitment to the key pillars of affordable housing, quality public education, and preventative health issues. Eric believes that government works best when everyone has a chance to be heard, and he has resolved to use his office to provide an opportunity for diverse groups to work together for the common good.

In his career as a police officer with NYC Transit and the NYPD, Eric made the kind of life-and-death decisions that reflect his insight, expertise, and poise under fire, resulting not just in his promotion to captain, but earning him the reputation for going above and beyond the call of duty. In 1995, he co-founded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, an initiative that not only improved NYPD/community relations, but raised funds for worthy causes throughout the city.

From 2006 until his election to borough president in 2013, Eric represented the 20th Senate District – which includes Borough Park, Flatbush, Crown Heights, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Sunset Park, and Windsor Terrace, working tirelessly to address a broad range of issues affecting constituents, from civil rights and public safety to transparency in government and quality of life. He organized support against the NYPD’s controversial “Stop and Frisk” policy, and led efforts on behalf of gun control. As a legislator, Eric’s record in the New York State Senate is one that underscores his strong commitment to the rights of those from every walk of life, from protecting the right to privacy, marriage equality, a woman’s right to choose, students’ and workers’ rights, and animal rights to preventing racial profiling, gender discrimination, domestic violence and elder abuse. He also proposed legislation to reform campaign financing, address inequities in sentencing depending on the crime, restrict outsourcing, and improve the availability of quality health care and affordable housing. Throughout his legislative career, Eric championed community and economic development in his district and borough-wide.

Eric graduated from Bayside High School, New York City Technical College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and earned his Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Marist College. He lives in Prospect Heights, where he has resided for 20 years, and is the proud father of Jordan, a student at American University and an aspiring filmmaker.