Speaker Adams leads the most diverse and first women-majority Council in city history as the body’s first African American Speaker. She is also the first woman to represent Council District 28, which includes the neighborhoods of Jamaica, Richmond Hill, Rochdale Village, and South Ozone Park. 

Speaker Adams previously served as Chair of the City Council Committee on Public Safety and Co-Chair of the Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus. Prior to serving in the City Council, she served as Chair of Queens Community Board 12, a Trustee of the Queens Public Library, and Co-Chair of the Jamaica NOW Leadership Council. She previously worked as a Corporate Trainer and a Child Development Associate Instructor. 

Raised in Hollis, Queens, as the daughter of two proud union workers, Speaker Adams attended St. Pascal Baylon Elementary School, Bayside High School, and earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.