By Forum Staff
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on Thursday announced his 2024 class of community board appointees — a markedly diverse group of public servants who will serve on their respective Queens community board for the next two years.
Of the borough president’s 355 appointees across Queens’ 14 community boards, 117 are new members who are not currently serving on a board already — the largest number of new members appointed in a single year under the Richards administration.
The 355 appointees were chosen out of this year’s pool of 848 applicants.
Significant progress has been made to diversify the boards to ensure they look, sound and feel like the neighborhoods they represent, including with this year’s class, according to Richards.
Prior to the Richards administration, just 43 percent of board members identified as female. But of the 117 new community board members this year, nearly 55 percent identify as female. When combining all four of Richards’ community board application cycles, more than 52 percent of his new appointees have identified as female.
People of color were also strongly represented amongst the 117 new members. People who identify as Hispanic/Latinx — a demographic that has historically been severely underrepresented across the city’s community boards — made up 27.4 percent of that group. Meanwhile, African Americans made up 26.5 percent of new members, and those who identify as East Asian/Pacific Islander or South Asian made up 23.9 percent of new members.
Broken down by age, over half — 54.7 percent — of new members appointed this year are under the age of 45, with the youngest new appointee being just 19 years old, reflecting persistent growth in interest among young people in community board membership. Prior to the Richards administration, less than 25 percent of community board members were younger than 45.
Additionally, 24.7 percent of new members are parents or guardians of a school-age child while 17.9 percent are immigrants. In terms of LGBTQIA+ representation, 10.3 percent of new members identified as such, up from 3.4 percent of community board members as of 2020 prior to Richards taking office.
The borough president’s community board appointments for the 2024-2026 term include:
- Community Board 9 (Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, Kew Gardens, Ozone Park): Inderpaul Ahluwalia, Sherry Algredo, Dulal Bhattacharjee, Kamal Bhuiyan, Visnoonand Bisram, Swapan Chakraborty, Rick Chetram, Daniel Chu, Marylin Custodio, Steve Esposito, Alicia Hassin, Orazio Iaboni, Carmella Isabella, Christian Orellana, Jonathan Rodriguez, Regina Santoro, Himmat Singh, Jarnail Singh, Mohinder Singh, Alexandria Sumpter-Delves and Stacey Yearwood.
- Community Board 10 (Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Howard Beach, South Richmond Hill): Sonnya Acuqui, Luis Amorim, James J. Caruso, Brina Ciaramella, Anthony S. Cosentino, Frank Dardani, Anoop Dhanpat, Irene Dimoh, Karen Edwards, Edna Fraylon, Peter Granickas, Frank P. Gulluscio, Gary Hewitt, Anthony Hill, Romeo Hitlall, Pierre Kishun, Dorothy Mitchell, Fazlurrahman Mohamed, Rohan Narine, Jose A. Quijano, Amar Rajnauth, Amanda Sancler, Nellie Santiago, Asheley Siewnarine, Jody Stahl, Ashley Vital and Linda Walker.
- Community Board 14 (Rockaway Point, Breezy Point, Roxbury, Neponsit, Belle Harbor, Rockaway Park, Seaside, Broad Channel, Hammels, Sommerville, Edgemere, Arverne, Bayswater, Wavecrest, Far Rockaway, Rockaway Beach): Brittny Chong, Amber Clinkscales, Jack Epter, Maria Foreman, Wayne-Neisha Fowles, Menashe Friedman, Josephine Gonzalez, Avionne Gumbs-Cummings, Dave B. Heffernan, Betty Leon, Annette Lord Cohen, Sonia Moise, Helen Montero, Zina Moratti, Josmary Ochoa-Cruz, Dolores Orr, Harold Paez, Shannel Parker, Eric Rasmussen, Vernell Robinson, David Shelborne, Nichole Smith, Christopher Tedesco and Jose Velez.
