Ayanna Pressley

Ayanna Pressley assumed office as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 7th Congressional District on Jan. 3, 2019. Pressley previously served as an at-large member of the Boston City Council from 2010 to 2019. Pressley was the first African American woman elected to the Boston City Council and is the first African American woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts.

Pressley was born February 3, 1974, in Chicago, Illinois. From 1992 to 1994, she attended the College of General Studies at Boston University, but left school to support her mother. She later took courses at Boston University Metropolitan College but did not complete a degree. After leaving Boston University, Pressley worked as a district representative for U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II, for whom she had interned during college. She later worked as Kennedy's scheduler and then as constituency director. In 2009, Pressley served as U.S. Senator John Kerry's political director.

For information on Pressley's policy subject areas, committee appointments and sponsored/co-sponsored legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, please visit her profile on https://www.congress.gov.