Jersey Stand Up!
Joyce Watterman just made history, becoming the first African American woman president of Jersey City’s council, ABC7 NY reports.
Watterman is a Jersey City native who was elected to the city council in 2013. She has served the community ever since. Watterman holds a Bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership and runs a summer program for youth. She is also the founder of a women’s empowerment group that focuses on physical, emotional, economical and political empowerment. Watterman has served as a volunteer Chaplain for over 30 years at various prisons and she and her husband are founders and Pastors of a church. Now, she will move into a new position as president. Her accomplishments are so amazing, even she can’t believe it.
“Doing what I do in the community, I never thought I would be in politics. Life is full of surprises! You’re looking at a girl who grew up in housing authority, based on statistics should not have made it out,” Watterman said.
In addition to her role as Council President for the City of Jersey City, Watterman has a litany of other duties including, serving as Planning Commissioner, member of the Affordable Housing Trust Funds and the Budget Committee, Chaplain for the Hudson County Sheriff’s Department, and member of the NAACP.
While her new role as president will come with it’s fair share of challenges, Waterman is ready to take it all on in hopes of building a stronger and more prosperous Jersey City. When asked how she felt about her new position, she said, “it is an honor and I know that responsibility comes with it.”
Watterman credits all of her success and every accomplishment she makes to her mother. “I thank God for my mother, because my mother was a sharecropper, and I’m one generation from being a sharecropper. Every achievement that I make is for my mom, because she couldn’t do it,” she said.
Congratulations President Watterman!
Photo Courtesy of InsiderNJ.com