10 Queens residents on the rise

Cambria Heights resident Nantasha Williams is a valued political strategist at age 30. She has served as executive director of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, and mounted an unsuccessful run for an Assembly seat in Southeast Queens in 2016. She then got involved in the Women’s March on Washington, working on the logistics team with national co-chair Tamika Mallory. She is now the group’s head of social impact and political engagement and serves on Queens Community Board 13.

Jennifer Hensley is in charge of Link, which seeks to replace old phone booths throughout New York City with more than 7,500 free Wi-Fi kiosks. She started at the company in 2005 as its general manager and became its president less than two years later, overseeing its global operations and development. Since moving to New York City from California and settling in Astoria, she has also worked at the Alliance for Downtown New York and the Association for a Better New York.

Low-income tenants fighting landlords often rely on The Legal Aid Society. In Queens, they have a fierce defender in housing attorney Sateesh Nori. As attorney-in-charge of The Legal Aid Society’s Queens neighborhood office, Nori made headlines in recent months fighting for seniors forced to live without an elevator for weeks, battling the eviction of two Holocaust survivors and working to stop a landlord from intimidating low-income tenants. Since 2015, he has also served on the New York City Mayor’s Committee on City Marshals.

The Nepalese community has been growing in Queens in recent years, with numerous stores and restaurants opening, many of them in Jackson Heights. Assisting this growing Nepali-speaking community is Pabitra Benjamin and Adhikaar, a nonprofit that educates members about access to health care and fights for workers’ rights. Benjamin, who has been a community organizer and a field director for Amnesty International USA, has become a powerful voice for the rights of immigrants, regardless of their country of origin.

Several years ago, bank manager Edwin Wong found a new calling and decided to become a community activist. In 2015, he co-founded the Forest Hills Asian Association to give a voice to the rapidly growing Asian community in the neighborhood. The group organizes cultural and networking events and hopes to one day establish an Asian-American center in Central Queens. Wong also serves as a member of Queens Community Board 6 and the Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park.