Women's Political Caucus of New Jersey PAC
honors
Valerie Vainieri Huttle
Former Assemblywoman, 37th Legislative District
Spotlight Award
Assemblywoman Vainieri Huttle was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 2005 and has served for nine terms until 2022 representing the 37th Legislative District. Throughout her time in the General Assembly, Ms. Vainieri Huttle has served as the Chair of the Assembly Aging and Senior Services, the Assembly Human Services, and the Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committees. In 2015, she was named Deputy Speaker of the General Assembly. She also served on the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders (now known as the Board of County Commissioners) from 2001-2007 and was board chairwoman from 2003-2005.
Ms. Vainieri Huttle has sponsored several landmark laws including the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, the Human Trafficking Prevention, Protection, and Treatment Act, the Stephen Komninos’ Law, and the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act. She has also led efforts to reform the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and has been at the forefront of promoting LGBTQ rights.
Ms. Vainieri Huttle was an ex officio member of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and was one of the General Assembly representatives on the New Jersey-Israel Commission. In 2003, she helped establish the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood. Since 2012, Ms. Vainieri Huttle had been running the District 37 Young Women’s Leadership Program aimed at introducing high school students in her district to government and public service.
Assemblywoman Vainieri Huttle attended Rider University and graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University with a B.A. in English. Since 1981, she has served as president and director of Vainieri Funeral Home, a family-owned business in North Bergen.
Valerie Vainieri Huttle resides in Englewood with her husband, Former Mayor Frank Huttle III and has two daughters, Alexandra and Francesca, as well as one grandson, Jackson.
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Wanda M. Akin, was formerly the Managing Attorney for Chubb & Son, Inc.’s, New Jersey House Counsel law firm, Scanlon & Akin, and a Senior Trial Attorney and Of Counsel to Podvey, Sachs, Meanor, Catenacci, Hildner & Cocoziello from November 1994 through January 1998. For 24 years, Ms. Akin has maintained her solo practice known as Wanda M. Akin & Associates in Newark, NJ. For over 20 years, she has taught as an Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall University School of Law and at Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy And International Relations.
Akin has over 39 years of experience as a trial lawyer in a wide variety of cases, including criminal defense (in the United States and International Tribunals), complex product liability, property claims, construction accident litigation, catastrophic personal injury, employment/labor, trademark and copyright, and other complex litigation (representing three New Jersey Municipalities and their respective Police Departments and personnel, in complex employment and personal injury litigation). She has been trial counsel in numerous cases in New Jersey State and Federal Courts, New York State and Federal Courts, Maryland State Courts, and in many other Federal Court actions throughout the United States. She served as counsel to an accused at the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. She is currently included in the list of counsel eligible for appointment to represent accused and victims before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and represents victims of the Darfur Crisis in the case against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir before the ICC.
She was a 15 year member of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Committee on the Rules of Evidence, for 18 years was a Trustee of the Trial Attorneys of New Jersey, formerly a Master in the Seton Hall Law School Alumni Association Inn of Court and served as a Presidential Appointee to the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Committee on Judicial Administration. In 1999 she served as the President of the Seton Hall Law School Alumni Association.
Akin has taught International Criminal Law in the Seton Hall Law/American University in Cairo summer program in Cairo, Egypt and taught International Criminal Law and Peacemaking in addition to Peacekeeping In Contemporary World at the Seton Hall University School of Diplomacy And International Relations where she was 2005 Adjunct Faculty Of The Year. For several years she taught Criminal Trial Practice at Seton Hall Law School and has lectured and presented widely in the areas of trial advocacy, international law, human rights, media and persuasion, publishing/literary ventures and criminal trial preparation to lawyers, students, bar groups and to a wide variety of businesses and other citizens on various topics.
Ms. Akin has been a periodic guest commentator on Court TV, MSNBC, Inside The Law,(PBS) NJN (New Jersey Network); UPN 9 News and CN8 It’s Your Call. She covered the delivery of the acquittal of O.J. Simpson for America’s Talking and discussed the reaction of African American Women to the verdict on Rivera Live. She was MSNBC’s political commentator during the 2000 Republican and Democratic National Conventions and the 2000 Presidential Election. She is a frequent panelist/lecturer and seminar producer on issues concerning the trial bar and in particular, International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Wanda is also counsel to three publishing houses as well as authors and writers in literary matters. She has appeared on TODAY, Good Morning America, Larry King Live, Entertainment Tonight and New York’s NewsChannel 4 with respect to cases and with clients on literary matters.
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“The Women’s Political Caucus of NJ, Latina Civic PAC, PAM’s List, leaders from a coalition of Black Women, and the Democratic Task Force of the Bipartisan Coalition for Women’s Appointments applaud the passage and signing of A5950/S4004. This legislation will establish two databases that will document the gender and race of elected officials from the municipal level up and all those appointed to state boards and commissions. If this data can be updated on an annual basis the political parties, legislators, the Governor and the general public can have a full picture of who is serving in government at every level. With that knowledge our hope is that decisions about who gets appointed and who runs can be made with an eye to ensuring that more women and residents from historically underrepresented communities have equal opportunities to serve in positions of power and influence. The Coalition of Women’s Organization collaborated with former Senator Loretta Weinberg, Senator Nellie Pou, Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter, the NJ Legislative Latino Caucus and the NJ Legislative Black Caucus to draft the legislation and fund the effort.”
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Women's Political Caucus of New Jersey
honors
Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald
Legislative District 6
Good Guy Award
Assemblyman Lou Greenwald has represented New Jersey’s 6th Legislative District since 1996. He currently serves as the Assembly Majority Leader. During his tenure in the Assembly, Majority Leader Greenwald has led the fight on many key initiatives. He was the architect of the 2003 legislation to increase competition in New Jersey’s broken auto insurance market, which stopped a ballooning crisis in New Jersey and significantly increased the number of auto insurers in the State. Additionally, he was the lead sponsor on recent legislation to expand the use of design-build for New Jersey construction contracts, aimed to ensure greater efficiency and effectiveness for the state’s procurement process. As a supporter of cancer research and trying to find a cure, the Majority Leader helped in bringing a branch of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey to South Jersey, ensuring South Jersey cancer patients would not have to cross the Delaware River just to get the treatment they needed. He also played an integral role in protecting charity care funding for our State’s hospitals, and he led the fight to get students vaccinated for meningitis before college. A leader on health care policy, Majority Leader Greenwald successfully fought to ensure all women in New Jersey continue to have access to affordable healthcare services, which were jeopardized by the federal government’s Title X “gag” order. Additionally, he was a critical advocate for legislation to create a state-wide healthcare insurance exchange, so that residents of New Jersey can purchase affordable healthcare coverage.
Majority Leader Greenwald has been a champion of the effort to reduce gun violence. He authored laws that, among other things, limited ammunition magazines to 10 rounds, banned-armor piercing ammunition, and closed the background check loophole. Recognizing that gun violence is a public health crisis, he also championed laws to stem cycles of gun violence through hospital-based violence intervention programs, which has gained broad support from gun control advocates and physicians alike.
Most recently, with New Jersey gripped by the impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Majority Leader Greenwald fought to support Main Street businesses by sponsoring legislation authorizing the Economic Development Authority to award millions in grants and loans to struggling small businesses. He also sponsored a law which prevented potential billion-dollar unemployment payroll tax increases, to allow business owners to better recover from the economic fallout of the pandemic.
The Majority Leader has been widely honored and recognized for his legislative leadership and dedication to public service. He has received the Legislator of the Year award from the Southern New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, the South Jerseyan of the Year award from the Walter Rand Institute, the New Jersey Elected Official of the Year award from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Consortium, the Standing Ovation Award from the South Jersey Cultural Alliance, and the Legislative Champion Award from the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research.
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