Jewel Williams Johnson

Jewel Williams Johnson proudly serves as the Westchester County Legislator representing the 8th Legislative District. Re-elected in 2025, she is currently serving her third term on the Westchester County Board of Legislators, having succeeded her mother, the Honorable Alfreda Williams, in 2021.

Legislator Williams Johnson is a proven fiscal and policy leader. From her first term through the conclusion of her second, she chaired the Committee on Budget & Appropriations, becoming the first freshman legislator in the Board’s history to assume that leadership role. Since joining the Board, she has also chaired a committee overseeing some aspect of the County’s health portfolio.

She currently serves as Chair of the Committee on Health, Vice Chair of the Committee on Social Services, Disabilities and Human Rights, and Vice Chair of the Committee on Parks and Environment. She also serves on the Committees on Budget & Appropriations and Litigation, formerly Law & Major Contracts, as well as the Families Task Force.

In addition to her legislative responsibilities, Legislator Williams Johnson serves on the Westchester County Board of Health and the Westchester County Community Services Board, helping to guide public health, behavioral health, disability, and human-service strategies countywide.

Legislator Williams Johnson is actively engaged in national and statewide networks dedicated to effective county government, public health, women’s leadership, equitable economic development, and the advancement of Black elected officials. Her affiliations include the National Association of Counties, the New York State Association of Counties, the National Association of Black County Officials, the National Foundation for Women Legislators, the National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women, Local Progress New York, the New York State Public Health Association, and the National Association of Local Boards of Health.

Through the New York State Association of Counties, she serves on both the Medicaid & Human Services Standing Committee and the Public Health & Mental Health Standing Committee, ensuring that Westchester’s priorities are represented in statewide policy discussions. She has also been nominated for selection as a NewDEAL Leader, a national network recognizing innovative, pro-growth progressive state and local elected officials.

As Chair of the Committee on Health, Legislator Williams Johnson ensures that the Board addresses pressing and emerging health issues affecting Westchester residents. Topics examined under her leadership have included:

• Mental health access, equity, and insurance parity
• Digital inequities and their effect on health disparities
• Domestic violence prevention
• The public health harms of tobacco, flavored tobacco, and vaping products
• Infant suffocation prevention and education
• Baby formula shortages and market monopolies
• Pediatric firearm injuries as a public health crisis
• Long COVID
• Political polarization and its effect on personal relationships
• Suicide prevention
• Veterans’ healthcare and denied Medicare claims
• Prescription drug affordability
• Maternal health disparities and birth equity
• Food insecurity among college students

Legislator Williams Johnson has also convened five Maternal Health and Birth Equity Town Halls in partnership with Sister to Sister International, bringing together mothers, healthcare professionals, advocates, and community leaders to confront disparities in maternal outcomes and advance meaningful solutions. Through these forums, she has helped elevate birth equity as a countywide priority and championed the expansion of evidence-based practices, including TeamBirth, throughout Westchester’s healthcare system.

Through Legislator Williams Johnson’s sustained advocacy, County budgets restored funding to reopen community mental health clinics that had been closed in 2011. The first clinic has since reopened in White Plains, with additional reopenings anticipated as federal support and County fiscal conditions allow.

Legislator Williams Johnson has also championed the establishment of the Board of Legislators’ Non-Profit Task Force, recognizing nonprofit and community-based organizations as essential partners in delivering services, creating opportunity, and strengthening Westchester’s social and economic infrastructure. She further convened the District 8 Community Impact Alliance, bringing together nonprofit, faith-based, civic, philanthropic, and government leaders to expand access to resources, technical assistance, funding opportunities, and collaborative partnerships for organizations serving the community.

In her first year on the Board, Legislator Williams Johnson was the primary sponsor of two landmark measures: the Gun Safety Signage Law and the Flavored Tobacco Ban. More recently, she ushered through the County’s legislative ban on camouflage vapes and is advancing forthcoming legislation to regulate the retail storage of flavored vaping products.

Deeply committed to public service and community engagement, Legislator Williams Johnson is known for being accessible, responsive, and genuinely attentive to the needs of her constituents. She is a past president of the Westchester Black Women’s Political Caucus, Inc.; founder of the WBWPC Run Lead Strategy Laboratory; and a district leader with the Greenburgh Democratic Committee.

Her extensive civic, educational, and community involvement also includes service as:

• Former Vice President, White Plains-Greenburgh NAACP
• Former Member, Westchester County Women’s Advisory Board
• Former Mentor Program Coordinator, Highview Elementary School
• Former President of the Women’s Ministry and Sunday School Teacher, Bethel Baptist Church
• Former Advisory Board Member, WCLA – Choice Matters
• Former Member, Town of Greenburgh Arts and Culture Board
• Guest Lecturer on Politics, Lehman College
• Occasional Contributor, The Westchester County Press

Professionally, Jewel brings more than 14 years of administrative experience at Columbia University Irving Medical Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

A proud product of the Greenburgh Central School District, Legislator Williams Johnson was raised in Greenburgh, where she resides with her husband, Lacy Johnson; her mother; and their beloved 14-year-old Dalmatian, Jasper. She considers it a profound blessing to serve the community she has always called home.