Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte-Hermelyn

District 42

Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn is the Assemblymember and State Committee Woman/District Leader for New York State’s 42ndAssembly District representing Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood and Ditmas Park in Brooklyn. She is the first Haitian-American woman elected in New York City and the first engineer elected to the New York State Legislature. Bichotte Hermelyn is also chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, making her the first Black woman to lead a county party in New York City.

She chairs both the Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs) Subcommittee, and the Task Force on Women's Issues in the New York State Assembly and serves on several other committees.

Bichotte Hermelyn is moving the agenda forward for women across the state. She has used her platform to champion reproductive health care justice, reproductive rights, economic justice, access to affordable child care and ending violence against women. The Jonah Bichotte Cowan bill, a law she introduced in honor of her late son that requires hospitals across the state to treat women experiencing preterm labor, was signed by the governor after her advocacy for Black mothers and babies, who suffer extreme disparities in care and outcomes. A petition in support of her bills mandating insurance companies and providers screen for a condition known as cervical insufficiency, which is a leading cause of preterm labor, garnered more than 50,000 signatures, and the support of maternal health care advocacy groups. In addition to championing reproductive health justice, she uses her platform to shed light on the gender pay gap and to examine and reverse the devastating inequities the pandemic caused women in the workforce, both issues that disproportionately affect women of color. The assemblymember also sits on Governor Kathy Hochul’s Advisory Council on Domestic Violence.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped open one of the first drive-thru testing sites in the city and championed bills to jump-start the economy and improve equity in education. She also introduced election reform legislation, including suggesting the redesign of the ballot envelope that would add a “big red X” at the signature line. She was also instrumental in passing an extension to the Child Victims Act, landmark legislation that protects victims of childhood sexual assault.

Bichotte Hermelyn's leadership helped establish the Little Haiti Cultural and Business District and the CUNY Haitian Studies Institute, both in Brooklyn.

She holds an MBA from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management, and four undergraduate degrees in mathematics and engineering. The assemblymember is currently a Juris Doctorate candidate at Brooklyn Law School.