Jennifer DeSena

Jennifer DeSena is the 38th Supervisor of the Town of North Hempstead, her first time holding elective office. Before running for office, Ms. DeSena was an attorney and leader of nonprofit organizations supporting family health and safety.

During her legal career, Ms. DeSena protected the public as an Enforcement Attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to that, she worked on complex insurance litigation. Most recently, she served as Executive Director of the Manhasset Coalition Against Substance Abuse, educating and empowering parents to protect their families from alcohol/drug abuse and unsupervised access to social media.

Ms. DeSena marked a number of significant accomplishments during her first year in office, including delivering the first tax cut for Town residents in at least a decade, road repaving, and reducing the Town’s borrowing and debt. She also directed the Town’s government access TV channel, NHTV, to begin rebroadcasting town board meetings daily, something that had never been done in NHTV’s 15-year history.

In 2022, Ms. DeSena established the Town’s Substance Misuse Advisory Council. She has worked diligently to meet the opioid and fentanyl poisoning crisis head-on through free Narcan training seminars and partnerships with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Attorney’s Office Eastern District of New York.

Ms. DeSena promotes volunteerism as a way for adults and youth to improve their self-esteem and mental health. She has served as an officer of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, in several ministries at St. Mary’s Church in Manhasset, and is a past Board Member and General Counsel for the Manhasset Women’s Coalition Against Breast Cancer.

For her community service and advocacy, Ms. DeSena has received numerous recognitions, including being named to the May Newburger Women’s Roll of Honor in 2020. She was recently recognized as one of the 2022 Power Women of Long Island by Schnepps Media, a 2023 “Wonderful Woman of Leadership” by the Westbury/New Cassel NAACP, and an honoree of the Indo-American Association for Change.

Ms. DeSena is a graduate of Boston College and St. John’s University Law School. She resides in Manhasset with her husband, Ralph, sons Robert and Michael, now college students, and their dog, Sandy. In her spare time, she is an avid runner and triathlete.