Joan Grangenois-Thomas

Joan Grangenois-Thomas has been a Trustee for the Village of Port Chester since 2019, where she is the first Black woman to serve.

Ms. Grangenois-Thomas credits young people and the endorsement of several unions for her victory. She is now in her second term and was appointed Deputy Mayor.

Ms. Grangenois-Thomas is a longstanding community activist. From 2016 to 2020, she led the Port Chester-Rye Branch of the NAACP and Sustainable Port Chester Alliance, a coalition of organizations and community members working to secure responsible development, affordable housing, good jobs, and safeguarding human and civil rights in Port Chester. Ms. Grangenois-Thomas also leads an interfaith, social justice book club called Read, Talk, Act (RTA), which started after the horrific attack on churchgoers at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina. In RTA, participants read books to help understand the ways racism and discrimination have taken root, talk about how the texts challenge our assumptions, and push us to take action to affect change.

Dedicated to the betterment of her community, Ms. Grangenois-Thomas has been a member of several Port Chester School District Board committees. Like many parents, she became active while her children attended elementary school, and they remain her inspiration. She recognized early on that she had privileges that many other parents didn't have. When she advocated for her own children, she was always aware of those parents who were unable to do so for their own.

Ms. Grangenois-Thomas was a facilitator with the ADL in their WORLD OF DIFFERENCE Institute program for more than a decade. She had an early role in the Village’s search for a new electoral system, pushing for an open and inclusive process.

Ms. Grangenois-Thomas has been Principal of JGT Public Relations since 2014, where she works with nonprofit and social enterprise organizations to amplify their message and mission to their desired audiences. For two years, she served as the District Director for Congressman Mondaire Jones.

In 2014, Ms. Grangenois-Thomas was awarded a proclamation by the County's Human Rights Commission for her swift response to racially charged flyers distributed in town, meant to sow division between the Black and Hispanic communities.