Svante Myrick

Raised in the town of Earlville, New York, Myrick was elected to the Ithaca Common Council in 2007 while he was a student at Cornell University.

After graduating from Cornell in 2009, Myrick ran for mayor of Ithaca in 2011; he defeated two candidates in the Democratic primary and won the general election with 54.9% of the vote.

[7] Myrick then studied communication at Cornell University, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and a leader of the Interfraternity Council and Quill and Dagger society.

He began his public-service career though volunteer activities while a student, including working with the REACH program (Raising Education Attainment Challenge) and the Ithaca Youth Council.

[9] When he took office in January 2008 (still aged 20), Myrick became the youngest alderperson in the history of the City of Ithaca; he began serving on the Common Council while still a student at Cornell.

[28][better source needed] On June 6, 2013, Myrick delivered the keynote address at the 13th Annual New York State Supportive Housing Conference.

[31] The City's adopted fiscal year 2014 budget successfully closed the deficit Myrick had inherited in 2012 and brought about the lowest tax levy increase in over a decade.

Administration officials discussed ways in which to continue partnering with cities to raise wages and incomes, to strengthen the standing of working families in a new economy and to bolster and expand the middle class.

[36] Myrick has said that his father's struggles with drug addiction helped inspire him to create a committee to confront the heroin problem.

[41] On April 19 and 22, 2013, Myrick joined forces with student organizers of the Youth Power Summit 2013 at Ithaca College Center for Business and Sustainable Enterprise, a climate justice convergence for young people from Tompkins County.

[45][46] On January 5, 2022, Myrick announced that he had accepted an offer to serve as Executive Director of People For the American Way.