Annissa Essaibi George

They relocated to the United States in 1972, settling in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.

Essaibi George and her three siblings were raised Catholic while her father was a practicing Muslim.

After graduating from Boston Technical High School (now the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics & Science), Essaibi George attended Bentley College, a business school in Waltham, Mass., for two years, before transferring to Boston University, where she was a political science major.

While in college, she interned in the Washington, D.C., office of Max Baucus.

After graduating from B.U., she worked as the student services liaison at the Boston Private Industry Council.

Annissa Essaibi George (born December 12, 1973) is an American politician who served as an at-large member of the Boston City Council.

Annissa Essaibi George was born on December 12, 1973, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Her parents met while studying in Paris.

Her mother was born to Polish parents in a displaced persons camp in Germany but grew up in Boston.

Her father, Ezzeddine, was from Tunisia.

She continued her education by earning a master's degree in education from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, later teaching social studies electives at East Boston High School from 2001 to 2014.

Essaibi George is affiliated with the Democratic Party.

A Democrat, Essaibi George entered electoral politics by running unsuccessfully for an at-large seat on the Boston City Council in 2013.

She first ran unsuccessfully for Boston City Council in the 2013 at-large race.

First elected in 2015, she served on the council from 2016 to 2022.

She was a candidate in the 2021 Boston mayoral election.

She placed second in the nonpartisan primary, but was defeated in the general election by fellow city councilor Michelle Wu.

Since November 2022, Essaibi George has served as the president of the Board of Directors of the nonprofit organization Big Sister Boston.

Born and raised in Boston, Essaibi George began her career as a student services liaison at the Boston Private Industry Council.

After receiving a master's in education, she later entered the field of education and worked as a social studies teacher at East Boston High School.

Two years later, she won election to an at-large seat in the 2015 Boston City Council election.

Essaibi George's successful 2015 campaign, which first elected her to the Boston City Council, focused on social services, including mental health counseling and services for the homeless.

She founded the Boston City Council's Homelessness, Mental Health, and Recovery Committee in 2016, which was later disestablished by in 2020 during the council presidency of Kim Janey to the disagreement of Essaibi George.

Essaibi George organized needle clean-up drives.

She opposed the idea of the city establishing supervised consumption sites (in the mold of supervised injection sites) as a response to public safety concerns regarding drug use.

Martin J. Valencia of The Boston Globe partially credited Essaibi George's advocacy as a city councilor as contributing to the city acting to supply each of the city's public schools with a full-time social worker and a full-time nurse.

In January 2021, Essaibi George announced her candidacy in that year's election for mayor of Boston.

Her candidacy was considered "centrist" in comparison to that of the other leading candidates.

Edge placed second in the election's nonpartisan primary, outperforming then-acting mayor Kim Janey and other candidates including Andrea Campbell and John Barros.

She faced Michelle Wu in the general election, and was defeated by Wu by a landslide.

Essaibi George became an at-large member of the Boston City Council in January 2016 after she was elected in the 2015 election.

In 2016, she established the council's Homelessness, Mental Health, and Recovery committee.

She was reelected to the Boston City Council in both 2017 and 2019.

On the Boston City Council, she was regarded to be an ally of Mayor Marty Walsh, who had been an acquaintance of Essaibi George dating back to their childhoods.

Having been first elected on a social services-centered platform, Essaibi George undertook work in that realm.

She was re-elected in both November 2017 and November 2019.

While on the City Council, Essaibi George was considered an ally of then-Mayor Marty Walsh, whom she has known since childhood.

Essaibi George chaired committees, including both the Committee on Education and the Committee on Homelessness, Mental Health, and Recovery.

She was critical of Kim Janey's move in 2020, as city council president, to disestablish this committee.

For several years, Essaibi George proposed ordinances requiring pharmacies to provide safe sharps waste disposal.