Two officials in Delaware County, a state representative, and a county council chairman, made the 2022 City and State Pennsylvania magazine’s Pennsylvania Forty Under 40 list, writes the City and State staff and freelance writer Hilary Danailova.

Jennifer O’Mara

Rep. O’Mara, 32, represents the 165^th District that includes Media, Morton and Swarthmore boroughs, as well as Springfield and Upper Providence townships.  

First elected in 2018, she’s the first woman to represent the 165^th and the youngest female Democrat ever elected to the state House of Representatives.

She’s been named one of America’s 11 Most Accessible Legislators by the Town Hall project.

O’Mara is co-founder of the bipartisan Student Debt Caucus.

 “I want to make sure that when I’m done working in the public sphere,” she says, “that I feel like I’ve done enough to leave behind a better world for my daughter.”

Monica Taylor

Monica Taylor, 39, is the chairman of the Delaware County Council, and has been on council since 2020.

She has a newborn, two school-age children and is a health sciences professor at St. Joseph’s University.

Taylor led efforts to create the county’s first health department and worked to de-privatize the county prison.

Read more at City & State Pennsylvania about these under Forty under 40 successes.