21. Tracey Edwards

For Verizon, Tracey Edwards oversees more than 6,000 employees, handling customers from Staten Island to the East End. She’s come a long way since she began as a summer hire operator in 1979. And now in her first term as a Huntington Town Council member, she is responsible for more than 200,000 citizens, meeting their present needs and looking out for their future. Not bad for the daughter of a former officer on the town’s original police force. Edwards also finds time to serve as the Long Island Regional Director of the NAACP and on the board of the Long Island Association, as well as a member of the New York State Economic Development Council for Long Island. This dynamic Dix Hills matriarch—she’s got three kids and a couple of grandchildren—is well-versed in the issues that are key to her community’s quality of life: education and development. She was vice president of the Elwood School Board and chair of the Town of Huntington Planning Board. How she keeps smiling through all she does is a true testament to her indomitable spirit.