26. Tracey Edwards

Earlier this year Tracey Edwards moved up the corporate telephone pole, so to speak, to become head of the New York North West sales team, which serves Verizon customers from Staten Island to Long Island to upstate New York. She’s now overseeing 6,000 employees responsible for sales as well as operations. Not bad for a former summer hire operator who started in 1979. Edwards has been key to expanding the Fios all-fiber network, giving that cable company monopoly a run for its money. Besides her executive role, Edwards is a major role model for her community, serving as the Long Island regional director for the NAACP, chairing the Suffolk County chapter of the National Council of Black Women and being a member of the advisory board of C.W. Post College, to name a few. From our businesses to our homes, Edwards works tirelessly to keep Long Island connected.