About Me
Elected in May of 2020, Peter currently serves as Councilor At-Large for the Township of Montclair.
About Peter
After serving in the administrations of two New York Governors, Peter served as Chief of Staff for both the Marketing and Human Resources divisions at American Express. In his time working for the State of New York, Peter helped pass a property tax cap, marriage equality, and gun control legislation. He also ran the New York rent stabilization office and the Hurricane Sandy command center. In his time at American Express, among other things, Peter helped lead the Small Business Saturday and Shop Small teams.
Peter currently serves on the Boards of The Montclair Foundation, the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition, and the PSEG Sustainability Institute. He is a member of the League of Women Voters, NAACP, Rotary Club, Montclair Film and UNICO and serves as the President of Out Montclair.
More About Peter
Peter Yacobellis has lived in Montclair since 2017 with his fiancé Benjamin. A New York native, Peter’s been active in Montclair since 2007 when he helped lead Garden State Equality when it was headquartered in the Unitarian Universalist on Church Street.
After studying business management and political science at Adelphi University on Long Island, Peter enrolled in a graduate program at Columbia University in environmental sustainability. He’s earned several business and leadership certificates in partnership with Harvard and American Express’s leadership program.
Peter is also an active member of the fitness community and a local artist whose work has been shown here in town. In 2009, Peter helped lead the national march on Washington for LGBTQ equality, which led to the enactment of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes law and the reversal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” something that impacted him personally when he was discharged from the U.S. Air Force basic training in 1998. In 2010, following the death of Tyler Clementi, Peter partnered with The Trevor Project to launch the largest LGBT volunteer network in the New York metro area – Trevor NextGen and chaired the Trevor Project’s Board of Directors Government Affairs committee.
Peter has had a lifetime of service, including being a search and rescue supply distributor at ground zero after 9/11 and helping set up the crisis hotline for victims of Hurricane Sandy in New York.
Elected in Spring of 2020, Peter continues to bring his public and private sector work experience and his ethos of service to bear in office as an at-large Member of the Montclair Township Council.
Learn more about Peter's Professional History
Check out the Town Hall events Peter has hosted
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