Senator Samra G. Brouk
Senator Samra G. Brouk represents the residents of New York's 55th District in Monroe County, including East and West Irondequoit, Webster, Penfield, Perinton, Fairport, Pittsford, East Rochester, and the eastern portion of the City of Rochester. She serves as Chair of the Senate Mental Health Committee and is a champion for children, families, and our aging adults.
A lifelong resident of Rochester, Senator Brouk grew up in the city and surrounding suburbs before she went to Williams College and earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. After college, Senator Brouk knew she wanted to be a community leader. This desire led her to join the United States Peace Corps as a health educator in rural Guatemala. After completing this meaningful work, Senator Brouk dedicated a decade to building educational, environmental, and senior services initiatives in her local community and across New York State.
As early as her first term, Senator Brouk knew that youth mental health was becoming a crisis in our state. Through virtual roundtables and her Youth Mental Health Advisory Board, Senator Brouk centered the concerns of young people, helped students learn about the legislative process and discussed their mental health needs– she is continuing this successful program with her second Advisory Board cohort. Senator Brouk takes the needs of young adults seriously, as she gathered feedback from college students’ mental health needs when pushing for the 988/Student Lifeline Act, which was recently signed into law and puts the suicide and crisis lifeline number on all college ID– providing college students with a direct connection to lifesaving, compassionate care.
Senator Brouk also works to ensure our mothers and working families have the resources they need to thrive. To combat the mounting maternal mortality crisis, Senator Brouk fought to secure doula care for expecting mothers. Senator Brouk passed legislation for a community doula directory and ensured that doulas can be reimbursed through Medicaid. Working with colleagues, Senator Brouk also passed legislation to create a Maternal Mental Health Working Group dedicated to studying maternal mental health issues. For families, Senator Brouk delivered the largest aid increase our schools have ever seen, securing over a billion dollars in aid for schools in her district. She fights for childcare assistance; public health insurance coverage for all children up to six years old; mental health care and housing for our older adults, and ending elder abuse.
As a proponent of mental health reform, Senator Brouk is working to revolutionize New York State’s mental health and crisis response. Her legislation, Daniel’s Law, centers peer support and compassionate care when responding to individuals experiencing mental health crises. Senator Brouk also works hard to ensure annual COLA increases for our mental health workforce. In all her endeavors, Senator Brouk aims to uplift all of our community members and devise solutions for their most pressing problems.