PA Senator Gene Yaw
PA’s 23rd District
Senator Yaw serves on a number of Boards and Commissions including as Chairman of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a member of the Chesapeake
Bay Commission, a member of the Environmental Quality Board, a member of the Pennsylvania Aggregate Advisory Board, and a member of the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority.
Senator Yaw is a member of the Lycoming Law Association and Pennsylvania Bar Association, Pennsylvania Association for Justice, and a former member of the Board of Directors of Susquehanna Legal Services. He serves as “Of Counsel” with the McCormick Law Firm in Williamsport, a prominent firm which has been in continuous existence for 150 years.
A U.S. Army veteran, Yaw enlisted and went on to graduate from the United States Artillery and Missile Officer Candidate School in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He served an overseas tour of duty as an artillery officer and was honorably discharged as a 1st Lieutenant.
He graduated from Montoursville High School, attended Bucknell University, and earned degrees from Lycoming College and the American University School of Law in Washington, D.C.
Senator Yaw has coached Little League Baseball and coached and refereed for the American Youth Soccer Organization. He is a member of the National Rifle Association, Ducks Unlimited, the Nittany Lion Club, the Williamsport-Lycoming Chamber of Commerce and the Central PA Chamber of Commerce. He received the 2010 Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award from the Susquehanna Council, Boy Scouts of America, the 2011 Lycoming College Alumni of the Year Award, the 2011 CAPPA Community Partner Award, the Central Pennsylvania State of Israel Bonds 2012 Israel Unity Award, the 2013 Pennsylvania Winery Association Industry Supporter Award, the 2014 Pennsylvania College of Technology Centennial Leadership Award, the 2015 Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health Legislator of the Year Award, the 2019 Pennsylvania Water Environment Association Public Official of the Year Award and the 2021 Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts Legislator Leadership Award.
Most recently, Senator Yaw received the 2023 WVIA Good Neighbor Award, the 2023 Marcellus Shale Coalition Shale Gas Advocate Award, and was selected as the 2023 Clean Water Champion by the Choose Clean Water Coalition. Yaw has also been recognized by the National Federation of Independent Business as a Guardian of Small Business for several legislative sessions and by Americans for Prosperity – Pennsylvania for his consistent conservative legislative voting record. In May 2023, Sen. Yaw was named to the City and State Pennsylvania 2023 Energy and Environment Power 100 list.
A Loyalsock Township resident, Yaw is married to Ann S. Pepperman, Esquire. Together they have two children, Scott and Mackenzie, and four grandchildren.
from Temple University, an M.S. in Strategic and Digital Communications from Drexel University, and completed the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executives in State and Local Government program. In 2023, he was appointed by President Joe Biden to chair the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans. Representative Kenyatta is a barrier-breaking public figure, becoming the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color and one of the youngest people elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2018. In 2022, he became the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color to seek a U.S. Senate seat in American history. In April 2024, he made history again as the first openly LGBTQ+ person ever nominated for statewide office by a major political party in Pennsylvania when he became the Democratic nominee for Auditor General. In the general election, he earned nearly 3.1 million votes, the second-highest vote total for any Democrat on the ticket that year. In February 2025 he was elected as Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Throughout his career, Representative Kenyatta has been a vocal proponent of protecting workers’ rights and rooting out government corruption and waste. He holds multiple legislative leadership roles, including as a member of the powerful State Government Committee with oversight of state agencies and elections, where he chairs the Subcommittee on Government Operations; Chair of the Financial Services and Banking Subcommittee in the Commerce Committee; and as a member of the Finance and Judiciary Committees. In 2020, he was chosen to give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention alongside a group of other ‘Rising Stars, ’ and in 2024, he returned to the DNC as an individual speaker, continuing to represent the next generation of Democratic leadership. His groundbreaking political career and personal life have been the subject of two award-winning documentaries, including an Al Roker-produced feature-length film, Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn. Representative Kenyatta lives in North Philadelphia with his husband, Dr. Matthew Kenyatta, and their dog, Cleo.
high school and college. Inspired to do the same for others, Ed Gainey discovered in college that an effective government can be a powerful tool to fight injustice and uplift communities. As a State Representative in Harrisburg he was on the front line fighting for working families, and as Mayor of Pittsburgh he’ll work everyday to make Pittsburgh a city where all can belong and contribute. Ed and his wife Michelle have three children and live in the Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood of Pittsburgh.