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Freeholder Tahesha Way

Tahesha Way was appointed to the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders on July 6, 2006. She is the mother of three children, Fallon (9), Farrah (6), Faythe (3) and is married to Charles, a former fullback with the New York Football Giants, who now works as the Giants’ Director of Player Development. The Way Family resides in Wayne Township.

Freeholder Way grew up in the Bronx, New York and is the daughter of parents who worked for the New York City Transit Authority. Tahesha’s father was a bus driver and her mother was a railroad clerk. Tahesha attended Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx and earned an undergraduate degree in English and American Literature from Brown University. While attending Brown, she served as the President of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, was the Vice President of the NAACP, taught religious education and was a radio announcer for WBRU-FM.

As a student at University of Virginia School of Law, Way served as a law clerk for the Virginia Legal Aid Society in Charlottesville, Virginia, the United Steel Workers of America in Pittsburgh, PA and for Polygram Records in New York City. In 1996 she graduated from Virginia's law school and worked for Court TV as a Production Assistant where she provided legal research, edited segments as well as wrote scripts and trial stories for the Executive Producer of the “Prime Time Justice Show”, which aired daily in primetime.

Also while attending UVA School of Law, the Freeholder served as the Social Chair for the Black Law Students Association, acted as a Peer Advisor, was a Big Sister with Action for Better Living and was member of the Articles Review Board for the Virginia Environmental Law Journal.

She was admitted to the New Jersey State Bar in 1998. From 2001 through 2005 Way was an English professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck. In addition, Way became an associate at the law firm of Steven A. Varano in Totowa where she currently practices.

Within the community Freeholder Tahesha Way has supported organizations like the United Way, Starlight Children’s Foundation, and the Lupus Foundation. She is also a member of the New York Football Giants Wives’ Organization and Community Working Group. Way and her family attend the Hawthorne Gospel Church.

In 2006, Freeholder Way will join the Health Education and Community Affairs and Human Services Committees.