Social worker and fellow alum from Columbia School of Social Work, Emily Ball Jabbour, decided to throw her hat into the ring as a candidate for mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey. She was elected to the Hoboken City Council in 2017 and re-elected to a second four-year term in 2021. During her time on the City Council, she was employed as a Performance Officer for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), a position she held for 18 years until recent layoffs at the direction of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which was not the impetus for her decision to run for mayor.
Taking on this challenge was not a decision she made lightly. While never doubting her ability to do an effective job, she was concerned about a campaign’s impact on her family, her husband, Peter Jabbour, and their daughters, 12-year-old Katheine and 9-year-old Brynn, who attend Hoboken public schools. Peter, a lifelong resident of New Jersey, serves as regional general counsel for the Americas at Maersk, a multinational shipping and logistics company. Encouragement from friends and colleagues convinced her she was the right person for the job.
What sets Emily apart in this election isn’t just her political experience — it’s how she leads. As a social worker with years of public service, Emily embodies the core values of our profession: empathy, equity, and active listening. She sees social work not just as a career, but as a political asset. “I meet people where they are,” Emily often says. “I treat them as the experts in their own lives.” Rather than lecturing constituents, she listens — not only at council meetings, but through social media, direct outreach, and informal conversations around the city. Parking, for instance, remains a top issue in Hoboken, and Emily continues to engage constituents on how to address it.
Emily has also come to understand the weight of her voice. “I appreciated the power of my words early in my tenure as a council member,” she recalls. “I realized that the things I say spread through the community faster and with more impact than I expected.” This realization changed how she approached her role — not with fear, but with a newfound sense of responsibility. She understood the importance of being transparent and open-minded. Even when residents disagree with her, she makes space for conversation, welcoming dialogue rather than deflecting dissent. It’s a style deeply rooted in her training and resonates in a city as diverse and dynamic as Hoboken.
Now that she has committed, she needs the support of social workers to take our values, principles, and policy preferences to Hoboken City Hall and provide for the residents she has known and served since moving there in the fall of 2008, when she began engaging with Hoboken civic organizations. She was a mentor with True Mentors and a liaison to the HOPES Program for the Brandt Parent Consortium. She founded the Hudson County Chapter of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to preventing gun violence, and actively supports the Hoboken Public Education Foundation. She also regularly volunteers with the Hoboken Food Pantry.
Emily graduated from Columbia University’s School of Social Work in 2006 with a Master of Science in Social Work degree (MSSW), concentrating in policy and minoring in law, following her receipt of a B.A. in psychology from Boston College in 2003. Upon graduating, she received the prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship, which included a six-month assignment as a Health Fellow with the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Health Subcommittee. She is an active member of the CSSW Dean’s Advisory Committee and was a 2017 recipient of the Columbia University Alumni Medal for her work in community building.
CRISP’s primary focus is on increasing social workers’ presence in the political arena. The theme for our 2025 March events was: ‘Our Voices Matter: Reaffirming the Need for Social Workers in Political Arenas.’ In a crowded mayoral field with four other candidates, Emily Jabbour offers something distinct: a politics of presence, empathy, and service. Her candidacy represents not just a personal milestone but a broader opportunity to reimagine local government through the lens of social work values, where listening is governance, and community voice is policy. As Hoboken looks to the future, Emily’s campaign invites voters to see leadership differently: not as domination, but as collaboration, not as power over, but as power with. She’s not just running for office — she’s running with a purpose.