Christine McGrath
Commissioner At Large
Christine McGrath has called Verona home since 2010, where she and her husband, Jess, are raising their two sons. They chose Verona for its strong schools, walkable downtown, and deep commitment to community.
A longtime volunteer and civic leader, Christine has spent 15 years giving back to Verona and Essex County.
● She led the successful advocacy effort to renovate the Verona Public Library and co-founded Verona Fights Hunger Week, an annual initiative supporting local families in need.
● She has served as President of both the Junior Woman’s Club of Verona—a 100-year-old service organization—and the Friends of the Verona Public Library.
● In addition, Christine spent more than seven years addressing food insecurity in Essex County as a Board Member of the Human Needs Food Pantry of Montclair.
Christine has also been a grassroots leader in gun violence prevention. She served for five years as Essex County Co-Lead for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and held a seat on the organization’s state leadership board. During her tenure, the organization experienced record growth during her tenure. Christine helped lead the group’s election efforts supporting now-Governor Mikie Sherrill’s first congressional campaign. She advocated for better New Jersey Laws with state legislative leaders, leading to Governor Phil Murphy’s signing of a comprehensive package of gun violence prevention laws.
Christine has served on the Verona Town Council since 2019. Christine was the top vote getter in both her 2019 and 2023 elections, the only woman in town history to do so. She is known for clear communication, transparency, and fostering strong resident engagement. On Council, she has championed inclusive government by expanding public input, launching a town-wide e-newsletter, and using resident surveys to improve recreation services and downtown planning. She communicates consistently with residents before and after every Council meeting to ensure meaningful opportunities for feedback before decisions are made.
Among her key accomplishments on Council,
● Christine spearheaded the creation of Verona’s Multicultural
Inclusion and Accessibility Advisory Committee—a first-of-its-kind initiative that has led to grant funding and new inclusive programming across the community.
● She has also voted to preserve open space, remove PFAS contamination from local drinking wells, and supported the renovation of several vital recreation assets throughout Verona.
Most recently, Christine became Chair of the Verona Democratic Committee, where she helped deliver a ten-point improvement for Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill compared to the 2021 gubernatorial results and increasing Democratic plurality by 2.5 times. She did this by running for the campaign a strong door knocking campaign in both her community and surrounding West Essex, powered by volunteers who came back repeatedly to volunteer in Verona.
Christine is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has an MBA From Stern School of Business at New York University. She is a 2025 graduate of Emerge - NJ. In 2024, she was a member of the NJ Delegation on the Platform Committee for the Democratic National Convention.
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