Veronica Airey-Wilson

City council member Veronica Airey-Wilson, former deputy mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, was born on August 4, 1953, in Kingston, Jamaica, to Narciso and Clariana Airey. Moving to Hartford in 1960, Airey-Wilson attended both Brackett Elementary School and Arsenal Elementary School. Airey-Wilson was a member of the National Honor Society and captain of the cheerleading team at Weaver High School from which she graduated in 1972. Attending Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York on a full scholarship, Airey-Wilson graduated in 1975.

In 1976, Airey-Wilson was hired by Aetna where she rose from claims adjuster to equal employment opportunity counselor. Leaving Aetna in 1985, Airey-Wilson started her own business, Verjen Boutique, in Hartford’s Richardson Mall; she later returned to the insurance business by opening an AllState Insurance Company franchise, which eventually became the Airey-Wilson Insurance Group, a full service financial agency.

In 1994, Airey-Wilson was elected to the Hartford Court of Common Council, where she was the first Jamaican to serve as the city’s deputy mayor; in 2003, she served as co-chair of the Youth Workforce Development Task Force. Airey-Wilson has served as an executive member of the Capital Region Council of Government Joint Policy Steering Committee; chair of the Republican State Convention; and an executive member of the Capital Region Council of Government Joint Policy Board. Airey-Wilson was vice president of the Association of Caribbean American Leaders and a member of the NAACP. In addition to her professional activities, Airey-Wilson has raised two children.