Tracy Mitrano is a cybersecurity expert, teacher, and mother. She was born and raised in Western New York and has lived in the Southern Tier and the Finger Lakes throughout her adult life. Tracy is running to bring economic opportunity to the 23rd District, which has been left behind for too long. Her election will also bring cybersecurity expertise to Congress, where Tracy will work to ensure the integrity of our elections and the security of our digital borders.
Growing up in Rochester and helping her father in his downtown restaurant, Tracy learned firsthand the importance of community and hard work. From a young age, Tracy learned how crucial it is to have access to good healthcare. Her older brother is developmentally disabled and blind, and when her mother became critically ill, her family nearly went bankrupt paying medical bills.
The first member of her family to go to college, Tracy graduated with a B.A. from the University of Rochester. She went on to receive her M.A. and Ph.D. in American History from Binghamton University, as well as her J.D. from Cornell Law School. Her education made her deeply appreciative of the excellent schools that New York State has to offer—and she believes that our current generation of young people should be able to attend these and others without incurring lifelong debt.
Tracy’s education prepared her for a career as an educator, lawyer, and cybersecurity expert. As the Director of Information Technology Policy at Cornell University from 2001 to 2014, she facilitated some of higher education’s first-generation information security policies. Tracy’s expertise is widely recognized in higher education, government, and the private sector.
She has acted as an expert for Internet2, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Delaware, Tufts University, SafeGov, the New York Public Library, and many others. Her work has given her significant federal policymaking experience, preparing her to serve as a Congresswoman in a district that desperately needs someone who can immediately get to work in Washington to develop legislative responses to the challenges facing NY-23.
Tracy is the proud mother of two adult sons raised in the district. She currently resides in Penn Yan.