The primary for State Senate and Congress is now August 23, and in the next weeks I will be talking to candidates for both. I have asked them to answer the TCQ&A so they can add their own words. This is the first in the series for State Senate District 27.

As the mother of two school-aged children, Danyela Souza Egorov was appalled to see how children were treated during the pandemic. She had a child at PS 234, and the policies around the coronavirus drove her to run for office.

“I could go to the gym, I could go to a restaurant, but my son could not go to school,” said Danyela, who moved to Tribeca seven years ago. “Professional athletes could play without vaccines but child athletes could not. When I looked at the options for candidates, no one had done any work on behalf of our children during the pandemic.”

Danyela worked for a charter school association for a decade while living in California. Once she moved here, she worked for a Sunset Park charter focused on children who do not speak English at home. She is now a strategy advisor for the New York Charter School Association and was elected in July 2021 to the District 2 Community Education Council.

At CEC meetings, friends started asking if she would consider running for office, and the idea took hold. She had already seen how children had lost a year of education and the gaps in learning that resulted, especially on lower income children. “Any elementary principal will tell you that kids are not learning to read at the same age.”

And as an immigrant from Brazil, Danyela was accustomed to street violence. Every time she left her house there, she said, getting mugged was a possibility. So when she felt that same fear here in New York City, she added public safety to her platform. And her two big issues are connected: kids report feeling unsafe, and there has been a massive increase in weapons collected in schools.

“The communities being most affected too are the low-income ones,” she notes. “We need to fight for public safety, and we also need to fight for justice.”

Danyela came here to attend the Kennedy School at Harvard for public policy — just one step in a life built around education. Her mother grew up very poor in Brazil, yet she had access to a specialized program as a high schooler and went to college for pleasure when Danyela was a teenager. “I was always very passionate about education,” she said. “It has opened so many doors for me.”

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1. How long have you lived in the district? Where did you move from? Where are you originally from?
I have lived in the district for 7 years, we moved here from CA because we missed the city and want to be close to friends. I grew up in Brazil.

2. Married? Partnered? If so, what’s his/her name and occupation?
Married to Dimitri Egorov, he works in the financial industry.

3. Kids? Pets?
I have two boys: Dennis who is 9y and Max who is 4. We have a beagle called Urso (which means bear in Portuguese) and he is 12y.

4. Where do you live?
I live in Tribeca

5. What do you do for a living? Or, what did you do before you decided to run for this office?
I have worked with education for over a decade because education has been my passport for a better life. I have helped educators open schools and families find the best school for their kids. I am currently the Vice-President of CEC D2.

6. What are the first three issues you will tackle if you win the election?
My priorities will be public safety (changing the bail reform law), addressing learning gaps caused by the pandemic, and making NYC friendly to businesses and investments

7. Who is the first person you will hire – or rather what is the first staff position you will fill?
Chief of staff for sure!

8. What are the three most important issues for New Yorkers right now?
Public safety, education and the economy

9. What do you think is the most important thing to help the district recover from the pandemic?
Changing the bail reform law to stop enabling repeat offenders to commit other crimes. Until we address the crime surge, we won’t be able to revive the economy and families will continue leaving the city.

10. Why are you running for office? What do you hope to change, or do better?
I am running because I love NYC and couldn’t stay on the sidelines while our representatives do nothing to solve real problems in our district. I have also been appalled how NY treated our children during the pandemic, they were at the bottom of the priority list of our representatives.

11. Most-frequented restaurants: Greca – love the food and it is near my home

15. We usually order pizza from Gigino Trattoria on Sunday nights, my kids love pepperoni pizza.

17. I am so glad Laughing Man is in the district because without it I would not have a place to schedule meetings

18. How I stay fit: Running after my kids and my dog

21. A recent enthusiasm: My husband is from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and his grandparents, who are 85, finally escaped to Poland in late March. I can’t tell you the joy we felt to know they are safe and hopefully can come live their final years with us.

22. Rainy-day activity: Watch movies at home or go to Barnes & Nobles to get books

33. I take out-of-towners to: Broadway

34. What’s your favorite park in the city? We love Teardrop Park. The water playground in the summer is a hit with my boys.