Michigan House of Representatives District 1

Tenisha Yancey was born and raised on the east side of Detroit. When her father, a bus driver for the Detroit Department of Transportation, died, Yancey became a caretaker for her mother, who suffered strokes. Yancey went on to complete her education and graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree from Eastern Michigan University. While working full time for Wayne County, she attended law school and graduated, receiving her law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in 2013. Yancey worked as a project manager for the Wayne County Land Bank and as a government relations executive and community outreach program coordinator in the Wayne County Executive’s Office. She then transferred to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, where she worked as an assistant prosecuting attorney in the Juvenile Division. In June 2016, she was appointed to the Harper Woods Board of Education and later elected to that position.