Wanda F. Willingham was elected in 2007 to her third term in the Albany County Legislature as the representative of the 3rd Legislative District. The district lies entirely within the City of Albany and covers North Albany and Arbor Hill, running from the Albany-Menands boundary on the north to Elk and State Streets on the south, and includes such landmarks as Memorial Hospital, the Albany County Courthouse, the Palace Theater and the Ten Broeck Mansion.

Wanda is Deputy Chair of the Mass Transit Committee and a member of the Public Safety and Health Committees. She previously served on the Personnel, Court Facilities, Conservation and Improvement and Social Services Committees.

She is the sponsor of legislation to advance the Arbor Hill revitalization project by turning over some 60 County tax-foreclosed properties to the City to create a mix of housing for neighborhood residents through ownership and rental units, new construction and rehabilitation, as well as market and subsidized units. Among Wanda’s other legislative achievements are the securing of grants to expand gang violence prevention programs offered by the Boys and Girls Club of Albany, the Project Labor Agreement for the Courthouse renovation project to assure participation by minority contractors, and a requirement that contractors or subcontractors of County projects valued at $250,000 or more have in place apprenticeship training programs. Wanda served on an advisory panel, created by legislation she sponsored, to develop County guidelines for implementing the State’s so-called “safe haven” law offering protection from criminal penalties to mothers who abandon their unwanted newborns in safe places. As a result of the panel’s work, Wanda sponsored further legislation asking the State to clear up unresolved legal issues that compel social services personnel to pursue the mother for abandonment in order to free up the child for adoption and to protect the rights of the fathers. She also is supportive of establishing an integrated domestic violence court in Albany and raising the State’s minimum wage.

A New York State employee since 1970, Wanda retired in 2006 as assistant director of the Retirement Information Office for the NYS Local Employees Retirement System in the Office of the New York State Comptroller.

Wanda is the recipient of the 2007 New York State Harriet Tubman Achievement Award. She has been involved in her community for many years, as an active member of the Sheridan Hollow Neighborhood Association and the Urban League's Neighborhood Based Alliance that led to the Henry Johnson Boulevard redevelopment initiatives. She has led community drives for food baskets and "Toys for Tots," volunteered for tutorial and evening recreational programs at St. Joseph's School and directed "recovery" choirs for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics and for AIDS patients.

Wanda and her husband, Elijah, are the parents of five children, including a daughter who served with the U.S. Navy during Desert Storm. They have nine grandchildren.