Stacey Plaskett is an African-Caribbean attorney, community leader, and politician. She has practiced law in New York, Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands. She is known for her understanding of Caribbean economic development and public-private partnerships and for growing and developing of the local and regional Caribbean economy. She is passionate about both creating economic growth and improving equality in the Virgin Islands and leading the United States in its recognition of the increased importance and economic potential of the Caribbean Basin and Latin America.
Plaskett earned her bachelor's degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. After graduation, she worked for Virgin Islands well renowned Representative Ron de Lugo. Plaskett earned her law degree from American University and worked as a prosecutor in the Bronx, NY. Plaskett later served as counsel to the US House of Representatives Ethics Committee and at the US Justice Department as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General where she took leadership roles on such matters as the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund, US. v. Phillip Morris et al (the Tobacco RICO case), the Justice Honors Program and the initiative to increase diversity among the United States Department of Justice attorney's. She later worked as General Counsel with the US Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority and until taking office was in private practice with an expertise in public-private partnerships and economic development.
In 2014, Plaskett won a highly competitive three-way Democratic Primary in August of 2014, where she received 50.4% of the overall vote. She went on to win the November General Election and received the highest percentage of votes for a contested office in Virgin Islands history with over 90% of the total vote.
Plaskett was born, May 13, 1966 in New York of parents from the United States Virgin Islands who came to New York in the 1950’s as part of a large migration of Virgin Islanders seeking economic opportunity. Her family can trace its history back almost 300 years in the Virgin Islands.
Plaskett grew up in the Brooklyn Bushwick New York housing projects. Her father was a New York City police officer and her mother a clerk in the court system. Plaskett also lived in the John F Kennedy housing community on St. Croix during her early childhood as her family regularly returned to the Virgin Islands. Plaskett attended Brooklyn Friends (a Quaker School) and Grace Lutheran middle school in New York. Through A Better Chance (a non-profit organization recruiting minority students to selective secondary schools), she attend the well-regarded preparatory boarding school, Choate Rosemary Hall, where she was a varsity athlete, class president for several years and later Board Trustee and parent.
Stacey Plaskett is married to Jonathan Buckney-Small, a community activist and former professional tennis player. Together they have five children. Stacey sits on numerous local, regional, and national non-profit boards focused primarily on education, culture, and community development.