Bernadette P. McPherson

Bernadette P. McPherson is an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey, who served on the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders from 2003 to 2011, and served as the Board's Freeholder Chairwoman through the 2006 term. She was Mayor of Rutherford, New Jersey from 2000 to 2007 and a Borough Councilwoman in 1999.

McPherson was elected to three terms on the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the legislative body of the State of New Jersey's largest county representing 70 municipalities. She served from 2003 until 2011 and was Chair of the Board from 2005-2006. During her three terms she chaired several Freeholder committees most notably Law and Public Safety and Organizational Affairs among others. McPherson served as a member of the Budget and Finance, Parks and Public Works and Planning and Economic Development Committees while also serving as Board member on the Board of Social Services, the New Jersey Association of Counties and as an alternate to County Executive Dennis McNerney on the North Jersey Transportation Authority. McPherson initiated the first Bergen County Elder Abuse Awareness Conference in conjunction with the non-profit organization known as SAAFE ( Save All Abused and Frail Elderly). She served on the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Steering Committee to address the efficiency and effectiveness of juvenile detention in Bergen County by decreasing the number of youth unnecessarily or inappropriately detained. In 1998, McPherson was elected Councilwoman in the Borough of Rutherford. She served as the first woman Fire Department Liaison. In 1999 she was elected Mayor and served until she was defeated for a third term in 2007 by John Hipp.

In 2001, Governor James McGreevey appointed her to his transition team. McPherson was one of New Jersey's presidential electors casting the state's Electoral College votes after the 2004 presidential election. New Jersey's electors cast their ballots on December 13, 2004 in the State House Annex, in Trenton, where all 15 votes were cast for the Democratic Party candidate John Kerry. While serving as Mayor, McPherson created the Borough's first Visioning Committee with community representatives and public meetings to establish long-range planning goals for the Borough's future in physical, recreational, economic, and community/cultural development. She served as Vice Chairwoman of the Coalition for Public Health and Safety, an organization of Southern Bergen County towns, which successfully pursued a class action suit against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for environmental air quality testing to be done Airport and successfully lobbied for important safety improvements to be made there. She was awarded the National Air Disaster Foundation Aviation Safety Award in 2005."Air Pollution War with Teterboro Airport in Bergen County, N.J., Gets Pricey", McPherson was born in and grew up in Philadelphia, Pa. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from La Salle University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and English in 1983. She attended both Seton Hall University School of Law and Temple University Beasley School of Law where she earned her J.D. in 1986. She has lived in Rutherford since 1987 with her husband David, an attorney, and their four children. s

She is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. McPherson remains involved in politics as the Democratic Committee of Bergen County's Chairperson of Legislative District 36 and is assisting Congressman Bill Pascrell's campaign for the 9th Congressional District with Bergen County outreach.