First elected in 1991 to represent the newly created 40th Council District in Brooklyn, Council member Una Clarke is the first Caribbean-born woman to serve in the City Legislature. As a member of the City Council she has served on the committees on Aging, Youth Services, and Economic Development, and has been a chair of the Subcommittee on Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services. She has been also a member of the Council's Black and Hispanic Caucus.

Before her election to the Council, she had  a distinguished career for more than three decades in diverse fields, ranging from labor activism and early childhood education to immigrants rights and the struggle for empowerment of women and minorities.

Una Clarke has served as a senior consultant on Early Education with the New York City Agency for Child Development, overseeing 38 publicly funded daycare centers, and as an adjunct professor at the both Brooklyn College and MedgarEvers College. She also has served on the boards of numerous professional institutions and held leadership positions in various political and advocacy organizations including the Caribbean Action Lobby.

She has been honored with numerous awards from both community and professional organizations including the Congressional Brain Trust on Education and the Martin Luther King Commission.

Una Clarke holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Long Island University and a Masters of Education degree from New York University, with additional post-graduate studies at Teachers College and the School of Business at Columbia University. In 1984, she was the first foreign-born recipient of Columbia's prestigious Revson Fellowship.

In recognition of her academic and professional accomplishments, Una Clarke is listed in the Who's Who Among Students in American Colleges Universities.