Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton represents the 125th Assembly District, which includes all of Tompkins County, the City of Cortland and the towns of Cortlandville and Virgil in Cortland County. Ms. Lifton was elected with Democratic and Working Families support.

Ms. Lifton was raised in Geneseo, where she attended public schools. She received a B.A. in English, with certification to teach Secondary English, in 1973 and an M.A. in English in 1985, both from SUNY Geneseo. She taught high school English at Geneseo Central School from 1976 until 1982 and in Ithaca schools from 1985 until 1988. Ms. Lifton was also a member of the New York State United Teachers, the Ithaca Teachers Association, the PTA and the Ithaca Hockey Boosters.

For fourteen years, Ms. Lifton served as Chief of Staff to Assemblyman Marty Luster. She is very active in the Democratic party, a member of the Tompkins County Democratic Committee and Treasurer of the 3rd Ward (Ithaca City) Democratic Committee. Her career in local politics began in 1988 when she managed Mr. Luster's first successful run for New York State Assembly.

Beyond her commitment to the Democratic Party, Ms. Lifton has been closely involved with many important community groups. She was a long-time member of the steering committee of the Tompkins County Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign and did local fundraising for Freeze Voter in 1986. She worked for many years with Justice for All, a local group that fought cuts to Medicare and Social Security and worked locally on living wage, welfare and health issues. Ms. Lifton co-founded the Coalition for Community Unity in 1998 to combat hate groups and was also the originator of the Democratic Response Group, a Democratic Party advocacy group. She served for two years on the Cornell/Community Waste Management Committee and was a member of the Ithaca Area Health Care Network.

She lives in Ithaca with her husband, Don. Ms. Lifton has two children, Christine Brouwer and Paul Sylvester, stepdaughter Rebecca Lifton, and grandson, Jackson.