Eliot Lance Engel (born February 18, 1947) is the U.S. Representative for New York's 16th congressional district. He is a member of the Democratic Party. His new district, District 16, contains parts of the Bronx and Westchester County. In Westchester, it includes Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, New Rochelle, Scarsdale. Mamaroneck, Pelham, Pelham Manor, Larchmont, Tuckahoe, Bronxville, Eastchester, Hastings-on-Hudson, Ardsley, Hartsdale, and Rye City. In the Bronx, it includes Riverdale, Woodlawn, Edenwald, Baychester, Williamsbridge, Van Cortlandt Village, and Wakefield, and Co-op City. He represented the 19th District from 1989 to 1993, and the 17th District from 1993 to 2013. District 17 consisted of parts of the Bronx, Westchester County, and Rockland County.

In 2013, he became the ranking minority member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, replacing Howard Berman, who lost his re-election bid in the 2012 elections.

Early life, education, and teaching career

Engel was born in the Bronx, the son of Sylvia (née Bleend) and Philip Engel, an ironworker. His grandparents, of Ukrainian Jewish background, immigrated from the Russian Empire. He grew up in a city housing project Eastchester Gardens and attended New York City public schools. In 1969, he graduated from Hunter-Lehman College with a Bachelor of Arts in history and received a master's degree in Guidance and Counseling in 1973 from Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University of New York. In 1987, he received a law degree from New York Law School. He began his political career in local Democratic clubs. He taught in New York City School District and was a guidance counselor. He taught Junior High School at Intermediate School 52 from 1969 to 1976 and at Intermediate School 174 after that.