Babita Rusyn is a wife, mother, scientist, teacher, and community volunteer who lives in Manheim Township with her husband and their two young children. After building a career in science, education, and public service, she is seeking to serve her neighbors and community as their next State Representative.
Babita was born overseas, the daughter of a physician and a teacher, and spent her childhood surrounded by a close-knit family. Among her earliest memories, she recalls her grandmother’s stories of the United States as a land built on freedom, faith, and opportunity.
Babita first came to Pennsylvania with her family when she was eleven years old. Like many families starting over, they arrived with very little and worked hard to build a new life. Watching her parents’ example instilled in her the values of hard work, education, and perseverance. At sixteen, she took her first job in a neighborhood drug store, an experience that reinforced those lessons.
She attended Stony Brook University in New York, where she studied science and began a career in forensic analysis. She spent a year interning with the New York Police Department before working for a pathology lab. She later joined the Drug Enforcement Administration, spending eleven years as a forensic chemist.
During her time with the DEA, Babita analyzed illegal narcotics seized by law enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, testified in criminal prosecutions, trained officers in drug identification and field testing, and participated in drug prevention programs in schools during the Department’s “Red Ribbon Week.” She received training at Quantico and supported investigations involving drug trafficking and clandestine laboratories while coordinating with law enforcement agencies across the country.
Outside of her professional responsibilities, Babita devoted much of her personal time to community service. She participated in humanitarian missions serving refugees, individuals with disabilities, women escaping human trafficking, and underserved communities in countries including Honduras, Colombia, Iraq, Ethiopia, and Burundi. Her volunteer work earned her a community service award.
She met her husband in Lancaster and together they chose to make Manheim Township their permanent home, where they are raising their two children. After starting a family, Babita chose to leave federal service and transition into higher education. For the past decade, she has taught biochemistry and pharmacology at her alma mater, helping prepare the next generation of healthcare and science professionals.
Babita remains active in the community she calls home, serving as a substitute teacher in Manheim Township schools, and having served as a volunteer through her church, and a youth quiz coach whose teams have advanced to state championship competitions.
She enjoys the character of Lancaster County and the combination of neighborhoods, farmland, local businesses, and strong community organizations that make it a distinctive place to live.
Babita believes America remains a place where hard work, faith, and opportunity can change lives because she has lived that story herself. From arriving in Pennsylvania as a child to serving as a federal forensic scientist, college educator, wife, and mother, her life has been marked by a commitment to work, faith, and service.
She is running for State Representative because she wants to continue that service on behalf of the residents of the 96th District.
