Gary Leonard Ackerman (born November 19, 1942) is an American politician, presently serving his thirteenth term in the United States House of Representatives. Ackerman represents the Fifth Congressional District of New York, encompassing the North Shore of Long Island, including West and Northeast Queens and Northern Nassau County (map). It includes areas like Corona, Flushing, Jamaica Estates, Bayside, Whitestone, Douglaston, and Little Neck in Queens, as well as Great Neck, Sands Point, Port Washington, Searingtown, Albertson, Manhasset, and Roslyn in Nassau County.

Congressman Ackerman was first elected to Congress in a special election of 1983. Born in Brooklyn to Eva and Max Ackerman, Ackerman was raised in Flushing, Queens. He attended local public schools, Brooklyn Technical High School and graduated from Queens College in 1965. After college, Ackerman became a New York City School teacher where he taught social studies, mathematics, and journalism to junior high school students in Queens.

Following the birth of his first child in 1969, Ackerman petitioned the New York City Board of Education for an unpaid leave of absence to spend time with his newborn daughter. But his request was denied under then existing policy which reserved unpaid "maternity-child care" leave to women only.