40 Under 40
The 2024 Albany 40 Under 40
The Rising Stars in New York state politics.
City & State presents the 2024 Albany 40 Under 40. MelissaBStudios; Christopher Rivera; John Malinao
Manhattan may attract the state’s aspiring actors and bankers – but when talented young New Yorkers set their sights on politics and advocacy, Albany glitters brightly. The millennial and Gen Z professionals on this year’s Albany 40 Under 40 list have each chosen the Capital Region as a sphere of influence in fields including law, labor, engineering, environmental advocacy and social justice.
They include Jane Ni, the new president of the Albany County Young Democrats, who touts the opportunities afforded by Albany’s organizational confluence. There are also dedicated downstaters, like Assembly Members Jarett Gandolfo and Alex Bores, who travel to the capital to have a hand in making big decisions for the state. Some are upstate natives, while others are transplants-turned-devotees – immigrants who find in Albany the opportunity and democracy lacking elsewhere, and young parents who fall for a town whose quirky pace is governed by the legislative calendar.
Here, a look at 40 Rising Stars who – in myriad ways – keep Albany at the center of New York.
Samantha Acevedo
Last fall, after logging more than 13 years in New York state government, Samantha Acevedo realized her longtime goal of becoming a lobbyist. “It seemed like an essential part of a political career,” says the 36-year-old Staten Island native, who’s now legislative director with the top Albany firm of Brown & Weinraub.
From a young age, Acevedo felt a strong call toward public service. That inclination deepened at the University at Albany, when student government became her niche and touchstone. Her first taste of advocacy came when she traveled to the state Capitol with a student delegation to protest tuition increases – and realized her voice could make a real-world impact.
Having majored in English – “anything you’re going to do, you have to be able to write,” she reasoned – Acevedo then honed her legislative skills with positions in the Executive Chamber and the state Senate. A particular highlight was her last public sector role, as deputy chief of staff for state Sen. Jessica Ramos of Queens. “It gave me a sense of what it was like to work at the majority,” Acevedo says. Passing historic farmworker protections, “I saw that if you bring different perspectives together, if everyone gets in a room, you can find common ground.”
That spirit of practical optimism continues to guide her work – along with a commitment to Albany. “Everything we’re doing on a political front is happening here,” she says. “And now that I have children, I love the life that I’m building here, too.”
Caitlin A. Anderson
In her tiny upstate town, a young Caitlin A. Anderson had her mother to thank for an awareness of the wider world. “She was my best teacher,” the attorney says of her socially conscious parent, who, as Anderson’s public school instructor and the student council adviser, emphasized civil rights and organized field trips to places like Gettysburg.
Today, Anderson is a full-time government affairs attorney at Harter Secrest & Emery LLP’s Albany office, making a difference for New Yorkers – and making her mother proud. She fights for policies like legislation strengthening a ban on flavored vapes on behalf of state organizations representing nurses and county health officials, and advocates for pension system reforms and state appropriations on behalf of organized labor (the Amalgamated Transit Union is a client).
Anderson is also a happy hour hit with her advocacy for the New York State Brewers Association, for whom she helped pass a 2023 bill extending brewery licenses. “It’s fun to talk about beer,” says the 30-year-old. At her firm, “I love that we have our fingers in a bunch of different pies,” she says.
A summa cum laude graduate of both Elmira College and William & Mary Law School, Anderson turned down prestigious opportunities in Washington, D.C., opting for the more relaxed and collegial world of Albany politics. As a gay woman, she appreciates the opportunities her career affords to make the social change her mother envisioned decades ago. “Being a lawyer opens up the world to you in a very different way,” Anderson says. “My work is dynamic – and it’s fun.”
Jessie Andrews
At Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado’s side throughout his political rise was a young woman from Atlanta who, despite being a relative newcomer in New York, has become a nascent star in Albany politics herself.
That would be Jessie Andrews, now a principal with the public affairs firm Bluejacket Strategies. Settled into New York after a decade on Capitol Hill, Andrews continues to work on the state-level policies she championed as Delgado’s chief of staff.
“You definitely feel closer to the issues when you’re working in the state,” she says, “and closer to the people on the issues impacting them.”
Although she left the Executive Chamber last year, Andrews continues to run Delgado’s political operations. This election season, she’s focused on winning back control of the House, launching a super PAC and reaching out to young voters in key districts.
Andrews joined Delgado’s congressional team on his first day in office, after earning a public relations degree from the University of Georgia and working for several other Democratic members of Congress. “We were incredibly effective together,” she recalls of Delgado’s time in Washington, D.C., when, as his legislative director and chief of staff, she helped Delgado pass an impressive 18 bills.
Now 34, Andrews is relishing the fresh challenge of multiclient advocacy. “On the Hill, you have so many meetings with people who are impacted by policy,” she says. “Now, in the private sector, I’m taking policy and giving it voice by creating a story for our clients.”
Alicia Gené Artessa
Wind is a challenging clean energy source to harness in New York’s sustainability portfolio. But New York Offshore Wind Alliance Director Alicia Gené Artessa wants to change that – and with her background in environmental advocacy, she’s optimistic she will.
“It’s exciting to ensure that offshore wind really takes off in New York as it should,” says Artessa, 34. “If we miss out on the opportunity, the state won’t be able to get that back.”
Artessa brings a background not only in environmental law and policy – the focus of her master’s degree from Vermont Law and Graduate School, where she also earned her law degree – but also in government relations, having worked with energy clients as a vice president at Albany’s Ostroff Associates. She has also managed government relations for the New York State School Boards Association, where she helped pass an initiative funding green infrastructure upgrades in underresourced schools.
Originally from outside Utica, Artessa grew up steeped in the environmentally conscious ethos of her mother, who chose their homes based on local recycling programs. She began her career as the state Senate’s assistant counsel, working on 2017’s Clean Water Infrastructure Act.
Offshore wind is a natural segue for Artessa, who succeeded Fred Zalcman in her new role leading New York Offshore Wind in June. “This is a really important industry for meeting New York’s goals to run on renewable energy,” she says. “And this industry is so fluid that every day, there’s something new happening – which makes it fun.”
Mobeen Bhatti
Whenever the state Legislature in New York is out of session, Mobeen Bhatti travels – to 35 U.S. states and 37 countries so far. “It’s a major perk of working in the Senate,” says Bhatti, the assistant deputy director of the state Senate Office of Majority Counsel and Program.
A native of Pakistan, Bhatti could easily have had an international career: He has interned for the United Nations secretary-general and holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. But after coming to America to study business at Franklin & Marshall College, “I realized I became convinced that as one person, I could make a lot more impact in state politics. And I could do it faster,” says Bhatti, 35, who has held various Senate roles.
In Albany, his instinct has been proven correct. On behalf of state senators, he negotiated the governor’s (now stalled) congestion pricing law. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped mobilize $800 million in relief grants for small businesses. Bhatti is currently handling high-profile projects like the Penn Station redevelopment in New York City. (He regularly works on transit budgets.)
Bhatti especially enjoys legislation around technology regulation – a vital and evolving topic with the advent of cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and social media privacy concerns. Among the six committees in his portfolio is one concerning energy and telecommunications.
“It’s all high intensity and fast moving,” Bhatti says. “The high stakes, the diversity of subject matter – all of that makes this job really exciting.”
Kaleigh Borden
Kaleigh Borden, who’s now a key advocate for New York schools, was in school herself when she fell in love with advocacy. A premed student at Canisius University, she randomly enrolled in a political science elective, “and immediately switched my major," says Borden, now 34. “I was so enthralled by what I was learning, it never felt like work. That’s how I knew it was my future.”
Now 15 years later, Borden is leading policy and research for the Conference of Big 5 School Districts. The organization represents eight of the state’s largest urban districts – Borden’s native Syracuse, along with Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, Yonkers and Albany, plus Mount Vernon and Utica. The districts educate nearly half the state’s public school students.
Borden draws on nearly a decade of advocacy with Ostroff Associates, the Albany public affairs firm, where she handled a wide range of issues as legislative director and chief of staff.
In her current role, Borden lobbies for equitable education funding, making the case that New York’s allocation formula should adjust funding levels for districts with varying needs. Working closely with state legislators, Borden says she has come to value her relationships with “good, decent people in state government, working for a collective purpose.”
Public policy and advocacy are “crucial to protecting the most vulnerable, and making sure they have the resources they need,” she says. “This is about more than changing laws. Education has a profound impact. It’s about transforming lives.”
Alex Bores
Wrangling legislation in Albany might seem an unusual choice for a young computer scientist, but Alex Bores has both New York and liberal politics in his blood.
His parents were active in their media workers union, and Bores recalls joining his father on the picket line after school. “From a young age, I learned the necessity and the power of people working together to achieve a goal,” says Bores, a fifth-generation New Yorker who since last year has represented his Manhattan district in the Assembly. Beyond the issues, he was attracted to “the scale and permanence of government.”
There’s a special power in being young and digitally savvy – and Bores, 33, makes the most of it. The first New York Democrat with a computer science degree elected to state government, he said he has found his background in tech startups to be useful as the state Legislature considers novel technologies: “I actually understand how the software works.”
Among the bills Bores has sponsored are measures regulating disclosure of AI in campaign advertisements, as well as so-called deep fakes in materials distributed in the runup to elections. With a Republican colleague, Assembly Member Ed Ra of Long Island, Bores serves as co-chair of the New York Future Caucus, a bipartisan group dedicated to millennial and Gen Z concerns.
“You have to be able to disagree, but still make progress. I’m results-driven,” Bores says. “Technology is all about innovation, and building on prior success. I take that approach to legislation – making sure we’re moving forward.”
Marc Cohen
In September, political strategist Marc Cohen joined O’Donnell & Associates as vice president of government affairs. The move was momentous in more ways than one: for the first time since college, Cohen isn’t working for his longtime mentor, Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce President and CEO (and former Lt. Gov.) Bob Duffy.
“It’s definitely bittersweet,” says Cohen, who served as Duffy’s chief of staff, representing some 1,300 members across the chamber’s nine-county Finger Lakes region. “Bob taught me a massive amount, and prepared me to take this next step.”
Cohen, 29, got hooked on politics as a child in Amherst, New York, watching “The West Wing” alongside his father. In high school, he interned for Kathy Hochul in Congress. “I was 16, and I had a house.gov email address,” he recalls. “How cool is that?”
He first interned for Duffy while studying political science at the University at Albany. He also became a politician himself, having plunged into SUNY student politics. Visiting the system’s 64 campuses as a trustee was “such a cool way to see New York state,” he says. It also prepared Cohen for his later role as a liaison between the region’s diverse businesses and the governor’s office, most notably during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Being an advocate for the upstate economy and working on projects like bringing the 2023 PGA Championship to Rochester exemplify the positivity Cohen first admired as a child watching “The West Wing.” “It showed the best of government,” he says, “and its power to do good.”
Carlyn Cowen
Carlyn Cowen leads legislative and public affairs for the nation’s largest Asian American social services organization, the Chinese-American Planning Council. Cowen, who uses they/them pronouns, is also the board co-chair of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, an organization prominent in recent anti-war activism.
Despite all this, they still make time to bartend on weekends. “Honestly, it’s a great way for me to find out what an everyday New Yorker thinks about politics,” says Cowen, 37. “In Albany, everyone’s always in the Capitol. It can be easy to get disconnected from the community we’re working for.”
The opportunity for more grassroots engagement attracted them to CPC – where, during seven years as chief policy and public affairs officer, Cowen has helped secure $30 million in state funding for Asian American and Pacific Islander community organizations. Cowen is particularly enthused about helping win a $3-an-hour wage increase for home care workers and $2 billion for laborers excluded from pandemic subsidies – both categories where Asian immigrants are heavily represented.
Originally from North Carolina, Cowen was drawn into politics while protesting immigration checkpoints during college. “I realized that if we didn’t change the law, we’d constantly be organizing against it,” they say. “But laws and budgets can help us thrive. That’s what brought me to public policy.”
At CPC, the legislative agenda is shaped by Cowen’s annual neighborhoods listening tour, which has expanded the organization’s priorities from wages and health care to housing and, most recently, climate change. “We stay responsive,” Cowen says, “making sure our campaigns are rooted in the needs of our community.”
Maggie Dickson
For Maggie Dickson, advocating on behalf of New York’s YMCAs feels personal. After all, the 25-year-old Albany native spent hours at her local Y growing up. “I took swimming lessons there, and walked around the track with my grandparents after school,” she says.
Now Dickson has the chance to give back, heading public policy for the Alliance of New York State YMCAs. She represents over 170 community facilities, crusading for increased state investment for after-school and youth swimming programs and chronic disease prevention initiatives, as well as measures to bolster the child care workforce.
“Advocacy is a career that found me,” Dickson says. With parents who both worked in the state Capitol – her father with the New York State Police, her mother in the Executive Chamber – public service was a given. She still remembers running around the governor’s mansion as a child.
Her own career began with an internship and, later, a staff role at Prevent Child Abuse New York, where Dickson refined her interests in family wellness and trauma-informed policymaking. “Which I’ve now refined in my time with the Alliance, supporting holistic healthy living – physical, social, emotional,” says Dickson, who complements that ethos by working part time as a yoga instructor.
Having recently been named a Furman University White-Riley-Peterson Policy Fellow, Dickson will spend the coming year researching after-school strategies and outcomes. “I love knowing that my work is making a difference for the people living in New York state,” she says.
Jason Elan
As a former athlete, Jason Elan enjoys drawing parallels between sports and his day job as an Albany political strategist. “Like sports, politics is a combative enterprise, competitive and challenging,” says Elan, 38. “It’s about picking a side that you believe in, formulating a strategy and then moving forward.”
The Long Island native is currently a senior vice president with Actum, the bipartisan public strategy firm he joined earlier this year. After years of running communications for prominent New York Democrats – including then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo – he enjoys his current portfolio of mostly issues and industries, from labor and finance to technology. He particularly likes that Actum is bipartisan: “I’ve always been attracted to people who are interested in finding solutions and common ground.”
Elan is from a family of lawyers, “and when I started on campaigns, working for pennies, they wondered if I was actually OK,” he recalls. But he hated his law firm internships, and instead earned a master’s degree in elections and campaign management. In addition to his work in the Executive Chamber, he counts as a career highlight his role with then-Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, in which Elan worked on historic water infrastructure reform.
“It’s a good feeling, being part of something bigger than myself,” Elan says of the issues he champions. He draws on lessons learned as a self-described long-suffering Jets fan: “Loyalty is paramount,” he says. “If I believe in a cause, or a team, I’m going to stick with it.”
Amanda Fitzgerald
When municipalities invest in housing, hospitals or corporate incentives, Amanda Fitzgerald knows her role is pivotal. “I am the attorney who gets the money from a public entity to where it will go,” says the 36-year-old.
At the Albany office of Barclay Damon, where she is counsel, Fitzgerald specializes in public finance, real estate and lending. Right now, she’s working with the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency to bring semiconductor company Micron Technology – and 9,000 potential tech jobs – to upstate New York. She also collaborates regularly with the state Housing Finance Agency, having arranged over $1 billion to bankroll thousands of units.
An avid marathoner, Fitzgerald starts most mornings with a workout or a good run, activities she says help her generate ideas for the day. Her other source of inspiration is an ethos of entrepreneurship instilled by growing up in a family running a multigenerational Binghamton energy business.
“I grew up hearing my father say that everyone’s a salesman. Some people know it, some people don’t,” Fitzgerald says. After studying business in college, she opted for a legal career, figuring it would be versatile. Her specialization at Suffolk University was intellectual property law.
Now Fitzgerald routinely handles due diligence and closing for major commercial real estate deals, advising her clients on matters from day-to-day compliance to the ever-changing regulatory landscape. “And I always have that little voice in my head,” Fitzgerald says, referring to her family’s business ethos. “It says, ‘Whatever I’m doing, I’ve got to sell it.’”
Lauren Ford
A social worker with societywide goals, Lauren Ford finds satisfaction in working on “issues that are bigger than me,” she says. “I’m dealing with the smallest critical access hospital in the state, and also some of the largest health care and educational institutions. When you get to that level, you’re seeing it all.”
Ford, 33, heads data analytics and strategy for the Iroquois Healthcare Association, which represents 50-plus hospitals and health systems across upstate New York. She designs and manages surveys that illustrate the upstate health landscape – and inform the association’s improvement and advocacy efforts on issues ranging from workforce shortages and fiscal matters to patient care.
Ford draws on years of clinical and administrative experience as a social worker – including at Living Resources, a nonprofit catering to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. After honing her legislative skills as a congressional graduate fellow, she transitioned into policy leadership at the Home Care Association of New York State.
Most recently, Ford conducted a large-scale survey on workplace violence in New York state health care settings, a growing challenge and a legislative priority. But her advocacy doesn’t end at the hospital door: Ford also volunteers with the downtown revitalization agency in Castleton-on-Hudson, the upstate village where her entire family is from. “I just bought a house here,” she says. “I’m at a place where I feel like I have the time – and I can really be an active member in my community.”
Tal Frieden
For Tal Frieden, raising New York state’s minimum wage – and indexing it to inflation – is an essential component of a larger crusade against American capitalist inequity. Building momentum toward a $21.25 hourly minimum wage has been “a transformative experience, bringing together the country’s biggest labor unions behind a transformational policy,” says Frieden, the campaign manager for ALIGN’s Raise Up New York coalition.
Just 26, Frieden, who uses they/them pronouns, is one of the most prominent faces in New York state’s minimum wage movement. Growing up in Syracuse, Frieden witnessed the economic fallout of a local plant closure and became active with the Young Democrats. Then, the Occupy movement cemented their activist path.
“It gave me a framework to understand what was going on in Syracuse,” Frieden says, “and gave language to a frustration with that millionaire class, profiting while everyone else suffers.”
Frieden got into political organizing while studying political science at Brown University, working on local campaigns to fight budget cuts, tax Rhode Island’s wealthy and create a statewide public housing developer. In New York, Frieden is currently excited about a Tompkins County proposal to raise the minimum wage above the state mandate. They recently staged a speakout at the Dunkin’ in the state Capitol, putting hundreds of low-wage workers in the morning path of Albany’s caffeinating political class.
“Bringing folks who so rarely interface with so-called leaders right to the nexus of New York state,” Frieden says, “was really moving and powerful.”
Jarett Gandolfo
It was his senior year at the University at Albany, and Jarett Gandolfo needed an internship. The obvious place was the state Legislature. “And it was the best semester of my life,” Gandolfo says. “I loved the work from day one.”
He loved the Assembly so much that he made it his career. Since 2021, Gandolfo has represented much of Long Island’s South Shore – including the street he grew up on. That college internship turned into a job with the district office of then-Assembly Member Andrew Garbarino, who became Gandolfo’s mentor. When Garbarino left Albany for Congress, Gandolfo won the open seat.
“I love learning about so many different subject areas that, if you weren’t involved in the state Legislature, you would probably never know about,” he says. “Mainstream news is focused on national politics. Albany flies under the radar, so I found it challenging.”
Take the craft beer festival he organized as a district staffer. Unlikely to make coast-to-coast headlines, it nonetheless became a major annual showcase for the local industry. More recently, Gandolfo is proud of helping pass legislation to modernize the region’s sewage infrastructure.
During Albany’s summer recess, Gandolfo, 34, enjoys Long Island beach days with his two young sons. “It’s frustrating at times, but the positives far outweigh the negatives,” he says of elected office. “It’s humbling when you receive 40,000 votes from people who chose you to represent them. And it’s an honor to hold the position.”
Alex George
In most places, public pension reform would not be a hot topic of conversation. But it was one of this year’s biggest issues in Albany, which is why Alex George enjoys working in the Capital Region.
“When the Legislature is in session, there is so much going on, so many people to meet,” says George, the legislative representative for the Civil Service Employees Association. “And there are a lot of other young people around me looking to learn and grow.”
Pension reform is one of multiple issues that George, 29, has tackled on behalf of the public sector workers that CSEA represents. In defense of worried workers, he also recently helped pass a first-in-the-nation state framework regulating artificial intelligence in the public sector.
Lobbying was far from George’s mind when he was a finance major at SUNY Oswego, where he joined college government solely as a resume builder. “But it really became part of my identity, working on behalf of students and advocating for their interests,” he says. By graduation, he knew he wanted to pursue a career in politics. George chose the University at Albany for his master’s degree in public administration, rightly figuring the location would afford important opportunities.
And it did: George learned the legislative ropes in staff roles at the state Senate and Assembly before moving into advocacy. “Lobbying sometimes gets a bad rap,” he says. “But we’re the first line of defense fighting for the working people, and the people of New York state. And that’s something that I’m really passionate about.”
Jonathan Gibbs
Jonathan Gibbs started out as a student at SUNY Oneonta not knowing what he wanted to major in. Taking his first accounting class, he found an affinity for the subject and the work, which led to another class and then another and finally a major.
His path toward finding a professional home was similarly organic.
“I began as an intern for three summers in college,” Gibbs says of how he first joined BST & Co. “I graduated from college in 2012 and was offered a full-time position.”
Gibbs now works with state and local government clients as an auditor, reviewing comprehensive financial statements and ensuring compliance with accepted accounting standards. Gibbs’ three summers of interning exposed him to many of BST’s practice groups, and he found government to be the type that intrigued him the most.
As part of his work with local governments, Gibbs has established strong relationships with local finance officials, which have allowed him to better understand the intricacies of the communities and constituencies they serve. Establishing these relationships, and keeping up with the ever-changing world of local government finance, are among the most intellectually stimulating parts of his job.
Gibbs, who enjoys outdoor activities with his wife and son outside of his professional life, enjoys being able to translate the audits he conducts into recommendations for policymakers on how to improve fiscal performance.
“The underlying work is always interesting,” Gibbs says of what keeps him motivated.
Kristen Gonzalez
The youngest woman ever elected to the state Senate, Kristen Gonzalez calls herself a “zillennial.” In many ways, the 29-year-old is emblematic of the cohort bridging millennials and Generation Z: progressive and digitally savvy, she was elected in 2022 on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines and is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America.
“Being young in office, I’m able to give a voice to those young people everywhere who are deeply concerned with the direction our country and state are going in,” says Gonzalez, noting that her age cohort has the potential to wield 20% of the vote.
Her sensibilities were shaped by her childhood in Queens, where she was born to a Colombian father and a public school teacher mother from Puerto Rico. Gonzalez was organizing by high school and was also politically active at Columbia University. She has worked for the Obama White House, the New York City Council and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer.
Technology is a signature issue: As a Queens community organizer, Gonzalez helped launch a citywide campaign for public internet. Now chair of the Internet and Technology Committee, she introduced legislation to extend Wi-Fi throughout state shelter facilities and sponsored a bill regulating artificial intelligence in election and government materials that passed both houses.
“Having worked across levels of government, I realize that all politics are local, and you can effect the most change from the bottom up,” she says. “New York should be a leader – and we’re working to make that happen.”
Rhay Guillen
After nearly a dozen years in New York government – as a legislative staffer, a Democratic field organizer and a senior adviser to the governor – Rhay Guillen recently took what he calls “a break from public service, to get perspective from the other side.”
Now he is a vice president at The MirRam Group, a government affairs outfit known for its work with Latinos and other politicians of color. Working with clients in sectors ranging from financial services to health care, nonprofit and labor, Guillen created the firm’s disability practice and has taken the lead on matters regarding public pensions and hospital funding.
Guillen headed to the state capital after graduating from SUNY Oswego. As political coordinator for the state Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, he traversed New York, learning the quirks of counties from Long Island to Buffalo and managing nearly a dozen successful campaigns.
More recently, during a stint in the Executive Chamber spanning two administrations, Guillen served as Gov. Kathy Hochul’s liaison to the Assembly. “Working in Albany, you get into the heart of many issues,” he says.
His interest in health, disability and other matters affecting society’s most vulnerable stem in part from his childhood in the Bronx, where he grew up translating both language and culture for his Dominican-born parents. “That has shaped how I am in the world, and in politics and government,” Guillen says. “Our job is, after all, to communicate – and translate that into the things people want accomplished.”
Mina Hoblitz
As a key government and public affairs representative for Binghamton’s business community, Mina Hoblitz has a passion for policy – and deep connections to her upstate advocacy.
For the past two years, she has managed government relations and public policy for the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce, supporting local industry and representing its interests in Albany. She is also engaged to the Broome County Republican Party chair, Benji Federman. “Our lives are wrapped up in government and politics,” says Hoblitz, 30.
Hoblitz grew up in Delaware County, where her politically active parents encouraged her participation in civic efforts, like a local flood relief effort. When she persuaded her mayor to loop in the Federal Emergency Management Agency to evacuate animals, “I realized for the first time how constituents could contact their elected officials to really help their community,” Hoblitz says.
Her political education continued in the state Senate, where she interned while studying at the University at Albany. Researching a hate crime bill spurred her to minor in criminal justice, and as a post-college staffer, she saw firsthand the impact of a program to remove leftover prescription narcotics from New Yorkers’ homes.
Hoblitz is now focusing on Binghamton’s role in the state’s renewable energy scheme, successfully blocking proposals that the chamber deemed unfavorable to business interests. She is also strategizing on housing expansion to foster economic development. “Just being part of the glue that keeps our community together,” she says, “is what drives me to continue doing what I do.”
Antonya Jeffrey
To hear Antonya Jeffrey tell it, her journey to advocacy was a little like the Goldilocks tale.
First she tried campaigns: “It felt unfulfilling after it’s over,” she recalls.
She tried government, working as a district press officer for a member of Congress. “Very slow moving,” she reports. “So much red tape.”
But while volunteering for the NAACP, Jeffrey found the temperature just right: “Advocacy is direct impact,” she says.
Jeffrey, 32, recently served as the New York state director for the Fines and Fees Justice Center, a national nonprofit dedicated to reducing fees and fines in the criminal justice system. The role satisfied her desire for immediate impact: After successfully lobbying to pass a driver’s license suspension reform bill in 2021, 3.1 million licenses were released overnight in New York.
She recently left the organization and is set to become director of policy campaigns and government affairs at Worth Rises, an organization opposed to the commercialization of the prison system.
Jeffrey, who holds a master’s degree in political communication from American University, has a complicated relationship to criminal justice, stemming from her Brooklyn childhood. The daughter of immigrants, Jeffrey grew up partly in foster care, and her brother was a victim of police brutality.
“I’ve never had positive interactions with law enforcement. I’ve seen police ruin the harmony of my neighborhood,” Jeffrey says. “And I’ve always felt empowered to change what’s happening in my community – and in all communities that look like mine.”
Max Kramer
As a partner at the Threshold Group, Max Kramer has contributed to an advertising, fundraising and public affairs juggernaut whose campaign efforts have raked in over $100 million over the years – and whose high-profile political victories include Westchester County Executive George Latimer’s high-profile Democratic Party primary defeat of Rep. Jamaal Bowman, along with the upstate wins notched by Rep. Tim Kennedy and state Sen. Jeremy Cooney.
Kramer, 33, toggles between his native Long Island and the Threshold Group’s Manhattan office, but his influence – especially in digital campaign media – can be felt in Albany and statewide, and even nationally. For the United Federation of Teachers, Kramer has coordinated member-to-member communication in New York’s statewide races, and he has a long tenure as Albany strategist for the League of Conservation Voters.
Kramer admits he “caught the politics bug” early. His mother was deputy counsel for the Nassau County Legislature, while his father was a Queens Housing Court judge. By his early teens, Kramer was trailing his mother as a volunteer at local campaign offices. By the time he was studying politics at the University of Delaware, he was working on campaigns in earnest.
“I like that no two days are the same, and no two years are the same,” Kramer says of his campaign work, which spans candidates, issues, and internal and external communications. “We’ve got a consistent client base, but the issues are always changing. So there’s always a new challenge to take on.”
Jeff Lewis
As neighbors go, Kathy Hochul was a particularly good one to have. For Jeff Lewis, a childhood friendship with Hochul’s daughter led to a political career that took him from his Erie County hometown to the Executive Chamber – and to his current role as managing director for policy and strategy at Oaktree Solutions.
When Lewis was a child in Hamburg, Hochul, his friend’s mom, was his local town board member. He interned for her after his first year at New York University, when she was Erie County clerk. Lewis was by Hochul’s side in every county as she ran for Congress, building out her campaign finance operations and getting a firsthand education in the state’s diversity along the way.
“I was prepping the briefing materials around every community, and I’ve brought that statewide experience to every role since,” says Lewis, 34. “She energized my belief by flipping our home Republican district to Democrat. And electing the first female governor of New York was the most consequential moment of my career.”
After more than seven years in the Executive Chamber – including as Hochul’s chief of staff – Lewis continues to champion the same Democratic priorities, including policy around issues like health care access and the mental health and housing crises, at Oaktree.
“She and I have a consistent North Star, which is how we can do the most good in the world with the limited time we have,” Lewis says. “You can never take any of that for granted.”
Daiquan Llewellyn
With speech peppered with phrases like “density corridors” and “paratransit,” it’s easy to forget Daiquan Llewellyn is only 26 – and that a decade ago he landed in New York City from Jamaica.
But Llewellyn, a community affairs staffer in the state Senate, has been preternaturally focused ever since he joined the student council at Hillcrest High School in Queens. By his undergraduate years at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, he was president of the Black Student Union and a senior representative on the Student Council.
“It was the drive to not be that person who sat in the background anymore,” Llewellyn says. “I was coming to a new country. Let the world see that I do have a voice.”
In the state Senate, where he works out of state Sen. Leroy Comrie’s Queens district office, Llewellyn is particularly passionate about getting Albany to tackle transportation issues. He was thrilled when senators turned to him for input on a transportation redesign plan – “I actually do take public transit” – and urged them to consider the accessibility needs of the growing senior population.
It’s an issue Llewellyn focuses on for his master’s degree of public administration at Baruch College, concentrating on urban development and sustainability. Naturally, he is also running for office – this time as president of the MPA students.
“I want to make a path for the other Daiquans like me,” Llewellyn says. “To show that it’s possible to create a space for yourself, be vocal in your community – and make change.”
Alyssa Lovelace
At 36, Alyssa Lovelace has a son in college, and she long ago realized the dream of opening her own firm – reaching milestones many other millennials have yet to achieve. But she knows her limits. “You think you know it all,” she says, “but you don’t.”
Earlier this year, the Albany lobbyist merged her company, Aligned Solutions, with the outfit of Hill, Gosdeck, McGraw & Nemeth. Partnering with more established colleagues has freed up her time for actual lobbying – and Lovelace deeply appreciates their decades of collective experience and contacts.
“This industry can be cutthroat, but they made me feel at home,” Lovelace says. “To be able to learn and grow from that is huge.”
Such wide-ranging industries of nursing home care and cryptocurrency are among her specialties. For The Digital Chamber, which bills itself as the world’s leading blockchain trade association, Lovelace is fighting a state crypto mining moratorium. She’s also working on New York’s evolving telehealth legislation.
Lovelace started her career with LeadingAge New York, the state chapter of a national organization representing the long-term care industry. Originally a journalism student at the University at Albany, she interned with the organization, “and realized I could make more of a difference influencing than reporting and writing,” she says.
Raised in Columbia County by her grandparents, Lovelace saw health advocacy as an opportunity to repay a debt. “I am really able to hone in on helping my clients with the support of my business partners,” she says. “It’s not just me.”
Shawn Ma
Shawn Ma calls his political career a “100% accident,” but many would say it looks more like destiny. As Gov. Kathy Hochul’s director of Asian American affairs, Ma serves as liaison to the Empire State’s growing and diverse Asian communities – “uplifting and advocating, as a first-generation immigrant myself,” he says, “who, like many others, struggles with identity, discrimination and the pressure to succeed in both American society and within my cultural expectations.”
Now 29, Ma left his native China for Canada on the cusp of adolescence. His passion for public service was ignited during his years studying and coordinating events at the University of Toronto, when he served as a Chinese outreach intern for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s campaign. “I remember late nights in that campaign office, surrounded by passionate people who believed in making a difference,” Ma says.
By age 23, he had landed in New York to work in the mayoral administrations of Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams. But his work in Albany is more personal: Ma is proud of securing funding for Asian American and Pacific Islander advocacy, including $30 million this year for nonprofits serving those communities. He also helped establish the state’s first AAPI commission and intergovernmental work group.
“Albany is not just a hub of political activity, it’s a symbol of democracy,” says Ma, who recently became a naturalized American. “It shows how diverse communities come together with policies that can shape our future. And that’s something I appreciate.”
Jane Ni
When she realized her future lay in politics and advocacy, Jane Ni faced a strategic choice: Should she study in Albany, New York City or Washington, D.C.?
She chose Albany, earning a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in public administration from SUNY and, this year, became political director of the Albany County Young Democrats. Ni is also the assistant director of policy for the Community Health Care Association of New York State, which represents 70 health centers that serve 2.3 million people – or about 1 in 9 New Yorkers – each year.
“A lot of issues are intersectional – housing, health care – and because so many nonprofits are here in Albany, it’s easier to collaborate,” says Ni, who is 30. She previously spent several years with the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, an experience she calls “eye-opening.”
Ni grew up in New York City as the daughter of poor Chinese immigrants and was a first-generation college graduate. “Through my studies, I realized that if I really want to make change, I need to be involved in policymaking,” she says.
Her work in both nonprofit advocacy and political organizing is rooted in her family history. Every time she mobilizes grassroots outreach, she is mindful of engaging immigrants and other diverse populations in civic life, “which means that services are provided in an accessible and culturally safe way,” she says.
At the Community Health Care Association, she says, “I always remind people, ‘You didn’t just sign up for a job. You’re part of a movement.’”
Katelyn O’Leary
Katelyn O’Leary has been lucky enough to focus professionally on the issues that she feels most passionately about. “Climate change is that existential crisis we all face,” says the lobbyist, who specializes in energy and telecommunications. “We’re in a pivotal time where both government and the private sector have the opportunity to safeguard this planet for future generations.”
That intersection is where O’Leary comes in. As a vice president at The Parkside Group, she’s currently working on the $400 million state Environmental Protection Fund and other budget initiatives to finance New York’s progress toward clean energy goals.
The 30-year-old Fort Lauderdale, Florida, native jokes about the reverse trajectory that brought her to SUNY Oneonta for college. Inspired by the historical figures she revered as a child – Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy – “I always knew I wanted to get into government affairs,” she says. After studying politics, O’Leary made a beeline for Albany, taking roles in the state Senate and as a senior policy adviser for energy and environment in the Executive Chamber.
Working on public-private economic development collaborations proved excellent preparation for O’Leary’s current portfolio. On any given day, she might be championing policies to roll out electric vehicle charging across the state, or representing a power company in its quest for a renewable energy grid. “I realized you could stay inside or be outside government, working with groups that address climate change,” O’Leary says. “It’s exciting to do good work on both sides.”
Liz O’Neill
Around Albany, lawmakers know Liz O’Neill for her work at the New York State AFL-CIO. But many younger people recognize O’Neill from online video clips.
As the social media face of one of the state’s most visible labor coalitions, O’Neill has amassed 17,000 followers on the state AFL-CIO’s official account, where she posts videos promoting workers’ rights. “People will recognize me from TikTok when I’m out and about," she says.
At 30, she brings young millennial energy to her role as the union’s communications and campaign coordinator. Short videos, like Instagram reels, “is a way to make complicated policy issues easier to understand,” says O’Neill, who holds trainings for the coalition’s 3,000 affiliated unions on effective digital outreach.
Communicating important but abstruse matters – like the current push for public pension reform – is what gets O’Neill’s juices flowing. Originally from Long Island, she headed to the University at Albany to study public policy, drawn to the intersection of politics and nonprofit work.
After legislative stints with the Suffolk County Legislature and the Assembly, and a role as a social media manager, O’Neill now finds satisfaction in translating legislative proposals for workers – and sharing workers’ concerns with elected leaders. And in Albany, O’Neill has the ideal platform for those messages, digital and otherwise.
“It’s inspiring to see people working together to make change,” says O’Neill, who also organizes workers’ rights rallies. “Our office is a stone’s throw away from the Capitol. We’re right in the middle of the action. It’s a very exciting place to be.”
Vincent Rossetti
Shortly after he turned 30, Vincent Rossetti knew he was ready to launch his own government affairs firm. He did so in 2023 – and now has nearly a dozen clients, most of which are human services companies and nonprofits.
Behind this precocious success is a fortuitous series of mentors. You might say Rossetti owes his current life to former Assembly Member Kevin Cahill, with whom he interned while at The College of Saint Rose – and through whom he met his wife, a fellow Cahill staffer.
“That internship is what fostered my love for policy and politics,” says Rossetti, a Hudson Valley native. “It’s where I really cut my teeth.”
Cahill chaired the Assembly Insurance Committee at the time, and, working as his legislative director after college, Rossetti delved into the insurance needs of a nascent ride-hailing industry: “It got me in the room with Uber and Lyft, which was really cool.”
Another mentor was John Wright, the late founder of The Wright Group, a pioneering Black-owned government relations outfit where Rossetti oversaw the state government relations practice and a 20-client portfolio. He has inherited Wright’s mission-driven bent: Rossetti now represents several children’s behavioral health nonprofits – including the campaign for Healthy Minds Healthy Kids – on whose behalf he has championed higher state Medicaid reimbursements.
Now 31, Rossetti has a young child, and his love for the region goes beyond the state Capitol. “We love to hike and do things outdoors with our dog on the weekend,” he says. “We just really like living here in the capital.”
Tom Schnurr
When the opportunity arose to advocate professionally for private colleges, Tom Schnurr felt a personal calling. “The independent sector gave me a great start,” says Schnurr, a Fordham University graduate. “I jumped at the opportunity to make sure other folks have that same access.”
Schnurr, 35, directs government affairs for the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in New York, and leads the Council of Governing Boards, its policy-focused sister organization.
Guided by a Fordham maxim – “educating men and women for others” – he led CICU’s efforts to boost funding for the state’s Tuition Assistance Program, a need-based college financial aid grant program. He also championed last year’s legislation modernizing nursing education.
“My career has been about access – to higher education, to civil justice, to the ballot box,” says the Queens native, who got his political start volunteering for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and later worked on downstate campaigns. Before CICU, he was deputy political director for the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, advocating for worker- and patient-safety legislation.
This year, he was on the ballot – successfully running for the Bethlehem Town Board. He jokes that his campaign manager was his 3-year-old daughter, who did inspire a legislative proposal making it easier to open a local day care.
For the first time, Schnurr was advocating for himself. It was an adjustment, but the new politician says it’s worth it: “I enjoy the ability to listen to people and to be able to say, 'Hey, let’s fix that,’” he says.
Chris Sielaff
Professionally speaking, Chris Sielaff knows he’s luckier than most. “I’ve had the privilege of having two careers that I’m highly passionate about,” says the 39-year-old.
Since 2020, Sielaff has been a labor relations specialist with the New York State United Teachers, working on employment issues at four State University of New York institutions. A state system graduate himself – he studied history at SUNY Brockport in his hometown, and earned a teaching degree from Binghamton University – he helps resolve disputes around matters like instructor evaluation procedures and employer obligations.
Sielaff began his career as a high school history teacher, and gradually got more involved with his local teachers union. At some point, he realized he wanted to work full time in staff-side labor, and became a labor organizer for the Northeast Region Organizing Project at the AFL-CIO (the umbrella union with which NYSUT is affiliated).
Early into his labor tenure, coronavirus-related health and logistical issues consumed Sielaff’s time. Nowadays, a frequent topic is work-life balance on campuses that have become 24/7 digitally connected environments. “There’s this idea that we’re always connected with our phones and on call,” says Sielaff, who often hears from overwhelmed mental health staff.
In the fast-changing education landscape, Sielaff is motivated by the chance to help his fellow educators every day – and by the ability to play a role in America’s labor movement. “That’s something I take pride in,” he says. “It’s a benefit to society at large that we have some balance of power and fairness in the workplace.”
Mo Sumbundu
Know who Mo Sumbundu’s mother is? No? That’s exactly what he wants. “I never told anyone here,” says the Buffalo-based international trade manager at Empire State Development. “I wanted to start fresh and build my own networks. Stand on my own two feet.”
In fact, Sumbundu is the son of Gale Brewer, the New York City Council member and former Manhattan borough president. The two are close. He worked on her campaign, and credits his mother with setting an example. But he deliberately headed to SUNY Buffalo State University for college, staking out his own political territory.
“People say, ‘You know everyone in Western New York!’ But when I came here, I didn’t know a single person,” he says. He sought out mentors in Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, for whom he interned, and Howard Zemsky, ESD’s then-leader, “who introduced me to everybody.”
After nearly a decade promoting the state’s industries globally, Sumbundu recently added another title: director of community relations for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Western New York office. As a liaison to state agencies and local stakeholders, he takes the lead on matters ranging from the Tops supermarket mass shooting memorial commission to the redevelopment of Amherst’s downtown mall.
Sumbundu is also the youngest trustee on the Buffalo State University Council, underscoring his investment in the region. “We’re seeing a huge expansion of global trade, and I want New York and New Yorkers to be a part of it,” he says. “I love what I do every day. It doesn’t even feel like work.”
Loris Toribio
Loris Toribio is proud of the policy department at Robin Hood, which she joined in 2019. “I think we’ve done a great job of building a presence in Albany through our advocacy,” says Toribio, 36, who is now the nonprofit’s first senior policy adviser, “and basing that advocacy on research – on the needs of low-income New Yorkers.”
At the social services organization, where she concentrates on early childhood and education policy, Toribio has spearheaded almost $23 million in campaigns to strengthen the social safety net and make child care more accessible. Partnering with like-minded organizations throughout the state, Toribio championed the 2021 establishment of a state-level advisory council on child poverty reduction.
And last year, Toribio celebrated a long-sought expansion of the state’s child tax credit. “It’s our No. 1 issue – one of the most effective poverty fighting tools at our disposal,” she says, noting that the reform expanded eligibility to around 600,000 children.
Born in the Bronx to Dominican parents, Toribio grew up in one of Massachusetts’ poorest cities. “Through education, I was able to achieve economic mobility,” she says. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, she returned to her old middle school as a Teach for America fellow, coaching English-language learners. She also founded one of the state’s largest early college programs.
Now the mother of twins, “I want to make New York a place where people feel you can raise a family,” Toribio says. “The policies we support enable that, because it’s imperative for our future.”
Samantha Torrey
As a child growing up in the Capital Region, Samantha Torrey would throw candy from candidates’ floats at local parades and hand out balloons at fairs. Today, Torrey is a senior public relations strategist – and while her outreach is a little more sophisticated than the Tootsie Rolls of yore, her enthusiasm for the Albany political scene remains intact.
“We all joke about it being ‘Smallbany’ – everyone crosses paths here,” says Torrey, 32. “But it really is that kind of camaraderie. Relationships are one of the most important things to me about Albany.”
At Corning Place Communications, Torrey employs those relationships in her area of specialty, state government advocacy. Many of her clients are in the education and agriculture sectors, including the state’s vaunted dairy industry – industries she has known well since her childhood in a politically active family.
In high school, Torrey shadowed her then-Assembly member, Marc Molinaro, through a League of Women Voters program – and got hooked on politics. “It was the kind of moment when I realized I wanted to get more involved,” she says. After graduating from SUNY Oneonta, she spent nearly a decade in the Assembly – as a senior press coordinator, and then as chief of staff to Assembly Member Mary Beth Walsh.
The daily challenges of working in the Republican minority proved instructive. “It wasn’t always the easiest to get things done,” Torrey says. “Now, being on the advocacy side really feels like coming full circle.”
Amanda De Vito Trinsey
As co-chair of Couch White’s energy practice group, attorney Amanda De Vito Trinsey practices what she, well, practices: Her own house has heat pumps, and she recently jettisoned propane in favor of an induction cooktop.
“Energy is relevant to everybody,” says Trinsey, 39. “We all want to turn our lights on.”
Still, Trinsey knew little about the field when she started out. Originally from Orange County, she studied political science at Villanova University and earned a law degree from Albany Law School. At Couch White in Albany, where she started as a summer associate, Trinsey “found my home,” she says.
But moving in required a steep learning curve in the language of energy. “There’s a lot of acronyms,” she says. “Energy is also economics, it’s finance, it’s engineering.”
Now a partner, Trinsey is a passionate mentor to other women in her male-dominated field, serving on the board of Women in Communications and Energy, a statewide networking group. She works regularly with the New York City mayor’s office and key city agencies, including the Law Department, to help develop programs like utility bill credits for low-income New Yorkers.
Trinsey was recently named legal counsel to the New York State Reliability Council, the entity charged with maintaining the electricity grid amid the challenges of inconsistent energy sources like wind and solar. As New York transitions to renewable energy, the role also keeps Trinsey on the cutting edge of sustainability, “with insights through a different lens,” she says. “It’s a huge responsibility.”
Gladys Valverde
As she counsels New York public sector clients on health and human services, Gladys Valverde’s point of reference is her own immigrant childhood. “Learning a new language, a new culture, a new city – I understand that challenge,” says Valverde, who was born in Mexico, immigrated as a toddler and grew up in New Jersey. “It was hard for my family – and I saw how important it was for the systems and services in the community to support people.”
The 35-year-old is now a senior associate at KPMG, the global consultancy. Based in New York, she serves on the state and local government solutions team, concentrating on the intersection of public administration and social issues. For example, she currently works with one city agency on tackling homelessness, helping with the logistics of transitioning people from shelters to affordable housing. She has also worked on the state’s effort to expand broadband internet access, furthering digital equity.
Valverde came to KPMG with direct experience in the social services sector. For years, she used her bilingual skills in roles supporting immigrants and refugees in New York City, including with the New York eHealth Collaborative. She earned her master’s in public administration at the University at Albany and has also worked with the city’s homeless population.
“I knew from a young age that life could be hard for people who don’t have the supports they need,” Valverde says. “I’ve devoted my life to making those systems more available and more accessible.”
Mark Wagner
At The Wagoner Firm, where he leads the corporate group, attorney Mark Wagner brings together his twin passions – law and business.
It was his aunt, an attorney, who urged the young Wagner to consider law school, reasoning that “a legal education would help with my entrepreneurial spirit,” he recalls. And so it has: In addition to counseling upstate companies, the Troy native manages a portfolio of investment properties and is opening a Waterford liquor store. (In addition to a degree from Albany Law School, Wagner holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University at Albany.)
At Wagoner, which specializes in business law, Wagner’s practice spans commercial real estate, mergers and acquisitions, cannabis and bank matters. Each area has its particular satisfactions: Cannabis legalization, for example, gives people who previously ran afoul of drug laws “a second chance to be financially successful – and have stable businesses they can rely on for the rest of their lives,” he says.
Wagner, a partner at the law firm, recently helped one Albany client take over a troubled downtown restaurant, “and the neighborhood is better for it,” he says. Indeed, developing and improving the Capital Region is a driving theme of Wagner’s work, whether he’s nurturing fellow entrepreneurs or guiding banks through complex transactions.
“My clients are trying to build a better business community in this area,” he says. “And I’m very grateful that I have the opportunity to help do that.”
Roddy Yagan
At just 33, Roddy Yagan knows his current job is “the role of a lifetime,” as he describes it. As the senior construction project manager for the Port of Albany, Yagan leads an $800 million initiative whose manufacturing facility will hopefully produce enough offshore wind towers to significantly transform the state’s energy landscape.
“This is a critical project for the Capital Region – for the potentially 600 jobs that’s going to create,” he says. “It’s a 30-year-long commitment, and I get to see it all the way through.”
That kind of impact fulfills a dream Yagan has nurtured since childhood, when a painting of a cityscape inspired him to declare, “I want to shape spaces and cities and large infrastructure,” recalls the Syracuse native. After studying civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he headed to Albany, which he praises for the breadth of opportunity it affords an ambitious builder.
In just a decade, Yagan has played an integral role in public and private projects, including substations, steel structures, transmission lines, airports and highways. For Albany High School, he recently oversaw the first phase design work for a complex $179 million expansion.
As thrilling as it is to “see things on paper become real,” Yagan says he finds his deepest satisfaction in the way people interact with what he builds. “I love running into the crew in the field over lunch,” he says, “and seeing them get work as a result of programming discussions I had months ago.”
Cassie Zieno
Cassie Zieno remembers sitting through interminable union meetings as a child, waiting for her mother, a vice president of her Catskills teachers local. Nowadays, Zieno finds union affairs a good deal more stimulating: As deputy director of political and legislative affairs for United University Professions, she represents 40,000 statewide educators affiliated with her mother's organization, the New York State United Teachers.
“Having grown up in a union family, when the opportunity came up to work for UUP, I jumped at it,” Zieno says. It’s an exhilarating time for education advocacy, with her efforts contributing to historic increases in state funding for the State University of New York system – up $163 million last year, and $114 million again this year – and for New York’s Tuition Assistance Program.
Zieno studied at the University at Albany and has stayed close to the Capital Region ever since, earning a master’s degree in public administration from Marist College. She began her career as a researcher in the Assembly before moving on to an Albany government affairs firm: “I always wanted to be that bridge, navigating between not-for-profits or unions and state government,” she says.
She has also served as president of the Albany County Young Democrats. On weekends, “like so many millennials, I’ve taken up pickleball,” Zieno says with a laugh. Some say it’s the new golf for networking – “and I was on the golf team in college,” she adds. “So either way, I’m covered.”
– profiles by Hilary Danailova
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