Power Lists
The 2024 Power of Diversity: Latino 100
New York’s top Hispanic leaders
City & State presents the 2024 Power of Diversity: Latino 100. NYC Council Media Unit
Many Latino politicians are on the upswing in New York. In the scramble to challenge New York City Mayor Eric Adams, state Sens. Jessica Ramos and Zellnor Myrie are credible rivals who could catch on with voters. At the start of the year, New York City Council Member Amanda Farías was elevated to majority leader, making her an early contender for council speaker. And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is translating her celebrity into institutional heft, as exemplified by her primetime speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Yet Latinos have been here before, often without breaking through. In 2020, Ruben Diaz Jr., perhaps the most viable mayoral hopeful since Freddy Ferrer, left for the private sector. Hector LaSalle would’ve been the first Latino to lead the state’s highest court, but was felled by a coalition of union organizers and activists. Meanwhile, New York City’s first Hispanic police commissioner, Edward Caban, just stepped down in disgrace amid several investigations into the Adams administration.
City & State’s Power of Diversity: Latino 100, produced in partnership with journalist Felipe De La Hoz, tracks the trajectories of the most influential Latino leaders in New York politics and government.
1. Diana Ayala & Amanda Farías
New York City Council Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala has helped drive the legislative body’s stunning opposition to the Adams administration, fighting with City Hall over implementation of the CityFHEPS voucher expansion, social services funding cuts and the police department’s online conduct, among other matters. The Puerto Rican legislator is built tough, having overcome hurdles in her personal life to ascend to a position of power. The onetime speaker candidate wants to leave behind one more legacy: helping her chief of staff get her East Harlem seat.
While Ayala is term-limited, Council Member Amanda Farías is still on the rise. The Bronx-born Afro-Latina of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent generated some buzz early this year when she became the council’s first Latina majority leader, just two years after taking office. She was not a newcomer to politics, having previously worked as an organizer and council aide. Farías, who also chairs the Economic Development Committee, has been pushing for affordable homeownership – and insiders consider her a contender for council speaker.
2. Betty Rosa
In her over three years overseeing 731 school districts with over 2.4 million students, state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa has not been afraid to speak her mind. Rosa, who saw education funding rise again this year, has raised concerns over a recent class size bill and penned an op-ed calling for financial literacy education in high schools. The Puerto Rican-born educator’s passion comes from experience, having spent years as a Bronx bilingual teacher and later principal and superintendent, before going on to chair the Board of Regents in 2016.
3. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
The young legislator now known around the world simply as AOC has retained her status as a progressive icon tugging her party to the left, although she has been savvier and more strategic in finding ways to coexist with the establishment – unlike a couple fellow members of “the Squad” who lost primaries this cycle. Look no further than Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s prominent speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention for a sign of her embrace by party elders. Her juggernaut speech came after a rumored primary challenge to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer – and a proxy challenge to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries from the left – never materialized.
4. Adriano Espaillat
The onetime state Senate and Assembly representative cemented Latino power in northern Manhattan with his successful 2016 primary campaign for Charlie Rangel’s old seat. He’s taken that pathbreaking role seriously, with recent endorsements of Latino challengers putting him at odds with another power broker in Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. Still, the formerly undocumented, Dominican-born lawmaker has held elected office since 1997 and knows how to navigate the political waters, which he’s used to push for immigrant and Latino rights.
5. Zellnor Myrie & Jessica Ramos
State Sens. Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos are not only young, effective state lawmakers representing outer borough districts – they’re both aiming to topple New York City Mayor Eric Adams in an increasingly crowded primary in 2024. Myrie, the son of Crown Heights-based Costa Rican parents, announced in May that he’s exploring a bid against the unpopular incumbent. The onetime City Council staffer and Cornell Law grad has hardly been a backseat legislator, having shepherded hard-hitting legislation, including the Clean Slate Act, and he’s currently focused on expanding after-school programming. Now he hopes the record will lead him to an upset victory bigger than his 2018 primary defeat of then-state Sen. Jesse Hamilton (also an Adams ally). Ramos, the Labor Committee chair and the Queens daughter of a Colombian family, has not limited herself to pro-worker rhetoric but pushed successfully for specific on-the-ground policy, including indexing the state minimum wage to inflation and winning protections for farmworkers and nail technicians, a continuation of activist roots that began at 15. She’s more than willing to take on the powers that be, having won her seat after a primary against then-state Sen. José Peralta and all but derailing Steve Cohen’s Queens casino plan.
6. Nathalia Fernandez, Monica Martinez, Gustavo Rivera, Luis Sepúlveda & José M. Serrano
Puerto Rican state Senate Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera isn’t afraid to unsettle the health care industry, prompting an outcry with a couple of proposals to control Medicaid costs, not to mention his long-standing desire to put private insurance out of business with a single-payer system. The outspoken former organizer and Obama campaign staffer has also advanced legislation on issues as varied as day care inspections and affordable housing.
If there’s one thing state Senate Majority Conference Chair José M. Serrano dislikes, it’s a lack of funding for social and cultural institutions. This year, amid library funding cuts, he secured $100,000 in state funds for those in his district. Serrano is the son of the longtime former Rep. José E. Serrano, who was born in Puerto Rico.
State Senate Local Government Committee Chair Monica Martinez is focused on children and schools, leading a push to ban the sale of vaping products targeted toward children. After all, the Brentwood legislator began her career as a teacher and principal before jumping to the Suffolk County Legislature. The El Salvadoran lawmaker served one term in the Senate after winning a narrow victory in 2018 but was able to regroup and win again in 2022.
State Sen. Nathalia Fernandez, the Bronxite daughter of a Cuban refugee father and a formerly undocumented Colombian mother, first got connected to then-Assembly Member Mark Gjonaj through a family friend and began volunteering for his campaign. She later became his chief of staff before serving as then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Bronx representative and then winning her old boss’s seat. The state Senate was a logical next step, from which she’s fought for funding for substance use recovery.
As chair of one of the state Senate’s cities committees, state Sen. Luis Sepúlveda has been concerned with finding creative solutions to migrant arrivals, including the idea of granting state-level work permits. Born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents – and now a Dominican citizen, which triggered some grumbling among colleagues – Sepúlveda remains focused on priorities like housing and health.
7. Félix V. Matos Rodríguez
Besides the everyday challenges of overseeing a sprawling system of 25 campuses, like having to dramatically cut costs due to deficits, CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez this past year has been forced to reckon with intense pro-Palestine protest movements among students and faculty. Fortunately, the first Latino CUNY chancellor – and onetime Puerto Rican government official – has had plenty of experience in academic management, helming Queens College before rising to the chancellorship in 2019. Earlier this year, he applauded city officials for helping offset losses in the system’s community colleges and funding other programs.
8. Henry Garrido
Dominican-born labor boss Henry Garrido and his 125,000-member public sector union – the largest of its kind in New York City – have been busy, securing new contracts with sizable benefits for thousands of members and suing the Adams administration over budget cuts, which City Hall would go on to partially roll back. Garrido has not been a behind-the-scenes leader since ascending to the top role at the end of 2014, often appearing at press conferences and writing op-eds on public policy issues affecting his workforce.
9. Eric Gonzalez
The idea of a “progressive prosecutor” often gets caricatured as naive or inexperienced, but Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez is anything but. The Puerto Rican career prosecutor has mixed progressive policies like a conviction review unit with a focus on on-the-ground issues like the proliferation of guns in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s striking down of New York’s gun restrictions. His office was recently embroiled in the case of a migrant who was accused of rape, was freed and then allegedly committed another rape, raising questions about sanctuary city policies.
10. Nydia Velázquez & Ritchie Torres
As a newer crop of New York City members of Congress finds their footing, the veteran Rep. Nydia Velázquez has come to be something of a stateswoman, the culmination of a career that began after the Puerto Rican native first arrived in New York City on an NYU scholarship in 1974. The 71-year-old remains a champion for Puerto Rico, especially during times of crisis, and a booster of Latino constituencies in general, giving her plenty of credibility to whip flagging Latino support for Democrats.
Another Puerto Rican member of Congress is Rep. Ritchie Torres, who at 36 is about half the age of Velázquez. The second-term lawmaker was a progressive rising star, becoming then the city’s youngest elected official upon his 2013 elevation to the City Council at age 25, but he has broken with some left-wing former allies and become known as one of the House’s staunchest supporters of Israel. The gay Afro-Latino legislator, who grew up at the Throggs Neck Houses, sees his political style as a matter of pragmatism. He has also probed alleged energy utility overcharging, pushed to clean up Melrose Avenue and blasted the pause on congestion pricing.
11. Catalina Cruz, Maritza Davila, Erik Dilan, Jessica González-Rojas, Phil Ramos & Karines Reyes
Assembly Member Catalina Cruz, a Colombian-born former Dreamer, has been outspoken about the handling of migrant arrivals, pushing to overturn City Hall’s shelter limits and for a licensing exam system to incorporate undocumented immigrants. It’s a continuation of her long-standing efforts in favor immigration reform and criminal justice – including as sponsor of the Clean Slate Act.
The Dominican-born and partly Puerto Rico-raised Assembly Member Karines Reyes is a registered nurse, and she has channeled her constituency’s concern for her birth country, joining a delegation looking into the island’s abortion ban and spearheading an effort to move the storied Somos conference there.
Assembly Member Maritza Davila, the Puerto Rican, Bushwick-raised lawmaker, is the Social Services Committee chair and has been focused on parole reform and victim support, community land trusts and overdose prevention. She mounted an unsuccessful challenge to Brooklyn Democratic boss and fellow Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn.
The ravages of COVID-19 led Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas, who previously led the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, to successfully seek office in 2020. González-Rojas, the daughter of a Paraguayan father and a Puerto Rican mother, became part of an informal “mom squad” seeking family-friendly policies, while also pushing criminal justice reform.
Real estate has a big footprint in New York politics, and the Bushwick-born, Afro-Puerto Rican Erik Dilan has been an ally of the industry. That formed the crux of pitched progressive primary challenges in 2020 and 2022 that Dilan was able to fend off. The chair of the Correction Committee has otherwise been working on matters of detention, including staffing and contraband.
State lawmakers don’t garner much international coverage, but Assembly Deputy Speaker Phil Ramos generated some buzz in Pakistan with a visit that aimed to help bring nurses to New York. The Bronx-born, Brentwood raised former EMT and cop has spent over two decades in the Assembly, where he remains after an unsuccessful 2022 bid for Senate, and where he’s worked on legislation including the state DREAM Act.
12. Vincent Alvarez
There are unions and then there are unions of unions. Alvarez has been a union man since joining the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in 1990, and he went on to become the New York City Central Labor Council’s first Latino president in 2011, a role he has now been reelected to three times. From this powerful perch, he represents over 300 unions with 1.3 million workers, supporting recent waves of strikes and calling for protections against the threat of encroaching technology. Meanwhile, he still finds the time to be a New York Federal Reserve director.
13. Robert Rodriguez
One of the governor’s top Latino appointees is Robert Rodriguez, who this year moved from his role as secretary of state of New York to fill the vacant position of president and CEO of the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. DASNY, a public finance and construction authority for New York, had a construction portfolio of more than $9 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year – and also has come under scrutiny for its role in the state’s cannabis rollout prior to Rodriguez’s arrival. He also served in the Assembly.
14. Ana Almanzar
Complaints over a lack of Latinos at the upper echelons of the Adams City Hall was somewhat assuaged by the appointment last year of the Dominican-born Ana Almanzar, who had previously worked at the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation and in the administration of then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In her deputy mayor role, she touches all areas of city government; recent projects include an effort to tackle backlogs of payments to crucial nonprofits and shore up early childhood education.
15. Edgar Santana, Maria Fernandez & Marcos Gonzalez Soler
Edgar Santana, who served as director of downstate affairs in the Cuomo administration, has not only survived but thrived under Gov. Kathy Hochul, serving as deputy secretary before a promotion to executive deputy secretary earlier this year, not to mention becoming a 2024 Presidential Leadership Scholar. Before joining state government, Santana had led the political and governmental affairs for the Laborers Eastern Region Organizing Fund, which organized on behalf of some 40,000 construction workers, and was a Yonkers Board of Education trustee. His colleague, Marcos Gonzalez Soler, has served in the Hochul administration since early 2022 as deputy secretary for public safety. Previously the head of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, he has been a key behind-the-scenes player in setting public safety policies, including increased funding for local law enforcement, district attorneys and public defenders and efforts to tackle auto theft and subway safety. Last year, Hochul appointed Maria Fernandez, previously a consultant and academic, as deputy secretary for education, a role in which she helps drive the governor’s educational agenda and coordinates with the state education commissioner and the leaders of CUNY and SUNY.
16. Antonio Delgado
The official No. 2 in the administration of Gov. Kathy Hochul is often thought as the cheerleader-in-chief of the governor’s vision, which is why it shocked many observers when Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado got ahead of Hochul and called for President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. Perhaps the former upstate member of Congress of Cape Verdean, Mexican, Venezuelan and Colombian descent, who just launched a new PAC that aims to help Democrats in swing House districts, is testing the waters for his own continuing ambitions.
17. Shaun Abreu, Alexa Avilés, Oswald Feliz, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Sandy Nurse, Carlina Rivera, Carmen De La Rosa, Rafael Salamanca Jr. & Pierina Sanchez
Being the Land Use Committee chair is a tough gig in the best of circumstances, but this year New York City Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr. is tasked with shepherding through City Hall’s controversial and wide-ranging City of Yes housing agenda, while also overseeing individual rezonings like one in the East Bronx. The former community board district manager and Bronx-born son of a Puerto Rican family manages to juggle that with his Bronx borough president campaign.
Council Member Sandy Nurse’s identity as an Afro-Latina born to a Black Panamanian father and white mother in Panama was seized on during her 2021 campaign, but the longtime organizer prevailed. She has proudly touted her multifaceted heritage while pushing to keep the Rikers closure timeline on track, though she has opposed the expansion of a Queens jail to do it.
Council Member Pierina Sanchez, a Bronx-born Afro-Latina daughter of Dominican immigrants, held various public policy and community organizational roles, from working at the Obama White House to the Regional Plan Association to the mayor’s office, before winning her seat in 2021. She has pushed for billions in affordable housing funding, the expansion of housing vouchers, additional rights for street vendors and building safety reforms.
Council Member Carlina Rivera, raised in the Lower East Side by a Puerto Rican single mom, is not spending her final term quietly. With activist roots and then under predecessor Rosie Méndez, the then-Criminal Justice Committee chair shepherded a bill to ban solitary confinement in city jails and was at the forefront of pushing back against the Adams administration’s planned budget cuts to libraries and cultural programs.
Puerto Rican-born Council Member Alexa Avilés was one of three Democratic Socialists to vote against the city budget this year, a mark of commitment to progressive ideals cultivated over decades of roles in nonprofit and philanthropy. The legislator tried to hold NYCHA’s feet to the fire as chair of the Public Housing Committee before moving to chair Immigration, from where she’s pushed the Adams administration to spend more on migrant services.
Council Member Carmen De La Rosa moved over from the Assembly in 2022, and now chairs the Civil Service and Labor Committee. The Dominican-born legislator and Rep. Adriano Espaillat ally has been focused on housing, floating proposals for community-operated affordable housing and attempting to set a new minimum wage for affordable housing construction.
Council Member Shaun Abreu, a former tenant rights lawyer, prevailed in a crowded primary in 2021 and then became the first Latino to represent his Upper Manhattan district. As chair of the Committee of Sanitation and Solid Waste Management, Abreu has pushed to restore sanitation funding and transition the city to new rodent-proof bins. He’s also been an ally to the mayor, though the two did not see eye to eye on the How Many Stops Act on NYPD data collection.
Council Member Oswald Feliz, the Bronx-raised son of Dominican immigrants, worked as a tenant lawyer, adjunct professor and then top aide to state Sen. Gustavo Rivera and Rep. Adriano Espaillat’s campaign before winning his own seat in a special election in mid-2021, a few months before he had to once again win in the regular election. He has sought to make e-bikes safer and combat the blight of empty storefronts while also ruffling feathers with his support of the How Many Stops Act.
Born in Queens to a Colombian family, Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez first social work came on behalf of her own family, especially after her dad became disabled. She’d go on to be a community organizer and chief of staff to Council Member Antonio Reynoso before winning her seat in 2021. As Technology Committee chair, she has pushed the NYPD to more completely comply with a surveillance oversight law, examined AI in government and scrutinized a city policy to require that council members request in writing to speak with city officials.
18. Nicole Malliotakis
As the only Republican representative from New York City, you might expect Rep. Nicole Malliotakis to be a bridge builder. The daughter of Cuban and Greek immigrants has mostly gone the other way, relishing political combat, from ripping the welcoming of migrants to publicly defending Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance. She did work with Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman to introduce the Michelle Go Act to increase the limit on the number psychiatric beds eligible for Medicaid reimbursement. And her fighting spirit has allowed the former Assembly member from Staten Island turn losses into successes, most notably parlaying her mayoral defeat at the hands of Bill de Blasio into a raised profile to win her congressional seat.
19. Luis Miranda Jr., Roberto Ramírez & Eduardo Castell
Veteran politicos Luis Miranda Jr. and Roberto Ramirez are the founders of The MirRam Group, the top Latino-led lobbying shop in New York and a leading campaign consultancy – with a record of working with clients like U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and state Attorney General Letitia James – in addition to running the national Hamilton Campaign Network. Luis Miranda is the father of Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has parlayed the show “Hamilton” into Broadway and Hollywood fame, and the elder Miranda is making his mark nationally with a new memoir, “Relentless: My Story of the Latino Spirit That is Transforming America.” Ramírez, the former Bronx Democratic Party boss, continues to have a hand in key policy and political matters, but the firm’s day-to-day operations are overseen by Eduardo Castell, a seasoned campaign veteran who serves as MirRam’s managing director.
20. Antonio Reynoso
The Brooklyn borough president role doesn’t come with all that much actionable authority, but Antonio Reynoso, the son of a Williamsburg Dominican family, has been adept at using his pulpit to push for his issues of interest, becoming a force in pushing for affordable housing by co-founding a new league for YIMBY elected officials and pushing for more expansive reforms in Mayor Eric Adams’ City of Yes housing plan. He’s been able to draw on long-standing roots in city politics, including two prior terms in the City Council. He recently opted against running for city comptroller.
21. Theo Oshiro, Arlenis Morel & José Lopez
Under this leadership triumvirate, the storied Latino and immigrant rights group has, for the first time, had its political arm issue a presidential endorsement, for Kamala Harris. It’s a bold move from the trio, which took over collectively in 2021 after long careers in the organization – the Peruvian-born Theo Oshiro as a health advocate in 2005, Venezuelan immigrant Arlenis Morel as a part-time receptionist in 2003 and Bushwick-born José Lopez as a youth member at the age of 13. Lately, they’ve been at the forefront of dealing with migrant arrivals, including pointing out where they feel the city has fallen short.
22. Havidán Rodríguez
Havidán Rodríguez, the first Latino president of a four-year SUNY school, has semiconductors and artificial intelligence on his mind, and an eye for partnerships, recently inking a dual admission deal with Hudson Valley Community College. The leader of the top-tier research and teaching institution is committed to long-term student success, having himself grown up between Puerto Rico and the Bronx raised by a mother driving a taxi, then joining the Air Force and becoming a respected academic. This year, the University at Albany opened its new College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering building.
23. Julissa Gutierrez, Denise Miranda, Rossana Rosado & Sophia Zayas
Several Latinas have been appointed to key state roles in the Hochul administration. Rossana Rosado, who once held the post of secretary of state, is now the first Latina to lead the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. In nearly three years in the role, Rosado has seen the division’s budget reach a record high as it assists community and grassroots groups tackling the causes and consequences of crime and improving criminal justice practices. The state’s chief diversity officer, Julissa Gutierrez, has driven efforts to diversify the state’s workforce since she assumed the role in 2020. Gutierrez helped the administration reduce a significant backlog in certification applications for minority- and women-owned businesses. In March, the governor nominated Denise Miranda as the state’s human rights commissioner, a position she now holds in an acting capacity. Miranda had previously served as executive director of the state Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs since 2017. Sophia Zayas has served as the governor's director of Latino affairs since 2021, a role in which she has joined the governor on trips to Puerto Rico and advocated for Hispanic organizations. Zayas was at the governor’s side during visits to the island territory to learn about the impact of the coronavirus and to assist in the wake of damaging hurricanes. Closer to home, Zayas also helped secure funding for the Hispanic Federation to assist with COVID-19 vaccinations and for the CUNY Centro for Puerto Rican Studies and the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute.
24. Nestor Ramos
The New York Times is practically the global paper of record, which makes some people forget about its hometown impact. Nestor Ramos has held the tiller of the metro section for two years, joining during the pandemic after penning a column at The Boston Globe and a longer career in other newspapers around the country. Even as the Times steps away from offering endorsements in New York elections, the metro desk has continued to break ground on weighty local stories, from the federal investigations into Mayor Eric Adams to migrant arrivals.
25. Adolfo Carrión Jr., Manuel Castro, Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, Lisa Flores, Annabel Palma & Ydanis Rodriguez
It’s an open question as to whether New York City Mayor Eric Adams will win a second term in office, but the uncertainty isn’t changing how his top appointees are doing their jobs. Among the high-ranking Latinos in the Adams administration are Transportation Department Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, a political ally of the mayor (and of Rep. Adriano Espaillat) who chaired the City Council Transportation Committee before he was appointed to his current post. Rodriguez oversees an agency with more than 5,500 staffers and an annual budget of $1.4 billion.
New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr. also has an extensive background in government, including as the former Bronx borough president and regional administrator for Region II of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Carrión is a key player in the ongoing effort to ease the city’s affordable housing crisis.
New York City Department of Aging Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez has taken a multipronged approach to serving the city’s elderly population, whether it’s delivering meals to seniors, combating elder abuse or partnering with community organizations providing an array of other services. She previously held key roles in the de Blasio administration, outside of government at EmblemHealth and AARP, and as New York’s secretary of state.
Annabel Palma, a former New York City Council member, has served since 2021 as chair and commissioner of the New York City Commission on Human Rights, which enforces the city’s human rights law. Lisa Flores heads up the New York City Mayor’s Office of Contract Services and serves as the city’s chief procurement officer, overseeing billions of dollars in city government contracts. Manny Castro is commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, which serves 3.3 million immigrant New Yorkers – and he has helped to process an influx of migrants and asylum-seekers since assuming the leadership post in 2022.
26. Frankie Miranda
As Vice President Kamala Harris visited Puerto Rico this past March, she stood with Frankie Miranda, who has moved from campaigns and media to spend over 25 years at the Latino nonprofit umbrella group coordinating programs like hurricane relief. Miranda, who took over in 2019, has seen the Hispanic Federation’s membership grow to over 650 organizations providing all manner of services, though not without complication; the organization is now suing Florida over laws restricting voter registration, which it’s contending with in several states. Miranda is the organization’s first openly gay leader.
27. Kristen Gonzalez, Marcela Mitaynes & Julia Salazar
State Sen. Julia Salazar, the daughter of a Florida-based Colombian father, has not kept a narrow legislative focus, working on everything from the shutdown of a state prison to pushing “good cause” eviction tenant protections. The chair of the Crime Victims, Crime, and Correction Committee has been highlighting these issues for some time, stretching back to starting a rent strike at Columbia University, before she went on to become the first Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidate to win a seat in the state Legislature.
State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez is the Queens-raised daughter of a Colombian father who died in her youth and a Puerto Rican single mother. The Internet and Technology Committee chair has been trying to stay ahead of technology’s pitfalls, moving on legislation to regulate the use of AI in state government, and in recent months channeled some of her district’s concerns about the Israel-Hamas war.
Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes was raised in Sunset Park after she and her family emigrated from Peru. An eviction led Mitaynes to a long-standing interest in tenant rights, culminating in her organizing in favor of the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act before joining the state Legislature herself in 2021 after the Democratic Socialist’s surprising victory over incumbent Felix Ortiz. Her on-the-ground organizing sense hasn’t dulled, as she was one of several arrested outside of a New York City Rent Guidelines Board meeting this year.
28. Yadira Ramos-Herbert
At the start of this year, Yadira Ramos-Herbert, the former Columbia Law administrator and New Rochelle City Council member of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, made history along multiple lines: first new mayor of New Rochelle in 17 years, the city’s first female and Afro-Latina mayor, and the first Latina elected mayor of a Top 10 city in the entire state. This transition has not been seamless, as a chunk of Ramos-Herbert’s early tenure has been consumed over a fight with City Manager Kathleen Gill, who eventually resigned.
29. Kenny Burgos
When Kenny Burgos resigned from the Assembly this summer, he said he was looking forward to a “new chapter” – and that’s leading the New York Apartment Association, which was created through the merger of the Rent Stabilization Association and the Community Housing Improvement Program. Burgos will run the combined advocacy group representing landlords, while RSA’s Joseph Strasburg will stay on as a consultant and CHIP’s Jay Martin will continue to advocate for rent-stabilized landlords. Both predecessor organizations were opposed to or raised concerns about “good cause” eviction, a watered-down version of which was included in this year’s state budget.
30. Grace Bonilla
After a long career in New York City politics and nonprofits, including helming the New York City Taskforce on Racial Inclusion and Equity during the height of the pandemic, Grace Bonilla took over United Way of New York City in mid-2022. She has continued her mission of fighting poverty of the sort she had seen growing up in Queens as the daughter of Ecuadorian parents. In addition to the nuts and bolts of immediate assistance with things like food insecurity, Bonilla has been focused on drivers of inequality, like a lack of after-school programming for kids.
31. Fernando Delgado
Earlier this year, Fernando Delgado was among those cutting the ribbon for Lehman College’s new nursing training center, just two years after overseeing the opening of the college’s business school. The longtime academic of Latino identity, born to a Mexican father and Spanish mother, has been in a hurry to position his institution – a federally designated Hispanic-serving institution – as an engine for learning and social mobility since taking the reins in 2021. He was recently a finalist to lead the University of Minnesota-Duluth, but ultimately was not selected.
32. Tiffany Cabán, Christopher Marte & Francisco Moya
There aren’t as many socialists serving in the New York City Council as there are in the state Legislature, but Council Member Tiffany Cabán makes up for it by generating buzz around her progressive policy positions. Cabán, who has criticized police officials for controversial social media posts and backed a ban on solitary confinement, has also been at odds with council leadership, and lost her committee chair earlier this year. She still co-chairs the council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus.
Council Member Christopher Marte, the son of Lower East Side Dominican immigrants, came within close striking distance of unseating then-Council Member Margaret Chin in 2017, setting his path to regroup and win the seat four years later. The onetime finance professional and immigration legal researcher faced a primary challenge last year, in part due to his skepticism of Mayor Eric Adams’ City of Yes initiative.
Corona native Francisco Moya became the first Ecuadorian American to hold public office in the United states upon his election to the Assembly in 2010, after a career working for two members of Congress and then-state Sen. David Paterson. In 2017, he made the leap to the City Council, and has since focused on several issues, including quality-of-life issues with unregulated vendors. His most visible legacies, though, might include support for Steve Cohen’s massive Metropolitan Park project and work to build a soccer stadium in Queens.
33. Pedro Azagra
Since 2022, Pedro Azagra has been at the helm of Avangrid, a sustainable energy company that has been a part of an ongoing clean energy overhaul in New York. Avangrid, a $44 billion company based in Connecticut, is part of the global energy giant Iberdrola, and has New York subsidiaries in New York State Electric & Gas and Rochester Gas and Electric. On Azagra’s watch, NYSEG and RG&E have invested in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, geothermal energy and transmission upgrades to support the delivery of renewable energy.
34. Tonio Burgos
He may no longer be a Democratic National Convention committeeman, but Tonio Burgos is no less an influential figure in New York and New Jersey, where he has held numerous high-level government and agency appointments over the years, along with a slate of other nonprofit and private roles. Now, his firm – Tonio Burgos and Associates, branded as TBA – represents all manner of interests in the tri-state region, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, where he uses expertise developed in that career and his 15 years in then-Gov. Mario Cuomo’s orbit.
35. Teresa Gonzalez, Prisca Salazar-Rodriguez, Keyla Antigua, Jose Rodriguez & Vanessa Figueroa
Bolton-St. Johns has long been a leading lobbying outfit in New York, and it’s not done expanding its footprint. Earlier this year, the firm moved into second place in the latest ranking of the state’s lobbyists by revenue – thanks in large part to its top-notch team. In a reflection of the firm’s diversity, a number of key executives are Latino, including partners Teresa Gonzalez, Prisca Salazar-Rodriguez and Keyla Antigua, who was recently elevated to partner. Other key players include Senior Vice President Jose Rodriguez, the husband of Salazar-Rodriguez, and Vanessa Figueroa, who came on as a vice president last year.
36. Marcos Crespo, Ruben Diaz Jr. & Lilliam Perez
Montefiore Health System has long been a leading medical provider in the Bronx, across New York City and beyond, but where it has upped its game in recent years is on the political front. Former Bronx Democratic Party leader Marcos Crespo came on as senior vice president of community affairs for Montefiore Medical Center in 2020, after deciding against seeking another term in the Assembly. His ally, former Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., joined Crespo in 2022 as senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Montefiore Medicine. Diaz, who’s also a co-chair at the consulting firm Actum, had passed on a potential New York City mayoral run in 2021 despite being seen as a strong contender for the city’s top job. Lilliam Perez, vice president of government and community relations at Montefiore Health and its affiliated Albert Einstein College of Medicine, has been with the health care giant since 2018. The parent entity, Montefiore Medicine, includes Einstein as well as 13 member hospitals and 300 ambulatory sites serving over 7 million patients annually.
37. José A. Pagán
Overseeing a single safety net health care facility is a tall order. As board chair of NYC Health + Hospitals since 2019, José A. Pagán has nearly 50 facilities on his plate, including 11 full-fledged hospitals. The need for this system got the stress test of a generation during the coronavirus pandemic, but Pagán already had a deep understanding of the critical importance of the system, having spent his career researching health equity, including during pandemics. These efforts got him elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2022 and a role as chair of NYU’s Department of Public Health Policy and Management.
38. Sally Hernández-Piñero
Insurance executives don’t often get a lot of love, but Sally Hernández-Piñero chairs the board for the low-cost NYC Health + Hospitals subsidiary MetroPlusHealth, which saw a massive enrollment increase during the pandemic, eventually reaching over 700,000, and helped shepherd New Yorkers through a tough time. She has held that position as well as a NYC Health + Hospitals board seat since 2019 and comes from a career in public legal services, government and the private sector, including as a deputy mayor under David Dinkins.
39. Paloma Izquierdo-Hernandez
As Paloma Izquierdo-Hernandez celebrated her organization’s 50th anniversary this year, she was also celebrating her family legacy, as it was her father who initially launched a single health center in the South Bronx that eventually became Urban Health Plan. Now, the community health center network includes dozens of health centers and clinics serving some 89,000 New Yorkers each year who need routine medical care and social services. Since 2015, Urban Health Plan has also overseen the Greater Hunts Point Economic Development Corp., aligning with its broader mission to reduce health disparities.
40. George Alvarez, Manny De Los Santos, Jonathan Rivera, Amanda Septimo & Yudelka Tapia
Assembly Member Jonathan Rivera, a lifelong Buffalo resident, started out in the office of then-Rep. Brian Higgins, went into banking and then made his way back to public service in the Erie County Department of Public Works. He threw his hat in the ring in 2019 and won his Assembly seat the next year. He has worked on legislation to regulate commercial AI and to help rehabilitate blighted buildings in Buffalo.
By her teens, the lifelong Bronx resident Amanda Septimo was already organizing, which would eventually take her to interning with public defender services in college and eventually working for then-Rep. José E. Serrano. She ran an unsuccessful primary campaign for the Assembly seat in 2018, then won the seat in 2020. The lawmaker has taken on topics like predatory lawsuit lending.
Dominican-born Assembly Member Manny De Los Santos intimately understands the plight of immigrant workers, as his parents are street vendors. He spent his early career in the Department of Education, working as a social worker and other roles in public schools before first unsuccessfully seeking office in 2014 before winning his seat in 2022, from which he’s worked on legislation to among other things protect retail workers from crime.
Assembly Member Yudelka Tapia was born in, went to school in and cut her teeth organizing in the Dominican Republic before immigrating to the Bronx and working in the city comptroller’s office. A 2021 primary loss for a City Council seat came just months before the Democratic Party nominated her to replace retiring Assembly Member Victor Pichardo. She faced a primary challenge the next year but prevailed and has since been working on issues like regulating dangerous lithium-ion batteries.
The fourth time was the charm for the Dominican-born George Alvarez, who had run for Assembly or City Council three times before his upset 2022 win against longtime Assembly Member Jose Rivera, whose campaign had received significant independent financial support from a Wall Street financier. It was a win not just for him but for Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who has been working on building out a stable of allied Dominican American elected officials.
41. Ana Oliveira
Before taking the helm of The New York Women’s Foundation in 2006, the São Paulo-raised Ana Oliveira led GMHC and also had stints at other nonprofits and public health programs as part of a long career in providing health and services for underserved populations. Under her direction, the foundation has increased its grantmaking fivefold and surpassed $10 million in grantmaking. Oliveira also sits on other boards and initiatives.
42. Cesar Perales
Cesar Perales has been a trailblazer throughout his professional life, from his early career as a civil rights leader and founder of what’s now LatinoJustice PRLDEF to his high-level appointments under President Jimmy Carter, Gov. Mario Cuomo and New York City Mayor David Dinkins. In the later stages of his career, the former secretary of state of New York has chaired the 2018 New York City Charter Revision Commission and has served since 2019 as a member of SUNY’s board.
43. John Santos
Through several leadership transitions, from the late Hector Figueroa to Kyle Bragg to Manny Pastreich, what’s been consistent at 32BJ SEIU is its effective representation for more than 175,000 property service workers and its advocacy for worker protections. The continuity is due to veteran officials like John Santos, the No. 2 officer who has been a union member since the 1990s. Santos helped win a new contract for 20,000 commercial cleaners, 32,000 building service workers and 18,000 security officers and continues to drive ongoing organizing efforts.
44. Rafael Espinal
Setting policy around protecting workers and regulating businesses in the gig economy continues to be a contentious topic, and fortunately for freelancers they have a champion in Rafael Espinal. The former New York City Council member and Assembly member left elected office and in 2020 took the reins of the Freelancers Union, which advocates for millions of freelancers across the country. Last year, Espinal saw Gov. Kathy Hochul sign the state’s Freelance Isn’t Free Act, which expands on a similar New York City law that Espinal championed while serving in the City Council.
45. Sonia Ossorio
The business reporter-turned-women’s advocate has had a frustrating year, with two state bills that she was pushing – on “voluntary intoxication” as a defense in sexual assault cases and on the sex trafficking statute of limitations – dying in the state Legislature. Having led the 20,000 member- and supporter-strong National Organization for Women-NYC for almost 20 years now, Ossorio, also a member of the New York City Commission on Gender Equity, is not giving up on pushing policy protecting women – especially as the debate over abortion heats up this election cycle.
46. Jason Ortiz
Jason Ortiz at Moonshot Strategies has established himself as a good person to know within New York City's political scene. A seasoned political operative, Ortiz raised his profile with his work to help elect Eric Adams via the Strong Leadership NYC PAC after handling political affairs for the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council. As New Yorkers continue to cast ballots by mail, they can in part thank Ortiz and his efforts to push the issue. Among Moonshot's most recent wins is legislation to increase the number of charter schools in New York City, the extension of mayoral control of city schools, the defeat of non-compete legislation and requiring hotels to obtain a permit to operate in New York City.
47. Michael Nieves
Although it’s less known among English-speaking news viewers, Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network is a staple for Latino families around the country, encompassing websites, newsletters and the award-winning HITN TV channel with shows like New York staple Gerson Borrero’s “Estudio DC.” The channel has expanded to some 44 million viewers under the leadership of Nieves, who came on in 2015 after more than a quarter century in politics and campaigns, including with former Rep. Charles Rangel and then-Assembly Member José Rivera.
Editor’s note: Michael Nieves is a member of City & State’s advisory board.
48. Lupe Todd-Medina
Gov. Kathy Hochul. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker. What all these Democratic luminaries have in common is that they’ve employed the services of Lupe Todd-Medina as a trusted consultant at key junctures in their political careers. Todd-Medina, who was born in Panama, helped Hochul win a full term in office in 2022. She also worked with Kenneth Thompson before the trailblazing Brooklyn district attorney’s untimely death and has aided the campaigns of Assembly Members Jeffrion Aubry and Grace Lee as well.
Editor’s note: Lupe Todd-Medina is a member of City & State’s advisory board.
49. Camille Rivera
Camille Rivera joined New Deal Strategies five years ago, bringing extensive ties to New York’s influential labor unions and deep experience in government, advocacy and political campaigns. The Bronx native notched a big victory in guiding state Sen. Gustavo Rivera (no relation) to a reelection victory two years ago despite the Democratic county machine backing a primary challenger. Previously, she was the political and legislative director for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and a deputy commissioner for the New York City Department of Homeless Services.
50. Joseph Zayas
Latinos didn’t get one of their own installed as the chief judge of New York’s court system when Hector LaSalle’s nomination was blocked in a high-profile fight with the state Senate. But in a consolation prize, Chief Judge Rowan Wilson elevated Joseph Zayas as chief administrative judge a few months later, making Zayas the first Latino to serve as the state’s highest-ranking administrative court official. Initially reluctant to be considered for the role, Zayas ultimately embraced it as a way to fill a void of Latino leadership.
51. Roberto Perez
Brown & Weinraub, the No. 1 lobbying outfit in Albany, hired New York City and state government veteran Roberto Perez in January as senior adviser. Perez, a Queens native who got his start as a journalist and interviewer known for his “Perez Notes,” pivoted to government in 2012 when then-New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio hired him as deputy chief of staff. He has since served as commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit and vice president of legislative affairs for the New York Power Authority.
52. Elizabeth Velez
Elizabeth Velez is a rare woman of color to helm a construction company in New York City, but she’s a lot more than that. Apart from leading a major contractor, Velez has been deeply involved in advocacy and civic matters. She chaired the New York Building Congress during the coronavirus pandemic and remains a director; served on the MTA’s Traffic Mobility Review Board that crafted tolling details for Manhattan’s congestion pricing program that has since been paused; and sits on the board of the New York City Economic Development Corp.
53. Quenia Abreu
Quenia Abreu started the New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce in 2002 after realizing that New York City, a global locus of commerce and entrepreneurship, did not have a dedicated women’s chamber. The Dominican-born Abreu had plenty of experience in this area, having previously directed the Queens Economic Development Corp. and the Hunts Point Economic Development Women’s Business Centers, and now estimates the chamber has provided some assistance to 50,000 women entrepreneurs. In addition, Abreu sits on the board that will determine downstate casino licenses.
54. Rafael Cestero
Rafael Cestero, who leads the Community Preservation Corp., knows a lot about how to respond to a crisis. CPC, a nonprofit multifamily finance company, was founded in 1974 to support targeted housing investment when New York City was in a period of severe decline. Cestero, who took over in 2012, had plenty of firsthand experience in the field, having spearheaded major affordable housing development initiatives as commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Last year, CPC acquired a significant share of rent-stabilized loans from the now-defunct Signature Bank.
55. Lymaris Albors
At the start of 2022, Lymaris Albors was promoted to CEO of Acacia Network, a multifaceted human services nonprofit in New York City that serves over 150,000 people each year. Albors, who previously served as chief of staff, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Acacia, has focused on quality, integration, accountability and equity in its delivery of services. Albors has also overseen the Latino-led organization’s expansion into Puerto Rico. Her predecessor, the veteran executive Raul Russi, remains president of the organization.
56. Blanca Ramirez
Blanca Ramirez has big shoes to fill at the affordable and supportive housing organization Comunilife, where she came on as chief executive this spring. Ramirez succeeded Rosa Gil, who founded Comunilife in 1989 and built it from a nurse training program into a major housing provider while also serving as board chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York near the end of her tenure. Ramirez, who was previously at Hudson Housing Capital and the Corporation for Supportive Housing, has plenty of projects underway at Comunilife, including a development on the NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull campus.
57. Stan Germán & Sergio De La Pava
New York County Defender Services plays a critical role in the legal system as one of a number of nonprofit organizations providing legal services to low-income New Yorkers. The organization is led by Stan Germán, a criminal defense attorney who got his start at The Legal Aid Society and New York County Defender Services and had a stint in private practice before taking on his current leadership position in 2015. He also co-chairs the Defense Function Committee for the American Bar Association and chairs the American Council of Chief Defenders. A key colleague at the organization is Sergio De La Pava, the son of Colombian immigrants who’s a careerlong New York City public defender and the organization’s legal director.
58. Nick Lugo & Cindy Estrada
Nick Lugo has spent nearly two decades leading the New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which advocates on behalf of Hispanic-owned businesses in the city. The native New Yorker and former magazine publisher came out against the New York City Council’s How Many Stops Act, siding with the Adams administration in arguing that the law will make the city less safe by tying up police officers with needless paperwork. Cindy Estrada, who was raised in Puerto Rico, is an entrepreneur in the clothing industry and a former travel sector executive who has served as executive director of the New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce since 2015.
59. Mario J. Paredes & Ramon Tallaj
Since its founding nearly a decade ago, Somos Community Care has established itself as a major player in New York’s health care sector. Dr. Ramon Tallaj, a native of the Dominican Republic who founded Somos and now serves as chair of its board, has seen the Bronx-based physician network expand to include over 2,600 health care professionals serving a million patients with a value-based payment model and an emphasis on cultural competence. Mario J. Paredes has served as CEO of Somos since 2015 and is also the founder and chair of the board for the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders.
60. Elisa Crespo
While some advocates declared victory after New York legalized same-sex marriage in 2011, Elisa Crespo and the New Pride Agenda are just getting started. Crespo, who made waves as a transgender Latina candidate for New York City Council in 2021, was named executive director of the LGBTQ+ rights organization in 2021, at a time when trans rights have come under attack across the country. Crespo advocated for the creation of the Lorena Borjas Transgender and Non-Binary Wellness and Equity Fund and is a proponent of the New York Equal Rights Amendment.
61. Daisy Cocco De Filippis
After immigrating to New York City from the Dominican Republic at age 13, Daily Cocco De Filippis became a dyed-in-the-wool CUNY academic, receiving four degrees from the system before going on to serve as president of Naugatuck Valley Community College. She returned to CUNY during a moment of crisis, taking over as Hostos’ interim president in August 2020. Since then, she has shepherded the school through milestones and developments like novelist MacKenzie Scott’s record $15 million gift and a new student resource center.
62. Gladys Cruz
After a teaching career in Puerto Rico, Gladys Cruz enrolled in a doctoral program at the University at Albany. She landed at the upstate school support board Questar III Board of Cooperative Educational Services in 1998 and eventually rose to district superintendent. In this role, Cruz represents the state education commissioner in Rensselaer, Columbia and Greene counties while running Questar III BOCES, which serves more than 650 districts and provides some direct education as well. She was elected as the 2022-23 president of the American Association of School Administrators.
63. Julissa Ferreras-Copeland
Julissa Ferreras-Copeland’s unexpected 2017 exit from elected office – as the New York City Council Finance Committee chair and a front-runner for the council speakership – did not keep her away from politics indefinitely. Lately, the Queens daughter of a Dominican family has been involved in business mogul Steve Cohen’s lobbying efforts around building a casino near Citi Field as part of her duties to various clients at Hollis Public Affairs, which she helped found in 2021. She also serves as board member at the Louis Armstrong House Museum.
64. Eileen Torres
Eileen Torres has put in the time and worked her way up through the storied social services and advocacy organization BronxWorks, starting in administrative roles in 1995 before becoming general counsel and then executive director and, finally, CEO this year. She is credited with having significantly expanded the scope of the organization, which serves more than 60,000 Bronxites. Among the projects that she has overseen are expanding financial literacy programs and getting Wi-Fi set up in the family shelters that the group manages as COVID-19 hit and schools shifted to online classes.
65. David Garza
Describing Henry Street Settlement as a social services organization undersells it. The 131-year-old Lower East Side nonprofit has also had an outsized impact on art and LGBTQ+ rights. It has been helmed since 2010 by Garza, who has deepened community partnerships via a community advisory board, collaborated on workforce development efforts and transformed an old firehouse into a benefits hub. Garza serves on the board of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition and is a member of the New York City Regional Economic Development Council.
66. Robert Cordero
As the cost of child care becomes a massive working- and middle-class problem, Robert Cordero has been busy opening new low-cost Head Start programs in the Bronx and Brooklyn, adding to a slate of social services the settlement has been providing over a century. The Chicago-raised Puerto Rican landed in New York City a couple decades ago. He took the reins of Grand St. Settlement in 2015, increasing its operating budget to $60 million, up from $15 million. He also serves on the boards of the New York Foundation and United Neighborhood Houses.
67. Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick
The first Latina to serve on the state Court of Appeals has since last year been tasked with helping keep New York’s justice system as a whole from engaging in racial bias. The attorney, who was born in Manhattan’s Washington Heights to Puerto Rican parents and was one of only eight women in her law school class, reached the pinnacle of the state court system after having worked as a Legal Aid attorney, and at the state Judicial Conference, among other government roles. Upon her retirement from the bench, she joined Greenberg Traurig.
68. Matthew Quinonez
Frank Carone has parlayed his close connections to New York City Mayor Eric Adams into a bustling consulting business loaded with fellow veterans of city and state government. One of them is Matthew Quinonez, who serves as the firm’s chief of staff and managing director of business operations at the public affairs and venture consulting firm Oaktree Solutions. Quinonez previously served as a special assistant to the mayor’s chief of staff and also worked under the city’s deputy mayor of health and human services during the coronavirus pandemic.
69. José Serrano-McClain
José Serrano-McClain is a Dominican-born arts and urban space expert who has worked for New York City’s chief technology officer and as a community organizer for the Queens Museum. Now at HR&A Advisors, he is a leader of the inclusive cities as well as the urban tech and innovation practices. He also served as co-executive director of NYC Speaks, an effort to engage New Yorkers in the shaping of the policies and priorities of the Adams administration, and is leading a community planning process around the transformation of a power plant into a renewable energy hub in Queens.
70. Wilma Lara
Bronx-based Ponce Bank has expanded beyond its home base since its founding in 1960, with branches in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Union City in New Jersey. Wilma Lara, the financial institution’s vice president and deposit services manager, has been part of that expansion for nearly a quarter century. She was hired as an assistant branch manager in 2000 and moved up the ranks in various positions before taking on her current role, in which she has a 20-member team that handles the bank’s operations.
71. Daniel Diaz
Bronx-born Daniel Diaz ascended to head the East Side House Settlement, a storied services organization, in 2017 after several years on the leadership team and other roles stretching back to 2004, following a career in services for at-risk youth. As with other such organizations, the East Side House Settlement under Diaz has helped families through the ravages of the pandemic and completed a massive community kitchen to combat the Bronx’s persistent food insecurity, while operating a quirky art and antiques fair to fundraise.
72. Ligia Guallpa
If you’re going past City Hall Park, you might soon see a manifestation of Ligia Guallpa’s work in the form of a delivery worker hub that will house chargers and other amenities, a project pushed by Guallpa and the 15,000-member Worker’s Justice Project’s successful Los Deliveristas Unidos campaign for better pay and conditions. Beyond delivery workers, Guallpa’s organization seeks to improve conditions for workers in cleaning and construction, with advocacy and training. For Guallpa, daughter of Ecuadorian immigrant laborers, that struggle is personal.
73. Louis Maldonado
Veteran marketing executive Louis Maldonado started out at the Bravo Group in 1998 before moving through various other agencies and landing at d expósito & Partners in 2007. There he leads big accounts, including for AARP, and also works on various pro bono, nonprofit projects. For several years, Maldonaldo has also served on the board of the National Puerto Rican Day parade, where this year he worked on the theme of Puerto Ricans in Hawaii.
74. Rebecca Miller
After a career in various advocacy organizations and elected official offices in Boston, Rebecca Miller made the leap to New York in 2017 when she became chief of staff to Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh. She went on to land at Communications Workers of America District 1 – which, despite its name, represents workers across various sectors – in mid-2019. As legislative and political director for the influential union, she has worked on issues including the state’s noncompliance with a law on nursing staffing ratios.
75. Tania Capaz Topping
Before Tania Capaz Topping took the job of running the Latino-focused nonprofit Somos Inc. in 2021, she had held roles in academia and as a child protective specialist. She’s the first woman to serve as executive director of the storied organization, which partners with the state Puerto Rican and Hispanic Task Force and is known for its must-attend gatherings for New York political players. She has incorporated the local community more fully into its marquee event, held in Puerto Rico in November, and has a 2025 conference in the Dominican Republic planned as well.
76. Rosemary Rivera
As the first LGBTQ+ executive director of the social justice nonprofit Citizen Action of New York, Rosemary Rivera has known some of the struggles its target population has faced, having been formerly incarcerated herself. She would go on to serve as an organizer with Metro Justice and 1199SEIU before landing at Citizen Action in 2010. She became the sole executive director last year (she previously shared the leadership position) and has organized against private prison labor and for renewable energy, as well as serving in organizations, including the board of People’s Action.
77. Carlos Velazquez
While its name might evoke extracurricular sports programs for cops, the Police Athletic League serves 20,000 youths a year with programming covering everything from dance and singing competitions to science fairs. Since early 2022, Carlos Velazquez has overseen its youth development initiatives, building on his experience with the Boys’ Club of New York and earlier roles in organizations like Center for Supportive Schools and Harlem Children’s Zone. The lifelong passion was instilled from his own experiences attending after-school programs while growing up in East Harlem.
78. Tomas Ramos
The Washington Heights-born Dominican American Tomas Ramos faced family hardship growing up after the incarceration of his father, and the family moved back to the Dominican Republic. But Ramos would return and work to fight the poverty he witnessed, with work in community organizing and nonprofits, including the Bronx River Community Center, before launching the Oyate Group in the midst of the pandemic in 2020. The former congressional candidate has been focused on bringing capital to small entrepreneurs, providing direct services and community education programs.
79. Taína Borrero
Taína Borrero’s more than two decades of experience in communications and business development has landed her as the lead on clients ranging from the state Department of Labor to the New York City Football Club. Growing up between the Bronx and Puerto Rico, she gained an early passion for media and communications in part thanks to her father, the well-known journalist and commentator Gerson Borrero. She also finds time for public service with a spot on Manhattan Community Board 8.
80. Roberto Vila
You might not have heard of Stantec, but odds are you’ve interacted with the global design and engineering company’s projects. Among the projects that New York City-based architect Roberto Vila has been involved with at Stantec is Terminal 6 at JFK Airport, where he worked with private partners and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to implement the multibillion-dollar project. Dealing with major government entities like the Port Authority and MTA is something he has had experience with over two decades working in design and construction.
81. Yvette Bairan
Born in the Bronx to an immigrant mother from Costa Rica, Yvette Bairan became the first person in her family to graduate from college and went into health and nonprofits, landing at Astor Services for Children and Families in 2008, where she rose to interim and then full CEO just prior to the pandemic. As that public health crisis began, the Hudson Valley organization’s work of assisting children with a range of mental health and social needs became more complex; fortunately, Bairan was ready to hit the ground running.
82. Ariana Collado
Ariana Collado, a Dominican-born Bronxite, rose to direct the Democratic Party’s operations in her home borough in 2021 after having served as chief of staff to New York City Council Member Andrew Cohen. Her professional career in organizing and politics came after a realization she did not want to be a medical doctor. She began her executive role while also pursuing a law degree at CUNY and has focused in part on backing more women for public office.
83. Ramon Peguero
Ramon Peguero took the reins of the Committee for Hispanic Children and Families Inc., a social services organization, in 2017 and has seen its budget increase significantly during his tenure. Peguero has spent three decades tackling issues facing low-income New Yorkers, serving previously as the executive director of the Southside United HDFC, where he had made a mark as a strong advocate for anti-poverty measures. Peguero also had a stint on the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board.
84. Sam Rivera
Sam Rivera, a Lower East Side-raised son of a nurse mom, is not just the director of one organization, but a chief advocate for tackling the ravages of the opioid epidemic through harm reduction. This advocacy landed him on Time’s 100 Most Influential People list last year, alongside heads of state and famous artists. Rivera has continued to operate one of the first formal overdose prevention centers while advocating for more funding and policy shifts – although The New York Times recently documented the backlash to troubling behavior on 125th Street near an OnPoint site.
85. Luis Scaccabarrozzi
Peru native Luis Scaccabarrozzi began his public health career as a community educator and researcher in Lima and has since dedicated his career to the detection and management of HIV and hepatitis C among Latinos. He has written on why certain communities are particularly difficult to treat or reach and work with the New York City government. Last year he joined Amida Care network, where he directs strategic efforts on research and grants.
86. Ana Rua
Colombian-born Ana Rua brought a wealth of government experience to Crown Castle when she joined the national communications infrastructure company in 2017. Rua previously worked on the campaigns of Tom Suozzi for Nassau County executive and Andrew Cuomo for governor before joining Empire State Development, where she assisted with the rollout of the state’s rural broadband program. She has also been appointed to the York College Foundation board and serves on the boards of the Regional Plan Association and the Citizens Budget Commission.
87. Jeanette Gisbert
Jeanette Gisbert brings over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector to her work at Volunteer New York, an organization that supports and spurs volunteerism in the Lower Hudson Valley. Last year alone, Gisbert’s organization mobilized some 35,000 volunteers who spend a collective 445,000 hours of service on behalf of more than 300 nonprofits. The first-generation Cuban American has also seen her organization expand significantly since she took the helm in 2020.
88. Yesenia Mata
Based on Staten Island, the community-based organization La Colmena supports low-income immigrant workers, including day laborers and domestic workers. Helmed by Latina leader Yesenia Mata for nearly five years, the 5,000-member nonprofit drives organizing and advocacy campaigns, and offers education and training, among other programs. Mata is also the Staten Island representative on the New York City Commission on Racial Equity and is a board member of the New York Immigration Coalition.
89. JC Polanco
Bronx native JC Polanco gained notice in 2017 when he was the Republican nominee for public advocate of New York City, ultimately losing the race to Letitia James. Since then, Polanco has maintained a public profile as a commentator and also as a leader in the academic arena. Last year, the attorney was named CEO of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity, a national diversity pipeline organization that has served more than 32,000 students. He’s also an adjunct professor of ethnic and race studies at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
90. Alana Sivin
It has not been the easiest time to be an advocate at a pro-immigration organization as New Yorkers fret over migrant arrivals, but the former Harlem teacher has been at it for a long time. Unsuccessful runs for state Senate and Assembly have not dissuaded the Jewish Puerto Rican from staying in the political mix, pushing criminal justice reform in Albany after a career as a lawyer, senior legislative aide and analyst. She’s also co-president of the political club Coalition for a District Alternative.
91. Juan Luna & George Chacon
Municipal Credit Union bills itself as the largest credit union in the New York City metro area (with over 600,000 members, many in the public sector) and also the oldest in New York, dating back to its founding in 1916. Peruvian-born Juan Luna is the over $4 billion financial institution’s chief adviser to the CEO, where he provides guidance to the chief executive along with providing oversight on technology issues. As chief strategy officer, George Chacon helps chart a course forward for the credit union and is also the inaugural president of its affiliated MCU Foundation.
92. Eli Valentin
Eli Valentin wears a lot of hats: pastor, professor, pundit and political strategist. He regularly weighs in on issues affecting Latinos on Univision and is often quoted in New York’s political media as well. He hasn’t shied away from controversies, criticizing lawmakers for blocking Hector LaSalle’s ascension to the state’s highest court and questioning whether Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado is Latino. Besides lecturing at Union Theological Seminary and Iona College, he has focused on the philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr and the history of Latino politics in New York.
93. Maggie Castro
Maggie Castro is focused on community outreach, education and engagement in New York for AARP, the prominent advocacy organization for Americans over 50. She also co-chairs AARP’s Latino Employee Resource Group. Castro, who came on as an associate director at AARP New York a decade ago, was promoted to senior associate director last year. She previously worked in community relations and external affairs at El Diario, the Spanish-language news organization.
94. Sara Valenzuela
Sara Valenzuela has established herself at the intersection of government affairs, political consulting and communications in New York, and stands out as one of few Latinas to own her own business in the space. Over the years, Valenzuela has worked for Letitia James, Thomas DiNapoli and Scott Stringer and worked on campaigns for Hillary Rodham Clinton and Melissa Mark-Viverito. She launched her own firm in 2023, assisting clients in such activities as procurement and licensing, most recently in the growing cannabis sector.
95. Rob DeLeon
The Fortune Society, an organization supporting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated New Yorkers, recently underwent a major transition at the top, with Stanley Richards elevated to president and CEO in place of the veteran leader JoAnne Page, who retired. As part of the leadership moves, Rob DeLeon assumed Richards’ old position as deputy CEO, bringing with him firsthand experience of being imprisoned, serving for a decade beginning at age 17. He has since focused on juvenile justice reform and other changes to the criminal justice system, including better health care.
96. Maricela Cano
Maricela Cano is a senior associate at Constantinople & Vallone, a Top 5 lobbying shop in New York City that has deep roots in Queens. Cano, the daughter of Ecuadorian immigrants, hails from Queens as well, growing up in Jackson Heights and Far Rockaway, and interning at Queens Civil Court. She went on to become a staffer in the Assembly, led participatory budgeting for two New York City Council members, handled community board appointments for the Queens borough president and worked on various campaigns before joining Constantinople & Vallone, where she assists nonprofits.
97. Alexandre Burgos
Alexandre Burgos is a rising star in upstate and Western New York politics and government, active in health care policy, LGBTQ+ rights and political campaigning. He helped coordinate vaccine distribution during the coronavirus pandemic and advocates for health policy reforms. The founder of Upstate NY Black & Latino Pride, Burgos also worked on Rep. Tim Kennedy’s successful special election and upcoming general election campaigns and has an extensive background working in health care and with non-profit organizations.
98. Cynthia Travieso
Last year, Cynthia Travieso took on a new challenge as director of power building strategies at the Washington, D.C., anti-poverty advocacy organization Community Change. The New York City-based activist was previously a deputy director at Community Voices Heard in New York and an organizer with labor unions, including the Committee of Interns and Residents, SAG-AFTRA and SEIU. Travieso, the daughter of Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants, was raised in Los Angeles.
99. Nelida Barreto
Nelida Barreto is the chief programs officer at Ronald McDonald House’s New York chapter, which has provided services for nearly 60,000 families with children who have cancer or other serious illnesses. The organization has its main house on East 73rd Street in Manhattan as well as family rooms at several NYC Health + Hospitals facilities, and Barreto has overseen efforts to expand to other hospital partners. She has also spearheaded fundraising initiatives and support for caregivers.
100. Walter Mejia
Latinos have long been taken for granted by the Democratic Party, but that approach hasn’t been working so well lately. Walter Mejia has been trying to capitalize on the trend in New York. Within state government, the Salvadoran immigrant runs the Assembly Republicans’ new Office of Community Affairs, with a focus on the Latino community. Mejia also founded and leads New York Republican Latinos, which aims to expand conservative Republican Latino representation in government.
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