Who’s who in Eric Adams’ administration

 

Yes, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is thinking about “emotional intelligence” as he fills out his administration, but he’s also thinking about demographic representation. He said for months that he would appoint a woman to lead the New York City Police Department and he did, setting up Keechant Sewell to be the first female commissioner to lead the country’s largest police force. The man who narrowly defeated two women in the Democratic primary also announced that five of his deputy mayors will be women – four of them women of color. And the leader of the city Department of Correction will be a Latino man, Louis Molina, overseeing a majority Black and Latino workforce overseeing jails where the majority of people incarcerated are also people of color.

Appointing leaders at the top level may take Adams some time. Outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio was appointing commissioners well into April when he took over in 2014 – though he was criticized at the time. Here’s who will be in the Adams administration so far. 

City Hall Insiders

First deputy mayor: Lorraine Grillo

Grillo has been in city government for nearly three decades, starting at the School Construction Authority in 1993, the agency where she was appointed president by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2010. For a while, she served as commissioner of the city Department of Design and Construction at the same time, before de Blasio named her pandemic recovery czar earlier this year.

Deputy mayor for economic and workforce development: Maria Torres-Springer

Most recently the vice president for U.S. programs at the Ford Foundation, Torres-Springer previously served in the de Blasio administration as commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corp. and commissioner of the Department of Small Business Services. Her husband, Jamie Torres-Springer, is president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s construction and development division.

Deputy mayor for health and human services: Anne Williams-Isom

While she is now the James R. Dumpson endowed chair in child welfare at Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service, Williams-Isom is best known as the former CEO and COO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, an anti-poverty nonprofit organization. Before that, she was at the New York City Administration for Children’s Services for more than a decade, ending her tenure as a deputy commissioner.

Deputy mayor for operations: Meera Joshi

Joshi is coming from the federal government, where she’s deputy administrator in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. She was briefly New York general manager at Sam Schwartz consultants before that, but is best known as the former chair and CEO of New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission. She also has experience at the city Department of Investigation and the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

Deputy mayor for public safety: Philip Banks

Banks resigned as chief of department for the NYPD in 2014 after a 28-year career. He said the cause was professional differences between himself and then-Commissioner Bill Bratton. But it was later revealed that Banks was under federal investigation for possible influence trading. He was never charged with a crime, but named in court papers as an unindicted co-conspirator. More recently, Banks has been consulting city governments and police departments with his firm CitySafe Partners.

Deputy mayor for strategic initiatives: Sheena Wright

Wright is leading Adams’ transition committee and is now getting a top job. She’s president and CEO of the nonprofit United Way of New York City, and before that, she led the Abyssinian Development Corp. Her reported partner is David Banks, who has been appointed city schools chancellor. 

Chief advisor to the mayor: Ingrid Lewis-Martin

Lewis-Martin has been one of Adams’ closest advisors since before he entered the state Senate in 2007. The “tough-as-nails gatekeeper” has worked with him throughout Adams’ political career, most recently as deputy borough president of Brooklyn.

Chief counsel to the mayor: Brendan McGuire

A partner at white shoe law firm WilmerHale, McGuire previously led the public corruption unit for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Back in March, McGuire wrote an op-ed in the Daily News calling on strict anti-corruption standards for the next mayor. McGuire is the son of Robert McGuire, who served as NYPD commissioner under former New York City Mayor Ed Koch. 

Chief of staff to the mayor: Frank Carone

Frank Carone, a giant in Brooklyn politics and close adviser to Adams through the campaign, is coming on as chief of staff to the new mayor. Carone, a lawyer, has developed a reputation as a political power broker and is expected to serve in a similar capacity as de Blasio’s longtime chief of staff Emma Wolfe, the Times reports.

First deputy chief of staff to the mayor: Dawn Miller

Previously chief of staff at the Taxi and Limousine Commission, Miller was more recently in the private sector as vice president for policy and partnerships at Coord , a street space management tech startup. 

Deputy chief of staff to the mayor: Madeline Labadie

Labadie is also coming from the TLC, where she worked for seven years, most recently as director of strategic initiatives. Before that, she was a political coordinator for the Hotel Trades Council. 

Deputy chief of staff to the mayor: Ryan Lynch

Previously a director with the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Lynch joined Adams at Brooklyn Borough Hall back in 2014, rising up to becoming the then-borough president’s chief of staff.

Deputy chief of staff to the mayor: Menashe Shapiro

A top staffer on Eric Adams’ mayoral campaign – known for defending the candidate on Twitter – Shapiro is an attorney and longtime political consultant who previously worked on Michael Bloomberg’s presidential and 2009 reelection campaign. 

Senior advisor to the mayor: Stefan Ringel

Ringel is one of Adams’ longest-tenured aides. He started at Brooklyn Borough Hall under the previous borough president, Marty Markowitz, and worked for Adams as communications director, then senior advisor, and worked on his mayoral campaign as well. Before that, Ringel worked comms for then-Council Member Jumaane Williams.

Senior advisor to the mayor: Eric Ulrich

A New York City Council member for more than 12 years representing parts of the Queens and the Rockaways, Ulrich was a public supporter of Adams’ mayoral campaign despite being a Republican who had said he planned to vote for Donald Trump in 2020. Ulrich ran for public advocate in 2019, and came in second.

Senior advisor for external affairs to the mayor: Tiffany Raspberry

A top advisor on Adams’ campaign and transition team, Raspberry has been a political consultant and lobbyist for nearly two decades, recently representing clients including Success Academy charter schools and tobacco company Reynolds American. 

Senior advisor and director of public service engagement to the mayor: Andrea Shapiro Davis

A longtime City University of New York leader who most recently served as interim vice chancellor for university advancement, she previously worked as a senior advisor to former Mayor Bloomberg, whose City Hall she worked in for all 12 years. 

Chief of staff to the first deputy mayor: Jeff Rodus

Rodus comes from CMW Strategies, where he was a lobbyist representing clients such as the Brooklyn Museum and the Building Trades Employers Association. Before that, he was a top City Council staffer under Speakers Christine Quinn and Melissa Mark-Viverito.

Chief of staff to the deputy mayor of operations: Jimmy Oddo

The borough president of Staten Island from 2014 to 2021, Oddo said that deputy mayor of operations was his “perfect job.” Now the Republican will be the deputy mayor’s right hand.

Communications director: Maxwell Young

Young is now chief public affairs officer and senior vice president at Everytown for Gun Safety. Before that, he worked in communications for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, The Rockefeller Foundation and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer.

Press secretary: Fabien Levy

Levy comes from Attorney General Letitia James’ office where he was press secretary and senior advisor. Levy did communications for a variety of political campaigns and government offices over the last 15 years including a stint working for now-Gov. Kathy Hochul when she was serving in Congress.

Special assistant to the mayor: Rachel Atcheson

Rachel Atcheson will serve as senior assistant – and unofficial food diarist – to Adams, as well as the at-large director of the SUNY Downstate Committee on Plant-Based Health and Nutrition. Atcheson previously worked on animal welfare issues in the mayor’s office. 

Senior adviser for mayoral security: Bernard Adams

The mayor received a waiver from the Conflicts of Interest Board to hire his brother. To get around the normal rules against benefiting close family members, Bernard Adams will receive a salary of just $1 a year. The NYPD will still oversee the mayor’s detail, but Bernard Adams will serve as a senior adviser, based in the mayor’s office. Bernard Adams is a retired NYPD sergeant who more recently worked at Legalshield, a multilevel marketing firm, and as an administrator at Virginia Commonwealth University’s office of parking and transportation. 

Agency Heads

Administration for Children’s Services commissioner: Jess Dannhauser 

New York City’s child welfare system will fall under the leadership of Dannhauser, the former president and CEO of Graham Windham, a social services nonprofit for children and families. Dannhauser previously worked at ACS in several positions, including associate commissioner for performance measurement, monitoring and improvement.

Department of Citywide Administrative Services commissioner: Dawn Pinnock

Already the acting commissioner since November, Pinnock will officially get the commissioner title in the Adams administration. She was previously the DCAS executive deputy commissioner, and before that, worked for New York City Transit and NYCHA.

City Planning Commission chair: Dan Garodnick

Most recently president and CEO of the Riverside Park Conservancy, who brought lawn-mowing goats to the greenspace, Garodnick is best known for representing much of the east side of Manhattan in the New York City Council from 2006 until 2017. In that position, he helped negotiate the purchase of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.