The New York City 40 Under 40 of 2017

Megan Ahearn credits her grandmother for teaching her the importance of community service and hard work, values that encouraged her to seek a career in advocacy.

“Growing up, my grandmother was definitely my inspiration and the matriarch of our family,” she says.

In her first job after college, Ahearn knocked on doors for the New York Public Interest Research Group in a campaign to reduce mercury pollution from coal-burning power plants. She loved being away from a desk and talking to people face-to-face about issues that were important to them. After working in various positions at NYPIRG, she now coordinates with students and advocacy groups for various events and campaigns. She also trains staff and young activists in advocacy work. In her professional life, she considers the people she works with to be her inspiration.

“The folks that have been victimized, whether it’s in health care or environmental injustice, and are not only dealing with the issues they’ve been dealt, but also finding the courage to speak out on top of that – it’s so inspiring to see and so empowering to see communities stand up,” Ahearn says. She is proud of participating in the campaign against hydraulic fracturing, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned in 2014. But Ahearn also loves sharing her passion for advocacy with students, especially since she discovered her love for nonprofit work at a young age. “Having those civic moments of enlightenment is really rewarding,” she says about helping young people find their calling.

Twitter: @MeganAhearn

As a child, Maron Alemu commuted 45 minutes each way to a private school on the northern shore of Long Island that she attended on scholarship.

That scholarship gave her so many advantages that the kids she was growing up with didn’t have. From a young age, she could see: It wasn’t fair.

“Education will always be the gateway for information,” she says. “People, regardless of ZIP code, should have the same access as people of the highest socio-economic status.”

Alemu set out to work in education policy. It seemed an obvious choice; her father, an immigrant from Ethiopia, had always said to her: “Jobs come and go. Money comes and goes. But the one thing people cannot take away from you is your education. That is something you must dedicate your life to.”

After starting out as a tutor at a charter school, Alemu eventually became the associate director of advocacy for Success Academy Charter Schools. She is working with school leadership teams to launch advocacy programs in individual schools – equipping administrators and parents with the tools they need to make their voices heard.

Helping parents engage in the political process – many of them for the first time – is thrilling, she says.

“When parents who have reason to distrust the public school system or have reason to feel dissatisfied with our public government, then feel empowered to be active agents of change … we’ve affected generations of change,” she says.

At the age of 23, Melissa Barosy’s career is just getting started. But she already knows that her future will be in politics and communications.

“I love the mix of the two,” she says.

While many of Barosy’s peers are more experienced than she is, they may find it difficult to keep up with her. When she enrolled in a full-time master’s degree program at Quinnipiac University, she opted to work full-time as well, and completed the academic program in a year.

Now, as a communications associate at Connelly McLaughlin & Woloz, she works with a variety of clients and relishes taking deep dives into everything from New York City Council endorsements to policies impacting self-storage businesses. She also handles media training for the firm’s clients – preparing them for interviews with members of the press.

“Every day is never the same,” Barosy says. “It can go from just getting background memos and information for our lobbying clients, to writing press releases and handling social media strategies and working on designing pamphlets.”

Barosy realized she had found her calling during a school internship in the communications office of the Washington, D.C., mayor.

“(I loved) how fast-paced it is. And the crisis communications aspect of it, and just being able to be quick on your feet and quick in thinking with problem-solving,” she says. “I loved the adrenaline of that, and also the issues always interested me.”

Christopher Carroll came from a family of artists and performers. His mother was an actress; his father was a musician; his grandfather was an art historian; and his grandmother was a puppeteer. He had been a trumpet player and teacher for years.

It was expected that Carroll would pursue a career as a musician, but as his graduation from the Bard College Conservatory of Music approached, he realized that one of the people he most respected was a friend who had cultivated a diverse life – pursuing interests from nephrology to road biking to house building. Carroll knew he didn’t want a one-note life.

He decided to put his trumpet in its case and dive into the world of politics. He joined Bill de Blasio’s campaign, then the mayor’s transition team. As a public affairs associate with the city Economic Development Corp., he got a crash course in the complexity and breadth of the forces driving New York.

Now, as the political director for the Associated Musicians of Greater New York, he is able to combine his passions. Carroll helped advocate for the creation of a city Office of Nightlife, and he is always pushing for higher pay for the city’s musicians.

It’s essential work that helps to protect New York City’s legacy as an artistic hub, Carroll says.

“The arts are an incredible part of our society,” he says. “They’re a manifestation of our priorities and our values and our common heritage, and they dictate and symbolize our identity.”

Twitter: @trombacarroll

Sherry Chan knows that few people understand what she does. Some think New York City’s chief actuary works on car actuators. In fact, it’s a lot more complicated than that – but she makes it sound simple.

“I assess risk and put a price tag on risk,” she says.

Charged with safeguarding $180 billion in retirement benefits for about 750,000 New Yorkers – including police officers, firefighters and educators – she does the in-depth calculations to ensure that the money is there when city workers need it. She successfully fought to increase the amount of money going into the city’s funds to adjust for people living longer after they retire.

But that doesn’t mean she’s got her nose in a calculator all day.

“I can talk!” she says with a laugh. Communicating the importance of her work is a key part of her job, she says. “That’s something I want to teach my staff. It’s not just about the numbers.”

Chan sees her work as her way to give back to city workers. As a first-generation Asian-American, she grew up “public school proud” in an immigrant family in the city.

But while you won’t see her chasing people down the street with a gun, or running into a burning building, she’s doing her part.

“You do that work and you don’t worry about when you can’t work anymore or carry 100 pounds of equipment up a burning flight of stairs, I’ll be sure that I’m taking care of you,” she says.

Twitter: @NYCActuary

Nicole Chin-Lyn never has a dull moment at work.

“The things I do are so diverse and expansive, I don’t get bored,” she laughs. “I don’t think I have time to be bored!”

It’s a challenge to find ways to convey what Real Estate Board of New York members are doing and their impact on New York City, she says. “You read the headlines, you read what’s going on in the market, but who are the players and how can we all be a part of making our city a better place to be, to work, to live in?”

As assistant vice president of communications for the real estate lobbying giant, she helps organize events, field calls with its 17,000 members and work with public officials to push for change.

“Real estate is such a big part of the natural thread work of New York City, something that will consistently be present and important,” she says. It undergirds the social fabric as well and helps it to “be a well-functioning city that continues to attract people and make it the home you know with a lot of cultural diversity.”

She also volunteers for a community arts program in Harlem, which she feels is part of the same effort to help her city thrive.

“To be involved in my community – on and off the clock – I think that’s important for any New Yorker, if you really want to be involved in your city and be a player,” she says.

Twitter: @colamia

Jamison Dague was born and raised in Ohio, but he has a New York state of mind.

As a research associate and director of infrastructure studies at the Citizens Budget Commission, he covers agencies with big capital infrastructure budgets, such as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

“I am not the expert to tell you how to re-route the bus system, but I keep an eye on the budget – are they spending farepayer, taxpayer, and tollpayer funds appropriately as they intend to or as transparent as possible,” Dague says. “I’m on a constant watchdog role.”

Dague has been at the Citizens Budget Commission for four years and has been the director of infrastructure studies for two years.

The 32-year-old researcher got his start in politics in the Ohio Legislature. He also worked for then-Ohio Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy for a year, which put him on the path to his current role.

“I’ve always been interested in politics to an extent, but policies more,” he says. “I like the ability to be in a place and fulfill a role where there is no predisposed outcome.”

He credits his role at CBC in addressing issues like the challenges the transit system encountered this summer. “CBC has been a voice on how to move forward and to address challenges a company like MTA faces,” he says. “I’m fortunate that I’m still contributing and I’m valuable to what we do here at CBC.”

Twitter: @JamisonDague

Kate Dineen helps manage dozens of state agencies on daily basis, ensures the governor’s priority programs are carried out and troubleshoots when problems arise.

“It’s a very dynamic, exciting role,” she says. “No two days are the same, and that’s what I love about the job.”

One of the most recent projects she has had a direct role in is the response to Hurricane Maria and the devastation it wrought in Puerto Rico. “We have such strong ties with Puerto Rico,” Dineen says. “We have such a massive Puerto Rican population here in New York, it’s the lifeblood for many of our communities, so this is a personal issue for us.”

The Massachusetts native studied English in college, then did communications work for an environmental nonprofit. Introduced to policy issues like conservation and renewable energy, she went on to earn a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then worked on carbon sequestration for the Australian government.

Back in the U.S., she handled environmental, infrastructure and economic development issues for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and after Superstorm Sandy she became the senator’s point person on storm response. She later joined the Cuomo administration and worked her way up to her current post.

“It really started in that environmental policy realm, got a lot of experience in emergency response and rebuilding and resiliency,” she says, “and now my portfolio is much more expansive, dealing with a broad array of different state agencies, policy initiatives and operational challenges.”

Twitter: @_KateDineen

Gabriel Gallucci thinks frequently of how lucky he is. At 3 months old, he was adopted into an amazing, caring family.

“My role in this world, in this life, is to pay it forward,” he says. “I just feel super blessed with the love that I was given, and I really want to give that back to the next generation.”

As the associate director of government affairs for the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators, Gallucci has been focused on creating possibilities for kids all around New York City – most recently with a successful push for a Free School Lunch for All initiative in the city’s public schools.

“I want to make sure that everybody has an equal opportunity to education and equity, and (the) pursuit of happiness,” Gallucci says. “I feel like this is my duty … giving those kids the opportunity that I was blessed with in my life.”

With a master’s degree in mental health counseling, Gallucci had never envisioned himself making a difference through politics. But when he began working on then-President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012, he began to see how he could put the same skills to use making broad-based change.

Gallucci knows he is a good listener. He understands what makes people tick. He builds relationships with empathy.

“Being able to connect with people in a real way, and just being genuine and honest with folks, I think helps me build those relationships and build trust,” he says.

Twitter: @ggallucc8012

At each step of Kenya Handy-Hilliard’s career, working in city, state and federal government, she has seen the impact that politics and policy can have on the lives of everyday people.

She saw it as an intern in the office of Rep. Charles Rangel, as elected officials grappled with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And she saw it as a legislative assistant in the office of Rep. Yvette Clarke, where she worked to bring New York City stakeholders to Washington to testify in front of the Congressional Black Caucus about the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk tactics.

Now, as the deputy director of intergovernmental affairs for state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, she is the contact person for elected officials hoping to help constituents facing challenges like fraud.

The work has been thrilling – and at times perplexing.

“I’ve learned a lot about how disaffected people are with government – and vice versa, how governments are disaffected with people,” she says. These days, Handy-Hilliard spends a great deal of time trying to figure out how to bridge that divide.

In the early days of her career, she hoped to eventually run for Congress. Now, she’d rather find another way – perhaps through teaching or a political action committee – to bring citizens and government closer together.

“I really want to focus on galvanizing people and their economic power,” she says. “Because in politics, and just in general, money talks.”

Twitter: @BKKenya

Although he currently serves as Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’ communications director and senior adviser, Michael Hardaway didn’t always intend to go into politics.

“The plan was graduate, go to Wall Street, make a bunch of money,” Hardaway says. His calculus changed when he met an aspiring U.S. Senate candidate at his weekend job, and offered to volunteer for his campaign. “My instincts said, this is a guy whom you should be working with,” Hardaway says about this fateful encounter.

That candidate was Barack Obama. Hardaway leveraged his volunteer service into an internship with the then-senator’s office later in college. He next worked for the 2008 Obama campaign, helped coordinate the presidential transition and became a fundraiser during the first term. Having met several athletes in this role, Hardaway used those connections to represent professional athletes in a public relations capacity.

After four years, he heard from a friend serving as Jeffries’ chief of staff. As soon as he met Jeffries, and saw his authenticity, Hardaway knew he had found his new calling.

Hardaway enjoys the field of political communications, affectionately calling it “the wild west.” He appreciates the ability to craft a message based on an important issue and have it be seen in the news.

“Especially with Congressman Jeffries, someone who prides himself on fighting for the voiceless – it’s incredibly rewarding to have things that you work on or you fight for, and they get resolved – and you are partly responsible,” Hardaway says.

Twitter: @michaelhardaway

Everyone in New York City politics knows about District Council 37, the city’s biggest union and – thanks in part to their green and yellow color scheme – one of its most visible. But Jeremy John, director of political action for DC 37, says the municipal employee union’s voice is only getting louder. Just look the New York City Council primaries.

John touted the power of union turnout, helping Alicka Ampry-Samuel, Adrienne Adams and Diana Ayala win their races, and helping Marjorie Velazquez run a close race in the Bronx against Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj, who ran the best-funded City Council campaign in history.

“The female voice is strong within our union,” John says. And it was a huge influence in his own career, as the husband of a union member and with his mother being a United Federation of Teachers member.

“I’m raising my kids to be active in a union because of what it’s done for my mom," he says. “It allowed me to be here right now.”

John went to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice with the intention of becoming an FBI agent, but ended up getting an internship with then-state Sen. David Paterson. He got hooked on politics – and is proud of what he’s done since.

“This year, we achieved our greatest success in recent history, which is universal free lunch for all New York City kids,” John says. “I’m a New York City kid. I grew up in public schools. For me, this is one of my big milestones.”

Twitter: @JohnMJeremy

In government, there’s an endless number of behind-the-scenes players. Among them is Anaita Kasad.

Leading a 35-person team of consultants serving city and state agencies along the Eastern Seaboard at PwC, the brand name for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kasad frequently has the chance to apply a fresh point of view to the work of the people who keep New York City running.

“Especially in government, people are just very used to the way things are and don’t really question it a lot of the time,” she says. “So I think coming in with an outsider’s perspective looking at the data and really creating a fact base to make recommendations off of can really open eyes.”

In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Kasad worked with New York City and the state to improve their response to the storm and to help get aid into the hands of residents as quickly as possible. Under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, her team has also taken a deep dive into New York City’s efforts to address homelessness. They’ve focused on the experience of people entering and exiting the homeless shelter system while working to find ways to improve efficiency.

It’s work that makes Kasad proud.

“What I love about doing government work, especially in the city of New York, is just the social impact it has,” she says. “I can directly see the impact of my work on bettering the community I live in.”

Twitter: @anaita_kasad

Joshua Knoller speaks in a fast-paced patter common among people in the top-speed, tight-deadline world of New York City public relations. But anyone who runs into him at a cocktail party may be more surprised by the questions he asks than by how he asks them.

His small talk topic of choice? Transportation.

My “first question isn’t always, ‘Oh, so what are you doing this weekend?’ The question is, ‘How are you getting there?’” he says.

Traffic and transit are topics that hold endless fascination for Knoller, who worked for Sam Schwartz Engineering for years – even writing and editing the “Gridlock Sam” column that appeared in the Daily News. It was a job he wanted so badly that he ditched an out-of-town job interview midtrip when he heard he was being called in for it.

Now, as a senior director for Nicholas & Lence Communications, he works with a bevy of transportation and tourism clients, delivering messages that help change how New Yorkers get from point A to point B.

It is work that makes a difference, Knoller feels.

“I truly believe that the projects we’re involved with – from the New York Wheel, to Spin, which is a dockless bike-share company, to New York City Ferry, to the Ark at JFK – they really are making a huge impact, from economic development, to quality local jobs, and giving people something that they can ultimately use,” he says.

Twitter: @JoshuaAKnoller

When Ya-Ting Liu was earning her master’s degree in urban planning, the emphasis was on finding the facts and analyzing the data.

But after graduation, she got a job that involved building support for then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal and learned that major urban projects are as much about politics and people.

“Being on the ground and part of the coalition and the campaign that was trying to make this sort of policy proposal happen, it was such a completely eye-opening and formative experience,” Liu says of the 2007 effort, which ultimately failed. “It was the first time I learned that at the end of the day, it’s messy. It’s not just about data.”

She’s kept that hard-earned lesson in mind during a decade in advocacy, including working on the federal transportation bill at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and on plastic bag fee legislation for the New York League of Conservation Voters.

Now, as executive director of Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector, which is promoting Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Brooklyn-Queens Connector streetcar proposal, she’s seeking to prevent the pitfalls that plagued the mayor’s predecessor.

“One of the beauties about the BQX is that it’s something that the city of New York itself is really taking the lead on without having to rely on a lot of jurisdictions or layers of government,” Liu says. “It really allows the city to take control of its own transit destiny in a similar way that it has expanded ferry service.”

Twitter: @yating_liu

Genevieve Michel prides herself on being able to cut through the complications and noise surrounding New York City real estate development to produce results.

“I like that it’s tangible. I think that so often when we talk about issues in the city, it feels very abstract,” she says. “In New York … land is our greatest resource and we have so little of it.”

In her prior role as chief of staff to New York City Councilman Dan Garodnick, Michel worked on major real estate projects, including the sale of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village and an office tower project that will result in a developer paying for $220 million in infrastructure improvements to Grand Central Terminal.

Now, as vice president of real estate for Kasirer, Michel is sitting on the other side of the table. She helps developers navigate the city approval process and advises them on community relations.

Ultimately, she spends her days answering many of the same questions she did in her previous position: What do communities need? What benefits can developers offer to help communities meet those needs?

“No project is going to be approved in the city that doesn’t have a really robust community benefit program,” she says. “We spend a lot of time trying to think through how can we put together a project that’s going to be politically feasible and therefore really delivers for the community that it’s serving.”

Twitter: @GVieveMichel

Adam Nashban’s job is to help progressive political candidates raise the money they need to run a viable campaign.

But as he puts it, it’s not just about the money – it’s about building relationships.

“It’s also having the wherewithal to make sure that we’re not just connecting our clients with someone who we think can raise money,” says Nashban, who co-founded Nashban Mansur LLC in 2015. “It’s making a connection where they both believe in and want to see that same thing occur in government and in the world.”

Nashban, who has been working on campaigns since 2001, has helped some of New York City’s top Democrats, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler, state Sen. Liz Krueger and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. Earlier this year, he notched a major victory when Eric Gonzalez won the Democratic primary for Brooklyn district attorney.

“I’ve rarely seen a six-way race where one person comes away with more than 50 percent of the vote, which we were really, really happy about,” he says.

Nashban’s progressive roots run deep. He grew up Wisconsin, which has a strong progressive movement, and his mother, who protested the Vietnam War, would take him to campaign rallies and protests.

“We never called it progressive,” he says. “It was just how you should treat other human beings. We’re all created equal, we’re all the same, and that’s how we should act in the world, and that aligns with a progressive mentality and it grew from there.”

As a kid, Jake Potent was utterly obsessed with two TV shows: “The West Wing” and “Spin City.” Following the stories of the officials on both series, he got a glimpse of the power that government could wield to address real issues in people’s lives. He was hooked.

“I just thought: Here are these people trying to solve problems. It’s always something different. It’s always something new. And here are people getting in a room together doing their best and trying to … really achieve something,” he says.

That vision of can-do teamwork has shaped Potent’s career: He has spent much of his professional life getting into rooms with smart and impassioned people to solve problems. Potent has held communications positions with the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee and the Assembly Department of Communications and Information Services, and he was also the director of communications for then-state Sen. Adriano Espaillat.

These days, as an associate with Constantinople & Vallone Consulting LLC, Potent helps shape New York City government relations strategy for a diverse array of clients.

What has surprised him most about his profession, Potent says, is how accessible everyone is.

“If you’re willing to work hard, and you’re willing to listen to people, and you’re willing to meet people and put effort into it … people are really willing to bring you in and teach you,” he says. “I’ve had some amazing mentors.”

Twitter: @jpotent

Carlina Rivera is widely expected to be the next New York City councilwoman for the 2nd District after winning the Democratic primary in September. The Lower East Side native already has some ideas for how she’ll meet constituents. “I ride my bike all over the city,” she says. “It’s the best way to get around the district.”

Rivera knows the district well, having worked as the legislative director for the current city councilwoman, Rosie Mendez, served on a community board and worked for the nonprofit Good Old Lower East Side.

“When you go to these workshops and these marches and these rallies, and specifically these local meetings, this movement, the social justice work, is almost always 60 percent women,” Rivera says, adding that strong women in her life, including mentors like Mendez and Rep. Nydia Velazquez, pushed her to run for office.

“It’s daunting,” she says, “but knowing that I had a lifetime of people around me who were wanting to support me pushed me to finally do it.”

Rivera is proud of her district’s small businesses and fun reputation. Her husband even owns a coffee shop in the Gramercy Park neighborhood. But she also understands the value of the district’s great resources of public housing, having grown up in federally subsidized housing herself. Once in the council, Rivera plans to join the Progressive Caucus.

“I know a lot of the members and they seem like they’re going to be great colleagues,” she says. “And some of them like to bike too.”

Twitter: @CarlinaRivera

Tony Sclafani has spent his career working for New York City institutions, often taking on the tough jobs.

“The way I see my career is that I tend to gravitate toward challenging environments where the deck might be stacked against you,” Sclafani says. “And someone like me has to figure out how to reshape the image or maybe restack the deck.”

After a stint as a police reporter for the Daily News, Sclafani became a spokesman for the New York City Fire Department and eventually chief spokesman for the city Department of Buildings. Every step of the way, he was on deadline and under pressure.

“I think I’m at my best when things are at their worst,” he says. “When the chips are down, I tend to work harder and work better. … I like when the stakes are high.”

Now, as chief communications officer for the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, Sclafani is working to tell a new story about a complex that once earned the nickname “Darth Vader” – both for its black glass and for killing scores of unsuspecting birds that flew into the panes.

Like the neighborhood around it, Javits has been transformed. It has a green roof housing dozens of bird species and even bees that are producing the center’s own honey. Bird deaths are down more than 90 percent.

The attention that has accompanied that renewal is long overdue, Sclafani says.

“This is one of New York state’s greatest economic assets,” he says.

Twitter: @tonysclafani