Zohran Mamdani
Who’s who in Zohran Mamdani’s administration?
Meet the folks who will run New York City come 2026.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Chief of Staff Elle Bisgaard-Church and appointed First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
As soon as a New York City mayoral candidate wins election – and in most cases for several months before –the city’s political class and media corps eagerly anticipate news of who he will hire to actually carry out his vision.
That fervor may be especially strong this year. Zohran Mamdani pulled off a stunning victory to rise from two-and-a-half-term Assembly member to mayor-elect. But his youth (a young millennial at 34 years old) and scant management experience have attracted particular attention to the balance of old hands and newcomers that will fill his administration, as well as their diversity along the ideological spectrum.
Keep up with Mamdani’s hires and appointments below, as of Dec. 18, 2025.
Hours after Mamdani sealed his victory on Election Day, the mayor-elect began announcing members of his transition team, some of whom could potentially join the administration. See those names here.
Dean Fuleihan
If Mamdani is a relative newbie, faced at every turn with concern about his youth and lack of experience, his pick for first deputy mayor is the opposite. Dean Fuleihan, at 74 years old, has been around the block, having served as first deputy mayor to Bill de Blasio, and before that, as his budget director. The pick is widely seen as both a smart strategic and tactical choice: Fuleihan’s profile helps mollify those concerned about Mamdani’s relative lack of experience, and his practical experience in Albany could help advance Mamdani’s policy promises. Fuleihan’s appointment was announced on Nov. 10, 2025.
Elle Bisgaard-Church
Mamdani faces pressure to expand his tent, but he’s certainly not going to kick out the people who were instrumental in building that tent. Choosing his former Assembly chief of staff turned mayoral campaign manager to continue on as chief of staff in his administration was an unsurprising, if still satisfying choice, for Mamdani’s base. Bisgaard-Church does not come from the political consultant class. She, like Mamdani, is a DSA member and (at the time of her hiring) 34 years old. The fact that her hiring and Fuleihan’s were announced in a joint presser illustrated the kind of balance Mamdani will try to strike in building out his administration. Bisgaard-Church’s appointment was announced on Nov. 10, 2025.
Jessica Tisch
The question every mayoral candidate faced during the 2025 election: Would you retain Jessica Tisch as police commissioner? Mamdani answered that twice: just before the last general election debate, with a stated desire to hire Tisch, and a few weeks after being elected, with an announcement that she accepted the offer. Tisch, a 17-year bureaucrat, three-time city commissioner and scion of a billionaire family, diverges from Mamdani on some key policing issues. Both say they’re committed to working together to make the city safer despite those differences. Tisch’s appointment was announced on Nov. 19, 2025.
Sherif Soliman
The budget director’s influence over how the city spends $115 billion makes them among the most powerful people in the administration. Sherif Soliman joins Mamdani’s administration after stints in the administrations of the past three mayors, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and, most recently, CUNY. Under Adams, he led the Mayor’s Office of Policy and Planning. Under de Blasio, he was commissioner of the Department of Finance. He has also previously served as executive director of the New York City Advisory Commission on Property Tax Reform, experience that may come in handy as Mamdani has vowed to reform the city’s notorious property tax system.
Jahmila Edwards
To achieve some of his top policy promises, Mamdani will need a hand from other levels of government. To lead that coordination between city, state and federal officials, Mamdani tapped longtime union operative Jahmila Edwards. Edwards was previously the associate director of District Council 37, the politically powerful union representing 150,000 public sector workers. She served in the role for 11 years, according to her LinkedIn profile. DC 37 formed a close relationship with Mamdani after ranking him on their endorsement slate in the Democratic primary when most major unions backed Andrew Cuomo. Edwards is also a former staffer of Bill de Blasio, working in his administration’s Department of Education and as his deputy chief of staff while he was public advocate, and is currently a district leader for central Brooklyn’s Assembly District 43.
Cat Da Costa
Cat Da Costa will lead the administration’s hiring efforts as director of the Mayor’s Office of Appointments. Da Costa is already a paid staffer on the Mamdani transition team, and she most recently was head of culture at Orchestra, the parent company of the public affairs firm BerlinRosen. Before that, she led DEI initiatives at Sotheby’s, according to her LinkedIn profile. She also worked in the de Blasio administration, including as the former mayor’s executive assistant and deputy director of scheduling.
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