Trailblazers
The 2026 Long Island Trailblazers
Local leaders of Suffolk and Nassau counties
City & State presents the 2026 Long Island Trailblazers. Grassi Advisors; Jamie Collins Photography; Viewpoint Photography
Long Island is a thriving region that is home to nearly 3 million people. The two counties that make up the region, Nassau and Suffolk, are largely suburban, with many of their residents living in cities, towns, villages or hamlets filled with single-family homes. A majority of Long Island’s nearly 3 million residents are white.
In recent decades, however, Long Island has grown more diverse, with Latinos and Asian Americans leading the way, and Black residents also making gains. Local political leanings have ebbed and flowed, with Democrats making gains in the island’s Republican strongholds, only to see them recede again.
City & State’s Long Island Trailblazers, researched and written by journalist Lon Cohen, illustrates the dynamic nature of the region. This year’s list features elected and appointed government officials, mission-driven nonprofit leaders, exemplary business executives, forward-looking university presidents and civic-minded attorneys along with deeply engaged advocates, activists and others who are collectively defining Long Island’s future.
Sydney Altfield
Sydney Altfield rose up through grassroots engagement roles to lead Teach Coalition – a nonprofit that helps secure funding for yeshivas and Jewish day schools – after nearly a decade of mobilizing parents, school leaders and students on Long Island and beyond. She helped secure nearly $500 million in funding in the latest state budget for New York’s nonpublic schools and helped build a program that has delivered more than $400 million for STEM teacher salaries while expanding alliances across Jewish, Catholic and Islamic school communities.
Lori Andrade
Lori Andrade’s energy toward creating change is shaped by her more than two decades working with nonprofits on Long Island. Since 2010, Andrade has worked for the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, where she now leads the Health Equity Alliance of Long Island, or HEALI, its social care network. Prior to this role, she helped secure Long Island’s place in New York state’s Medicaid waiver initiative, which connects more than 100 organizations around nutrition, housing and transportation to improve health and cut costs, and moves services such as medically tailored meals to reimbursable care.
Michael Balboni
Michael Balboni’s return to Adelphi University has marked, as the alum describes it, a full-circle moment. The Garden City native and 1981 Adelphi graduate became the first alum and first Long Island native to lead the university. The former Assembly member and state senator has enjoyed a career spanning not only elected office, but also homeland security, healthcare advocacy and consulting. After more than eight years on Adelphi’s board, including a term as chair, he assumed the university presidency in June, selected in part for his ability to build public-private partnerships, champion the school and drive growth.
Diane Cahill
After roles at Long Island law firms and in the labor movement, Diane Cahill became a lobbyist and advocate across the construction, education and healthcare industries, helping to advance landmark autism insurance reform and board certified behavior analyst licensing in New York state. Her namesake firm now represents contractors, developers and owners who are navigating shifting regulations, and it has helped shape New York City construction code revisions, distilling them into a 100-page industry guide. More recently, Cahill played a key role in passing construction safety reforms while expanding her firm’s reach across Long Island, Albany and elsewhere.
Robert Creighton
Robert Creighton leads Farrell Fritz while maintaining a corporate practice centered on mergers and acquisitions, commercial lending and advising privately held businesses. Before joining the firm in 1998, Creighton practiced at Rivkin Radler and Rogers & Wells. In January, Creighton was quoted as saying he was “cautiously optimistic” about the coming year, seeing delayed mergers and acquisitions demand and private equity capital driving activity, alongside continued affordable housing and downtown development that could help retain young talent. Creighton serves on the boards of the Long Island Association, Family Service League and The Energeia Partnership.
Christopher D’Amato
Christopher D’Amato leads Park Strategies’ healthcare sector work for Mount Sinai South Nassau, Catholic Health, the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council and RiseWell Community Services. Over the past year, D’Amato and his team helped secure higher Medicaid reimbursements, additional hospital infrastructure investments and funding for financially distressed facilities. He also strengthened the firm’s Long Island presence and tackled local, state and federal regulatory issues in the tech, healthcare and energy sectors. Before joining Park Strategies, he was senior counsel with the enforcement division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and, before that, a Manhattan assistant district attorney.
Tracey Edwards
Tracey Edwards has held key roles in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. The former Verizon region president later served on the Huntington Town Council, led Habitat for Humanity of Suffolk County and joined the state Public Service Commission. Now, as chair of the Long Island Power Authority, Edwards is helping steer the region’s renewable energy transition while pressing for stronger oversight of aggressive utility bill collections and protections for vulnerable customers. Edwards is a member of the NAACP national board and first vice president of the NAACP New York State Conference.
Adrienne Esposito
Since she helped found the nonprofit Citizens Campaign for the Environment in 1985, Adrienne Esposito has advanced toxic cleanups, land preservation and renewable energy. Recent victories include securing a record $525 million in clean water funding, obtaining water connections for 128 homes with wells contaminated by forever chemicals, helping to advance a horseshoe crab harvest ban and building support for Suffolk County sewer and septic funding. Esposito is fighting to preserve $40 million for Long Island Sound, advance offshore wind protections and support local projects like Great Patchogue Lake’s new pollinator habitat.
Monique Fitzgerald
Armed with degrees in community health and social welfare, Monique Fitzgerald has helped turn local environmental concerns into policy campaigns. She mobilized residents against data centers, compelling the town of Brookhaven to adopt an 18-month moratorium, and organized around the state’s Responsible Data Center Development Act. Through allied groups, Fitzgerald challenged the state Department of Environmental Conservation over its air permit for the Caithness Long Island Energy Center, arguing regulators failed to consider pollution in vulnerable communities. She is a council member with the Setalcott Nation, whose Department of Environmental Conservation stewardship agreement covers Conscience Bay restoration and reclamation.
Thomas Garry
At the growing law firm Harris Beach Murtha, Thomas Garry advises on major Long Island projects involving healthcare, energy and public finance. Among them are hospital expansions, offshore wind proposals and smart-growth efforts. In 2026, after 16 years with the firm and years leading its Long Island office, Garry was selected by Harris Beach Murtha to chair its Management Committee and work with CEO Chris Jagel on companywide growth. Garry also chairs the state’s Appellate Division Second Department Judicial Screening Committee and served as New York state counsel for the past four Democratic presidential campaigns.
Louis Grassi
Louis Grassi founded his self-titled company at the age of 24 and has spent more than four decades making it one of the nation’s top accounting, tax and advisory firms. In 2023, Grassi bucked the profession’s private equity trend, converting Grassi to employee ownership. He has since become an outspoken advocate for the model, tying independence and shared ownership to succession planning, long-term growth and stronger client service. Grassi also serves on the boards of OceanFirst Financial Corp. and BRT Apartments.
Nick Guariglia
Nick Guariglia has expanded public engagement on offshore wind and other renewables, connected with elected officials and helped defend wind projects against federal stop-work actions, including successful litigation challenging a federal ban on wind energy projects. At the New York Offshore Wind Alliance, which is part of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York, Guariglia advocates for battery storage to strengthen grid reliability and reduce energy costs. Guariglia maintains his clean energy work is personal too, and says it keeps his own family from being priced out of living on Long Island.
Jeff Guillot
One of Babylon native Jeff Guillot’s early career stops was in the office of former Rep. Gary Ackerman, whose district included Nassau County, before spending more than a decade at Huntington-based Millennial Strategies and over a year at MAD Global Strategy. Since launching his own firm in 2025, Guillot has advised startups and regulated industries while building partnerships with Accelerate Long Island and PARC Solutions. An active voice on cannabis policy, Guillot also teaches state and local government at Suffolk County Community College, extending a career rooted in regional politics, business and public policy.
Scott Jennings
Scott Jennings took the helm at PSEG Long Island in January, as the grid management company entered into a new operating agreement with the Long Island Power Authority through 2030. The 27-year PSEG veteran helped negotiate the arrangement that outlines the company’s 2014 assumption of grid operations for LIPA. Now responsible for operations serving roughly 1.2 million customers, Jennings has steered a record year for electric service reliability, accelerated planning around on-island generation and launched a multiyear technology investment program. Under his leadership, the company purchased a corporate facility in Melville that will consolidate offices.
Rochelle Kelly-Apson
Rochelle Kelly-Apson has expanded Black Voters of Long Island through partnerships spanning civil rights, faith, nonprofit, community and political networks. Under her leadership, BVLI also launched Party 2 the Polls, which combines early-voting events with transportation and voter education; published a nonpartisan voter guide; and kicked off the Next Gen Black Leadership Series, which graduated its second campaign staff training cohort this summer. A partner at McBride Consulting & Business Development Group, Kelly-Apson also advises developers and nonprofits, including Concern Housing on a $72 million, 96-unit apartment project in Hempstead.
Charles Lavine
Assembly Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine has represented Nassau County in the state Legislature since 2005, following a stint as a Glen Cove council member. He has helped advance same-sex marriage, early voting and gun safety measures, and successfully pushed to erase New York’s century-old adultery crime. His recent work includes Kyra’s Law, which prioritizes child safety in custody cases, and the CREEP Act which modernizes the anti-stalking law. Lavine also co-sponsored the Nazi art bill and has spoken out against hate, denouncing anti-Muslim graffiti on a mosque construction site in Shirley.
Gary Lewi
At Rubenstein Communications, Gary Lewi advises clients across infrastructure, energy, healthcare and development, including work involving Northrop Grumman’s environmental remediation, Association for a Better Long Island’s pro-business advocacy and Propel New York Energy’s resilience efforts while also providing media support to Mount Sinai South Nassau. Lewi has also supported the $1.8 billion Long Island Rail Road third-track expansion project. The former communications director for then-U.S. Sen. Al D’Amato during the politician’s first term has lectured at Stony Brook, Hofstra and Columbia universities.
Editor’s note: Gary Lewi is a member of City & State’s advisory board.
Neela Mukherjee Lockel
Neela Mukherjee Lockel returned to EAC Network in 2021 after an earlier stint as program director at the social services nonprofit. She now oversees some 110 programs serving about 80,000 New Yorkers annually. Lockel has expanded the organization’s Long Island footprint, securing $3 million for upgrades to the Children’s Advocacy Center of Suffolk County and opening a Nassau counterpart. The organization’s traffic safety education program for teens reached nearly 5,000 Long Islanders last year. A former American Red Cross and Girls Inc. of Long Island leader, Lockel serves on the Long Island Association board.
Steve Malito
As a child, Steve Malito played in the treehouse at Gracie Mansion while his father served in the John Lindsay administration, putting him in proximity to power from a very young age. A former Queens prosecutor and lifelong Nassau County resident, Malito spent more than 25 years helping to build up another government relations practice before joining Greenberg Traurig in 2026. His work now spans emerging digital infrastructure and data center policy, and expands first-responder communications for Long Island municipalities. Malito also helped establish The Viscardi Center’s Museum of Disability History, which spotlights the disability rights movement.
Stevens Martinez
A Glen Cove native, Stevens Martinez founded the Glen Cove Young Democrats before rising through Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Long Island operation from Nassau County regional representative to director of intergovernmental affairs, overseeing two representatives for the region’s counties. Martinez, the son of Salvadoran immigrants, spent years teaming up with Assembly Member Michaelle Solages to move the long-stalled Elmont community center toward construction. He has also helped recommend appointments to a number of regional boards and served on the community advisory committee that reviewed the successful casino bid by Resorts World New York City.
Robert McBride
For decades, Robert McBride has shaped policy in land use, transportation, energy and municipal affairs across the region, including his recent work supporting Long Island’s power grid and advising local governments. His McBride Consulting & Business Development Group has guided engagement for Propel New York Energy, South Fork Wind and the $4.2 billion Sunrise Wind project, while negotiating the town of Brookhaven’s community benefits package. McBride recently secured a 15-year transit contract extension and rolled out government efficiency software in nearly every Long Island town to streamline permitting and asset management.
Kevin McDonald
A Long Island native with more than four decades in environmental policy, Kevin McDonald has helped turn conservation priorities into public investment. He spent 12 years building the coalition behind the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act, bringing labor, advocates and industry together before voters overwhelmingly approved it in 2024. He now serves on the board overseeing its implementation. He is also helping shape the debate over large-scale data centers, pushing for mitigation requirements that steer investment toward reforestation, natural resource restoration and wildlife habitat protection to safeguard Long Island’s environmental landscape.
John McGuigan
John McGuigan began his 30-year career in disability services as a direct support professional in a group home, an experience that still shapes his approach at People’s Arc of Suffolk. Since joining the nonprofit in 2020, McGuigan has led a rebrand from what was formerly AHRC Suffolk and transitioned to a people-first model centered on interdependence, relationships and belonging. He has shifted services from larger centers toward smaller community-based programs closer to where people live, while building business partnerships that help people with disabilities succeed in competitive employment and become more connected to their communities.
Farrah Mozawalla
Farrah Mozawalla has spent more than two decades advocating for Asian American communities. Her public service work includes helping push for the creation of the Nassau County Office of Asian American Affairs and serving as its first executive director. Through the Asian American Institute for Research and Engagement, Mozawalla has continued those efforts. The organization’s two-year study in partnership with Hofstra University found about 78% of respondents experienced discrimination and more than half said language barriers affected their ability to vote. Mozawalla also oversees civic and voter education, free mental health services through Northwell Health and services for immigrants.
Kristin Ohrtman
For 14 years, Kristin Ohrtman has led HELP Suffolk, Long Island’s largest housing facility for people facing homelessness. Ohrtman oversees a 40-person staff at the 76-unit, seven-acre Bellport complex. HELP Suffolk moves families into permanent housing while working to reduce Suffolk County’s shelter population. Ohrtman’s trauma-informed model combines housing placement with healthcare, mental health services, employment assistance and childcare. Ohrtman has also advanced safety and property improvements while building community partnerships that extend support beyond a family’s shelter stay.
Thalia Olaya
Thalia Olaya’s public service career began in high school with the Teen Leadership Council at the domestic violence prevention nonprofit The Retreat, where she oversaw fundraisers, outreach and presentations for Latino parents. She later worked in its legal advocacy program and ran the shelter. At Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law, Olaya represented indigent defendants through a criminal justice clinic. After serving as an aide to Assembly Member Fred Thiele, she joined Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office in 2024 and connects local governments, schools, nonprofits and businesses with resources while advancing housing, infrastructure and economic development.
Eugene Perry Jr.
Eugene Perry Jr. capped decades in volunteer fire service with a year leading the Firefighters Association of the State of New York, ending his term in August. Perry rose from committee leadership and assistant sergeant-at-arms to director and president of the organization. His presidency saw fire service groups preserve ambulance cost recovery and win the passage of an $800 income tax credit for volunteer firefighters, plus access to a property tax benefit. A Patchogue firefighter since 1979, Perry has also served as president of the Brookhaven Town Volunteer Firefighters Museum.
Susan Poser
Susan Poser arrived at Hofstra University in 2021, joining the Hempstead institution as it positioned itself for its next century. Poser launched the Hofstra 100 strategic plan, oversaw record retention and four-year graduation rates, helped elevate the university to Carnegie R2 research status and secured a $35 million gift for the Frank G. Zarb School of Business. She also expanded local ties through college credit pathway programs and made Hofstra Long Island’s first university to offer campuswide ChatGPT Edu access. Last year, trustees extended her contract through 2031. Poser also serves on the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council.
Jeffrey Reynolds
Jeffrey Reynolds has spent decades tackling some of Long Island’s toughest public health challenges, including HIV and AIDS, addiction and hate crimes. After nearly two decades with the Long Island Association for AIDS Care, Reynolds served as executive director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and co-founded BiasHELP of Long Island. At the Family & Children’s Association since 2014, he has expanded behavioral health and recovery services while modernizing and rebranding the 142-year-old nonprofit. Reynolds is also an active voice on cannabis policy who urges collaboration between dispensaries, treatment providers and public health groups.
Michael N. Rosenblut
Michael N. Rosenblut has spent more than two decades finding new ways to care for older adults. Since assuming the leadership of Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation in 2003, Rosenblut has broadened its services to include rehabilitation, dialysis, hospice, and dementia and home-based care. Among his recent initiatives are expanding physician-led house calls and providing bedside blood transfusions to minimize hospital transfers. Rosenblut, who also runs the affiliated Queens-Long Island Renal Institute, has delivered care to patients across Long Island, Westchester County and much of New York City.
Susan Ruzenski
Susan Ruzenski is broadening the reach of Helen Keller Services, a nonprofit that helps people with sight challenges, into early childhood education. The organization has new preschools in Islandia and Plainview, including its first for children ages 3 to 5 with disabilities and complex developmental needs. The six classroom sites will serve up to 120 children annually. Ruzenski has also added community-based employment services for people who are deaf and/or blind. She has also opened a new accessible atrium at the Helen Keller National Center Sands Point campus, with tactile and sensory wayfinding features to support independent navigation.
Athul Santhosh
Athul Santhosh went from representing Herricks High School students in front of the district’s Board of Education to winning a seat on it at 18 – making him the youngest Asian American elected official in New York state. A 2025 high school graduate, Santhosh spent years bringing student concerns to trustees, an experience that shaped his current priorities, which include internships, extracurricular access and student involvement in budget decisions. Santhosh, whose candidacy energized younger voters with strong turnout reported among current students and recent graduates, has said that he wants to elevate more student perspectives.
Michael Scheid
Michael Scheid turned an internship in the Melville office of U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand into a career, rising to oversee the lawmaker’s Long Island operations. Before joining the office full time, Scheid was a field organizer and volunteer coordinator on an Assembly campaign. Over the past year, he has helped manage millions of dollars allocated by Congress for nonprofits, schools, research institutions and water infrastructure, while overseeing a regional internship program and mentoring students interested in government and public service. Scheid was born and raised in North Babylon and now lives in Smithtown.
Gloria Sesso
Gloria Sesso has spent decades making the case that history is the center of a strong education. After teaching and leading social studies programs in Harborfields, Half Hollow Hills and Patchogue-Medford schools, Sesso used those experiences to guide broader advocacy while also writing history books for middle school students. Recently, the Long Island Council for the Social Studies co-sponsored a Holocaust education survey that showed roughly 15% of respondents either believed the genocide had been exaggerated to some degree or declined to answer. She called the findings a wake-up call for educators.
Tammy Severino
A former Girl Scout and troop leader, Tammy Severino rose to become president and CEO of Girl Scouts of Suffolk County, leading efforts to widen access to scouting. Under Severino, programming has reached nearly 3,000 girls in more than 50 schools in economically underresourced communities, while serving nearly 15,000 girls and volunteers in total. She has also expanded the main summer camp’s unplugged outdoor programming. In June, Severino supported an inaugural fundraising 5K and 1-mile family walk. Severino is also president of the consulting firm RPC Development.
Stacey Sikes
Stacey Sikes is steering the Long Island Association through the business advocacy group’s centennial year. This includes a Washington, D.C., advocacy push, keeping affordability, energy reliability, housing, infrastructure, workforce development and economic growth high on the agenda. Sikes previously led government affairs and communications at LIA after early career roles with U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and then-Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. At Hofstra University, Sikes created a business incubator for entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also chairs the board of Accelerate Long Island, connecting research institutions with business leaders to help the growth of high-tech startups.
Carlos Soto
Carlos Soto is putting artificial intelligence to work in the real world, developing systems that help scientists interpret data, run experiments and direct robots through complex tasks. At the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Soto leads the Scientific Embodied Agents Lab and AI Theory and Security research group, applying AI across molecular anatomy, drug invention and nuclear security. He’s also delving into “embodied AI,” combining AI with robots that can perceive and act in the physical world in order to address scientific challenges beyond the capabilities of conventional robotic automation.
Doreen Spagnuolo
In December, Doreen Spagnuolo oversaw the opening of a new 24,585-square-foot Long Island Board of Realtors headquarters in Melville, replacing its longtime West Babylon offices with a technology- and training-focused hub serving more than 25,000 real estate professionals. The former law firm partner and Queens assistant district attorney has guided members through major industry changes following the National Association of Realtors’ settlement in 2024 that revamped commission negotiations and buyer-agent agreements. Spagnuolo is also positioning LIBOR as a consumer resource on fees and the homebuying process.
Kyle Strober
Kyle Strober has been pressing for a more modern approach to Long Island housing and development. Strober’s Association for a Better Long Island joined a coalition seeking to overhaul New York state’s mansion tax and continues pushing towns toward faster, technology-driven permitting. That work builds on advocacy for the $2 billion Long Island Rail Road third track project, statewide reform to cut construction red tape and the restoration of the state and local tax deduction from federal taxable income. Strober is also former Long Island regional director for U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer.
Nicholas Terzulli
Nicholas Terzulli made partner at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron in late 2025, building on a practice spanning economic development, government relations and cannabis law. Terzulli, an expert on cannabis licensing, secured one of New York state’s first conditional adult-use retail dispensary licenses for a client who had a prior cannabis conviction and also guided The Hamptons Collective’s dispensary to its 2026 Southampton opening. Terzulli’s résumé includes securing a 30-year tax exemption for a transit-oriented housing project and helping with Nassau County’s Superstorm Sandy recovery that aided 2,500 businesses. He’s also board treasurer of the Nassau Community College Foundation.
Anthony Villa
Anthony Villa last year was promoted to oversee the Eastern New York region for the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, making him responsible for thousands of union members from New York’s North Country to Long Island. Villa rose through the ranks from apprentice to business manager of Long Island’s Carpenters Local 290, where he serves as president. Villa helps lead organizing, workforce development and advocacy for fair wages and safe worksites. He also championed the redevelopment of Belmont Park and serves on executive boards for the Building & Construction Trades Council of Nassau & Suffolk Counties and the Long Island Federation of Labor.
William Wertheim
With three decades in the Stony Brook system in roles spanning residency leadership, clinical outreach and medical staff governance, Dr. William Wertheim now oversees a $3.1 billion enterprise serving 1.8 million patients a year. Wertheim has grown Stony Brook Medicine’s Long Island reach through expanded care options accommodating more than 14,000 additional visits annually. Under Wertheim, National Institutes of Health funding surged 27% as he has advanced a $100 million research modernization initiative, including new flagship labs and a 6,000-square-foot clinical trials unit in Commack with 12 exam rooms, infusion space and specialized testing capabilities.
Rory Whelan
Since joining Suffolk County government in January, Rory Whelan has created and overseen the Business Gateway, the county’s first platform that consolidates services and connects companies with support to help them flourish. He also helps lead a department of more than 90 employees. A Long Island native with more than 30 years of experience across government and industry, Whelan’s résumé includes stops at then-Time Warner Cable and Crown Castle, plus senior posts in New York state and New York City government, most recently as a special adviser at City Hall.
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