By: Jaida Dent and Amira Turner
In an interview with ABC7 NY on Nov. 16, mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced that he received over 50,000 applications for his transition team, from every zip code in the city except one. By Nov. 24, the 400 members of his transition committees were announced. Among the group were 20 CUNY faculty members, including five Brooklyn College (BC) faculty members, hailing from BC’s Sociology, Psychology, Humanities, and Political Science departments.
“The sheer number of applicants speaks to the excitement at the heart of this movement — one that has inspired people to believe that government can put working people first,” said Mamdani in a press release on his official website. “This was a movement built by and for New Yorkers – and our administration will reflect that.”
Mamdani’s transition team consists of 17 committees, ranging from Housing to Worker Justice. The 400-member team consists of leaders with experience in nonprofits, government, community organizing, and the private sector. Between now and his inauguration, the transition team will advise the mayor-elect on policy and staff applications.
“Because oftentimes transitions are pageantry. They are the moments where you announce all of the people that you know that you owe favors to, this, that, and the other,” said Mamdani to ABC7. “We want this to be a moment where we’re actually preparing ourselves for January 1. And that means spending these next 46, 47 days that we have actually preparing.
Alex Vitale, a Sociology and Humanities professor and author of the book “Stop Policing,” will be an advisor on the mayor-elect’s committee on Community Safety. Vitale also serves as the Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project, an organization of BC community members that researches and advocates for safer communities.
Psychology professor, environmental activist, and Professional Staff Congress (PSC) CUNY member Nancy Romer, Ph.D., has been appointed to the committee on Transportation, Climate, and Infrastructure. Romer is the Co-Founder of the Brooklyn Food Coalition and has decades of experience in feminist, labor, and environmental activism.
Celina Su is an associate professor in political science at BC and serves as the CUNY Marilyn J. Gittell Chair in Urban Studies. Su will be serving on the committee for Community Organizing. Alongside her work at CUNY, she has authored three books on government budgets, grassroots organizing around education, and global health.
PSC-CUNY President James Davis is currently on leave from his role teaching in the BC American Studies and English department, and has been appointed to serve on the committee on Youth and Education. Prior to his time as PSC-CUNY President, Davis served for six years as union chapter chair at BC.
“CUNY faculty and staff bring unmatched knowledge to the issues that shape daily life in the city,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, in a CUNY press release.“Their service demonstrates how essential the University is to creating a more equitable and affordable New York, and we look forward to contributing insight and experience at this important moment for the city’s future.”
Rodríguez will also serve alongside Davis on the committee on Youth and Education.
The mayor-elect isn’t waiting until his inauguration to implement new changes, as he introduced two new committees that previous mayors have not had: the Committee on Worker Justice and the Committee on Community Organizing.
“These are two critical parts of what it means to be a New Yorker today. We have workers across the city who have to deal with conditions that should frankly ashame us,” Mamdani said, according to CBS News.
Mamdani’s transition team is stacked with leaders from across politics on both the city and federal levels, who all reflect the policies his campaign ran on. The day after his election on Nov. 4, he announced his all-female transition team, spearheaded by Transition Executive Director Elana Leopold. Leopold previously worked under Bill de Blasio’s administration during his time as mayor.
The team includes four co-chairs, who will also oversee the transition committees: Grace Bonilla, Lina Khan, Maria Torres-Springer, and Melanie Hartzog.
Bonilla comes with experience in the nonprofit sector as the President and CEO of United Way of New York City.
Khan served as Chair and Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission from June 2021 to January 2025, and is an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School.
Torres-Springer has previously served as Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce; First Deputy Mayor to Eric Adams; and a Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation, a social justice-focused private foundation.
Hartzog is the President and CEO of the New York Foundling, a nonprofit organization that supports and advocates for families in the city. She also previously served as the Deputy Mayor of New York City for Health and Human Services under de Blasio, and was the first woman of color to be the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Mamdani’s team also includes Elle Bisgaard-Church, who will serve as Chief of Staff, and Dean Fuleihan, who will be the First Deputy Mayor.
Fuleihan is no stranger to his current role, as he held the same one in 2018 under de Blasio and served as the Director of OMB. Bisgaard-Church has been a key member on Mamdani’s staff since 2020, when he was an assemblymember. She would continue to be a shoulder to lean on for Mamdani as she served as his campaign manager throughout his election run.
Stated by Leopold, “Excellence is the guiding light driving this transition, and today’s committee appointees are no exception. Together, these leaders will help prepare Mayor-elect Mamdani’s administration to take on the city’s toughest challenges—from housing access to emergency preparedness to the day-to-day operations of city government that must be exceptional.”