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Staff

Staff

 

Leadership | Design and Product | Enterprise Data Solutions | Finance & Administration | Poverty Research | Programs & Evaluation | Strategy & Operations | Fellows

 

Leadership

Carson C. Hicks, Ph.D. | Acting Executive Director

Carson C. Hicks is the Deputy Executive Director of NYC Opportunity. In this role she oversees the day-to-day work of NYC Opportunity and its staff. She also serves as an in-house consultant on evaluation design and methodology. Dr. Hicks has held various senior leadership positions since joining NYC Opportunity in 2007. From 2011-2014 she was the Director of Programs and Evaluation. Prior to joining NYC Opportunity, Carson was a Teaching Fellow at Columbia University and Managing Editor of the Journal of Sociological Methodology. She completed her undergraduate degree at New York University and received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University.

Adam Cohen | Special Policy Advisor

Adam Cohen is Special Policy Advisor for NYC Opportunity. In this role, he works in a variety of areas, ranging from offering advice on policy issues and legal matters to helping to plan communications strategy. He has played a significant role in helping to draft a mayoral executive order on equity and in developing a privacy policy for the City's public housing broadband service. Prior to joining NYC Opportunity, Mr. Cohen was the chief speechwriter for the Mayor. Before coming to the City, he served as a senior policy advisor to Governor Andrew Cuomo. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Brigit Beyea | Acting Director, Strategy & Operations

Brigit Beyea is the Acting Director of Strategy and Operations at NYC Opportunity. She is responsible for overseeing the budget, contracting, human resource management and operations of NYC Opportunity's two office locations. In her role, she leads the office-wide work on diversity, equity and inclusion and supports special projects related to community-based mental health. Prior to NYC Opportunity, Ms. Beyea held leadership roles in various non-profit and governmental organizations focused on early childhood education, civic engagement and public health. She holds a Masters in Public Administration from New York University, and a B.A in Economics and Latin American Studies from Oberlin College.

Christine D'Onofrio, Ph.D. | Director, Poverty Research

Christine D'Onofrio oversees NYC Opportunity's innovative methodology for measuring poverty in the City, along with NYC Opportunity's work in tracking other indicators of economic well-being. Dr. D'Onofrio's work includes overseeing the use of the NYC Opportunity's poverty measure as a tool in developing new policies in the areas of opportunity and inequality while recognizing the structural roots of poverty. She is a labor economist who has previously worked as a research and budget analyst and developed models to estimate the effects of taxation and tax credits on the poverty rate.

Darnell Sessoms | Product Director

Darnell Sessoms leads the Product Team and oversees the strategy, ongoing delivery, and success of our digital products and services. The team’s portfolio connects millions of New Yorkers to benefits and services each year and supports City and community partners to better serve their constituents. Starting as a Product Manager on the team, he’s launched several products in our portfolio and led projects to help case workers digitize their workflow and improve the experience of LGBTQ youth and youth who experience homelessness. Darnell is a native New Yorker, with extensive lived experience navigating the social safety net. He has a BA in Anthropology from Skidmore College and MA in Communication and Technology Management from NYU.

David S. Berman | Director, Programs and Evaluation

David S. Berman is the Director of Programs and Evaluation for NYC Opportunity. In this role, Mr. Berman helps to launch new NYC Opportunity initiatives, and oversees the NYC Opportunity team that works with City agencies on program development, implementation, performance monitoring and evaluation for all of NYC Opportunity's initiatives. David's past work at NYC Opportunity has included helping to create new performance management strategies, and overseeing innovative workforce development initiatives, as well as programs serving and disconnected youth and NYC Opportunity's public health programs. Previously, David worked with the AIDS Service Center of NYC (now the Alliance for Positive Change). He holds master's degrees from Columbia University in both Public Administration and Public Health, and graduated from Oberlin College.

Lyndsey Marie Richardson | Acting Design Director

Lyndsey Richardson is the Acting Director of the Service Design Studio. In this role, Lyndsey oversees the Studio’s operations and strategic planning, design project portfolio, and team. Lyndsey brings a deep commitment to the design justice movement and an understanding of participatory practices to strengthen the Studio’s collaboration with people who directly administer and use public services. Prior to NYC Opportunity, Lyndsey served as the Deputy Director of Special Services within the Family Independence Administration (FIA) at the Human Resources Administration(HRA)/Dept. of Social Services (DSS). In this role, Lyndsey managed a portfolio of workforce development programs, co-developed the Youth Services division, facilitated technical assistance offerings for youth serving practitioners, and facilitated a variety of youth-led programs such as the Youth Experience Advocates (YEA) peer-evaluation program and the Youth Leadership Council.

Design

Deana Yu | Design Lead
Demetrious Canty | Design Lead

Equity

Shehab Chowdhury | Assistant Director

Enterprise Data Solutions

Aarti Shah | QA Engineer
Adam Santos | Sr. Data Scientist
Alicia Mathews | Implementation Manager
Che Liao | Deputy Director, Integration Services
Nelson Cocorpus | Director, Integration Services
Sandy Lee | Senior Developer
Shakil Assi | Sr. Systems Analyst
Sukhjinder Nahal | Sr. Developer

Poverty Research

Anne Hill, Ph. D | Sr. Research Associate
John Krampner | Research Associate
Jihyun Shin, Ph.D. | Deputy Director, Poverty Research
Tsewang Rigzin | Senior Research Associate

Product

Aaron Baker | Product Manager
Alisher Yuldashev | Application System Administrator
Bermet Kydykova | Product Manager
Brandon Cespedes | UX/UI Designer & Researcher
Jack Ding | UX Content Strategist
Jaylene Rubio | UX Designer
Jelynne Morse | Senior Product Researcher
Kinjal Patel | Full Stack Engineer
Lex Morant | Product Implementation Lead
Oonagh Jordan | Product Specialist
Pavel Ilin | Software Engineer/
Sophia Tareen | Senior Product Manager
Sourabh Chakraborty | Software Engineer
Wes Reid |Backend & DevOps Engineer
Yuriy Berezkyy | UI Engineer

Programs & Evaluation

Florencia Giordano | Sr. Advisor
Jin Kim | Associate Director, Programs and Evaluation
Joshua Serrano | Sr. Advisor
Karim Babouder-Matta | Sr. Advisor
Madeleine Taylor-McGrane | Advisor
Parker Krasney | Associate Director of Programs and Partnerships
Sola Amusan | Assistant Director, Program and Performance
Yael Gil'Adi | Sr. Advisor

Strategy & Operations

Karra Tuluenga | Acting Associate Director, Strategy & Operations

Recent Fellows

Abigail Sindzinski | Data Fellow, Winter/Spring 2023
Adelaide Phillips | P&E Fellow, Winter/Spring 2023
Anne Hill | P&E + PRU Fellow, P&E 2019-2022; PRU Winter 2022
Awwab Siddiqui | CUNY Fellow, Summer 2023
Brigit Qian | Design Fellow, Winter - Fall 2022
Cris Martinez | Designed by Community Fellow, Winter- Summer2023
David Baltazar | CUNY Fellow, Summer 2023
Dominique Dukes | Graduate Fellow, Summer 2023
Khailyn Waite | SYEP Summer Fellow, Summer 2022
Neyva Hernandez | Content Operations Fellow, Winter-Fall 2023
Marivi Sifuentes | Coding it Forward Fellow, Summer 2023
Oskar Lelko | Coding it Forward Fellow, Summer 2023
Victor Martinez | Communications Design Fellow, Winter- Fall 2023
Xavier Jones | Communications Design Fellow, Winter - Fall 2022
Zhaobin Tan | SYEP Summer Fellow, Summer 2022
Zoe Bordenet | Product Management & Research Fellow, Winter - Fall 2023