{"id":32887,"date":"2025-11-08T06:33:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T06:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/32887\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T06:33:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T06:33:20","slug":"brooklyn-law-graduate-grace-bonilla-to-help-mamdanis-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/32887\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Law graduate Grace Bonilla to help Mamdani’s transition"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, speaks in front of the Unisphere alongside his transition team, from left, Elana Leopold, Melanie Hartzog, Maria Torres-Springer, Grace Bonilla, and Lina Khan, in the Queens borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. Grace Bonilla, president and CEO of United Way of New York City and a Brooklyn Law School graduate, was named to Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani\u2019s transition team.
\nPhoto: Heather Khalifa\/AP\n<\/p>\n

Grace Bonilla, president and CEO of United Way of New York City and a graduate of Brooklyn Law School, has been appointed to Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani\u2019s transition team, a group of five women charged with shaping the incoming administration and guiding the city through a historic change in leadership.<\/p>\n

Bonilla, a lifelong New Yorker who began her public service career under the Bloomberg administration, brings more than two decades of experience in social services and nonprofit leadership. She previously served as the city\u2019s human resources administration administrator, overseeing programs that supported more than three million residents. She later led New York\u2019s first Task Force on Racial Equity and Inclusion at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Her appointment signals Mamdani\u2019s intention to combine progressive ideals with institutional experience. As one of the few members of the transition team with deep roots in city government, Bonilla is expected to play a key role in shaping policies around poverty, housing and access to social services, areas where she has long focused her work.<\/p>\n

At United Way, Bonilla had emphasized equity and neighborhood-level collaboration, partnering with community groups to expand food access, health care and education programs across the five boroughs. Her leadership helped distribute 15 million pounds of food to families in need and provided hundreds of thousands of public school students with supplies and reading materials.<\/p>\n

Bonilla earned her law degree from Brooklyn Law School, where she received the C\u00e9sar Perales Community Advocate Award in 2015. Before that, she studied political science at St. John\u2019s University and began her career addressing child support reform and immigrant access issues in city agencies.<\/p>\n

In recent years, she has been recognized by City & State as one of New York\u2019s most influential nonprofit leaders and was inducted into the City Limits Hall of Fame. Her career, spanning city hall, community advocacy and global humanitarian work, shows a consistent focus on equity and opportunity \u2014 principles likely to guide her work on Mamdani\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thrilled to join the Race Equity Advisory Board,\u201d Bonilla said earlier this year. \u201cThis is a true opportunity to build a more just and equitable city where every New Yorker can see themselves in the fabric of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani, 34, who became New York\u2019s youngest mayor in more than a century, campaigned on affordability, child care and expanded public services. His decision to appoint Bonilla and four other women to lead his transition, including former Deputy Mayors Maria Torres-Springer and Melanie Hartzog and former FTC Chair Lina Khan, shows his promise to bring experienced, equity-driven leadership into City Hall.<\/p>\n

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\t\tLeave a Comment\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, speaks in front of the Unisphere alongside his transition team, from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,19727,9,24,63,87,19728,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-32887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-grace-bonilla","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-rob-abruzzese","17":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}