{"id":52754,"date":"2025-11-26T10:48:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T10:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/52754\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T10:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T10:48:17","slug":"mamdanis-transition-committee-for-education-who-made-the-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/52754\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani\u2019s transition committee for education: Who made the list?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Of the nearly 40 people Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani tapped for his youth and education transition committee, notably absent were principals, teachers, and students who are currently in New York City\u2019s K-12 system. <\/p>\n

Mamdani, who announced the names to his transition teams Monday, centered his campaign on an affordability agenda, including free child care, but had little to say about improving the nation\u2019s largest school system.<\/a><\/p>\n

Several advocates from the world of child care policy and school integration made the list, along with higher education leaders and some former high-level officials from Bill de Blasio\u2019s administration. <\/p>\n

The members of the 17 transition committees will work on helping Mamdani\u2019s new administration make personnel decisions and provide policy guidance, so the 34-year-old Queens state assemblyman can hit the ground running when he takes office on Jan. 1. <\/p>\n

Whereas Mayor Eric Adams tapped several Bloomberg administration officials on his education transition team<\/a>, Mamdani\u2019s list includes some Education Department officials from de Blasio\u2019s tenure, including Josh Wallack, who oversaw the city\u2019s massive free prekindergarten expansion<\/a>; Edie Sharp, who served as Chancellor Richard Carranza\u2019s chief of staff<\/a>; and Karin Goldmark, a deputy chancellor of school planning and development who now runs GreenLink Education, a nonprofit that helps schools tackle sustainability efforts<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Some other notable committee members include: teachers union President Michael Mulgrew; Mark Dunetz, a former high school teacher and principal who now runs the New Visions for Public Schools network; and Sharon Greenberger, the president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater New York who was the head of the School Construction Authority<\/a> and then the Education Department\u2019s chief operating officer under Bloomberg<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Mamdani, who has mentioned concerns about school segregation in a city with among the most segregated schools in the nation, also tapped for the committee Nyah Berg, the director of Appleseed New York, an integration<\/a> advocacy group, and Matt Gonzales, of New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools<\/a>. Gonzales previously served on de Blasio\u2019s School Diversity Advisory Group, or SDAG, which advised phasing out gifted and talented programs<\/a> and curtailing selective admissions. Mamdani referred to the group several times on the campaign trail and also voiced interest in eliminating gifted programs<\/a> that start in kindergarten<\/a>, though the Bronx Science alum has walked back previous comments about addressing racial segregation in specialized high schools. <\/p>\n

(Mamdani\u2019s favorite Bronx Science teacher, Marc Kagan, <\/a>who retired from the social studies department in 2014, was tapped for the transportation, climate, and infrastructure committee.) <\/p>\n

Higher education leaders on the committee include SUNY Chancellor John King and CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez. <\/p>\n

Child care and after-school policy experts made the list, including Susan Stamler of United Neighborhood Houses, Tara Gardner of the Day Care Council of New York, and Rebecca Bailin, who started the grassroots advocacy movement behind New Yorkers United for Child Care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m most hopeful about the tremendous opportunity we have to help shape a transformative policy to support families, strengthen our child care providers, and bolster our city\u2019s economy by putting New York on a real path toward universal child care,\u201d said Grace Rauh of Citizens Union, which is home to the 5BORO Institute think tank that has examined the importance of affordable child care. <\/a><\/p>\n

Terrence Winston, who runs the Coalition for Community Schools Excellence <\/a>and works with nonprofits who partner with public schools to provide wraparound services to students and families, felt encouraged to see several familiar names across different sectors and hoped this would be a \u201cgenuine opportunity to supply innovative input and insights that will influence the mayor-elect\u2019s first 100 days in office.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThere will, however, need to be a committed investment in these collaborations \u2014 especially when things get difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the list of who will help shape Mamdani\u2019s vision for youth and education:<\/p>\n

Tazin Azad [former Brooklyn Borough appointee to the Panel for Educational Policy]<\/p>\n

Rebecca Bailin, New Yorkers United for Child Care<\/p>\n

Nyah Berg, Appleseed<\/p>\n

Evelyn Castro, Medgar Evers College<\/p>\n

Jason Cone, Robin Hood Foundation<\/p>\n

James Davis, PSC-CUNY<\/p>\n

Marielys Divanne, Futuro Solutions<\/p>\n

Mark Dunetz, New Visions for Public Schools<\/p>\n

Kesi Foster, Partners for Dignity & Rights<\/p>\n

Amy Freitag, NY Community Trust<\/p>\n

Tara Gardner, Daycare Council of NY<\/p>\n

Debra Ellen Glickstein, KidsRise<\/p>\n

Karin Goldmark, GreenLink Education<\/p>\n

Matt Gonzales, New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools (RJPS)<\/p>\n

Sharon Greenberger, YMCA Greater NY<\/p>\n

Brian Jones, Center for Education & Schools and New York Public Library<\/p>\n

John King, State University of New York (SUNY)<\/p>\n

Sebastian Leon Martinez, YDSA<\/p>\n

Randi Levine, Advocates for Children<\/p>\n

Christine Marinoni, Public School Advocate<\/p>\n

Felix Matos Rodriguez, City University of New York (CUNY)<\/p>\n

Rashad Moore, Crown Heights Baptist Church<\/p>\n

Michael Mulgrew, United Federation of Teachers (UFT)<\/p>\n

Lori Podvesker, INCLUDEnyc<\/p>\n

Hasoni Pratts, National Urban League<\/p>\n

Grace Rauh, Citizens Union<\/p>\n

Arva Rice, NY Urban League<\/p>\n

Raysa Rodriquez, Citizen\u2019s Committee for Children<\/p>\n

Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, Alliance for Quality Education<\/p>\n

Edie Sharp<\/p>\n

Felicia Singh, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families<\/p>\n

Susan Stamler, United Neighborhood Houses<\/p>\n

Hannah Towfeik, Muslim American Society (MAS)<\/p>\n

Mary Vaccarro, United Federation of Teachers (UFT)<\/p>\n

Joshua Wallack<\/p>\n

Eric Waterman, East Flatbush Village Inc.<\/p>\n

Terrence Winston, Coalition for Community Schools Excellence<\/p>\n

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4146,6225,660,9,24,55,54,56,63,87,901,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-52754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-chalkbeat","9":"tag-getty-editorial","10":"tag-horizontal","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-city-news","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52754","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=52754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}