Staff

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Leadership

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

Carson C. Hicks is the Executive Director of the Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity. She has held various senior leadership positions since joining the office in 2007. Most recently, she was the Acting Executive Director and prior to that she was the Deputy Executive Director. Before 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 | Director, Strategy & Operations

Brigit Beyea is the 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.

Darnell Sessoms | Product Director

Darnell Sessoms leads the Product Team; overseeing the strategy, delivery and success of our digital products and services. The team leverages technology to make it easy for New Yorkers to access benefits and services, support front line staff, and improve efficiency for administrators. They also partner with the Poverty Research Unit to manage digital tools that make workforce, equity and poverty data more accessible and actionable. Darnell started as a Product Manager in 2016. He's piloted, launched and managed numerous products and continues to improve our product, user experience, and engineering practices. Darnell is a native New Yorker with personal experience navigating the City's social safety net and supporting others through it. His philosophy and approach to serving his home community is a result of his social science background (BA in Anthropology from Skidmore College) and business, management, and product leadership (Master's 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 | Studio Director

Lyndsey Richardson is the 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.

Jihyun Shin | Director, Poverty Research

Jihyun Shin is the Director of the Poverty Research Unit. In this role, she leads research initiatives to develop and implement innovative measures related to poverty, economic opportunity, and security for the city of New York. Previously, she was a research scientist at the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, where she developed and implemented an alternative poverty measurement and collaborated on research projects with various governments and academic institutions. She earned her Ph.D in Public Policy from the University at Albany, State University of New York, specializing in Health Economics.

Design

Deana Yu | Assistant Director of Visual Design + Design Lead
Anupama Krishnan |Service Design Fellow
Jennell Thomas | Service Design Fellow

Poverty Research

Anne Hill, Ph. D | Senior Research Associate
Tsewang Rigzin Ph. D. | Senior Research Associate
Adam Santos | Manager of Data Science
Claire Reynolds | Senior Data Scientist
Luna Catalán I Research Associate

Product

Programs & Evaluation

Strategy & Operations

Cris Martinez | Administrative Specialist

Recent Fellows

Dominique Dukes | Graduate Fellow, Summer 2023 - Spring 2024
Michael Guerrero | P&E Fellow, Winter/Spring 2024
Victor Martinez | Design Fellow, Summer 2023 - Summer 2024
Coura Fall | Urban Fellow, 2024, Fall 2023- Summer 2024
Chelsea Jackson | Graduate Fellow, Summer 2024
Daniel Iqbal | Watson Fellow, Summer 2024
Audrey Chou | Coding it Forward Fellow, Spring 2024
Michelle Le | Coding it Forward Fellow, Spring 2024
Victor Martinez | Design Fellow, Winter 2023- Summer 2024
Lolayemi Charles | Urban Fellow, Programs and Evaluation, Fall 2024-Summer 2025
Jericee Mitchell | Programs and Evaluation Fellow, Fall 2024-Summer 2025
Ivan Melchor | Product Fellow, Fall - Summer 2025