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Diane D'Alessandro

Revson Fellow 2001 - 2002

Associate Director
Political Action and Legislation Department DC 37 AFSCME

Diane D'Alessandro is Special Assistant to the Speaker of the New York State Assembly and will be working in Albany and New York City dealing with pension and labor issues. When she began her fellowship year, she was Associate Director of the Political Action Department of District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Born in Queens and raised in Brooklyn and Staten Island, Ms. D'Alessandro has received both her B.A. and M.S. in Education from CUNY's College of Staten Island. She began her career as a teacher before becoming an organizer for various causes and organizations including the National Women's Political Caucus; Citizens for Charter Change in New York City; and the campaigns of Dr. Ron Sable for Chicago City Council, of Deborah Glick for New York State Assembly, and of Ruth Messenger for Borough President. She has also served as a consultant to New York University's Robert Wagner Graduate School of Public Administration on the analysis of the New York State and New York City building codes on behalf of the New York State Charter Commission. Her work on charter reform led Ms. D'Alessandro to the labor movement. In 1990, she began her career at DC 37 as a policy analyst, working on legislative and collective bargaining issues affecting public sector employees, and developing expertise in privatization issues and in negotiating that enabled her to help DC 37 thwart privatization initiatives that would have adversely impacted public sector workers. Promoted to her current position in 1999, Ms. D'Alessandro has since then been focusing on re-building the political infrastructure of the union in order to maximize member participation in grassroots legislative and electoral campaigns. Ms. D'Alessandro also served as a DC 37 representative on the New York City Employees' Retirement System (NYCERS) Board of Trustees, which administers nearly $40 billion in pension fund assets. In 2000, on behalf of DC 37, she also served on Governor Pataki's Pension Task Force, recommending significant pension improvements--including a Cost of Living Adjustment--which were signed into law. While a Revson Fellow, Ms. D'Alessandro took courses in political science, mass media and American government, and painting. (The Revson Fellow's biography that appears above was last updated in 2001.)

The information listed above was provided at the time of the Fellow’s acceptance into the Revson Fellowship and may no longer be current.