FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12/15/22
CONGRESSMAN-ELECT DAN GOLDMAN ANNOUNCES NEW ROUND OF STAFF HIRES
Congressman-elect Dan Goldman (NY-10) today announced nine new additions to his Capitol Hill and District Office staff as he continues to build out his team.
Erin Meegan will join Congressman-elect Goldman’s office as Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director, Francesco Arreaga will be a Senior Policy Advisor, Chris Bannon will be Special Assistant and Scheduler, Arturo Gutierrez will be Press and Staff Assistant, and Kyla Anderson will be Staff Assistant. Meegan, Arreaga, Bannon, Gutierrez, and Anderson will be joining Congressman-elect Goldman’s office on Capitol Hill.
Kristen Rouse will join Congressman-elect Goldman’s office as Deputy District Director, Ling Ye will be a Senior Casework Manager and Field Representative, Betsy Schmid will be a Senior Casework Manager, and Mayra Molina will be a Caseworker and Field Representative. Rouse, Ye, Schmid, and Molina will be joining Congressman-elect Goldman’s District Office.
The new hires will join Goldman’s team along with previously announced Haley Scott, John Blasco, Tevin Williams, and Simone Kanter. Haley Scott will be taking a leave of absence from BerlinRosen to head up Rep-Elect Goldman’s office as Chief of Staff. She will be based in both DC and New York. John Blasco will serve as District Director, Tevin Williams as Director of Community and External Affairs, and Simone Kanter as Press Secretary.
All 13 hires will join Goldman’s official office when he is sworn in on January 3, 2023.
“I am thrilled to fill out my Congressional office in Washington and the District with exceptional and experienced public servants who reflect the diversity of the district and are attuned to the needs of all of our constituents,” Congressman-elect Dan Goldman said. “It is my highest priority to ensure that every resident of NY-10 enjoys outstanding representation from our offices, which is why we have dedicated the majority of our staff to the District. We are ready to hit the ground running on Day One and look forward to delivering for New Yorkers.”
Erin Meegan will be joining Goldman’s office on Capitol Hill as Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director. Meegan is an experienced Legislative Director and has worked on Capitol Hill covering a range of policy issues for nearly seven years in both the majority and the minority, including for two New York members. Before she came to the Hill, Erin was a fundraiser and field operative for the Obama/DNC Joint Victory Fund and worked for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Francesco Arreaga will be joining Goldman’s office on Capitol Hill as a Senior Policy Advisor. He is currently a Policy Advisor in the office of Representative Adriano Espaillat. While in law school, Arreaga worked for Senator Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign and served as a law clerk on the Senate Banking Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee. After graduating from Berkeley Law, Arreaga was a fellow at the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal network dedicated to making the law a force for improving people's lives. This year, Arreaga published an article with the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal and co-authored an article with Representative Espaillat in the Harvard Journal on Legislation. Arreaga obtained his J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law, with a certificate of specialization in international law. He graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Political Science and Chinese, and a minor in Global Studies.
Chris Bannon will be joining Goldman’s office on Capitol Hill as a Special Assistant and Scheduler. Bannon is currently an Associate Client Manager at BerlinRosen, where he has worked to elect Democrats up and down the ballot and across the country. He is a graduate of Suffolk University and has worked on local, state-level, and federal campaigns for the past four years.
Arturo Gutierrez will be joining Goldman’s office on Capitol Hill as a Press and Staff Assistant. Gutierrez is a former educator whose work in politics is still tied to the same mission, to improve outcomes for students and families across the country. He brings experience in political fundraising, direct mail, and campaign communications. Arturo studied Elementary Education at Johns Hopkins University and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
Kyla Anderson will be joining Goldman’s office on Capitol Hill as a Staff Assistant. Anderson is a proud Afro-Puerto Rican, born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She is coming to Goldman’s team from Representative Yvette Clarke’s office, where she was a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Congressional Intern. Anderson is a recent graduate of the State University of New York-Binghamton University, majoring in Philosophy, Politics, and Law, with a minor in Latin American and Caribbean Area Studies. Kyla’s prior experiences include internships with Bronx Legal Services, New York City’s Housing Authority Department of Equal Opportunity, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the Broome County Public Defender’s Office, the Clinton Foundation, and Integrate NYC. Anderson hopes to focus her career on fighting against the inequalities that low-income BIPOCs face every day throughout this country.
Kristen Rouse will be joining Goldman’s District Office as Deputy District Director. She most recently served as Deputy Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the New York State Division of Veterans’ Services. She served in the US Army, US Army Reserve, and Army National Guard over nearly three decades, including three tours of duty in Afghanistan and active service in support of the military’s national COVID-19 vaccination mission. She previously led and supported grassroots advocacy and services for veterans and families as founder of NYC Veterans Alliance and as board member of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Her career has also included creating regional and citywide logistics plans and programs for NYC’s Office of Emergency Management and teaching literature and writing as an adjunct professor.
Ling Ye will be joining Goldman’s District Office as a Senior Casework Manager and Field Representative. She is a community organizer and immigrant rights activist who currently works in Representative Nydia Velazquez’s office, which she joined after working for the New York City Council. A CORO fellow and a first generation immigrant, Ye is deeply committed to uplifting New York’s Asian Immigrant communities. In 2017 and 2018, Ye supervised the Participatory Budgeting Project in Council District 38, where she worked to engage delivery workers, low income school mothers and immigrant elders. She played an instrumental role in helping these marginalized groups to organize and establish their own nonprofit organizations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ye supported grassroots community groups as they stepped up to operate neighborhood food pantries, distribute personal protective equipment, and mobilize community members to get vaccinated.
Betsy Schmid will be joining Goldman’s District Office as a Senior Casework Manager. She has three years experience as a congressional caseworker working in Representative Carolyn Maloney’s office. Before that she received her Master’s Degree in Social Work with a focus on public policy from Columbia University. Schmid loves baking sweet treats, all things theater, and her cat, Kat Winslet.
Mayra Molina will be joining Goldman’s District Office as a Caseworker and Field Representative. Molina is currently a Volunteer Coordinator in a Legal Aid Program at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, where she trains volunteers on immigration legal forms, and connects asylees with immigration lawyers. All together the Legal Aid Program has assisted over 150 asylees in the past three months, guiding them on their immigration legal process. Mayra has worked with Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes district office, helping constituents with their Excluded Workers Fund applications, SNAP Recertification, and helping them navigate through the NYCHA system. She has worked in Alexa Aviles’ election campaign in 2021 and Make the Road Action Organization, convincing the Latino community to use their power to vote. She has worked for CUNY Citizenship Now!, speaking daily with constituents in all five boroughs, helping them find free immigration legal services, and connecting them with Immigration lawyers. She lives in Sunset Park.