The Bennett Midland Team

A skilled strategist, Sarah draws on her experience collaborating with municipal leaders around the world to implement innovative and effective policy and programming. Her areas of expertise include program design, performance measurement, strategic planning, and operations and business process analysis.

With over a decade of experience in the public and non-profit sectors, Dalia leverages her expertise in strategy, operations, financial management, and program design to support a range of social impact organizations.

Maggie has fifteen years of experience advancing large-scale systems change in city government and not-for-profits, with a particular emphasis on criminal justice. She is skilled in strategic planning as well as incubating and implementing new initiatives.

At Bennett Midland, Will provides research and technical support for the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Innovation Teams Program, an initiative to help cities solve their most pressing problems. He is also conducting an operational analysis for the Legal Aid Society. Will holds an M.A. in Teaching from the Relay Graduate School of Education and a B.A. from the University of Vermont.

Tony works with Bloomberg Philanthropies and their network of partners for the City Data Alliance, an initiative that empowers city leaders in Latin America, Canada, and the U.S. to better track and use data. He is also supporting strategy and planning for the Greenwood Initiative, which seeks to accelerate Black wealth accumulation and address systematic underinvestment in Black communities.

Dan is an urban planner with wide-ranging experience in policy research and communications. As a communications specialist at Bennett Midland, he helps organizations express their ideas with clear and effective storytelling.

At Bennett Midland, Merrit conducts research and analysis for the E Pluribus Unum Fund—a new organization founded by former Mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landrieu to address race, equity, economic opportunity, and violence in the U.S. South. She also supports the Mayors Migration Council in their efforts to help cities meet the needs of migrants and refugees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Merrit holds a BA in Anthropology and Religious Studies from Millsaps College and an MA in Anthropology from the CUNY Graduate Center.

At Bennett Midland, Zola is supporting Bloomberg Philanthropies in designing and launching the City Data Alliance, a new program to engage 100 cities across the Americas in setting a new standard for local governments using data to power better results for residents. She is also working with the NYC Mayor’s Office on an initiative to clear the backlog of health and human services contracts.

Ava works with Bloomberg Philanthropies’ COVID Federal Assistance e311 program to help cities access federal funding for relief and recovery efforts. She also supports Everytown for Gun Safety in implementing the Gun Violence Data Fellowship Program, which embeds data analysts in local government to organize and interpret gun violence data for the benefit of city leaders and the public. Ava holds a BA in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

Lucas is supporting United Way of New York City to scale a nationwide public health initiative, which brings together clergy leaders, churches, and healthcare providers to combat the disparate harm of Covid-19 in Black communities and build long-term community health capacity. He is also working on the design and launch of new programming promoting data use in city government. Lucas graduated from Brown University with a BA in Public Policy and in Economics.

Michelle is supporting Berkshire Farm Center & Services for Youth on a strategic plan to maximize the impact of their child welfare and foster care services across New York State. She also worked with United Way of New York City to scale their Choose Healthy Life initiative, which combats racial disparities in health services by linking Black church communities to COVID-19 vaccinations and health education resources.

Juan is supporting the development of a strategic plan for Children’s Aid, one of the oldest and largest children’s nonprofits in the country. He is also contributing to the design and launch of the Mayor’s Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education in New York City, which will streamline innovation and action around equitable childcare access.

Sasha works with the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, a racial wealth equity effort that seeks to accelerate Black wealth accumulation and address systematic underinvestment in Black communities.

David has extensive experience partnering with government and civic organizations to design and implement innovative approaches to criminal justice reform and social problems. At Bennett Midland, David helps lead work on criminal justice initiatives, including the team supporting the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety & Justice Challenge, a major multiyear investment to reduce over-incarceration in the United States by focusing on local justice systems.

Keila supports Bennett Midland in its administrative functions, financial management, human resources, and operations. Prior to joining Bennett Midland, Keila was an operations analyst for Sompo, a global insurance and reinsurance company, where she provided support to underwriting units. Keila holds a Master’s degree in Enterprise Architecture and Business Transformation from Pennsylvania State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Saint Peter’s University.

Tabraiz is supporting the New York City-based Human Services Council to assess the state of their sector in the wake of COVID-19 and identify concrete ways to help member organizations move forward. He also serves as a city support lead for the international Bloomberg Philanthropies Innovation Teams program. Tabraiz holds a BA in Philosophy from Vassar College.

Ron provides operational and strategic planning support to the Bloomberg Philanthropies Innovation Teams program—an international effort to help cities use innovation techniques to solve intractable problems and deliver better results for residents. He also worked with the City of Detroit Housing and Revitalization Department to explore regulations to reduce blood lead levels in children by partnering with experts in lead poisoning prevention, reduction, and code compliance in residential properties.

Stacy is a human-centered designer with broad experience using design methods within civic and social organizations to create new, innovative programs. At Bennett Midland, Stacy serves as the design coach for the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Innovation Teams, providing support to teams in mayors’ offices across the country as they generate innovative solutions to pressing problems, such as homelessness and violent crime. She provides design counsel across the firm, helping teams make visually striking collateral and facilitate group activities to gather unexpected perspectives.

Raffaele works with New York State’s Office of Children and Family Services on the implementation of a new set of standards for secure and specialized secure detention that guide facilities to improve living and learning conditions for young people in detention. He also supports the Bloomberg Philanthropies Innovation Teams program on the organization of a decade’s worth of program management and delivery knowledge developed across three cohorts and over a dozen cities.

At Bennett Midland, Ahmed has supported the implementation of new intake business processes for Sanctuary for Families, a leading service provider for victims of gender violence in New York City, as well as development of an innovative legal services model for Immigrant Justice Corps. He supports several cities tackling diverse urban challenges as part of the Innovation Teams program, including the Syracuse i-team’s work on housing stability.

Uthman is an accomplished practitioner in the civic sector with expertise in community engagement, strategic planning, program design and implementation, and performance management. He is trained in design- and systems-thinking with a focus on equity, economic mobility, and community resilience.

Tanvi works with Everytown for Gun Safety to implement the Gun Violence Data Fellowship program — a new initiative that embeds data analysts in local government to organize and interpret gun violence data for the benefit of city leaders and the public. She also supports the Bloomberg Philanthropies Innovation Teams Program.

Anna provides program management support to the Bloomberg Philanthropies City Data Alliance, which works with mayors in Latin America, Canada, and the U.S. to improve their use of data and set a new standard for local governments.

At Bennett Midland, Leslie is responsible for guiding the firm’s administrative functions, including financial management, human resources, and operations. She works closely with the firm’s leadership on annual business planning and budgeting as well as business development activities.

Aliza is supporting the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University in the development of an Innovation Playbook, a resource to equip public servants with essential innovation skills to solve problems and drive better results for local communities. Aliza also works with the New York City Mayor’s Office for Child Care and Early Childhood Education and the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development.

Oscar is an urban planner with over a decade of experience on a variety of urban policy and regional governance issues, including sustainable transportation policy, climate adaptation and urban reform, regional economic development, and social service provision for immigrant communities.

Bennett supports the City of New York’s strategies to transform the nonprofit procurement and contracting process and ensure nonprofits are paid on time. He is also working with the Correctional Association of New York to build its communications capacity and design a community convening to examine the changing landscape of places and relationships affected by incarceration.

Charlie is evaluating the economic and social impact of street innovations during the COVID-19 pandemic, including “Open Sidewalks” and “Open Streets,” on behalf of the New York City Department of Transportation.

Jesse is an experienced manager who has worked on a range of issues in the civic sector—including community and economic development and government innovation—and brings with him a specialty in affordable housing and real estate development. Jesse began his career at Bennett Midland, advising mayoral teams on addressing pressing challenges in their cities, supporting strategic planning for nonprofit organizations, and operationalizing national initiatives for large foundations.

Bjorn manages an engagement with the Bloomberg Center for Public Impact at Johns Hopkins University on the Innovation Teams Program, working with cities in Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. to advance public sector innovation. He has collaborated with local governments, communities, and civil society actors to strengthen legal and social services for migrants in the U.S. and Middle East, worked with mayoral teams across the U.S. and Europe to deliver new, resident-focused initiatives, and supported community-driven justice and development organizations in sub-Saharan Africa.

Sharon supports the Bloomberg Philanthropies City Data Alliance, which works with mayors in Latin America, Canada, and the U.S. to improve their use of data and set a new standard for local governments. She also supports United Way of New York City on their  Education Equity Cabinet, a cross-sector body that works to address racial inequities in the education system in New York City.

For over twenty years, Eric has developed innovative solutions to address problems in urban planning, community and economic development, and criminal justice. He is a trusted advisor to elected officials, senior government staff, leading foundations, and not-for-profit executives in New York and nationally.