City & State New York
June 19, 2017
29
JILLIAN FAISON DIRECTOR OF NEW YORK STATE GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, HOUSING WORKS Birthday: 11/04/1983
EDUCATION
University at Albany
N THE HOME where Jillian Faison grew up, public service was a deeply held value. Her father worked in state government to ensure that recently released prisoners had help rebuilding their lives. Her mother was a special education administrator who started a diaper cooperative for families with disabled children. At school, Faison saw the ways in which special education students were labeled and dismissed. But at home, her mother focused on the humanity and worth of every child. “Both my parents started at the front line,” she says. “Their passion certainly was something that … rubbed off.” Faison now uses her background in activism and law to spark broad change through shifts in public policy. As an assistant county attorney for Albany County, she created a program to help juvenile offenders pay restitution to the victims of their crimes. As a senior legislative representative for the United Federation of Teachers, she helped to win paid family leave and a $15 minimum wage. Now, Faison is the director of New York state governmental affairs for Housing Works, where she works to secure the implementation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Ending the Epidemic blueprint to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the state by 2020. “The more that I work in public policy, the more that I see the opportunity to effectuate change,” she says. “The late nights and the crazy hours sometimes translate into wonderful, earth-shattering changes that really help people.”