City & State New York
October 9, 2017
29
ate Dineen helps manage dozens of state agencies on daily basis, ensures the governor’s priority programs are carried out and troubleshoots when problems arise. “It’s a very dynamic, exciting role,” she says. “No two days are the same, and that’s what I love about the job.” One of the most recent projects she has had a direct role in is the response to Hurricane Maria and the devastation it wrought in Puerto Rico. “We have such strong ties with Puerto Rico,” Dineen says. “We have such a massive Puerto Rican population here in New York, it’s the lifeblood for many of our communities, so this is a personal issue for us.” The Massachusetts native studied English in college, then did communications work for an environmental nonprofit. Introduced to policy issues like conservation and renewable energy, she went on to earn a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then worked on carbon sequestration for the Australian government. Back in the U.S., she handled environmental, infrastructure and economic development issues for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and after Superstorm Sandy she became the senator’s point person on storm response. She later joined the Cuomo administration and worked her way up to her current post. “It really started in that environmental policy realm, got a lot of experience in emergency response and rebuilding and resiliency,” she says, “and now my portfolio is much more expansive, dealing with a broad array of different state agencies, policy initiatives and operational challenges.”
KATE DINEEN
EDUCATION Williams College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Chief of Staff to the Director of State Operations, Office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo
BIRTHDAY 01/18/1983
TWITTER @_KateDineen