Amelia Adams is a native New Yorker and Babson College alumna, class of 2006. She was a staple on the campus, an active member of the free press and a formidable player on the northeast champions Women’s Rugby team. Continuing her active spirit, Amelia became a community organizer with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) working with New York City residents to build power in their communities.
In 2013 Amelia was deputized as a director of New York Communities for Change (NYCC) where she oversaw the organizing and political departments in addition to creating a staff development program. In 2014 she went on to become a Senior Advisor and the Director of Community Engagement for New York City’s first Latina Council Speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito. Amelia also served as Political Director to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s re-election campaign.
Since 2018, Amelia has been the president of Adams Advisors, which specializes in political campaigns, government affairs, and community engagement. Recent successes have been many; Adams Advisors has been instrumental in the campaigns to pass congestion pricing at the State level and ranked choice voting at the City level. Additionally she has guided the Bard Prison Initiative in its quest for public funding, and the organization now receives funds from both the City Council and State Legislature.
Finally, Amelia is a founding member and currently serving as the Treasurer of 21 in ‘21, an organization that sought to elect at least 21 women to the City Council in 2021. The organization greatly exceeded this goal and there are now 31 women serving in the New York City Council.
Gabriel Gallucci was the National Director of Governmental and Political Affairs at the American Federation of School Administrators and oversaw the Union’s NY Local 1 Political team at Council of School Supervisors and Administrators. Over the last seven years, Gabriel has worked with local, state, and federal governments to build new inclusionary education systems tailored to children of all ethnic, religious, and racial demographics.
During his tenure at the union, Gabriel successfully helped propel the State and Administration into fully funding ‘Foundation Aid’ and increasing ‘Fair Student Funding’ to 125 million in additional funding for over 850 schools. In addition, Gabriel and a Coalition of Unions, Food advocates, and elected officials helped push through “Free School Lunch for All” funding, providing free lunch for 1.1 million students throughout NYC. Also, after a hard-fought campaign, New York City in March of 2017 agreed to a new and improved contract with CSA’s Early Childhood Directors, giving the members their first wage increase in ten years. In 2020, Gabriel also helped push the Administration and DOE into approving new contracts for the CSA members.
Most recently, Gabriel successfully established a national pipeline and platform through AFSA where he trained locals from around the country on how to engage with government officials on policies and curriculum that impact the education system in its entirety. Policies included areas involving Social-Emotional Learning, Culturally Responsive Education, and Civic Engagement.
Prior to joining CSA, Gabriel was the Political and Legislative Director at New York Communities for Change, a local non-profit where he helped launch and successfully lead the ‘Fight for $15’ campaign, pushing to raise hourly wages for low wage workers to $15 an hour throughout the State.
Gabriel holds a Master of Science in Counseling Psychology from the University of Albany and an Advanced Labor Union Leadership Certificate from Cornell University.
