Daniel Cho is the Assistant Executive Director for Candidate Guidance & Policy at the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB). He serves on the Executive team and manages policies and procedures that affect candidates and their campaign staff in complying with the Campaign Finance Act and Board Rules. Mr. Cho oversees the communications and advice related to campaign financial disclosures and the public matching funds program. He has served in various roles at the CFB as Director of Candidate Services, Payment Coordinator, Auditor, and Compliance Analyst.

Mr. Cho is a past Co-Chair of the Program Committee for the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) and participant in the New York City Leadership Institute. He is a past Chair and Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee for the Korean American League for Civic Action (KALCA). He currently serves as the Vice-President of Civic Engagement for the Korean American Association of Greater New York (KAAGNY) and is a member of the Council of Korean Americans. Mr. Cho holds a B.A. in Political Science from Boston College.

Stephanie Gutierrez is the Chief People Officer at the NYC Campaign Finance Board. As the head of the Office of People Operations (People Ops), Stephanie leads a team responsible for NYCCFB’s people strategy. The People Ops team focuses on putting the employee first and continuously improving employee engagement, development, and retention. We seek to excel at all points of the employee experience journey.

In her role, Stephanie is responsible for helping to build a workplace of the future, where employees embrace NYCCFB’s values-based culture. We want our employees to feel that NYCCFB is a worthy place to work and that our mission is necessary to making New York City’s democracy more open, transparent, and equitable. Stephanie is passionate about helping people achieve their full potential and creating an office culture that allows employees to be their whole selves at work.

Stephanie has 19 years of human resources experience in New York City government. Serving in different capacities across various city agencies, Stephanie has implemented human centered design practices to make data driven improvements helping to create innovative human capital processes. In her most recent role, Stephanie served as the Director of People and Culture at NYC Emergency Management (NYCEM). Stephanie helped support one of NYC’s most critical agencies by furthering initiatives surrounding culture and staff experience, working with senior leadership to make NYCEM a sought-after place to work.

Sandy Ma serves in the role of Special Assistant, acting as a high level agency-wide project manager with oversight and execution authority on behalf of the agency and Executive Director. She provides strategic advice and recommendations to the Executive Director on how to fulfill the CFB’s goals, mission, values, and vision consistent with its strategic plan. Sandy comes to the CFB with a broad range of nonprofit, corporate, and government experience. She joins CFB after having served as Executive Director of Common Cause Hawaii and Manager of the Common Cause National Stopping Cyber Suppression program. At Common Cause, Sandy led campaigns and fundraising and engaged local, state, and national organizations in building coalitions, focused on ethics and accountability, money and influence, and voting and elections. Specifically, in Hawaii, Sandy led coalitions to pass good government measures and voting modernization bills, such as AVR, RCV, ballot translation, and more. Prior to joining Common Cause, Sandy worked with the Hawaii Office of Planning in the Coastal Zone Management Program, focusing on climate change, sea level rise, and coastal hazards issues. She was previously with the ACLU as an attorney in North Carolina and Hawaii, worked for the U.S. EEOC as a trial attorney, and was a private practice corporate attorney for several years. Sandy holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University, a JD from the University of Maryland School of Law, and a LL.M in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School.

As Director of Product Management and Operations, Crystal Choy oversees the unit’s project management team, which coordinates the planning, execution, and delivery of major/recurring projects such as the Voter Guide, candidate materials, and agency publications. This includes managing project schedules, estimating and procuring resources, identifying and mitigating risks, managing vendor relationships, and ensuring materials are compliant with accessibility mandates. She oversees the Language Access team in fulfilling the translation, interpretation, and other language needs of the agency. She also oversees updates and maintenance of the CFB website and other web properties. Additionally, Crystal manages procurement and budget tracking for the Public Affairs division. She collaborates with the Operations and Finance teams to track contract expiration dates and renewals, monitor spending, coordinate invoice approvals, and ensure the quality and timely delivery of billed work.

Crystal has served at the CFB since 2003 and previously held the roles of Compliance Analyst, Publications Coordinator, Designer (Print & Web), Communications Production Manager, and Associate Director of Production.

Cindy Lou Cuesta serves as Executive Project Manager at the CFB. She works agency-wide to help advance key executive priorities with a focus on technology-related solutions, tools, and processes. Ms. Cuesta has dedicated her career to creating and directing thriving, high-impact departments at mission-driven organizations. Prior to the CFB, she served as Director of Pro Bono and External Relations at a New Jersey legal aid nonprofit—managing across volunteer management, communications & marketing, client outreach, and partnerships. She has also served in leadership roles at several NYC nonprofit organizations including Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, the Opportunity Agenda, and Community Access leading project management, resource development, external relations, and strategic planning. Ms. Cuesta received her JD from Rutgers Law School, her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Coro Leadership New York graduate (LNY 30).

Vincent Fabrizi is Director of IT Infrastructure for the NYC Campaign Finance Board (CFB). Through collaboration with executive management and other unit and division leaders, Mr. Fabrizi works to develop, implement, and maintain the CFB’s Network and IT Infrastructure. 

Prior to working at CFB, Mr. Fabrizi was Information Technology Manager at National Bank of Canada responsible for the development of the technology architecture, infrastructure planning and engineering. Mr. Fabrizi has certifications in Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Exchange 2010, FS-ISAC Cyber-Range Business Email Compromise, A+, IT Information Library Foundations Certification (ITIL), VMWARE V5.0, and FINRA Series 99.

As Deputy Director of Public Affairs, Amanda Melillo directly manages the agency’s outward-facing units (Marketing and Digital Communications, Partnerships and Outreach, Policy and Research, and Public Relations), which encompass the agency’s voter education and engagement initiatives that inform five million New Yorkers about their elections. Amanda has served at the CFB since 2014 and previously held the roles of Policy & Data Research Analyst and Public Affairs Officer. Prior to joining the agency, she worked on the Voting Rights and Elections team at the Brennan Center for Justice, where she oversaw communications research and trained organizations around the country on how to tailor communications best practices to advance legislative priorities around voting reform. She began her career working in media and local journalism, including the New York Post. Amanda holds a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College, and a master’s in political science from Columbia University, where she studied elections and legislative behavior.

As the Director of the Special Compliance Unit (SCU), Jesse Schaffer oversees three separate functions, each of which has one fulltime analyst: checking the city’s Doing Business Database (DBDB) against campaign contributions to ensure that contributions from people with business relationships observe lower limits and are not claimed for match; monitoring independent expenditures (IEs) and liaising with independent spenders; and conducting investigations based on Audit referrals and complaints received by the Board. In addition, Mr. Schaffer maintains the agency’s relationships with outside investigative and prosecutorial agencies and manages the CFB’s private investigator contract. Mr. Schaffer started at the CFB in 2011 in his current position in order to coordinate the development and implementation of the IE regulations, which were new at the time. Prior to that, he was at the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services, where he created and implemented the DBDB. Mr. Schaffer began his career at the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), where he worked for five years before moving into the electoral arena in 1988. Mr. Schaffer worked for Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger for nine years on her government and campaign staffs. He has also worked on various campaigns for candidates in NYC, at the city, state, and national level. Mr. Schaffer studied math and computers at SUNY Binghamton and Baruch College, and is a Certified Fraud Examiner.

Omar Suarez is the Director of Partnerships and Outreach. He leads a team dedicated to working with community organizations, city agencies, and businesses to increase voter education and participation in City elections. The Partnerships and Outreach unit also conducts, and recruits volunteers for, direct voter outreach and education campaigns. Prior to joining the CFB in 2020, Omar served as Program Director for Dominicanos USA in New York, an initiative dedicated to advancing the civic engagement of Dominican immigrants and Dominican-descended individuals in the US. Omar holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from CUNY Baruch College and a Master in Policy Management degree from the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy.

Mohee Uddin is the Deputy Director of Technology at the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB). Mohee joined the CFB in May of 2014. As Deputy Director of Technology, Mohee is responsible for managing the agency's technology operations and ensuring that the agency's technology systems are reliable, efficient, and secure. He works closely with agency leadership to identify technology needs and opportunities for improvement, and he oversees a team of skilled professionals who implement and maintain the agency's technology systems.

Prior to joining the CFB Mohee spent 10 years at the NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) working as a Developer and then ultimately as Manager of Applications Development. He received his BA in Information Systems from SUNY Stony Brook University.

Wen Wang is a full stack .Net developer with over 16 years of experience in developing web applications and web APIs using C#, .NET Core, ASP.NET, and MS SQL Server backend. With a deep understanding of software development principles, Wen has sharpened her skills in designing and implementing scalable, maintainable modularized modern web applications using latest Microsoft technologies and frameworks. 

Currently working as a senior .Net developer at the New York City Campaign Finance Board, Wen has been responsible for designing and developing web applications and APIs using .NET Core (C#), MVC, Entity Framework Core, SQL Server, Identity Platform, and other associated technologies. Additionally, Wen has expertise in Azure cloud computing and creating CI/CD pipelines, as well Docker containers and Blazor.

Prior to this, Wen has worked for over a decade as a senior web developer at Expansys plc, where she was responsible for developing and maintaining the Expansys websites and partner sites, developing new functionalities and expansions which involved e-commerce site development and maintenance using ASP.NET and SQL Server.

Throughout her career, she has worked on several noteworthy projects, including the creation and maintenance of web applications in the online registration ecosystem for the CFB. She has been responsible for the full software development life cycle, including database development, backend architecture, deployment, documentation, enhancement, and maintenance.

Overall, she has a wealth of experience in web development, e-commerce, database programming and cloud computing, and she has a proven track record of delivering high-quality work. She is a solid developer and a team player who is dedicated to delivering results and meeting project objectives.

Education:
University of Illinois at Chicago
Master of Science in Management Information Systems, 2000
Peking University, Beijing, China
Bachelor of Management Majored in Enterprise Management, 1999

Minor: Computer Science