NYC Mayor Mamdani's administration names Transportation Department new senior staffers

Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News on Mar 5, 2026

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NEW YORK — The Mamdani administration appointed three new upper-level staffers at the city’s Department of Transportation Thursday.

“I am honored to welcome Tiffany-Ann Taylor as chief strategy officer, Madeline Labadie as chief of staff, and Sindhu Bharadwaj as director of strategic initiatives — three exceptional leaders whose policy expertise and operational experience will strengthen our ability to meet this moment,” Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn said in a statement Thursday.

Taylor, a veteran of freight policy at NYCDOT as well as the city’s Economic Development Corporation, comes to the role of the city’s chief transportation strategist from the Regional Plan Association, where she served as the think tank’s vice president for transit.

Labadie, DOT’s new chief of staff, served as City Hall’s deputy chief of staff under former mayor Eric Adams. Labadie also co-chaired the Adams admin’s “e-micromobility” task force, charged with helping to lower the number of e-bike crashes citywide.

Labadie is also a veteran of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, where she served as the director of strategic initiatives from 2019 to 2021.

DOT’s new director of special projects, Sindhu Bharadwaj, comes to the agency after three years as former Comptroller Brad Lander’s senior policy analyst for transportation, sanitation and infrastructure.

Having campaigned on “fast and free buses” — and getting sworn in at a disused, historic subway station — Mayor Mamdani is seeking to make transit improvements a cornerstone of his mayoralty.

“When Mayor Mamdani asked me to serve as DOT commissioner, he challenged us to think big, be bold, and make our streetscape the envy of the world,” Flynn said in his statement announcing the new staffers on Thursday. “Together, our agency will advance the mayor’s affordability agenda by delivering safer streets, faster buses and transportation options that work for working New Yorkers.”