Mayor Eric Adams recently announced Chaplain Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the daughter of Barbadian and Panamanian parents, as chief advisor to the mayor.
In that a role, Adams said Lewis-Martin, who was Deputy Brooklyn Borough President, when Adams was president, will work in partnership with the first deputy mayor, chief of staff and all direct reports to the mayor “to support operations at City Hall and advance the administration’s strategic policies and priorities.”
“We are building a team that knows how to get stuff done, and my chief advisor has a proven track record of getting stuff done for New Yorkers left behind by government for far too long,” Adams said. “This is a 24/7/365 administration, working around the clock to make this city a safer and greater place to raise healthy children and families, and leading a robust and equitable revival that lifts up every one of us.”
Prior to her role as Deputy Brooklyn Borough President, Lewis-Martin, who was born in Brooklyn, served for more than five years as then-New York State Senator Adams’ senior advisor and for seven years as his chief of staff.
“It is an honor to serve this city and continue working in partnership with Mayor Adams, who has been a great champion for New Yorkers,” Lewis-Martin said. “We will get stuff done in a truly historic way, reaching out to every corner of our communities and delivering common-sense leadership that will unlock government’s full potential.”
Adams said Lewis-Martin’s political career started in 1983, first volunteering on the re-election campaign for the late Representative Major R. Owens, who represented the then 11th Congressional District in Brooklyn, and later serving as deputy campaign manager.
After receiving her license from the New York City Board of Education, Adams said Lewis-Martin was hired as a middle school teacher in English and social studies at I.S. 320 Jackie Robinson, her alma mater.
She taught at the school from 1984 to 1992, also serving as dean of students, graduation coordinator, as well as a teacher of modern and African dance in the after-school programs.
Adams said Lewis-Martin was later hired by Brooklyn’s Medgar Evers College, first to work as an instructor in one of its programs geared at assisting women on welfare earn their high school diploma and college degree.
Lewis-Martin subsequently served as director of Medgar Evers College’s Progressive Adolescent Vocational Exploration (PAVE) program, which allowed high school students to earn a maximum of 12 college credits within four years.
She has also served as a part-time staffer for former New York State Assembly Member Roger Green.
Adams’ appointment of Lewis-Martin as chief advisor comes on the heels of his selection of someone of Caribbean heritage to a high-profile position in his administration.
On Friday, the newly-elected mayor named Barbadian-born Justice Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix as the City’s Corporation Counsel, becoming the first Caribbean-born woman to serve in that capacity in the City’s history.
As Corporation Counsel, Justice Hinds-Radix will lead the City’s Law Department, which is primarily responsible for providing legal representation to the City, the mayor, other elected officials, and City agencies in all affirmative and defensive civil litigation.
Justice Hinds-Radix, who currently serves as an Associate Justice of the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department, a position she was appointed to in 2012, conducted the mayor’s swearing-in ceremony, on Jan. 1, at the Times Square New Year’s Celebration in midtown Manhattan.
The eminent jurist, who, in 2020, was designated a member of the New York State Constitutional Bench, is highly likely to be confirmed as Corporation Counsel by the 51-member New York City Council.
