At this week's Round Table, Madeline, Maya, and Skyla spoke with Kevin Rogers, a Senior Associate at Government Executive, a media company which owns and operates multiple publications including City and State NY, where he is responsible for executing programs for entities interested in procuring contracts with the Federal Government. Kevin’s passion for public service and state government stems back to his student days, when among other things, he served as Chief of Staff for the SUNY Student Assembly, the overarching student government organization for SUNY’s 64 campuses and 1.2 million students. His interest in electoral politics was initially sparked through an internship in college that placed people in different government agencies and helped them learn about implementation of on-the-ground state policy plus provided him with a feel for how local government collaborates with state government. Since graduating, he’s worked on a number of local and state campaigns on Long Island and New York City, including as Field Director for the historic campaign of Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright during her independent run for re-election in 2020 and then as her Legislative Director where he helped pass major pieces of legislation such as the NYS Equal Rights Amendment. Through his work, he’s learned a lot about local, state, and federal law and how it affects everyday New Yorkers, and has gotten very good at synthesizing complex ideas for easy consumption. He also learned how much of this work happens through relationships– a LOT of negotiating goes on after hours, over dinner, karaoke, bocci ball…–and that strong community and relationships are forged by colleagues with a shared mission of making people’s lives better and getting things done. Ultimately, Kevin counseled us that we have to be bridge builders and relationship builders and that if we are, we’ll carry those relationships for life. Thank you for listening!
