New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Monday, November 10, 2025, named Elle Bisgaard-Church as his chief of staff, elevating a longtime adviser credited by allies with shaping his campaign and transition.
The appointment places a key strategist at the center of City Hall operations as Mamdani prepares to take office on January 1, 2026. Local coverage of the announcement identified Bisgaard-Church as a “chief architect” of several campaign planks, including a public safety plan that would shift some nonviolent 911 calls to civilian responders, according to CBS News New York.
National outlets have confirmed Mamdani’s mayoral victory and the scale of his agenda, including reporting by the Associated Press and Reuters.
A trusted adviser moves into City Hall
Bisgaard-Church served as Mamdani’s chief of staff during his tenure in the New York State Assembly, then became his chief adviser during the mayoral campaign and transition.
On November 10, CBS New York reported the mayor-elect also tapped veteran budget official Dean Fuleihan as first deputy mayor and formalized Bisgaard-Church’s role as chief of staff at City Hall. In remarks, she called leading the campaign “the honor of a lifetime” and said the incoming administration would focus on delivering Mamdani’s affordability agenda.
Her rise reflects a partnership built since 2020, when she joined Mamdani’s Assembly office. Profiles describe her as central to message discipline and the campaign’s organizing model, which leaned on volunteer power and small donations.
A detailed profile by City & State New York sketched her behind-the-scenes influence and low public profile, including limited social media presence and a focus on execution rather than self-promotion, while documenting her role in designing flagship policies for the campaign’s platform (City & State).
The “Department of Community Safety” proposal
Bisgaard-Church is closely associated with the proposed Department of Community Safety (DCS), a restructuring that would deploy mental health professionals and other civilian teams to certain non-life-threatening emergencies, with a particular emphasis on subway stations. The campaign’s document describes a civilian-first response for many behavioral health incidents and expanded prevention programs.
Media outlets summarized the plan as “potentially” a $1 billion initiative, with Mamdani arguing it would free sworn officers to focus on violent crime and major investigations while giving specialists the lead on appropriate calls.
Reporting during the campaign placed the program’s price tag at about $1.1 billion, citing the campaign’s own materials. Bisgaard-Church’s process reportedly included discussions with mental health experts, public safety officials in other cities and former NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison, according to coverage aggregated from campaign and media sources, including City & State’s profile.
How it would change 911 responses
The DCS proposal mirrors trends in other U.S. cities that have tested crisis-response teams staffed by clinicians and EMTs. In New York, the current B-HEARD pilot has shown limits, including a high share of calls that remain police-led because of suicide risks or other hazards.
Mamdani and his team have pointed to those constraints while arguing that even a significant minority of calls resolved by non-police teams would reduce NYPD burden and shorten response times for serious crime.
Experts and practitioners will likely scrutinize dispatch triage, training, and joint response protocols. Similar programs hinge on clear rules for when police stage nearby or take primary control. Those operational specifics, including staffing, training, and union considerations, would shape a rollout timeline and the program’s measurable impact.
