Queens DA-Elect Melinda Katz Announces Transition Team

QUEENS, NY — Incoming Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz on Friday announced the members of her transition team, led by retired Justice Randall Eng and veteran defense attorney Christopher Renfroe.

Katz will vacate her position as Queens borough president come January to take office as the borough's top prosecutor. Her deputy in the borough president's office, Sharon Lee, will serve as the executive director of the transition committee on a volunteer basis, according to a press release.

"I am proud and ready to lead a new dawn of justice in Queens," Katz said in a statement. "We will prove definitively in Queens that you can enhance safety and equality at the same time, in a way that is collaborative and benefits all of us."

A number of transition team members endorsed Katz for the position or belong to organizations that endorsed her, such as the United Federation of Teachers and the union 32BJ SEIU.

The transition team includes fierce critics of the late Queens District Attorney Richard Brown's tenure, according to the Queens Daily Eagle. One member, defense lawyer Victoria Brown-Douglas, has previously criticized the office's lack of diversity.

The transition team includes:

• Anstiss Agnew - Forestdale, Inc.
• Amy Arundell - United Federation of Teachers
• Nicole Paultre Bell - Activist
• Pascale Bernard, MSW - Planned Parenthood of New York City
• Dr. John H. Boyd, II - New Greater Bethel Ministries
• Victoria Brown-Douglas, Esq. - Lawyer's Guild of the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York
• Joan B. Brown, Esq.
• Dr. Tricia Callender, PhD - Sociologist
• Ray Cameron - NYC Department of Probation
• David Cohen - 32BJ SEIU
• Reverend Dr. Phil Craig - Greater Springfield Community Church
• Sister Tesa Fitzgerald - Hour Children, Inc.
• Reverend Kirsten John Foy - Arc of Justice
• Joshua Glick, Esq. - Queens Law Associates
• Everett Hopkins, Esq. - Macon B. Allen Black Bar Association
• Lucy Lang, Esq. - Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY)
• Jacques M. Leandre, Esq.
• Hon. Jeffrey Lebowitz - Justice of the New York State Supreme Court (Retired)
• Jack Leibler, Esq.
• Nelson A. Madrid, Esq.
• Jane Manning, Esq. - Women's Equal Justice Project
• Hugh H. Mo, Esq. - Former Deputy Commissioner, New York City Police Department
• Dilip Nath - SUNY Downstate Medical Center
• Thomas Oliva, Esq. - Latino Lawyers Association of Queens County
• JoAnne Page, Esq. - The Fortune Society
• Camille Russell, Esq.
• Lisa Schreibersdorf, Esq. - Brooklyn Defender Services
• Matthew Silverstein - America Works of New York, Inc.
• M. Jane Stanicki - Hour Children, Inc.

Anyone interested in applying for a job in Katz's administration may visit www.katztransition2020.com.