Melissa DeRosa

Template:Short description Template:Protection padlock Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Melissa DeRosa (born September 29, 1982) is an American former government official from the state of New York<ref name="La Ferla 2020">Template:Cite news</ref>, a Democratic strategist<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and a published author.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She served as secretary to the former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, from 2017 until 2021. She was described by the New York Times as the "most powerful appointed official" in the state as well as being the first woman appointed to the role.

Early life and education

DeRosa was born on September 29, 1982, in Rochester, N.Y. and raised in Albany and Saratoga Springs, New York and has two siblings.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Salerno 20182">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="La Ferla 2020" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She is the daughter of Melody DeRosa, a retired education technology consultant for Texas Instruments, and Giorgio DeRosa, a senior partner at the Albany lobbying firm Bolton-St. Johns.<ref name="Foderaro 2017" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> DeRosa's brother and sister also work at Bolton-St. Johns.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

At 16, DeRosa was an intern for the political director of the New York State AFL-CIO.<ref name="Foderaro 2017" /><ref name="Kaplan 2013">Template:Cite news</ref>

DeRosa attended the private school, Albany Academy for Girls, graduating in 2000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She graduated in 2004 from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. While an undergraduate student at Cornell, she worked in the Senate office of Hillary Clinton in Washington, D.C. during a summer.<ref name="Oza 2020">Template:Cite news</ref>

DeRosa worked for a year as a publicist for Theory, a fashion house in New York.<ref name="La Ferla 2020" /> She then worked as a lobbyist for Bolton-St. Johns.<ref name="La Ferla 2020" /> She later worked in the press office of Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2009, she completed an MPA from the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs.<ref name="Oza 2020" />

Career

DeRosa worked as Director of Communications and Legislation for the Albany-based lobbying firm Cordo & Company.<ref name="Kaplan 2013" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> From 2009 to 2011, DeRosa was the New York State Director of Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee founded after the presidential inauguration of Barack Obama.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2011, DeRosa became deputy chief of staff and later acting chief of staff for New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.<ref name="Foderaro 2017" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In March 2013, she became Director of Communications for Governor Andrew Cuomo.<ref name="Dawsey 2021"/><ref name="Kaplan 2013" /><ref name="Banjo 2021">Template:Cite news</ref> DeRosa later became strategic adviser.<ref name="Foderaro 2017"/> In 2015, DeRosa was appointed Chief of Staff.<ref name="Foderaro 2017">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2020, DeRosa was appointed to serve on the transition committee to President-Elect Joe Biden, serving as senior advisor to Steve Ricchetti, the White House's incoming counselor and helping to assist the incoming administration's COVID response.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Secretary to Governor Cuomo

In 2017, DeRosa was promoted to Secretary to the Governor of New York, and became Cuomo's top aide and one of his closest advisers.<ref name="Dawsey 2021"/><ref name="Vilensky 2017">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Lovett 2021">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Foderaro 2017" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The role was described by The New York Times as the most powerful appointed official in the state, and she was the first woman appointed to the role.<ref name="La Ferla 2020"/><ref name="Lovett 2021"/>

DeRosa was involved in steering bills through the legislature, including minimum wage, paid family leave and expanded insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization.<ref name="Minutaglio 2020"/><ref name="La Ferla 2020" /><ref name="Banjo 2021"/> She chaired the New York State Council on Women and Girls and headed the COVID-19 maternity task force.<ref name="La Ferla 2020" /> City & State New York described her as the Cuomo administration's "go-to person" on a 2020 budget proposal to legalize paid gestational surrogacy, which DeRosa described as a priority of the Council.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2017, DeRosa spoke publicly about her experience with sexual harassment and encouraged women to "speak up and speak out."<ref name="Vielkind 2017">Template:Cite news</ref> DeRosa also chaired the New York State Domestic Violence COVID Task Force.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she had a major role in the coordination and management of the New York response.<ref name="Minutaglio 2020"/> DeRosa chaired the state's COVID-19 Maternity Task Force.<ref name="La Ferla 2020" /> In 2020, Harper's Bazaar included DeRosa in its "Voices of Hope" feature, after Christy Turlington Burns selected her as one of five women "who give her hope".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In March 2020, when COVID-19 testing was limited in New York, The New York Times reported that Cuomo's family and other influential people received priority access to coronavirus testing and expedited results. The article said Giorgio DeRosa, Melissa DeRosa's father, was among those treated as a "special".<ref name="auto1"/> In May 2021, federal prosecutors began to investigate the priority testing program as a potential improper use of their position to obtain “privileges or exemptions”.<ref name="auto1">Template:Cite web</ref> State officials said DeRosa contacted the health commissioner, Howard Zucker, and requested her father be tested after he was exposed to someone with COVID-19 who had recently been hospitalized and died. The state officials said the Health Department granted the request due to his daughter's close and regular contact with the governor and others involved in the pandemic response.<ref name="auto1"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In March 2021, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that a group of Cuomo administration officials, including DeRosa, rewrote a July 2020 report from public health officials that resulted in undercounting nursing home deaths from COVID-19 in New York. The actual number of deaths was removed soon after DeRosa and Linda Lacewell became aware of its inclusion in the report.<ref name="Palazzolo 2021">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Goodman 2021">Template:Cite news</ref> New York Attorney General Letitia James released a report in January 2021 that indicated the original published death toll was less than half of the 15,000 deaths attributable to COVID-19.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to the Cuomo administration "the out-of-facility data was omitted after D.O.H. could not confirm it had been adequately verified" and the conclusions of the report were not changed.<ref name="Goodman 2021"/><ref name="Palazzolo 2021"/>

DeRosa resigned as Secretary to the Governor on August 8, 2021.<ref name="Dawsey 2021 2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Gronewold 2021">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Ferré-Sadurní 2021">Template:Cite news</ref> Her resignation was effective August 24, the same date as Cuomo's resignation after a report from the state's attorney general concluded he had sexually harassed nearly a dozen women.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Ferré-Sadurní 2021"/> The report found that DeRosa had "spearheaded efforts to retaliate against one of the women who had spoken out publicly about her allegation."<ref name="Ferré-Sadurní 2021"/>

Post-public office

DeRosa opened a consulting business providing services including crisis communications, executive operations, and government affairs strategy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She is a contributor to the Daily Beast and provides political commentary and analysis, appearing on Fox News, CNBC, and NewsNation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2025, she was an advisor to Cuomo's campaign for Mayor, and she serves as a member of Cornell University's Communications Advisory Board.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In October 2023, DeRosa wrote a memoir.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Kirkus Reviews described the book as "An angry, raw, and briskly told memoir."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A review by Lloyd Green in The Guardian states, "DeRosa's memoir is pocked with scenes of a marriage gone south, of trying to cope with Covid-19 and of general governmental strife. She punches hard. Her anger is white hot. Her book is deliberate and focused."<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> According to a Publishers Weekly review, "DeRosa defends the former governor at every turn, suggesting that New York’s higher nursing home death rate was due to a complex quirk of accounting (and that the federal investigation was spurred by President Donald Trump’s jealousy over Cuomo’s spotlight-stealing leadership during the pandemic). Elsewhere, she posits that the sexual harassment allegations were overblown, driven by a vindictive former staffer who recruited other women to join her suit."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rebecca Traister reviewed the book for New York magazine: "It is ostensibly an attempt to set the record straight, but it is really an exercise in rehabilitating her image as a glass-ceiling breaker while painting Cuomo in a heroic light. As a document, its relationship to truth is casual, and it’s filled with reconstructed dialogue that reads like a cut-rate version of her favorite show, The West Wing."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Public image

The New York Times described DeRosa as Cuomo's enforcer for "engaging in bare-knuckled political brawling," and said she was "known for delivering blistering tirades" according to then current and former Cuomo advisors.<ref name="Dawsey 2021"/>

In April, 2021, The New York Times reported that dozens of Cuomo employees alleged Cuomo and staff members, including DeRosa, would "scream and curse at subordinates over small stumbles, like misspelling names." Some employees reported crying at the office almost every week due to the toxic environment.<ref name="toxic">Template:Cite web</ref> DeRosa's role in fueling a toxic workplace also featured in an August 3, 2021 report by the New York State Attorney General regarding the Cuomo sexual harassment allegations.<ref name="Ferré-Sadurní 2021"/><ref name="Dawsey 2021"/> The report also described DeRosa "pressuring" a former staffer into calling a current staffer who expressed support for an accuser and recording the call as "a fishing expedition on behalf of the executive chamber.”<ref name="retal"/><ref name="Dawsey 2021"/>

DeRosa is mentioned 187 times in the report, more than anyone except the governor himself. It portrays DeRosa as "spearheading" the retaliation against Lindsey Boylan and attempts to discredit her after she made sexual harassment allegations against the governor.<ref name="Dawsey 2021"/><ref name="Niedzwiadek 2021">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="retal">Template:Cite news</ref> In a recorded call involving DeRosa and the Albany Times Union, an editor told the governor’s office that the newspaper did not want Boylan's personnel file, but it was sent to them anyway. DeRosa also circulated a letter to current and former staff attacking Boylan and undermining her credibility.<ref name="Dawsey 2021"/><ref name="Ferré-Sadurní 2021"/> DeRosa responded to the depiction of her in the report by saying "Haven’t you heard? Women aren’t allowed to be mad or fight — being tough and direct makes you a 'bitch.'"<ref name="Dawsey 2021"/>

The report revealed a previously unreported accusation of sexual harassment made by a New York State Police officer, and DeRosa's attempt to kill a news story investigating if state rules were changed so the officer could join the governor's security detail even though she did not meet minimum experience requirements. DeRosa called the story "sexist". <ref name="Dawsey 2021"/> A civil lawsuit against DeRosa arising from alleged retaliation against the officer was dismissed in 2023.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The report concluded that despite "numerous" claims that arose about the governor's harassment of young female staffers, DeRosa was not depicted as going to lengths to investigate them.<ref name="Dawsey 2021"/>

Personal life

In 2016, DeRosa married Matthew Wing, an Uber senior communications officer, formerly a Cuomo press secretary in 2013 and 2014, and then communications director for the governor's re-election campaign.<ref name="NYT">Template:Cite news</ref> They met in 2013 when both worked for Cuomo.<ref name="La Ferla 2020" />

DeRosa and Wing divorced in 2021.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Her former mother-in-law is Audrey Strauss.<ref name="Banjo 2021"/>

Bibliography

• What's Left Unsaid: My Life at the Center of Power, Politics & Crisis (2023)<ref name=":1" />