Gov. Mikie Sherrill has announced a group of forty people who will staff the Office of the Governor in her new administration.
The group includes state and federal government veterans, members of her congressional staff, political operatives who worked on her gubernatorial campaign, and others. Several are being retained from her predecessor’s team.
“My administration is on a mission to deliver for all of New Jersey,” Sherrill stated. “I am thrilled to hit the ground running with this team of dedicated public servants who are committed to tackling our nation’s affordability crisis, better protecting our kids online, and demanding government transparency.”
Chief of Staff Alex Ball said the team is “bringing together an impressive team of individuals from diverse backgrounds – each ready to take on the most pressing challenges facing New Jerseyans.
“I look forward to working with this team to ensure Trenton is accountable to our state’s 9.5 million residents,” Ball said.
First Gentleman Jason Hedberg has named one of his Annapolis classmates to serve as his chief of staff. Scott Suozzi was a military social aide to Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush at the White House, and spent two decades of active duty service in the U.S. Navy, including stints at the Pentagon in the offices of the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy, and was an associate dean at The Johns Hopkins University, Carey School of Business.
Scott Altieri, who worked for Sherrill’s congressional campaigns in 2020, 2022, and 2024, and as political director of the Sherrill for Governor campaign, will serve as director of labor, where he’ll coordinate Sherrill’s interaction with labor unions.
Kimelle Ash, a veteran of state and national political campaigns, will serve as deputy director for advance; she served as a regional advance director on the Sherrill for Governor campaign. She was an advance associate in the office of Vice President Kamala Harris, and worked on the Harris and Biden campaigns. Ash also worked for then-Assemblyman Troy Singleton (D-Delran) and for John Osoff’s Senate campaign in Georgia.
Blaine Boyd, who served as Sherrill’s chief of staff in Congress after Ball left to run the gubernatorial campaign, has been named senior director for federal affairs. He will run New Jersey’s Washington, D.C. office.
Nicole Brosssoie is the senior director of appointments; she previously served as chief of staff at the Department of Children and Families, as Assistant Commissioner of Human Services, as a lobbyist at GluckWalrath, as director of government relations under Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, as director of government relations at the New Jersey Hospital Association, and as a communications staffer in the Assembly Democratic office.
Emma Corrado, the former chief of staff at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, is the deputy chief operating officer for the state and the senior director of operational performance. She spent nearly six years working for U.S. Senator Cory Booker.
Caitlin Duffy, the new senior director for protocol, was a deputy campaign manager for Sherrill for Governor. She was the deputy battleground state operations director for the Democratic National Committee in 2024, the operations director for New Jersey Forward, the Murphy re-election coordinated campaign in 2021, and worked for Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, and the Massachusetts legislature.
Carter Elliott is the deputy chief of staff and senior director for intergovernmental affairs and outreach. He managed the re-election of State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Long Branch) in 2023 and managed Steve Sweeney’s 2025 gubernatorial campaign in the Democratic primary. Elliott was Sherrill’s deputy campaign manager in the general election.
Todd Fisher is the senior director of strategic initiatives and economic opportunity. During the Biden administration, Fisher served as program director for the American Rescue Plan at the U.S. Economic Development Administration and as chief investment officer of the CHIPS program office at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He spent 25 years as the chief administrative officer and partner at KKR & Co.
Christina Fullam, the new chief ethics officer, has served as executive director of the State Ethics Commission.
Andrea Garcia is the deputy director of appointments. She had served in Gov. Phil Murphy’s appointments office for nearly four years and had interned in Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman’s office.
Sam Gilman, a former CEO of the Community Economic Defense Project in Colorado, is the senior strategist for housing and affordability.
Jess Harding is the special assistant to the governor, a job also known as the body person. She held that post during the gubernatorial campaign. She formerly worked at the U.S. Department of Energy during the Biden administration.
Sean Higgins will serve as Sherrill’s chief spokesperson and senior advisor. He was communications director for Sherrill’s gubernatorial campaign and a senior advisor in her Washington congressional office for three years. Higgins had worked as a press secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Biden administration and was the Biden campaign’s deputy communications director in Wisconsin from 2019 to 2020. He also served as press secretary to U.S. Senator Heidi Heidkamp’s campaign in North Dakota, and as communications director for Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois. Higgins started as an intern to U.S. Senator Tim Johnson and as an intern in the Obama White House.
Julie Jochem, who worked in Sherrill’s congressional office for the entirety of the governor’s tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives, will remain in Washington as director for federal relations.
Caroline Jones is the executive director of the Governor’s Disaster Recovery Office. She had previously served as director of COVID-19 Compliance and Oversight in the State Comptroller’s office and as a deputy attorney general for 10 years.
Sophia LoPresti, the deputy director of briefings, had previously served as a senior aide to Murphy for operations and head of briefing.
Shannon McGee, the director of operations, had worked for First Lady Tammy Murphy and Reps. Steve Rothman (D-Englewood) and Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson).
Leslye Moya, the former executive director of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, is the director of intergovernmental affairs.
Elizabeth Noll, a former deputy assistant secretary for House Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Biden administration, is Sherrill’s senior strategist for energy.
Jay Redd, the senior director for legislative affairs, is a former top aide to Senate President Steve Sweeney who ran lobbying operations for Gibbons and Stono Public Affairs.
Vereliz Santana, the director of advocacy in the governor’s office, is the vice president of the Newark Board of Education. She previously worked for Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz, and was the Latino base vote director for Democrats in 2025.
Jonah Scharf is the cabinet secretary, served as executive director of Sherrill’s super PAC, One Giant Leap, and managed Sherrill’s 2024 re-election campaign in New Jersey’s 11th district. He worked for Mandela Barnes’ U.S. Senate race in Wisconsin, for Emily’s List, and on Murphy’s 2021 re-election campaign. Scharf was Sherrill’s call time manager during her first campaign for Congress in 2018.
Chris Taylor, who served as Sherrill’s senior policy advisor and legislative assistant on Capitol Hill, is the governor’s deputy policy advisor.
Georgia Turvey, who worked on Sherrill’s district office staff from 2021 to 2024 and as surrogate manager for the gubernatorial campaign, is the deputy director for cabinet affairs.
Madeline Urbish is the senior advisor on energy to the governor. She spent two years on the legislative staff of then-Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), worked as policy and public relations coordinator for The College of New Jersey, as director of the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed, as a policy advisor to Murphy, and as head of public affairs for Ørsted. She is a former Lambertville councilwoman.
Luke Woff, the former budget director for the Senate Democratic Caucus, is Sherrill’s new budget director.
Some of Murphy’s staffers will stay on: Julia Conoline as deputy director of administration and personnel; Aaron Creuz as deputy chief counsel for authorities; Vincent Funelas, the director of constituent relations; Eric Martin, a former aide to Pascrell, as the deputy director of scheduling; Sherron Randall as deputy director of constituent relations; Brandon Sitzler as director of administration and personnel.
Several Sherrill hires have been previously reported: Nabila Baptiste as chief of staff to Lt. Governor Dale Caldwell; Megan Coyne as digital director; Steve Sigmund as communications advisor; Catherine Tung as senior director for policy; Eash Haughton as director of legislative affairs, and Elizabeth Harris and Deirdre Naughton as deputy chief counsels.
