Force Multiplier: Senior Advisor to NYC's Chief Climate Officer, Dawn Miller, on City Life, Policy Implementation, and Improving Quality of Life

By Julia Gamolina

Dawn Miller is a Senior Advisor to New York City’s Chief Climate Officer. She previously served as Chief of Staff at the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), which oversees New York City's taxi and ride-hailing industries. Dawn launched TLC’s Research and Evaluation practice, serving as its first director, and worked as a researcher at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC. She lives with her husband and son in Brooklyn and loves parks, bikes, beaches, and barre workouts. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Dawn talks about the cast benefits of city life, and her work across research, public agencies, and tech, advising those just starting their careers to make friends in their industry.

JG: You studied urban and environmental planning and policy. What were you hoping to do in the world, and what did you learn from this time?

DM: I knew I wanted to work in the political and policy world at a really young age — I declared a major in political science back in seventh grade. An undergraduate environmental policy course introduced me to urban planning. I was fascinated to learn how our built environment — in particular the density offered by cities — does so much to dictate our carbon footprints, how much natural land gets developed versus preserved for natural habitats, and so on.

To protect the environment, I wanted a career helping make cities fabulous places to live. Living in cities is a ton of fun and yields tremendous social benefits. And on top of that, it enables more of us to live car-free or car-light lifestyles, consume less energy by living in apartment buildings, and consume less stuff — our limited space makes city-dwellers discerning consumers!

Tell me about your first few career steps, and how you got your start.

My first job after college was working as a research assistant at the Urban Institute, a public policy think tank in Washington, DC. It was my dream job. I wanted to learn how to analyze data and do rigorous, unbiased research — that’s exactly what I got to do, under the guidance of world-class researchers.

This job also revealed to me that the relatively solitary days of a data analyst weren’t for me long-term, and that think tank research was essential but farther from the implementation and political action than I wanted to be. Instead of pursuing a PhD in public policy, as I thought I would initially, I decided I’d instead pursue a master’s degree in policy and look for future roles closer to the action.

How did you get to working with the City of New York? Tell me about being there, going to Coord, and then eventually coming back.

During graduate school I was closely watching the innovative policy coming out of the Bloomberg administration, things like congestion pricing, PlaNYC (the City’s first sustainability plan), and public health policies to reduce smoking and unhealthy eating. That’s where I wanted to be. I networked and applied all over city government. A friend from grad school in the Mayor’s Office shared my resume with the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), an agency I’d never heard of.

The rest was history. I spent nine wonderful and crazy years there, including through the early throes of regulating Uber and Lyft, early electric taxi pilots, introducing wheelchair accessible service, and creating minimum pay standards for Uber and Lyft drivers. A smaller agency gave me more exposure and opportunity early in my career. I feel like I grew up there, starting as a policy analyst and ultimately serving as Chief of Staff.

“Public policy is challenging work, and change is often slow and incremental. There are a hundred ways anything you want to do can be stopped. Persistence is absolutely essential, and so is being creative. You need plans A, B, C, and D.”

— Dawn Miller

Having spent a lot of time regulating technology companies during my time at TLC, I wanted to leverage the tech industry’s strengths in ways that were collaborative with government. When I was ready for something new, I went to work for Coord, a curb management startup. Their model was to partner with cities to solve problems, and their approach and products aligned with my values.

It was a huge change for me. I asked a lot of questions, like “what does go-to-market mean?” — when I was on the go-to-market team! It was really great — I learned entirely new ways of doing things, was part of an incredibly smart and motivated team, enjoyed the speed and boldness with which we operated, and developed a more national perspective after so many years focused on NYC. I thought I’d return to government at some point, but it happened sooner than I expected. The Adams transition team reached out to me and invited me to be the Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff. After working with that team setting up a lot of the structure and process of how the Administration would function, I was eager to spend more time on policy and got the opportunity to work for our Chief Climate Officer, Rit Aggarwala.

How did you focus on the city's climate and resiliency policy? What are you focused on these days?

After working with Eric Adams’ team, setting up a lot of the structure and process of how the Administration would function, I was eager to spend more time on policy and got the opportunity to work for our Chief Climate Officer, Rit Aggarwala.

My current role, which I’ve been in for about a year and a half, is the first time I’ve officially worked in climate. My first responsibility is to be a force multiplier for the Chief Climate Officer and a bunch of rockstar staffers across the City agencies doing climate and resiliency work. I connect them to each other and support navigating City Hall — it’s a big government, so having a climate-focused person in City Hall is helpful. Beyond that, I get to spend a lot of time on mobility — coordinating policy on electric cars and electric micro-mobility. Implementing Local Law 97, an ambitious buildings emission reduction law, is a huge focus for the City and an area where I also spend a lot of time. I’m learning a ton — it’s such a broad and deep policy area, I will never get bored!

The Policy Team with Green Taxis at City Hall. Courtesy Dawn Miller.

TLC Staff celebrating Pride. Photo by Jim Thomson.

Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?

Public policy is challenging work, and change is often slow and incremental. There are a hundred ways anything you want to do can be stopped. Persistence is absolutely essential, and so is being creative. You need plans A, B, C, and D. And you might need to be doing all four at the same time, since some paths will end up not working.

What have you also learned in the last six months?

Time and time again I’m reminded to pick up the phone. We can get in a rhythm where every issue turns into a fifteen-person video chat that took two weeks to get on the calendar. A few one-on-one conversations can get you to the same place in a day.

“Make friends in your industry. This community will be your support network for the rest of your career — people you can trust will give you candid advice and intel, who you can commiserate with in the hard times and celebrate with in the good.”

— Dawn Miller

I couldn’t agree more — meet ups that can be calls, meetings that can be emails, and emails that can be text messages. What are you most excited about right now?

I’m most excited about the growth in electric micro-mobility—electric bicycles and scooters. In cities, bikes are such an efficient way to get around. Adding a small motor to make riding easier opens this option up to more people and more trips. Cycling to work without arriving sweaty, carrying kids and groceries around, opening up this mode to non-athletes.

I spend a lot of time working through significant growing pains in this rapidly growing industry — everyone needs to learn to ride safely, drivers need to get used to sharing the road more, we need more modern cycling infrastructure, and we need to get the shoddy batteries that are catching fire out of circulation. It’s a passion to work on these issues because these devices provide a tremendous opportunity to improve our quality of life—enabling us to literally get places we couldn’t have otherwise.

Dawn biking with her family. Photo by Jim Thomson.

Who are you admiring now and why?

My heroes are New York City’s incredible cadre of female Deputy Mayors: Meera Joshi, Maria Torres-Springer, Ann Williams-Isom, Sheena Wright, and Ana Almanzar. And former First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo. These women oversee New York City’s agencies and are at the heart of driving policy, blocking and tackling in the bureaucracy, holding everyone accountable, and helping us prioritize an unfathomable complexity and volume of issues. They do so with grace and humor and are some of the most effective, hardworking, and intelligent leaders I will probably ever work with. I’ve considered making action figures or trading cards in their likeness.

Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?

I’ll repeat some great advice I was given earlier in my career: make friends in your industry. This community will be your support network for the rest of your career — people you can trust will give you candid advice and intel, who you can commiserate with in the hard times and celebrate with in the good.