GS Alumna Works to Uplift New York City’s Underserved Communities

Longtime New Yorker and Inwood resident Evelin Collado ‘10GS is passionate about immigrants’ rights and supporting New York City’s underserved communities. As former Director of Budget & Legislation for former City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez (who was recently appointed by Mayor Eric Adams as the city’s first Latino Transportation Commissioner), Collado managed the allocation of millions of dollars in investments into local communities and led the legislative strategy on many initiatives, from supporting the rights of taxi drivers in the city and creating the Office of Ethnic Media, to the Municipal Voting Rights Bill, a law that went into effect this month.

“I'm very excited about the prospects of Int. 1867, a local law that allows permanent New York City residents the right to vote in local elections,” Collado said. “It'll change the power dynamics of our city for good, giving our immigrant communities a seat at every political and governmental table. In my role with now-former Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, the prime sponsor of the bill, it has been my privilege to play a small part in bringing this bill closer to the finish line."

Like many nontraditional students, Collado’s journey has been full of unexpected twists and opportunities. After relocating to New York City from the Dominican Republic as a teenager, Collado began taking English classes through the Community Language Program at Teachers College (TC). However, her educational path was interrupted by an early marriage and she went directly into the workforce.

Collado was working in an administrative position at TC when she discovered Columbia GS, and applied in 2005 to continue her education and study political science. While working full-time and raising a child as a young single mother, Collado graduated from GS with high honors in 2010 and went on to earn a Masters Degree in Global Affairs from New York University. Collado is expected to transition to the Department of Transportation as part of Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez's team where she'll continue working on behalf of all New Yorkers, especially those in underserved communities.

Beyond the Municipal Voting Rights bill, Collado is especially proud of the numerous bills she has helped pass. “Several pieces of legislation have become law, such as the bills to create the Office of Ethnic Media and the Office of Sports,” she said. “Additionally, there have been countless bills aimed at addressing the safety, reliability, and accessibility of our public transportation and transit ways, and co-naming dozens of streets in New York City honoring community heroes.”

Among these many pieces of legislation, two in particular stand out to Collado as being instrumental in helping some of New York City’s most vulnerable populations. The first is a bill that supported ethnic media. “People are familiar with Univision as the Spanish language news channel, but there are actually many other local news outlets that get much less attention and they don't have enough resources,” she said. In her view, allocating resources to these community news outlets through this bill helps ensure quality news production can be supported across diverse channels in the city.

Collado was also heavily involved in several bills that helped support taxi drivers’ rights. As the Yellow Medallion crisis roiled, leaving many drivers in overwhelming debt while facing mounting competition from ride-sharing apps, she was part of the team at City Council fighting to make change and create fairness for taxi drivers as the city navigated the influx of rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft and sought to curtail unscrupulous lenders.

In addition, Collado was part of the successful attempt to unionize Council Member Aides (CMAs) at the New York City Council by working with fellow staffers to build the Association of Legislative Employees, the bargaining unit representing Financial Analysts and CMAs, into the first and largest legislative bargaining unit in the nation. In late 2021, Collado was elected as the Equity Officer of the newly elected Executive Board, where she worked on issues of importance to the membership, including working with management on crafting an appropriate COVID19 policy for staff and other workplace issues.

Collado credits her GS education with helping to prepare her for her career in public service. “As a GS student, I had the opportunity to access a world-class education and build my critical thinking skills, expand my worldview and learn a new language by studying abroad, and meet countless wonderful individuals from whom I have learned so much outside the classroom and have become part of my life.” she said.

At a recent alumni panel during Spring 2022 orientation week, Collado expanded on this theme while speaking to incoming GS students. “My job gives me so many opportunities to put into practice a lot of things I learned in the classroom at Columbia. Part of what I got at GS was an understanding of the philosophical and political thinking that informs policy and prescribes how society runs. Having this practical knowledge makes you a valuable asset wherever you are.”

Collado also noted that not only does Columbia provide huge opportunities for GS students, GS students are an incredibly meaningful part of the Columbia community. “The GS population is one of the best assets that Columbia has. We bring so much life experience to the table, and the classrooms I participated in were so much richer because of the GS students who were there.”