Alana Sivin

Alana Sivin is Counsel to Speaker of the Assembly Carl E. Heastie, a senior advisory role in which she oversees legislative initiatives and plays a key part in negotiations around some of Albany's most consequential issues, including the state's immigration, criminal justice, and election reforms. The position puts her at the center of the Assembly's internal machinery, coordinating across government agencies, Assembly member offices, legal teams, and external stakeholders to move policy from negotiation to enactment.

That role draws on a career built at the intersection of criminal law and legislative advocacy. Sivin began as a public defender with New York County Defender Services, representing clients directly in the system she would later help reform from the inside. She moved into government by way of the New York City Council, serving as senior legislative counsel and drafting and negotiating the legislation that closed Rikers Island — one of the most closely watched criminal justice fights in recent New York City history.

Along the way, Sivin has also held senior positions at the Vera Institute of Justice, FWD.us, and The Appeal, three organizations central to the national conversation on criminal justice reform. That combination of frontline defense work, city-level legislative drafting, and advocacy-organization strategy now informs her work at the top of the Assembly Speaker's office, where she helps translate reform priorities into legislation that can actually pass both houses.