Evan Sullivan

Evan Sullivan is Executive Vice President at Ostroff Associates, where he manages a client portfolio spanning healthcare, disability and human services, education, energy, life sciences, and real estate. He brings more than 15 years of New York State and City government experience to that work: before joining Ostroff, he served as Director of Legislation and Senior Advisor to the New York State Senate Majority Coalition, developing the conference's legislative, policy, and budgetary priorities and playing a central role in state budget negotiations. He began his career in the State Senate, holding roles including Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director and serving as Committee Director for the Senate Committees on Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities and on Social Services.

That range showed up across this year's session. Sullivan has been a dedicated advocate for New York Disability Advocates and the broader intellectual and developmental disabilities community, and this year he helped NYDA secure a 2.7% unrestricted Targeted Inflationary Increase in OPWDD provider rates in the enacted budget — exceeding the Governor's proposed 1.7% and delivering more than $151 million in additional funding to providers. That result, as he puts it, came from "organizations working together and making the case that high-quality services require real investment — and that continued investment works." Beyond I/DD, he helped a coalition of school districts study the costs and feasibility of the electric school bus mandate, showing the current timeline isn't achievable; advanced last-day-of-session legislation extending mitigation funding for a district losing revenue from a closed power plant; and moved a licensing exemption from drafting to enactment in about two weeks. A Medicaid reimbursement parity bill for durable medical equipment that he championed passed both houses this session and awaits the Governor's action, and he leads a statewide I/DD workforce data effort that the field now relies on as a benchmark.

One nomination described him as bringing "a strong understanding of state government, an ability to build credibility with policymakers, and a practical approach to helping clients communicate the real-world impact of policy decisions." Sullivan attributes that to treating clients as partners rather than accounts: "I really try to become part of my clients' organizations rather than just a consultant they call when there's a bill or an issue," he said, adding that the goal is spotting "the problem that hasn't reached them yet" rather than only solving the one in front of them. A good deal of his work, he notes, never becomes visible at all — the bills that would have been a real problem for clients and, because someone saw them coming, simply never moved.