Mary-Anne Dandles

When Speaker Carl E. Heastie appointed Mary-Anne E. Dandles Clerk of the New York State Assembly and Clerk of the Assembly Rules Committee in 2017, he crowned a public-service career already two decades deep — and made her the first Caribbean-American to hold either office. In that role, she is the institutional backbone behind the Assembly's day-to-day operations. As one peer nominator put it, Dandles is known for her "deep procedural knowledge, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to accurate, efficient legislative operations."

Dandles built that expertise from the ground up. She began her Assembly career in 1999 as an Assembly Committee Assistant with Program and Counsel, then spent seven years as a Legislative Associate in the Majority Leader's Office before joining the Clerk's Office in 2008, where she advanced to Journal Operations Manager and became an integral part of the chamber's legislative machinery. She has been a member of the National Conference of State Legislatures' American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries since 2017.

A graduate of Anderson University in South Carolina and a proud Jamaican native, Dandles is also an active advocate for women and minority leadership through her involvement with The Girl Friends, Inc., where she serves on the Executive Committee of the Albany Chapter. She lives in the Capital Region with her family — a career that, as her nominator wrote, "stands as a testament to excellence, resilience, and the power of representation in public service."