CORO STAFF

Adem@coro.nyc Adem is the Executive Director of Coro New York. He is tasked with leading a civic leadership organization that believes meaningful change comes from collaboration: people in business and communities, schools and unions, government and nonprofits, working together to find creative solutions and strengthen our democracy.

Adem brings a unique combination of vision, energy, experience, and local expertise. Prior to Coro, he worked in a variety of managerial roles across the private, public, and social sectors and is a two-time candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Most recently, Adem served as senior advisor to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s (LISC) Project 10x—an initiative designed to upend the racial and opportunity gaps in America.

Adem’s parents are war refugees who fled Uganda’s turbulent civil war to seek sanctuary and opportunity in the United States. They settled down and successfully reared their New York City-born children in a modest one-bedroom apartment. Adem’s parents turned what had been a nightmare in Uganda into their version of the American Dream.

A product of the New York City public school system, Adem was fortunate enough to earn scholarships for high school and college. Adem is one of the first members of his family to graduate from college and earn a graduate degree. He received a B.A. from Haverford College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Micco@coro.nyc Micco Sarno is the special assistant to the Executive Director. Prior to joining Coro in the summer of 2021, Micco worked on the Adem for Congress campaign as the field organizer. He worked on volunteer outreach and organization and also helped create and direct the campaign’s in-house fellowship program. Micco has also previously worked with the NYC Department of Education’s Office of Youth Safety and Development.

Archana@coro.nyc  Archana joined Coro in 2019 and oversees the organization’s only tuition-based civic leadership development program. She co-designs curriculum and facilitates training for two concurrent cohorts of 35 multi-sector changemakers while leading recruitment and communication for the program. She also curates alumni events and delivers training for external Coro clients. Archana founded and leads Coro’s internal Impact Metrics Working Group.

A keen believer in community and culture building, Archana‘s work has taken her across countries and sectors. This has included speechwriting and managing large-scale, high-stakes initiatives at the Embassy of India in Washington, D.C., and four-plus years in Dubai co-leading the rebranding of a digital marketing company and reporting on the UAE’s entrepreneurship scene. She also designed and delivered employee professional development programs at Samsung 837, consulted with Create Labs to deliver the inaugural STEAM Zone of the 35th Loisaida Street Festival, and taught creative writing to middle & high-schoolers.

Archana returned to the US in 2017 to join the changing national conversations around belonging with Wandering Local, a project exploring home and individual identity through writing and travel. She is an Ithaca College graduate and appreciates New York City for offering her constant travel while staying rooted. Her work, travel, and growth is fueled by a commitment to leaving the world better than she found it.

Densia@coro.nyc Densia was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. As a child of Jamaican immigrants, her upbringing sparked her passion for empowering and uplifting marginalized communities. This passion led her to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a minor in Community Change Studies at the City College of New York. During her time in college, she organized on campus as a member of NYPIRG. As a young organizer, she led the Hunger and Homelessness Campaign to combat and raise awareness of food insecurity on her campus and managed an on-campus food pantry. During graduation, the CCNY Colin Powell School honored her for her commitment to social justice and civic engagement with the Barbara Rich Award for Social Justice. After attaining her degree, she completed a year of service with AmeriCorps to continue her work in social justice as a Community Outreach Coordinator at a soup kitchen in Brooklyn. There, she supported city and state-wide campaigns for affordable housing.

Garrett@coro.nyc Garrett Lucien is Coro’s Vice President of Programs & Training. Garrett is a Neighborhood Leadership 2012 Alumni who joined the Coro team in 2013 with more than 16 years of community and economic development experience. Before coming to Coro, Garrett worked with SoBRO for eight years, most recently as the Senior Director of Economic Development and Financial Services. While working at SoBRO, he specialized in assisting immigrant entrepreneurs establish new businesses throughout the Bronx. He also brings a wealth of experience in facilitating groups and leading retreats and workshops. Garrett holds a B.A. from SUNY New Paltz and an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Business in New York. Garrett is a second generation New Yorker who is passionate about helping people to develop skills to create positive change within themselves and their communities.

Midori@coro.nyc Midori (she/hers/her) is a transportation, operations, and urban planning professional who has worked to expand mobility options for people, with equity at the heart of her work. She is passionately committed to the leadership journeys of Black, brown, and people of color committed to making change in New York City. She has made it a personal priority to coach and mentor young professionals of color in public service, including many Coro alumni.

Prior to Coro and developing her own business, she was the Chief of Staff to the Chair & CEO of the New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), responsible for the transport of millions of people each day. The MTA has the largest subway and bus fleet in North America and is the largest tolling agency in the United States with over $2 billion in revenue per year. There, she led the efforts for the successful passage of congestion pricing legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while funding mass transit, and oversaw elements of the OMNY launch—a new fare payment system that integrates the various transit systems in the region. Midori was also the Deputy Commissioner for Finance and Administration at the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission, the agency responsible for licensing and regulating taxis and other for-hire services. There, she led the development of the largest wheelchair-accessible taxi fleet in the nation at the time. Midori also served as Senior Advisor to the Executive Director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where she managed aspects of the Hurricane Sandy response for the region’s infrastructure assets. She began her career as Leadership Fellow, a leadership development training program, at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Midori immigrated to the United States as a young girl. Her family is from Trujillo, Peru and she was born in Osaka, Japan. She is a graduate of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs where she received degrees in Public Administration and Urban Planning, as well as Penn State University. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and daughter, fellow public transportation enthusiasts.

Zehra@coro.nyc Zehra Imam is a teacher and the founding director of Illuminated Cities (IC), a global education organization. In the United States, she has worked in the field of education in Detroit, Madison, Chicago, the South Bronx, and Brooklyn, NY. Globally, she has taught public speaking to midwives in Pakistan, Urdu in India, English and Humanities in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Zehra is an alumnae of the University of Michigan-Dearborn, a 2018 Global Journalism Fellow through the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, and completed her Master’s degree in English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Gladys@coro.nyc Prior to joining Coro New York at the start of 2021, Gladys Sosa served as founding Director of Alumni Affairs at The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School, a middle school the New York Times called ‘The country’s most closely watched educational experiment’. She successfully established six support programs, three annual events, and two scholarships along with success metrics, data tracking systems, and communications platforms. More importantly, over the six years at TEP she established a community for a growing network of young alumni to lean on in years to come. Gladys’ interest in leadership development really took off during the Summer of 2012, as Dean of Students at Sadie Nash Leadership Project, a program which has successfully promoted leadership and activism among young women in New York City.

Gladys was born and raised in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. She attained her B.A in Socioloy & Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Wesleyan University. She is also a proud and active alumna of Legal Outreach, a four-year comprehensive program that equips participants for college success.