In a departure from his predecessors, the new mayor has yet to name a permanent leader for the $3 billion Administration for Children’s Services
Update Feb. 27: Melissa Hester, who is currently the deputy commissioner of human resources at the Administration for Children’s Services, has been named interim commissioner of the agency. She will start her new role on Tuesday.
Nearly two months into his new administration, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has narrowed his top choices for child welfare commissioner — two candidates who signal the prospect of dramatic change in one of the nation’s largest and most heavily scrutinized foster care systems.
In interviews with The Imprint, 12 current and former city officials, child welfare agency leaders and family advocates say the choice to head the $3 billion Administration for Children’s Services is now between two attorneys working on behalf of low-income families:
Angela Burton — a former advisor to the New York state court system and outspoken supporter of abolishing the child welfare system. Burton worked as an attorney in city and state government and academia since the 1980s, and has helped launch advocacy initiatives including the ongoing Narrowing the Front Door campaign, which promotes an “anti-racist approach to shrinking New York City’s child welfare system and promoting Black child, family and community well-being.”
Michelle Burrell — a project director in Queens at Legal Services NYC.
Burrell’s work has focused on helping low-income families with issues including affordable housing, food insecurity and immigration. Burrell previously worked as managing attorney of family practice at Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, representing low-income parents and caregivers who have been accused of child abuse and neglect.
Both candidates have worked in the child welfare field for years, but neither appears to have run a public or private organization close to the size and complexity of the Administration for Children’s Services. That is a central concern among nine of the 12 people familiar with the job search that The Imprint spoke with. Three others reached by deadline were strongly supportive or did not have enough information to have an opinion.
The two candidates have also both made bold statements that critics say could demoralize their future employees — particularly Burton, who has said and posted on social media that she considers CPS a “grave and imminent threat to children and families,” and a “profitmaking machine that was and continues to be chattel slavery.”
Other candidates approached or considered for the commissioner role include the city’s current Deputy Commissioner for Family Services Luisa Linares, and Kimberly Watson, who runs the foster care agency Graham Windham.
Four sources close to the job search said Burton is the frontrunner for the job — a prospect that has inspired her critics to speak out anonymously to local press.
Burton responded to concerns about her views in a brief Monday phone call with The Imprint.
“I am certainly interested in looking at what the fundamental root problems are that bring people into this system — which is mainly poverty and race and the intersection thereof,” Burton said.
Burrell has issued fewer public critiques of the child welfare system, and is less well-known among local professionals in that field reached by press time. Her LinkedIn states she supervises Queens Legal Services’ staff of 100 advocates and a $16 million budget. In a 2019 law review article, she criticized the low burden of proof for escalating child maltreatment investigations, the overrepresentation of Black and brown families in the system, and the lack of accountability for rogue caseworkers.
“Child welfare needs a moment, much like the moment had around the injustice of stop-and-frisk, where the public does not simply accept that mostly Black and Brown children are being taken into foster care, but interrogates that reality in a way that brings real and sustainable reform,” she wrote.
As a history-making democratic socialist candidate, Mamdani made affordability and early childhood education a central plank of his campaign last year. But to date, he has said little publicly about his plans for the city’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). He is the first mayor to enter office in New York City without having named a commissioner to the 30-year-old agency.
Children’s Services has custody of more than 6,000 foster youth — the vast majority of whom are Black and Latino, well above their share of the general population. City workers conduct more than 50,000 child abuse and neglect investigations annually. The agency also operates two secure detention facilities housing more than 300 youth, runs a $1 billion program providing child care vouchers, and oversees a network of nonprofits providing foster care services.
The current commissioner, Jess Dannhauser, submitted his resignation in early January. Dannhauser was appointed by former Mayor Eric Adams after serving in senior executive roles at ACS under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and more than a decade leading Graham Windham. His last day is Monday and there has been no interim director named as yet.
The Mamdani administration has not responded to numerous e-mails and phone calls from The Imprint since January inquiring about its plans and priorities for the child welfare system, or who will replace Dannhauser.
The Imprint attempted to contact 24 child welfare professionals and experts inside and outside of city government for this article.
Those close to the search who chose to respond spoke both on and off the record. They described the difficulty the newly elected mayor and his team have had in naming a commissioner. Some shared a sense of frustration at the lack of attention to filling the position; others say in-depth conversations have been happening behind the scenes, including around the possible creation of a new office focused on family well-being.
Dawne Mitchell, an attorney who oversees legal representation for most of the youth in the city’s foster care and juvenile justice systems for the Legal Aid Society, expressed frustration that so much focus has been put on the candidates’ past statements, rather than the mayor’s broader agenda and the urgent problems with the local child welfare system. Despite improvements in recent decades, she described dire needs involving some youth with long stays at Manhattan’s short-term Children’s Center, youth sleeping on the floor of detention facilities and traumatic family separations following CPS investigations.
When asked about the two commissioner candidates’ past statements, “Is it a stark departure or a vision of transformation?” Mitchell asked. “I want to see the mayor appoint a commissioner with a different vision. If that makes people uncomfortable, then so be it,” she said. “I really want to get on with the business of serving children and families — the sooner we get a commissioner, the sooner we can talk about what are the strategies for meaningful change.”
The New York Post was the first to report Burton’s candidacy Saturday, and quoted one critic warning that if she was named commissioner, she would prevent social workers from removing children from abusive homes. On Sunday, NBC New York cited current and former Administration for Children’s Services staff, elected officials, nonprofit foster care agencies and members of Mamdani’s mayoral transition team, reporting that “worker morale might erode under a commissioner who has called for ACS to be defunded and abolished.”
On Monday, Burton said the weekend news coverage characterizing her views was mostly accurate, although she disputed the argument that reducing foster care removals endangers children.
Over a decade working in state government, she championed better-funded and earlier legal counsel for parents accused of child maltreatment.
A resume Burton provided The Imprint in 2023 shows she served as interim dean of students at City University of New York School of Law, where she ran a nine-person office from 2008 to 2010. She also spent roughly a year working as a special advisor to the New York State Unified Court System’s Office of Justice Initiatives, advising one of the highest-ranking judges in the state on issues such as training, equity and racial justice. She was terminated from that position in the summer of 2023, and is now working in a temporary, part-time role for the legal defense nonprofit Bronx Defenders, as legal director of family defense.
Burton has support from one of the most prominent leaders of the city’s vocal parent advocacy movement.
“They would be lucky to have Angela, and I think they will be a better agency,” said Joyce McMillan, executive director of JMac for Families and Parent Legislative Action Network. “She taught child welfare law. She knows what the agency is responsible for, and I think she can help them get back to their real mission that is codified by law.”
In contrast, Eric Brettschneider, a former first deputy child welfare commissioner for the city who is now retired, said he thought the agency is already moving in the right direction, and needs someone in charge who is able to continue that, and has the administrative experience to do so.
“There’s a lot of polarization around these issues, and what is really needed is balance — as opposed to somebody who is just against what ACS is doing,” he said. “But it’s not clear what their approach would be, other than abolishing it.”
Records show Burton has an active lawsuit against New York state and its court system over her 2023 termination. Burton’s lawyers argue in court filings her dismissal violated her First Amendment rights, inflicted emotional distress and caused her nearly $650,000 in lost compensation and other financial damage. They also say that Burton was illegally dismissed from her position as special counsel to one of the state’s deputy chief administrative judges, due to her testimony about racism in the child welfare system before an advisory body to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
The state’s attorneys have filed a detailed rebuttal, arguing that her termination was legally sound and justified, and that Burton’s claimed damages “were caused in whole or part” by her “own culpable conduct or the culpable conduct of others for whom the State of New York has no legal responsibility.”
Burton declined to comment on her lawsuit against the court system. A spokesperson from the Office of Court Administration said it does not comment on pending litigation.
Although some type of announcement is expected soon, reaching the end of February without a named ACS commissioner is unprecedented.
The agency was created as a standalone entity reporting directly to the mayor by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1996, two years into his first term. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg named his first commissioner, William Bell, on Dec. 27, 2001. Mayor Bill de Blasio named Gladys Carrión on Dec. 22, 2013, and Mayor Eric Adams named Jess Dannhauser on Dec. 30, 2021.
Sources in city government said an appointment could come as soon as this week; alternatively, an interim leader could be assigned to take over after Dannhauser’s last day, while the search for a permanent hire continues.
In the meantime, the new mayoral administration has offered small public signs that they are considering the significance of child welfare services. On the eve of his January inauguration, Mamdani’s chief of staff told New York Magazine how their team was beginning to recognize the gravity of issues at stake:
“We had a conversation with someone from health and human services who said, ‘A child will die at ACS. Who is your leader at the top of that? How are you going to handle it?’” Elle Bisgaard-Church said. “It puts into view the question in front of us — that every decision we make will have a direct impact on people.”
Correction; Wed. Feb. 25, 2026: After this story was published, Legal Aid’s Dawne Mitchell clarified that her firm’s clients have not recently experienced overcrowding in Manhattan’s Children’s Center, but some have remained there for too long. City data also shows the facility’s average daily headcount reached a 12-month low in Nov. 2025.
