STEP TWO POLICY PROJECT
Paul Francis
Founder & Chairman
Paul Francis is the Chairman of the Step Two Policy Project. Prior to working in New York State government and politics, Paul had a 25-year career in the private sector. He worked as a lawyer, investment banker and served as the chief financial officer of the Ann Taylor Stores Corporation and was the founding CFO of Priceline.com.
Paul spent the vast majority of his time since 2005 in New York State government and politics. Paul became the Director of Policy in the gubernatorial campaigns of Eliot Spitzer in 2005 and served as the Director of the Division of the Budget under Governor Spitzer in 2007 as well as the Director of State Operations under Governor David Paterson in 2008. Paul was the policy director in Andrew Cuomo's 2010 campaign for governor and became the Director of Agency Redesign under Governor Cuomo from 2011-2013. After a leave of absence for medical reasons, he returned to the Cuomo administration in 2015 as the Deputy Secretary for Health and Human Services. He served as a Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health from 2020 until retiring in May 2023.
Sally Dreslin
Executive Director
Sally Dreslin is the Executive Director of the Step Two Policy Project. Sally began her clinical nursing career in 1994 at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City. She went on to work in a variety of clinical settings and in several other states, including as a Flight Nurse in the USAF Reserve. Sally was a certified emergency nurse and was also a certified EMT for several years, working on a volunteer ambulance corps in the east end of Long Island.
In 2007, Sally transitioned to working as a hospital-based nurse educator and taught topics in critical care. Beginning in 2008, she worked for the New York State Nurses Association in nursing education, health and workforce policy, and in government affairs. In 2013, Sally entered New York State government as the Assistant Secretary for Health in the Governor’s Office and in late 2014, she became the Executive Deputy Commissioner at the Department of Health.
After five and a half years, Sally transitioned to the Office of Mental Health, serving initially as a Special Advisor and then as the Director of Operations in the Office of the Chief Medical Officer. She left State service in late 2022 to help lay the foundation for the Step Two Policy Project.
Adrienne Anderson
Senior Policy Fellow
Adrienne Anderson is a Senior Policy Fellow for the Step Two Policy Project. Adrienne began her career at the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC), initially as a summer fellow, then as full-time staff upon graduating with her Master’s in Public Health from the Yale School of Public Health in 2016. Over four years at the HPC, she contributed to and managed a portfolio of behavioral-health-focused policy, research, and programmatic efforts.
Adrienne relocated to New York in the Spring of 2020 and joined the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) as a Project Director within the Institute for Policy and Program Innovation. In 2021, she became the Deputy Director of Operations in the Office of the Chief Medical Officer. She left OMH in September 2023 to join the Step Two Policy Project.