Niki Franzitta | Vice President, HANYC

Nalini understood how serious our need was for primary research and a primer to help elected officials appreciate the unique concerns of our industry sector, hospitality in New York during the first year of COVID. Nalini deployed all her resources, and her team designed a methodology that included conducting research by reaching out to our membership, all small business owners who were hard-pressed to find time to cooperate.  She was up against a very tight deadline, as property taxes were coming due, and we needed her to advocate for some relief for our members. She didn't rush through it, even though it meant putting additional time constraints on herself. She continued to accept surveys and even engage in phone interviews with some of our members well after the deadline, because she wanted the information to be included, and she knew it would help us. And even though it made things much more difficult for her because of the short turnaround time, she accepted those and she did it willingly. She did it happily so that it would help us ultimately to include that information. And she had a tight deadline to begin with and she made it more tight by her own doing so that she could further assist us and provide more even more information in the paper she prepared for us, which we then used to go to the media, to elected officials, and to energize our membership around our advocacy.  It was incredibly powerful.