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Our Mission

What is the Step Two Policy Project?

The Step Two Policy Project (Step Two) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that focuses on policy issues involving health, behavioral health, and human services in New York State. We analyze these policy challenges through subject matter experts who have experience with how these issues could be addressed by New York State government policies. Our strategy is to leverage the efforts of a small not-for-profit think tank by explicitly connecting our insights to specific policy proposals that could be enacted and implemented by New York State government.

Step Two can contribute to policy development by combining subject matter expertise and experience with New York State government with focused and independent analysis. In some cases, Step Two may work directly with State agencies to help develop and implement policy proposals. The Step Two Policy Project is not a consulting firm, and it will have no clients, so our recommendations can be free of conflicts. Where it makes sense, we will advocate for the adoption and implementation of specific proposals and promising ideas. In other situations, we will publish research and analysis that can form the basis for policy development and specific proposals. Whenever possible, we will collaborate with others who are working to solve the same underlying problems.

Guiding Principles

While our work covers a wide range of programmatic issues, the work will be guided by these principles and objectives:

Secure incremental progress: We share the view that being a progressive is measured by making real progress. after many years in New York state government, our observation is that incremental progress can be enacted and implemented in many areas if backed by focused effort, a persuasive analysis demonstrating the programmatic benefits of the proposal, combined in certain cases with an advocacy push to overcome parochial objections to change.

Think outside the box on deep structural challenges: While it is true that in some cases the problem is not identifying the solution, but making it a reality, the State’s largest challenges often require a new paradigm to cut the gordian knot of seemingly intractable problems. Our belief is that we can contribute to the policy debate by thinking outside the box to develop ambitious solutions, even if it takes time for a consensus to build in support of new approaches. Just laying out the facts and making an empirical case for a new paradigm can prove valuable in and of itself.

Demonstrate financial sustainability: Effective and actionable policy proposals must be grounded in financial sustainability. A major focus of the Step Two Policy Project will be to demonstrate that its policy proposals meet the test of financial sustainability. Healthcare affordability, on the one hand, and access and financial sustainability of the healthcare delivery system, on the other hand, are two sides of the same coin.

Democratize the availability of health data, information, and analysis: Our belief is that data transparency, which in turn enables the development of useful health information and the democratization of policy analysis, is an indispensable element of improved public policy and better functioning of the health care delivery system. Critical data about healthcare delivery in New York is often opaque, which makes it difficult for both policymakers and outside analysts to diagnose systemic problems and design effective solutions. Step Two can contribute to this goal of democratization of analysis through transparency and availability of useful health information by developing a roadmap for reform. We will also make sure that our own analyses offer as much transparency as possible about the data and assumptions being used.

Our Team

Founder & Chairman

Paul Francis

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.

Executive Director

Senior Policy Fellow

Sally Dreslin

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

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.