Meet the Team

Arthur N. Malkin

Partner / Lobbyist

Co-founder and principal of Malkin & Ross. Artie directs the lobbying activities of the firm. He specializes in legislative strategies and communications for M&R clients. He previously served as legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) from 1978 to 1984. He was responsible for developing and implementing NYPIRG’s legislative agenda. In 1985, he founded and became the first director of the Advocacy Training Center where he taught lobbying and media skills to nonprofit organizations. During his 25+ years in Albany, Artie has been at the forefront of dozens of successful legislative campaigns, including efforts for a state Superfund Law, a mental health parity law, reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, and funding for New York’s first stem cell research program.

Jessica Schafroth

Vice President / Government Affairs

Jessica Schafroth is Vice President of Government Affairs at Malkin & Ross. She has been with the firm since 2004, providing government relations counsel and strategic advice to non‐profit, labor and health care clients of the firm. Jess is responsible for passing landmark legislation such as the Wage Theft Prevention Act, Child Victims Act, Adult Survivors Act and the Family Health Care Decisions Act. Her budget victories include securing a minimum wage increase with future indexing in 2023, $2.1 billion dollars for the Excluded Worker Fund and millions in funding for HIV/AIDS providers, legal services, and economic development projects. She also played a key role in the passage of the DREAM Act, Green Light NY, the medical marijuana law and marijuana legalization, and was in coalition with labor and nonprofit organizations that ended the tip credit for miscellaneous employees and that fought for the Fight for $15. Her past experience includes fundraising and public relations for a variety of health and social service agencies throughout New York and political campaign work in New York and Michigan.

Jaron Benjamin

Senior Campaign & Organizing Manager

Prior to joining Malkin & Ross, Jaron served as the vice president for community mobilization at Housing Works, where he led organizing efforts to implement NY state’s Ending the Epidemic initiatives and to expand services for people with HIV. He organized the “Act Now, End AIDS” coalition, a nationwide partnership that mobilized AIDS service providers, health departments, and community leaders to work together towards the end of the HIV epidemic, and that work influenced and helped guide the federal government’s multi-jurisdictional “Ending the HIV Epidemic” initiative. Jaron also co-founded “Birddog Nation,” the national grassroots network that helped save the Affordable Care Act in 2017.

Amanda Cavanaugh

Lobbyist

Amanda joined Malkin & Ross in December 2021.  She is dedicated to positive social change through public policy.  Previously Amanda was the Campaign Manager for Compassion & Choices working to advance the Medical Aid in Dying Act. In her role at Malkin & Ross Amanda works to provide a variety of non-profit and business clients strategic advice and lobbying services.  During her time with M&R she’s been successful in expanding funding for the Refugee Resettlement Fund. She provided key support on the passage of the Adult Survivors Act and on the recently enacted Primary Care Commission. In addition to her work as a lobbyist, Amanda is the past President for the Watervliet City School District and is involved in several youth activities in her community.

Carol Ann Lemon, RN

Lobbyist

Carol Ann has been a registered nurse for twenty years; and practiced in acute care settings in Schenectady County hospitals for sixteen years, while also involved in organizing hospital workers to join the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA).  She brings her political organizing experience, contacts and lobbying expertise to Malkin & Ross. Carol Ann served as the lead lobbyist for the NYSNA, the largest labor union in New York State for nurses. While there, she oversaw and managed the legislative agenda and shaped advocacy strategies to advance the goals of nurses and patients. When she moved to Malkin & Ross, her prior experience as a senior lobbyist for NYSNA earned her the trust of many elected officials in decision-making roles.  Carol Ann has close to a decade of public affairs experience, engaging in regulatory affairs, public policy issues and legislative advocacy.

Since her time at Malkin & Ross, Carol Ann has led a human rights campaign to allow adult adoptees to access their original birth certificates; established clinical staffing committees for nurses in New York hospitals, along with minimum nurse staffing standards in hospital intensive care units.  More recently, along with advocating for historic investments in childcare, Carol Ann was instrumental in the Child Poverty Reduction Campaign – which set up a commission to reduce child poverty in New York State by 50% within 10 years.

Cylas Martell-Crawford

Counsel/Lobbyist

Cylas recently joined Malkin & Ross in February of 2019. His past experiences include working as a legislative staff member in the New York State Assembly, and as an associate attorney at a litigation firm. He works with members of the firm to provide bill drafting services, research, and legal opinions on legislative issues. Cylas graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Albany and received his J.D. degree magna cum laude from Albany Law School.

Stacie Orell

Lobbyist

Stacie joined Malkin & Ross in 2016. Prior to that, she worked in educational publishing and founded the NY GMO Labeling coalition, leading environmental and consumer rights groups and a grassroots army in the fight for GMO food labeling in NYS. Stacie’s policy successes at M&R include bans on PFAS — “forever chemicals” — in firefighting foam and food packaging; a ban on the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos; plant-based meal options for hospital/nursing home patients; closing a regulatory loophole that exempt fracking waste from being considered hazardous waste; the establishment of an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program for carpet; and the All-Electric Building Act. She’s a persistent off-the-floor lobbyist and a creative thinker with excellent writing skills. Stacie has a master’s degree in environmental conservation education with a focus on food policy from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Pennsylvania.