Carlene Pinto 2026 Bio
Carlene Pinto is a Cuban-Irish lifelong New Yorker, strategist, and organizer who has spent her career transforming moments of crisis into sustained people-powered movements. She is the Founder and CEO of NYC Action Lab Inc. (NYCAL), a strategic organizing and advocacy firm supporting local, state, and national campaigns through field strategy, coalition building, rapid response mobilization, and communications infrastructure.
Under her leadership, NYC Action Lab has supported legislative coalitions, electoral campaigns, community defense networks, and statewide advocacy efforts, building scalable organizing models rooted in neighborhood power and policy impact. The firm works across issue areas including civil rights, immigration, artificial intelligence regulation, public safety reform, housing justice, and democracy protection.
In 2024, Carlene served as New York State Deputy Director of Field at the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), where she helped spearhead major advocacy campaigns including New York For All, the Equal Rights Amendment ballot initiative, 13th Forward to end forced prison labor, and Daniel’s Law advancing non-police responses to mental health crises.
In 2022, she co-founded Latinas Grow, an organization focused on education, advocacy, and economic empowerment for women and Latino communities impacted by the war on drugs, with an emphasis on entrepreneurship pipelines in agritech, hemp, and cannabis.
Carlene has been recognized as one of City & State’s Top 50 Most Powerful People in Community and is a recipient of the New York State Senate’s Woman of Distinction Award. Her crisis leadership spans Hurricane Sandy, where she coordinated distribution of millions of dollars in relief supplies, and the COVID-19 pandemic, during which she secured and redistributed more than $100,000 in direct community aid.
Throughout her career, Carlene has led and contributed to landmark campaigns including Raise the Age, the Dream Act, the Climate March, #NoBanNoWall, Green Light NY, the Child Parent Security Act, the Stop Immigration Bond Abuse Act, and multiple citywide and statewide electoral efforts.
Carlene continues to build durable organizing infrastructure across New York, equipping communities with the strategy, tools, and power needed to win lasting change.