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Full Circle: How the Moynihan Legacy Lives On Through Mentorship
Annette Nielsen is on Liz Moynihan’s right wearing a black jacket during one of Senator Moynihan’s re-election campaigns
By Zayaan Jappie
At the Moynihan Center's Spring Reception in Midtown Manhattan, Annette Nielsen accepts an award for her dedication to mentoring the Center's undergraduate fellows. She speaks with pride and a little awe at what the young people in front of her have already achieved. “I've learned from them to trust in the future. We are in good hands,” she says.
Coming from Annette, this statement is a particularly meaningful one. Annette knows exactly what it feels like to be on the receiving end of that kind of belief and what a single mentor's confidence can set in motion.
Annette admits she didn't set out for a career in public service. She majored in fine arts, minored in international relations and political science, and dipped into campus politics mostly as a way to feel connected and develop community. After graduation, she set her sights on working on Capitol Hill but couldn't land a paid position. Instead, she ended up selling computers and developing software for veterinary practices—a detour that would unexpectedly change everything.
In 1988, Senator Patrick Moynihan was running for re-election in New York. Annette had recently returned to New York City when she received a call from Elizabeth “Liz” Moynihan, the senator's wife and the driving force behind his campaign strategy. Liz needed someone with computer experience. Annette fit the bill.
The Beginning of a Public Service Journey
What ensued was a career intertwined with US public life: deputy campaign director for Richard Ravitch’s 1989 New York City mayoral bid, manager of Senator Ted Kennedy's DC office, executive assistant to the chairman of the Port Authority of NY and NJ, and administrative director of the US Senate Committee on Finance during Senator Moynihan's chairmanship. Later, agricultural development work upstate, a seat on a local school board, and co-founding a community kitchen and dinner in a repurposed 1800s courthouse—a farm-to-table gathering for up to 400 people that still runs today. Eventually, Annette was back in New York City, leading the NYC office of the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, and serving as executive director of the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center.
Annette’s career is illustrious in scope, but none of it was linear. And none of it, Annette says, would have happened without Liz Moynihan. “My mom was the first person to have confidence in me and the things I wanted to explore while growing up,” she says. “But Liz was the first person in my professional life to tell me, ‘You can do anything.’” It was Liz who opened the door to the mayoral campaign after the 1988 re-election that set everything else in motion. “I couldn't have asked for a better mentor—for her incredible intelligence, guidance, and humanity.”
Passing the Torch to a New Generation of Public Servants
In 2024, Jennifer Zingone was a political science and legal studies student at City College with a self-directed focus on food systems. Jennifer was a Moynihan Fellow when she noticed someone from the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center engaging regularly with her LinkedIn posts. Curious, she sent a message to thank her. Annette responded, and they went for coffee.
“Annette has been crucial in helping me understand power dynamics within the food policy space,” Jennifer says. “She taught me the value of listening, and the importance of speaking my mind,” she adds. Other lessons include how to read a room, when to hold back, when to push—the kind of thing that isn’t taught in a classroom context. They are lessons that are passed down.
Annette, receiving the Distinguished Mentor Award, with Layana Abu Touq at the 2026 Moynihan Spring Reception
The mentorship became a lifeline post-graduation—five months of applications and silence, a reckoning with what professional connections actually mean. “No one cares,” Jennifer says of her credentials, with the directness of someone who has processed this experience and come out the other side. “What's much more important are your connections and what you have learned from them.” When Jennifer's first postgraduate fellowship brought on a wave of imposter syndrome, it was Annette who insisted she belonged there—who had seen her grow, who helped empower and reassure her that she was capable. Jennifer was promoted at her fellowship.
Jennifer is now food policy and programs coordinator at the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center—the same institution Annette once led. She runs an internship program, manages a free food pantry for Hunter students, coordinates food distribution events in East Harlem, and recently served as a docent at the Museum of Food and Drink. This summer, she will apprentice on a farm through the Anne Saxelby Apprenticeship Fund. Her long-term ambitions include a PhD in food policy and, one day, winning the World Food Prize. “Annette opened doors for me that I previously couldn't access,” Jennifer says, “not because I didn't deserve to be there, but because I lacked the key to being heard.”
The chain is clear—impactful mentorship does not simply change what the person does next but changes what they believe is possible. Liz saw something in Annette and told her so. Annette has done the same with Jennifer. Jennifer is now doing so with the interns that she oversees.
At the Spring Reception, as Annette looks out at a crowded room, many of the faces she sees are of young people who do not yet know what they are capable of. She was once that person and has not forgotten.