Editor's Note

From left, Senior City Hall Reporter Sahalie Donaldson, City Editor Annie McDonough and City Hall Reporter Shenal Tissera Emily Assiran and Sam Zambrano

Like me, so many of our readers wake up with City & State’s First Read newsletter. And now, we’ll have a new guide each morning at 7 a.m. 

I’m happy to announce that we’ve hired Shenal Tissera to join our team as a City Hall reporter, and also to compile First Read. A native of Staten Island and a double graduate of the City University of New York, Tissera left his job as a software engineer to pursue the greatest job there is: being a New York City political reporter. He interned with City & State last year, and blew us away with his doggedness and eagerness to learn, which resulted in some great stories, including a piece on whether Mayor Eric Adams did, or did not, get a colonoscopy. 

Tissera has also written for The Lever, The City Reporter and BK Reader – but we know his heart is with City & State. 

City & State is also promoting Annie McDonough to city editor and Sahalie Donaldson to senior City Hall reporter. McDonough is an incredibly talented reporter and writer who has been with City & State for nearly eight years, spanning three mayoral administrations and three City Council speakers. She was born ready to lead the team. And Donaldson will finally get to sleep in later, after helming First Read for nearly four years while still covering City Hall full time, getting scoops and writing cover stories for the magazine – including this week’s on the low-key man who could be the next leader of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. 

I’m incredibly excited to see our revamped City Hall team work together. And I’m proud to say that, like Tissera, and like me, McDonough and Donaldson both also started at City & State as interns. Our summer interns this year, Fariha Rahman and Chantal Mann, have done amazing work. You may see them in these pages again in the future.