Taryn & Alaina – Class of 2024
Taryn Sacramone and Alaina Gilligo – Class of 2024 – bonded in Greater NY over a mutual interest in crafting leadership roles grounded in collaboration. Sacramone is President of Queens Theatre and was, at the time of the Partnership, Chair of New York City's Cultural Institutions Group. She had also launched and led Culture@3, a daily COVID-era Zoom call that, at its height, convened 1000+ leaders from across the city’s arts and culture sector and now continues on a twice-weekly basis. Gilligo was an executive at Gilbane, and had previously served as First Deputy Comptroller for New York City, managing an agency of 800 people with an $110 million budget.
Each month, the Greater NY Partners met near Grand Central Station to talk about leadership. Their conversations bridged city government, culture, and capital development—and centered on leadership opportunities that emerged during and after COVID.
“I wanted to capture some of what I’d learned as a leader from Culture@3,” says Sacramone. “I wanted to take what we’d accomplished in that collaboration into my next phase.”
Gilligo describes Sacramone’s style as distinctive. “I’d call Taryn’s style ‘Leadership as Partnership,’” she says. “It’s a way of leading that’s driven by her commitment to inclusiveness in both big and small moments. It was valuable for us to have a space to really unpack how she thinks about it.”
For Sacramone, inclusion is both strategic and personal. At Queens Theatre, she hired a Director of Inclusion, set targets around inclusion for physical disability in programming, and made race and gender equity a leadership focus. Her approach to leadership is rooted in shared power and wide participation.
“Leadership as partnership is challenging,” says Sacramone. “You have to be vulnerable, build trust and community— but you also need to find your limits, personally. That takes a lot of thinking through. The kind of dialogue I was able to have with Alaina is rare,” she adds. “Leaders need other leaders. They need a sounding board. And the best way to understand your own leadership is to talk to other leaders. It was a great collaboration.”
As in all Greater NY Partnerships, Gilligo found the learning reciprocal. “It was valuable for me to have a safe space to not only understand Taryn’s goals but also hear her advice and the stories she would tell,” she says. “I could often relate them back to my own professional life. At first, I didn’t realize Greater NY would be something we’d both benefit from. I was so focused on my role to support her — but my time with Taryn was a true Partnership.”
Greater NY connects leaders in strategic service to the people of New York City. For Sacramone and Gilligo, it was a chance to deepen the leadership lessons of COVID and define styles rooted in personal values and the needs of those they serve.