January 18, 2023 at 4:01 p.m.

CATHOLIC VOICES

CATHOLIC VOICES
CATHOLIC VOICES
Kristen Curran is no stranger to upstate New York and she loves it that way. Born and raised in Albany, Curran took her love for the upstate area and New York politics to the New York State Catholic Conference last January when she was named director of Government Relations. An experienced Albany lobbyist and government affairs professional, Curran represents the interests of the conference at the state legislature on a broad range of public policy issues. She is married to her husband, James, and is the mother of three children: Colleen, 6, Clare, 4, and John, 15 months. Emily Benson from The Evangelist sat down with Curran to talk about her first year at the Catholic Conference, her goals for the coming session and the ins and outs of New York lobbying.

TE: Tell me about your upbringing. 
KC: I’m from Albany, born and raised. I’m actually a fifth generation Albanian, I guess you can call it. I’m a product of Albany Catholic schools, elementary through high school, then I went to Siena College and then I went to Albany Law. I literally just never left, my whole upbringing and professional career. It was very full circle to go to Catholic schools and now be working here. 

TE: Where did you go to school?
KC: For elementary school, I went to Holy Cross elementary, now All Saints Catholic Academy. In seventh grade, I went to (Academy of the) Holy Names in Albany and stayed through 12th grade. I try to stay involved with Holy Names because I had such a great experience there and they do such great work. 

TE: Do you come from a Catholic family? 
KC: Very Catholic family. A lot of my cousins went to Catholic school as well. I grew up going to church and it was an important part of my upbringing. Now I’m trying to make it an important part of my children’s upbringing. My husband (James) is Catholic and a product of Catholic schools as well. 

TE: Did you know you wanted to go to law school after Siena?
KC: No! I still don’t know why I wanted to go to law school. I was (studying) accounting at Siena and junior year is about the time when everybody is applying to the Big Five (accounting firms), and I was like, “What am I doing?” I was so invested and I wasn’t going to try and figure out how much it would cost to do an extra year of college, so I decided to stick it out. But I knew I wasn’t going to want to be a CPA, so I applied for law school on a whim. Clearly, I don’t practice law, but my experience at law school and the experience it gave me, I couldn’t do what I do without that and it set me up for success in what I do now.

TE: Walk me through those steps in your career.
KC: I was doing civil litigation work and clerking, and through that process, I got the idea that I didn’t want to stick with that. My husband — who is a couple of years younger — was working as an intern for the legislature and he would come home and talk about the work he was doing and I thought it was so interesting. I still didn’t know what I wanted but this idea of legislative work seemed so interesting to me. So one of my applications was for this small lobbying firm (Robert A. Ungar Associates, Inc.) with one guy. I applied and we hit it off, and that was my first lobbying job. I think the advantage of my situation there was it was one guy, and being such a small firm I had to do everything myself. We didn’t have the staff to do different things and I learned by doing. From day one, he brought me along with him for the whole process that goes into lobbying. Taking an idea, writing a bill and doing everything that needs to be done to bring it to the legislature and staff, and talking to members, having to do that process helped me to learn. I worked there for seven years, and at that firm we represented a lot of organized labor — and that’s kind of an intense area of lobbying to work in. The legislation is all very complicated and there are a lot of politics involved, so that taught me a lot as well. Working with firefighters and law enforcement, nurses and labor unions, taught me a lot. 

TE: What made you want to take the next step?
KC: I was approached by a firm (J Strategies, Inc.) to do lobbying and they were offering me more money and flexibility, and at that point I had two kids. The nature of the work was intense, so when I got this offer of more money, and it was a women-owned firm, and flexibility, at that point in my life it seemed like the right move. It was a tough decision, especially to leave all my clients. That was the hardest part. But I took that in July 2019.

TE: What was working and lobbying in COVID like?
KC: Everything went virtual, which makes it weird and hard. It was a very stressful time. The whole reason I like this job is because I like being out and talking to all different kinds of people on all different kinds of issues and that was taken away. 

TE: It must have been strange to try and lobby and work from home.
KC: It was like “The Matrix!” I did pre-K on Zoom, which was a trip. I always say I feel lucky my kids were the age they were during COVID. We look back and we can’t believe what we did, but there were people who had it way worse. 

TE: How did you find out about the Catholic Conference job?
KC: I had a pretty tough year. In 2021, I was pregnant all year, dealing with COVID restrictions, the job was stressful, and our dog passed away. By the fall of 2021, I was desperate for a change. But here I was, heavily pregnant. I remember saying to my husband I want a change but who will have me like this? And he ran into the room one day and said, “You have to apply to this job, it’s at the Catholic Conference.” And I was like, they might have me! Sure enough, I waddled in here and instead of the reaction I kept playing in my head, they said, “Oh my gosh, this is wonderful!” Everybody here, they’re all wonderful. I felt God working in the whole process because it truly just worked out perfectly. And the timing as well; I had my baby on Oct. 7, and it was the perfect time to start the first of the year in 2022. 

TE: What was the change like?
KC: Having my third child and having been a contract lobbyist for years, I wanted a job I could be happy in and felt strongly about and work with me having three small kids, and this was the perfect place. I’ve always believed in what I lobbied for. Lobbying for organized labor, I represented some of the best people, like first-responders. That was easy to do. It was easy to go down to the Capitol and say why people deserve X and Y. And now I’m doing something like that but more amplified. I’m lobbying for something I truly believe in and I’m lucky that I’m able to do that. Not everybody is able to. 

TE: It sounds like you enjoy the work, and that makes you want to help.
KC: Exactly! I feel like I’m doing something that means a lot to me and it means a lot to a lot of people. We’re active members of our church community (at St. Pius X in Loudonville) and especially with my strong foundation from the Catholic teaching I got from Catholic schools, I get to put that to good use.

TE: What’s a typical day like for you?
KC: There’s definitely not a typical day — for anybody who knows about New York politics — but that’s part of why I like what I do! I joke to people and talk about how I took this job to be a little more comfortable not chasing down clients, and the first thing that happened when I got the job was Roe v. Wade was overturned. What I thought was going to be a more steady and stable work environment was turned on its head, but it was a good thing. Like in my previous job, I had to learn what I needed to know by doing. Something I never did before was be interviewed by reporters, and one of the first people reporters talk to about the issue of abortion is us. Or going to speak at a conference, all these things I’ve never done before. It was kind of trial by fire. This past year was dominated by the abortion discussion. We tried to frame the conversation around not just abortion but all the work we do in supporting the family and children and moms, and we try to bring the conversation back to those issues as more of a big picture, instead of this narrow picture of abortion this legislature and the governor were so focused on. But all those issues, that’s what we do all the time.

TE: Tell me about your work as executive secretary for the NYS Council of Catholic Charities Directors.
KC: There are Catholic Charities directors in the eight dioceses throughout the state, and I represent them and their interests before the legislators. That’s a big thing that we do, keeping our finger on the pulse of all the social justice work and supporting things like mental health and domestic violence (survivors), the poor and asylum seekers. There’s a ton of stuff we do beyond just abortion. The past year I think people have thought of us through the lens of that one issue, but we’re always paying attention to what’s going on and what legislation might affect that work.

TE: What goals do you have for this year?
KC: We’re putting together an agenda, and we’re going to listen for what (Gov. Kathy Hochul highlighted in her State of the State address on Jan. 10) and anything she highlights that we can get behind, we’re going to make it clear this is something we support. It’s hard to be pro-life in New York because people are looking at me and that’s all they think about, but if I get on camera and push against abortion, I want to remind people that’s not all we’re here for. We’re here to serve the interests of babies, moms and families. We’re not going to retreat from doing the work just because of this one issue where we don’t agree. Our agenda is to support solidarity with moms and we’ve had this conversation going since last year to walk with moms in need, we want to expand on that. 

TE: Do you have a life philosophy or mantra?
KC: I guess I would say, “Give it to God.” One thing I learned in my life is we just have to try and relax and pray. From the smallest thing to the biggest thing, God is in control and you have to just try and relax and try and let him do his work. And it seems to work out the way it’s supposed to. It might be hard, but it’s going to work out.

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