As Director of Engagement, Esmeralda Gaton oversees member engagement, capacity building, convenings, and field-building initiatives. She partners across teams to ensure NACTO’s work reflects member needs and advances the collective mission.
Esmeralda is excited about building strong relationships, connecting member insights to organizational strategy, and cultivating a collaborative professional community that empowers NACTO’s members to drive equitable, people-centered mobility solutions.
Esmeralda has spent more than two decades advancing equity and creating opportunities for low-income communities and communities of color to thrive. She has worked at the intersection of strategy, operations, engagement, and systems change across nonprofit organizations and local government.
Prior to joining NACTO, Esmeralda served as Director of Alliance Engagement at America’s Promise Alliance. In that role, she led engagement strategies for a national portfolio of youth-serving organizations, cultivating strategic partnerships, leading member engagement, and helping organizations connect through collective action initiatives, leadership development opportunities, and peer learning communities. Esmeralda also worked for over a decade in city government, including as Chief of Staff, Office of School Wellness Programs for the New York City Department of Education.
Esmeralda holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Stony Brook University and a Master of Science degree from The New School’s Milano School for Policy, Management, and Environment. She is accredited by the International Coaching Federation as an associate certified coach. Esmeralda is a native New Yorker, currently residing with her wife in the Bronx. She enjoys spending time with her niece, cooking, and many physical activities. Catch her weightlifting, playing tennis, running, or riding her bike on the Bronx River Greenway!