Lurie Makes Final Picks for Major New SF City Hall Roles Ahead of Inauguration

In the final days before his inauguration, San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie announced his final two picks for policy director positions as part of his ongoing redesign of City Hall.

On Monday, Lurie named Alicia John-Baptiste, former Municipal Transportation Agency chief of staff and head of an influential urbanism nonprofit, as the city’s first-ever chief of infrastructure, climate and mobility. On Tuesday, he tapped Kunal Modi, a management consultant from McKinsey & Co., as the city’s first chief of health, homelessness and family services.

These choices rounded out Lurie’s roster of four close advisers tasked with streamlining accountability within the city’s vast bureaucracy.

John-Baptiste and Modi will act as intermediaries between the mayor and the city’s 56 agencies, along with former SFPD commander Paul Yep, who will lead public safety and emergency management efforts, and ex-Twitter executive Ned Segal, who will oversee housing and economic development.

The new deputy positions are intended to tighten the chain of command by reducing the number of the mayor’s direct reports. The idea behind the cabinet came from recommendations published last year by SPUR (the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association), the city-planning group John-Baptiste has led for the past six years as CEO and three years as deputy director.

“I am thrilled to be returning to government service at such a critical time for the future of San Francisco,” said John-Baptiste. “I’m also excited to directly implement a recommendation from SPUR’s good government work by joining the newly-created team of policy chiefs.”

In her new position, John-Baptiste will help Lurie coordinate between a large portfolio of departments: the SFMTA, the Port of San Francisco, the Public Utilities Commission, the Department of Public Works, the Environment Department and the Recreation and Parks Department.

“Alicia brings extensive expertise in shaping bold, transformative policies, and whose leadership will enhance communication and transparency as we pursue a more sustainable, connected, and resilient San Francisco,” Lurie said in a statement.

Prior to her time at SPUR, John-Baptiste worked at City Hall for about 16 years, moving between the SFMTA and the Planning Department.

“We are thrilled to partner with a leader in the transportation space that really understands our organization from the inside out,” Erica Kato, a spokesperson for the SFMTA, told KQED.

The agency is rebounding from a brutal period for public transportation in every American city. Lurie has yet to announce who will fill the vacancy left following the resignation of former SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin in December after steering the agency through one of its worst fiscal crises in recent history. Despite recent improvements in ridership, SFMTA is facing a nearly $300 million deficit starting in 2026 after state and federal relief is exhausted — a major challenge for both the incoming director and mobility policy chief.

Meanwhile, a worrying increase in traffic deaths last year has led to widespread calls for the city to intensify its street safety efforts, as well as criticism of the SFMTA for falling behind on its “quick build” program to improve conditions at hundreds of locations by the end of 2024.

Jodie Medeiros, executive director of advocacy organization Walk SF, was encouraged by Lurie’s pick.

“Alicia is a problem-solver and public servant who understands that safe streets and sustainable transportation are crucial for San Francisco. This is a great choice for the city’s future,” Medeiros said.

San Francisco’s housing advocacy community also celebrated the news of John-Baptiste’s appointment as a victory for the movement to change city zoning regulations to encourage building housing at all income levels.

Corey Smith, the executive director of Housing Action Coalition, a group which he said spun out of SPUR 26 years ago, said John-Baptiste uniquely understands the “nitty-gritty” of policy while also maintaining “a big picture idea of what the future could hold for San Francisco.”

“Alicia is an expert in her world, in urbanism. She’s been in the advocacy space for a long time, but she’s been in the machine and knows how it works. It’s a good combination,” Smith said.

Modi, who will lead policy on public health and wellbeing, is a partner at McKinsey and also served on the board of directors for Larkin Street Youth Center and the St. Anthony Foundation. 

He will oversee eight departments that collectively administer some $6 billion in public funds, according to Lurie’s office. Modi is charged with streamlining operations across those departments to ensure greater coordination and accountability.

“Kunal has a track record of delivering results in some of the most complex and critical areas of public service,” Lurie said in a statement on Tuesday. “His leadership will be instrumental as we act urgently and compassionately to address homelessness, strengthen behavioral health systems, and ensure that all San Franciscans — especially our most vulnerable — have access to the support and services they need to thrive.”

At McKinsey, Modi helmed the company’s global social responsibility initiative and led its community service efforts in the Bay Area. As part of his work there, he co-wrote several papers focused on improving customer experience within government services and two that looked specifically at how best to address homelessness in the Bay Area.

Stanford Professor Keith Humphreys, who served on the St. Anthony’s board with Modi, said he is a good fit for his new role.

“He has a strong management sensibility … but he’s not a mirthless bean counter,” Humphreys said. “He’s also someone who just cares deeply about the most vulnerable citizens in San Francisco.”

That management sensibility will be especially helpful if he hopes to wrangle the dozens of organizations that serve the city’s more than 8,300 homeless residents, Humphreys said.

“We have all these different outreach teams scattered across departments, different nonprofits doing this and that, and it’s literally impossible to figure out what everybody is doing and are they all working in concert?” Humphreys said. “That is a really big management challenge, and he’s exactly the kind of person who can handle that challenge.”