Errol A. Cockfield Jr. (born September 14, 1973) currently serves a
Senior Vice President of Communications
at MSNBC where he is responsible for setting the communications and media strategy and partnering with editorial and business leads at the network. He also serves as lead spokesperson. Previously, he served as the Press Secretary to former

Governor of New York The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has ...

Eliot Spitzer Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the 54th governor of New York from 2007 until his resignation in 2008. Spitzer was b ...

and his successor David Paterson. He was also the Chief of Staff in the New York State Senate Democratic Conference. Prior to that, Cockfield served as the Albany bureau chief for ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...

''.

Early life

He was born in

Georgetown, Guyana Georgetown is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Guyana. It is situated in Demerara-Mahaica, region 4, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, at the mouth of the Demerara River. It is nicknamed the "Garden City of the Caribbean." It is t ...

. He graduated from

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

with a bachelor's degree in English.Buskin, Martin.
Outstanding Campus Journalism
".
Buskin at Stony Brook
'. Retrieved April 2, 2008. When he finished university, he took part in Tribune Company's prestigious Minority Editorial Training Program and after that became a member of the '' Los Angeles Times'' as a staff reporter.Press Secretary - Errol Cockfield Jr. Biography
". '' New York State''. Retrieved April 2, 2008. Living and working in Los Angeles, Cockfield interviewed famous hip hop artists, and wrote about white power skinhead attacks on blacks, encouraging the Commission on Human Relations to pay attention to this trend.

Journalistic career

Later he joined one of the biggest Connecticut's daily newspaper's ''

Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...

'' and after that ''

'', He worked there as a political reporter for Nassau County, New York, then he changed his position to New York City economic development reporter, and finally became Albany Bureau Chief. In New York he also made some important professional achievements such as chronicling events World Trade Center after the attacks of September 11, 2001; He also detailed a plan to build a taxpayer-financed stadium for the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

in Manhattan and wrote about reform of New York's stringent sentencing rules under its

Rockefeller drug laws The Rockefeller Drug Laws are the statutes dealing with the sale and possession of "narcotic" drugs in the New York State Penal Law. The laws are named after Nelson Rockefeller, who was the state's governor at the time the laws were adopted. Rock ...

. He also documented the state's effort to reinstate the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

and became the first reporter to document information about insufficient actions of state government in the topic of assisted living facilities. He had served as the President of

New York Association of Black Journalists New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

from 2001 to 2003, and also sat on the board of the

National Association of Black Journalists The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is an organization of African-American journalists, students, and media professionals. Founded in 1975 in Washington, D.C., by 44 journalists, the NABJ's stated purpose is to provide quality p ...

, and has been a member of both since 1994. He has been a freelance contributor to magazines such as '' The Source'',
Upscale
', and '' Vibe'', has appeared on television and radio as a commentator on media, journalism and writing, and his original work has won several New York City poetry slam competitions.

Political career

In 2007 Cockield was employed by former Governor

as Press Secretary for the Empire State Development Corporation. Then he got a promotion to Press Secretary, a position that reports to the Communications Director in the executive chamber. The job opened up when Spitzer suspended his communications director Darren Dopp following his involvement in a

controversy Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin ''controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an opposite d ...

, and the previous Press Secretary Christine Anderson was elevated to Communications Director.Gershman, Jacob.
Spitzer Is Set To Hire Albany, Press Liaisons
". '' New York Sun''. November 1, 2007. In September 2007, he was named one of ''

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

s "40 under 40" for being a young influential member of New York State politics.Rising Stars 40 Under 40: Errol Cockfield
, ''City & State'', September 17, 2007. In 2013, Cockfield was working as Vice President of crisis and issues at public relations firm

Edelman Edelman is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Abram Wolf Edelman (a.k.a. Abraham Edelman; 1832–1907), Polish-born American rabbi; the first rabbi in Los Angeles, California * Adam Edelman (born 1991), American-born four-time Is ...

New York when he was reported to be representing Peter Lanza, father of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting perpetrator Adam Lanza.Dickson, Virgil (January 2013)
Edelman helps Lanza father deal with media.
'' PR Week''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockfield, Errol Jr. Newsday people Living people Stony Brook University alumni New York (state) Democrats 1972 births People from Queens, New York State cabinet secretaries of New York (state)