Meet Zohran Mamdani’s newly-named chief of staff — the secretive DSA operative behind his rise to power

She’s the power behind the red curtain.

Zohran Mamdani’s secretive newly named chief of staff Elle Bisgaard-Church is a Democratic Socialists of America true believer who convinced the far-left group to back him for mayor and helped craft his “Department of Community Safety,” insiders said.

The two 34-year-olds forged similar paths to the heights of New York City political power — cutting their teeth in antiwar and pro-Palestinian college campus activism and toiling in lefty nonprofits before making the leap into state government.

“Few have played a more central role in this movement, or in every victory we have achieved together in the Assembly, than Elle,” Mamdani gushed Monday, with Bisgaard-Church standing serenely by his side — as he announced her elevation to City Hall chief of staff.

An Ivy League grad from California, Bisgaard-Church’s path with Mamdani intertwined when she became chief of staff for his state Assembly office upon his election in 2020.

She then jumped in with both feet as he launched his bid for mayor, serving as campaign manager — and getting widely credited for his stunning Democratic primary win — and then as senior adviser.

But Bisgaard-Church fiercely guards her privacy, eschewing social media and rarely granting interviews as the socialist Queens assemblyman turned mayor-elect Mamdani revels in the spotlight.

Her wedding over the summer wasn’t covered in The New York Times or acknowledged on Politico’s Playbook, unlike the nuptials of other high-profile government operatives, and she’s also never appeared on a “City & State Power List,” according to the outlet.

The enigmatic top aide has also no experience in city government — but insiders said she’s clearly a potent new force in the Big Apple’s far-left-ascendant changing politics who can’t be counted out.

Mamdani himself is an outsider to city governance who has so far picked seasoned political veterans — such as Dean Fuleihan, whom he appointed as first deputy mayor the same day as Bisgaard-Church — to turn his lofty democratic dreams into reality.

“She ran a hyper-disciplined campaign that showed a deep understanding of New York City and the pulse of the New York electorate. I think that’s a huge asset going into City Hall,” said Alyssa Cass, a partner at Slingshot Strategies.

“You need someone then who can serve as that translator to your first deputy mayors, to your department heads — you need someone who speaks Zohran and it’s clear she does,” Cass said.

Bisgaard-Church’s role as Mamdani whisperer may well be rooted in their similar career trajectories.

She attended Swarthmore College, a private liberal arts school in Pennsylvania, majoring in political science and Middle Eastern Studies.

Like Mamdani, who co-founded his college’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, Bisgaard-Church got involved in campus activism.

She hosted an antiwar podcast and became deeply involved in the college’s peace and conflict studies department, according to the school’s student newspaper — which in 2011 detailed a talk she attended by a non-violent Palestinian activist.

“It really shows what non-violence can accomplish,” she told the paper, echoing Mamdani’s own language on the issue.

After graduating in 2013, Bisgaard-Church hopped around nonprofits in Philadelphia, Santa Cruz and Washington, DC focused on adult literacy and criminal justice before making the jump to New York City in 2016 with a Coro public affairs fellowship, according to her LinkedIn.

She obtained her Master’s Degree in public administration from Columbia University and the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2020, when she shifted her focus toward real-world politics by successfully applying to be the recently-elected Mamdani’s chief of staff in the Assembly.

Queens state Sen. Mike Gianaris, a Democrat whose district overlaps with the assemblyman’s, lauded Bisgaard-Church’s as a “point person” on their free bus pilot — which Mamdani has said he will expand citywide.

“My experience with her has been excellent. Smart, capable, very professional,” Gianaris said.

Bisgaard-Church, a DSA member, also helped Mamdani nurture ties with the sometimes-fractious socialist group.

She was instrumental in crafting the DSA’s 2021 guiding document that outlined how it would work with elected officials and — importantly for Mamdani — later helped convince the group to endorse his nascent longshot mayoral bid, insiders said.

As Mamdani’s campaign caught fire — in no small part thanks to Bisgaard-Church’s quiet leadership, for which she was paid roughly $11,000 a month — she helped create the idea for the Department of Community Safety, his controversial $1.1 billion proposal to have social workers take over many responsibilities from the NYPD.

When Mamdani clinched victory June’s Democratic primary over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the crowd at his victory party chanted “Elle, Elle, Elle” — a sign that her time in the shadows was at an end.

Bisgaard-Church still largely widespread media attention aside from a City & State profile last month that revealed she’s the only child of a single mother and married in July.

Mamdani’s final victory ensures Bisgaard-Church will be one of the most highly watched members of his unprecedented incoming administration — the first socialist for the nation’s largest city.

Most of Mamdani’s appointments so far have been veterans of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration or longtime civil servants, unlike the youthful, largely inexperienced lefty brain trust, including Bisgaard-Church, he surrounded himself with during the campaign.

DSA members have also been quick to take credit for Mamdani’s win, contending they helped him gain a “clear mandate” for their progressive agenda.

Cuomo’s Machiavellian longtime aide Melissa DeRosa praised Mamdani’s pick of seasoned public servant Fuleihan as his first deputy mayor, but was far less complimentary of Bisgaard-Church.

“I think that Dean was a good appointment for him, I think it should also bring a lot of comfort to the business community and others,” she said on NY1. “However, he put Elle as his chief of staff at the same time, and she is as much a zealot as they come.

“It’s going to be interesting to see when he’s making these appointments who’s going to have the real power or are these people going to stay if there’s some altercation out of the gate?”