Summer’s slower pace has meant fewer changes of employment around NYC’s non-profit, governmental, and educational spheres in recent months – but there was still enough movement to turn the Labor Day corner and see a crop of fresh faces.
In the housing arena, Jenny Laurie, director of the Metropolitan Council on Housing for 15 years, is now the assistant director at the City-Wide Taskforce on Housing Court, replacing Joe Lamport who left the organization in May to work for a development agency in Ghana. Met Council is in the process of searching for a new director. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development is looking for a replacement for Neill McG. Coleman, HPD’s former assistant commissioner for communications. After nearly three years, Coleman has left HPD and is now the communications manager for RMJM Hillier, the North American division of a worldwide architecture firm.
Well-known environmental advocate and Sustainable South Bronx founder Majora Carter stepped down as the corporation’s executive director after seven years, with former deputy director Miquela Craytor taking her place. Carter is exploring media opportunities including a national public radio show, and meanwhile has created Majora Carter Group, a consulting firm she says is aimed to “help cities, counties and regions make their environment and economy green and prosperous for all constituents by connecting the value of government, business and industry and community.”
Also switching it up is Coro New York Leadership Center, which recently welcomed Scott Millstein, former interim CEO of Safe Horizon, as its new executive director after Michael Hirschhorn, who served there five years, stepped down. Hirschhorn has returned to his own consulting practice serving the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.
Kate Madigan’s one-year term ended as president of the New York State Bar Association. Bernice K. Leber, a partner in the firm Arent Fox LLP, took the reins in June. Meanwhile Judge Michael A. Corriero, recognized both nationally and internationally for his experience with juveniles, has become executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC. He replaces Allan Luks, who led the organization for 18 years and will serve as a senior advisor during the transition period. After 10 years, Mishi Faruqee has left her position as director of the Juvenile Justice Project at the Correction Association of New York. Faruqee has not been replaced yet at the CA, but she is now serving as the director of the Youth Justice Program at the Children’s Defense Fund-New York.
In Albany, Robert G. Wilmers was named chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, New York’s lead economic development agency, after the upstate and downstate co-chairmen from the Spitzer administration, Daniel Gundersen and Patrick J. Foye respectively, resigned earlier this year. As chairman – traditionally a position held by one person that was split under the Spitzer administration – Wilmers will begin by searching for a statewide chief executive officer, and two figures to lead the upstate and downstate divisions. He continues to be the chairman and chief executive officer of M&T Bank Corporation.
In other political news, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer’s deputy chief of staff Pam Elam retired after two and a half years of service in early July. She has been replaced by Cuong Nguyen, who most recently served as Stringer’s director of scheduling. Nicole Ferree has filled Nguyen’s shoes. Dave Palmer recently accepted a newly created campaign position at the Working Families Party. Now director of the Green Jobs/Green Homes and Campaign Finance Reform campaigns for WFP, the former staff attorney and Equal Justice Works Fellow for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest has yet to be replaced.
Eugenio María de Hostos Community College will soon commence a search for a new president. After 10 years, current president Dolores M. Fernández, Ph.D., has announced her resignation and plans to return to teaching. The Foundation Center, a prominent source of information on private philanthropies across the U.S., will soon say goodbye to its longtime president, Sara L. Engelhardt. After 17 years as president, Engelhardt is retiring and, effective Oct. 1, will pass the torch to Bradford K. Smith, current president of an international philanthropic network called the Oak Foundation, located in Geneva, Switzerland.
