Maria Mottola, Secretary, has been the Executive Director of the New York Foundation since 2003 and served also as a Program Officer there from 1994 to 2002. From 1989 to 1994 she was Executive Director of the City Wide Task Force on Housing Court, a housing advocacy organization that promotes the reform of New York City’s Housing Court. Before that Maria was the Director of Neighborhood Programs for four years while also serving as a community organizer at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House on the Eastside of Manhattan.
Maria has been an adjunct instructor at the Hunter College Graduate School of Urban Affairs and Planning since 1996. She chaired the founding advisory board of the New American Leaders Project. Maria was a co-chair of the Neighborhood Funders Group, a national affinity group from 2003 to 2006. In addition to that Maria acted as an executive-on-loan to Gladys Carrión, the Commissioner of the New York State Office of Children and Families from 2010-2011, working closely with the commissioner and her senior staff on a variety of projects.