Ford Foundation Appoints Maria Torres-Springer As Next Vice President for US Programs
The Ford Foundation today announced the appointment of Maria Torres-Springer as its next vice president for US programs. She will join the foundation in May, succeeding Xavier de Souza Briggs, who has served as vice president for five years and plans to leave the foundation in late 2019.
In close to 15 years of public service with the City of New York, Torres-Springer has led three agencies with over 3,000 employees and approximately $2 billion in annual operating budgets, addressing some of the city’s most significant challenges and opportunities. Throughout her tenure in government, she worked to create powerful partnerships among neighborhoods, businesses, and the agencies she has led in pursuit of expanded economic opportunity and more equitable communities for all New Yorkers.
Torres-Springer currently serves as commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the nation's largest municipal housing agency. She has led the implementation of Housing New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s five-borough, 12-year plan to create or preserve 300,000 affordable homes and apartments—the largest effort of its kind in the country. During her tenure, she steered the financing of approximately 60,000 affordable homes, more than any two-year period in HPD’s history. She focused on the production of housing for the city’s most vulnerable communities, including seniors, the formerly homeless, and the lowest-income New Yorkers, while launching programs to protect tenants’ rights...