Ford Foundation Hires Detroit Native, Kevin Ryan, as Program Officer for its New Detroit Office
The Ford Foundation is establishing its first presence in Detroit since leaving the Motor City in 1953 as it ramps up a major initiative to invest in affordable housing in the city where it was founded 81 years ago by Edsel Ford.
The New York-based international foundation announced Wednesday it has hired Detroit native Kevin Ryan from the New York Foundation to be its new Detroit-based program officer.
“[Ryan] will be working from Detroit and working with grantee partners there so we don’t have to have staff parachute in and out," Ford Foundation President Darren Walker told Crain's. “I think it’s important because having someone close to the ground, someone working in the city, is a more effective way to do our work."
He starts work in Detroit on June 12, according to the Ford Foundation.
Ryan comes to Ford Foundation after 14 years at the New York Foundation, where he managed a portfolio of grants for New York City community organizations. He will be based in shared office space inside the Kellogg Foundation's downtown Detroit office, according to the Ford Foundation.
The Ford Foundation president plans to detail the foundation's new work in Detroit in a speech Thursday at the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island. . .