Laura Sparks, executive director of the William Penn Foundation in Philadelphia, has been elected president of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, effective January 4, 2017. Sparks will be the first woman to lead the institution. 

Sparks is a leader in the field of community-focused philanthropy. At the William Penn Foundation, a leading philanthropy with an endowment greater than $2 billion, she was responsible for numerous initiatives addressing social and environmental challenges in America’s fifth largest city and for designing programs in education, public space, the arts and the environment. 

Under her guidance, the foundation launched and refined new strategic priorities, focusing its $115 million grant budget on improvements in urban education for economically disadvantaged children, protection of the water resources serving 15 million people across four states, development of world-class urban parks and trails in underserved communities and cultivation of a vibrant cultural sector. A magna cum laude graduate of Wellesley College, Sparks holds an M.B.A. and a J.D. with honors from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Cooper Union’s Board of Trustees, advised by a search committee that represented the four faculties, the student body, alumni and the trustees, unanimously approved Sparks’ appointment, which follows the conclusion of an extensive search process. More than 300 applications were considered, and 59 dossiers were reviewed in depth. Eleven of these candidates were interviewed at length; five of them were invited to return to make detailed presentations to the committee, including proposals for returning to full-tuition scholarships.

“We are so fortunate to have identified a new leader who brings substantial executive-level experience from the non-profit sector as well as industry,” said Johnny C. Taylor Jr., Cooper Union trustee and co-chair of the Presidential Search Committee. “We wanted someone who valued Cooper as a first-class, unique educational institution, and also had significant experience leading a large, complicated organization through challenging financial circumstances. Laura Sparks has both skill sets.”

Sparks spent six years of her professional life in New York City, having served as senior vice president for community development at Citigroup. There she worked to develop programs to increase affordable housing and eliminate barriers to opportunity for low-income families. During the financial crisis, she played a critical role in coordinating Citigroup’s relationships with other stakeholders, including Fannie Mae, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other government entities.

Sparks has served on a variety of boards and advisory committees, including the Credit Committee and the Capital Formation Committee for Living Cities, a philanthropic collaborative of 22 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions, focused on improving the lives of low-income people and the urban areas where they live. As a member of the Governor’s Advisory Board for Community Development, she has advised Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on issues pertaining to public safety, crime, urban development, revitalization and disaster preparedness. She currently sits on the board of Aeris, a nonprofit information service for community investors who champion economic justice in underserved markets.

Top image courtesy of The Cooper Union

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