Dalio Center for Health Justice

President for the Harlem Children’s Zone

Geoffrey Canada is a leading advocate for children and innovator in the field of education. Canada grew up in one of the most devastated communities in the United States, the South Bronx, raised by a single mother. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College, and eventually went on to earn a master’s degree at Harvard University. He vowed to help children who grew up in disadvantaged circumstances to succeed through education.

Canada created the Harlem Children’s Zone, a birth-through-college network of programs that today serves more than 13,000 low-income students and families in a 97-block area of Central Harlem in New York City.

The unprecedented success of the Harlem Children’s Zone has attracted the attention of the media and leaders around the world. In 2011, Canada was named one of the world’s most influential people by Time magazine and as one of the 50 greatest leaders by Fortune magazine in 2014. President Barack Obama created the Promise Neighborhoods Initiative to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone model across the country, Canada has been profiled extensively in the media, including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, 60 Minutes, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Forbes, among others. He was featured in the documentary about the dire state of American education Waiting for Superman, and has received more than 25 honorary degrees including ones from Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania.

He has also influenced a new generation of education reformers through his writings, having published essays in The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The Chronicle of Philanthropy as well as two critically acclaimed books on poverty and violence: Fist Stick Knife Gun and Reaching Up for Manhood.

After 30 years with the organization, Canada stepped down in 2014 as Chief Executive Officer of the Harlem Children’s Zone but continues to serve as President.

In June 2020, Canada founded The William Julius Wilson Institute (WJW), which will serve as the national platform to help communities impacted by poverty across the country design and implement their own place-based programs —and its first initiative will be to combat the devastation of COVID-19 in the Black community. 

About the Harlem Children’s Zone

The Harlem Children’s Zone started with one mission that was the most ambitious and audacious in U.S. history: to end intergenerational poverty in Central Harlem and lead the way for other long-distressed communities nationwide and around the world to do the same. Harlem Children’s Zone breaks the cycle of intergenerational poverty with on-the-ground, all-around programming that builds up opportunities for children and families to thrive in school, work, and life. From early childhood, education, and career programs to community outreach and wellness initiatives, HCZ opens pathways to mobility and prosperity. Our mission centers around the belief that the most powerful way to fight poverty is to invest in every opportunity for people to rise above it. From education and employment to housing and healthy living, we’ll do whatever it takes so that our children, families, and communities can live up to their promising futures.

Chair of Global Research at J.P. Morgan

Joyce Chang is Chair of Global Research for J.P. Morgan’s Corporate and Investment Bank, a global leader in Banking, Markets and Investor Services. J.P. Morgan’s Global Research professionals study all sectors in which the firm does business, including equities, fixed income, currency and commodities, emerging markets, derivatives and structured finance.          

Joyce was most recently Global Head of Research for the Corporate and Investment Bank, a role she held for more than five years. She was previously Global Head of Fixed Income Research and began her career as an Emerging Markets Strategist. From 1997 through 2012, Joyce held top rankings in Institutional Investor surveys for Emerging Markets research, earning 25 #1 individual rankings. In 2014, she was inducted into the Fixed Income Analyst Society Hall of Fame.

Joyce was a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers prior to joining J.P. Morgan Chase in 1999. She serves on the Board of Directors of Trickle Up and Girls Inc. and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of New York, the Bretton Woods Committee and the Inter-American Dialogue. She is the Senior Sponsor for J.P. Morgan’s Corporate and Investment Bank Women on the Move Network, the network for employees of Asian heritage (AsPIRE) and Nonprofit Board Service. She has been named as one of Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance by American Banker since 2012 and was included in Barron’s 2020 list of the 100 Most Influential Women in Finance.

Joyce holds an M.P.A. from Princeton and serves on its External Advisory Council for the Center for Public Policy, and has a B.A. from Columbia from where she was awarded the John Jay award for professional achievement and serves on its Board of Visitors.

President and CEO of Public Health Solutions (PHS)

Lisa David is the President and CEO of Public Health Solutions (PHS). She leads the organization to support vulnerable families in achieving optimal health and building pathways to reach their potential. Under Lisa’s guidance, PHS improves health outcomes among underserved families by providing direct services such as food assistance, health insurance enrollment, maternal and child health support and sexual and reproductive health services, delivering robust fiscal and administrative grant support for over 200 community-based organizations across the city, and developing coordinated and accountable networks that bridge health and human services to make a sustainable impact in community health. 

Lisa has over 30 years of experience in the public health and healthcare sectors. Prior to joining PHS, she held positions as the Interim CEO of Medicines360, the EVP and COO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the Vice Chair for Administration of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Columbia School of Physicians and Surgeons. Lisa currently serves on the Health and Mental Hygiene Advisory Council and the Health and Mental Health Advisory Committee for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Policy Committee of the United Hospital Fund, the Priority and Strategy Council of the Human Services Council, and the New York City Mayor’s Public Health Advisory Council. She also serves on the board of directors of Medicines360, the board of trustees of the Women’s Health Activist Movement Global (WHAMglobal), and the board of National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI). 

About Public Health Solutions

Public Health Solutions (PHS) was first established as the Medical and Health Research Association of New York City (MHRA) by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) in 1957. We were created to foster research in the NYC DOHMH by providing more flexibility to seek grants and contracts from government and private sources. What began in 1957 as a city agency’s innovation in research administration has successfully evolved into a major public health organization. Today, we not only continue in our original mission to conduct significant research and assist NYC DOHMH, but also provide vital services that improve the health of low-income and high-risk families and communities throughout New York City.

President & CEO Henry Street Settlement

David Garza is the President & CEO of Henry Street Settlement, the 127-year-old Lower East Side social service, arts, and health care organization serving more than 50,000 community members each year. Appointed in 2010 after nine years at the Settlement, Garza—a long-time advocate for expanding education and employment opportunities, fair and affordable housing, and strong and healthy families—had previously led the agency’s Workforce Development Center. Garza is a graduate of Harvard College and the Institute for Not-for-Profit Management at Columbia Business School. He serves on the executive committee of the board of directors for the New York City Employment and Training Coalition and in September 2020 was selected to chair the coalition’s newly formed NYC Workforce Business Council. Garza also serves on the boards of the Betances Health Center, Citizens Committee for Children, Human Services Council, and United Neighborhood Houses, and on the external advisory board of the Dalio Center. In 2019, he was appointed as a member of the NYC Regional Economic Development Council, and in 2020, he was appointed to two mayoral sector advisory councils (Arts, Culture & Entertainment; Nonprofit and Social Services)—tasked with preparing for the city’s pandemic reopening and recovery.

Under Garza’s leadership, Henry Street in 2019 received the Overall Management Excellence Award from Nonprofit New York. Throughout his tenure, he has deepened the Settlement’s community partnerships by developing an effective community advisory board; strengthened the workforce development infrastructure of the neighborhood through the creation of the collaborative Lower East Side Employment Network; completed a $20 million capital campaign that includes the purchase and restoration of a decommissioned firehouse for community use; established an innovative and highly successful homeless aftercare program; and instituted a talent-development initiative to advance alignment of the agency’s values with its hiring, retention, and professional-development strategies. In addition, Garza has invested in The House on Henry Street—an NEH-funded permanent exhibition in the organization’s historic headquarters.  In 2018 Garza was named by City & State New York to the inaugural Nonprofit Power 50 list.

About Henry Street’s Workforce Development Center

Henry Street Settlement’s mission is to open doors of opportunity for Lower East Side residents and other New Yorkers through social services, arts, and health care programs. The organization is distinguished by its commitment to listening to and learning from our neighbors—and then acting to meet the most pressing needs of our community.

To meet those needs, we offer more than 50 programs to people of all ages through our Abrons Arts Center/Visual and Performing Arts, Employment, Education, Sports & Recreation, Senior Services, Health & Wellness, and Transitional & Supportive Housing divisions. These vast programs range from preschool to Meals on Wheels delivery, job-readiness training to mental health counseling, and supportive housing to theater performances.

Executive Director at Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York

As Executive Director, Jennifer March has been a driving force behind CCC’s efforts to leverage administrative and participatory data on New York’s children, families and communities as key tools in effective advocacy. Through her leadership, CCC has spearheaded cross sector campaigns – Campaign for Children, Raise the Age-NY, Healthy Minds Health Kids, Family Homelessness Coalition, Child Welfare Financing - that secure policy, budget and legislative solutions to persistent inequity. Under her leadership, CCC has achieved historic victories including:  closing the wage gap in the early education workforce, creating universal Pre-K for four year olds and universal after-school for middle school students in NYC; raising the age of criminal responsibility in NY state;  enacting local legislation to set aside a share of affordable housing units for homeless families and ensuring that schools with high numbers of homeless students benefit from additional social workers; and achieving a moratorium on state budget cuts to children’s behavioral health care. Jennifer’s advocacy, over three decades, also contributed to the creation of New York City’s Earned Income Tax Credit, the first local Child Care Tax Credits, and the creation of tax filing options that allow families to connect to college savings platforms at tax time. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Jennifer has tirelessly championed keeping the needs of children, families, and communities at the forefront of decisions being made at the city, state and federal level such that New York’s response and recovery will be equitable. Jennifer holds a bachelor’s degree from LeMoyne College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Fordham University.

About Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York

CCC is the leading child advocacy organization in New York City. We work to ensure that every child is healthy, housed, educated and safe. We educate and mobilize New Yorkers to make the city a better place for children. Our advocacy combines public policy research and data analysis with citizen action. We cast light on the issues, educate the public, engage allies, and identify and promote practical solutions to ensure that every New York City child is healthy, housed, educated and safe.

CAMBA’s President and Chief Executive Officer

A native of the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, Ms. Joanne Oplustil received her Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Brooklyn College, followed by two Master’s Degrees: one in Economics, and a second degree in Health Care Policy and Administration. Ms. Oplustil is no stranger to the needs and issues of the community served by CAMBA/CAMBA Housing Ventures (CHV), the organization she heads as President/CEO.

At present, as chief executive of a $200 million, multiservice agency that employs nearly 1,600 staff, Ms. Oplustil is responsible for all aspects of the agency’s management, operational, planning, and development activities, including more than 165 separate Economic Development, Education and Youth Development, Family Support, Health, Housing, and Legal Services programs serving more than 65,000 children and adults, immigrants and the homeless.

In her tenure as President/CEO, she has raised over $1 billion for supportive services for CAMBA/CHV. CAMBA created an affiliated affordable housing development corporation in 2005 called CAMBA Housing Ventures, Inc. (CHV). The mission of CHV is to develop sustainable and energy-efficient buildings that provide safe and supportive, affordable housing for low-income and formerly homeless families and individuals. CHV envisions vital neighborhoods where affordable housing plays a critical role in the long-term economic and social success of lower-income individuals and families.

CHV set a goal in 2005 to have in the pipeline and/or partner on to create 1,000 units of affordable housing by 2015 and has doubled this goal through 2015 (CHV has completed or partnered to complete construction and/or the workout/preservation of 2,062 units in New York City, representing over $628 million in public and private investment and over 2 million square feet). Both CAMBA/CHV and Ms. Oplustil have been recognized for outstanding achievement in housing and community development.

Ms. Oplustil spent eight years in Tanzania (1970-1978), initially as a teacher in the Peramiho Girls' Secondary School. In 1973, Ms. Oplustil assumed the voluntary position of Director of Educational Development at the Katumba and Ulyankulu Refugee Camps, conducting research and analysis on the needs of 20,000 children. In response she established 110 kindergarten and nursery schools for 60,000 refugee children. Ms. Oplustil designed the educational materials and books in Swahili, emphasizing African themes.

Upon her return to Brooklyn in 1979, Ms. Oplustil joined CAMBA when it was a small ($50,000 annual budget) local block development association. Ms. Oplustil built it into one of the largest and most successful agencies in the city, with funding from more than 45 different federal, state, and local government entities, for more than 160 service contracts, in addition to support from leading foundation and private donors.

In addition to her professional position, Ms. Oplustil serves on the executive committees of the Supportive Housing Network of New York (SHNNY) and the New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH), as well as on the boards of CAMBA Legal Services, Inc. and Brooklyn Dreams Charter School, and sits on numerous advisory boards.

President, Rose Companies LLC

Jonathan F.P. Rose’s business, public policy, writing and not-for-profit work focuses on creating more environmentally, socially and economically resilient cities. In 1989, Mr. Rose founded Jonathan Rose Companies LLC, a multi-disciplinary real estate development, planning, project management, and investment firm, to address the challenges of the 21st century. Jonathan has led the firm’s vision, program and growth, developing award winning new projects, investment funds and city plans to model solutions integrating the issues of affordable housing, community development, culture and the environment. The firm is one of the largest acquirers of affordable and mixed income housing in the nation.

The firm’s innovative work has won awards from a wide range of notable organizations including: the Urban Land Institute, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Architects. Mr. Rose also advises global cities on planning, affordable housing, environmental, and social issues.

Mr. Rose’s book on how to create resilient cities, The Well-Tempered City: What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations and Human Nature Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life, was published by Harper Wave in 2016, and won the 2017 PROSE Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work by a Trade Publisher. After His Majesty The King of Bhutan read the book, Mr. Rose became an advisor for the Government of Bhutan on its urban planning and other issues.

Mr. Rose frequently lectures at graduate schools of business, environment and architecture on affordable housing, community development, smart growth and the environment. In 2015, he held the Yale School of Architecture’s Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Architectural Fellowship. Mr. Rose has testified before U.S. Senate and House Committees on housing, infrastructure and environmental issues, and served as an Advisor to the White House Office of Urban Affairs. He currently serves on the Second District Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Mr. Rose is a Trustee of Enterprise Community Partners and The Capital Institute. He and his wife Diana Calthorpe Rose are the co-founders of the Garrison Institute and he serves as Chair on its Board. The Institute connects inner transformation with outer solutions to relieve suffering in the fields of trauma, education and the environment. He is an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects and Honorary Trustee of the American Museum of Natural History, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Mr. Rose chaired the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Blue Ribbon Sustainability Commission, which developed the nation’s first green transit plan, and was a commissioner on Governor Cuomo’s NYS 2100 Commission, tasked with identifying strategies for the long-term resilience of New York State’s infrastructure post-Hurricane Sandy.

Mr. Rose graduated from Yale University in 1974 with a B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy, and received a Masters in Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania in 1980. Mr. Rose plays bass and harmonica in the jazz/blues/raga band Jog Blues.